Garden wall

Off to the vet with Ollie first thing this morning.  He's not been right for a couple of weeks, and is getting worse. He's loosing his sight, and his right hip is failing, but recently he's now whimpering a lot, even when he's just lying down, getting ever more clingy and anxious and is not interested in eating his dinner.  

The vet noticed a difference in him as soon as we walked in, took blood samples, tested his urine, felt him all over for lumps and bumps and gave him a really thorough check up.  He's been on painkillers for his arthritis for several years and it might be that they are damaging him in some way. Nothing untoward found, but we await the blood test results.  He did think the most likely thing was due to his age, 13 next birthday, so gave him a course of tablets to relief dullness, lethargy and alertness by increasing blood flow to the brain.  (Perhaps owners could get them too?!)  We'll go back in a fortnight to see how things are then.  

When we got back from town, Mike was on board Peridot, checking her mooring and making sure all was well.  It was the first good day for a while and there were other folk out checking their boats too.  I helped him heave the dinghy up the slip and stopped to rest by the garden wall.  The sun on the bits and pieces I have picked up off the beach caught my eye, and the tiny blue vinca flowers, still in bloom after all the horrendous weather.  This is only a tiny selection - there are an awful lot of finds scattered about the place!