Life is life! How good it is to be alive with the promise of each new day! Every morning when I wake up I am so grateful to be here for another day! Not because I am ill or unwell but just because I have the opportunity to make this a great day, my best day or just a day when I get through all the challenges and obstacles that I may come up against which are at times many, and more often than not are what I put in my own way!
This last couple of weeks has been hard going to some degree! Let me try to explain or show if I am able.
We have two dogs, named Princess and Lexi, which is short for Alexis, if we are being specific. In reality they are actually my daughter’s dogs, though I am the one that looks after them for most of the time. They are beautiful dogs packed full of personality and playfulness. They are truly adorable most of the time, such as now where they are curled up closely together gently snoring in unison as if they are one. They hate to be separated. They did not arrive as a pair but a pair is what they have become.
Princess is brindle in colour, some would say brown but that would be wrong. Her fur is short and neat, in places her fur is even shorter and smooth, some may say bald but that too would be untrue. Her dark brown eyes are soft and kind. She looks at you in such a knowing way as if to say, “I know what you are feeling”. She is a funny little thing, not too little like a toy breed, medium rather than big but to me just a funny little thing. She has wide shoulders and short bowed legs, and has a wiggle when she walks which is rather cute and endearing, and her front legs dish outwards as she holds her head high in a somewhat defiant manner. When she lays down or rather reclines or sits, she always has her left ear cocked upright with the tip just ever so slightly folded over downwards; her way of staying on guard I guess, though in truth that left ear always looks just so. She has a little white sprinkle of a stripe that starts between her eyes resembling an upside down ‘V’ which travels down to her nose . She reminds me of a small badger with it’s colours reversed. When she wants something she sort of grunts (is that a word I can use?) like a little pig with her grunts getting louder until she makes herself understood. She has something quite regal about her as she goes about her day, Princess by name, and a princess by nature. My daughter gave her that name and it’s as though she has somehow grown into her royal like persona.
Our Lexi (Alexis) is as they say another ‘kettle of fish’. What exactly does that mean, ‘another kettle of fish’? Not really sure why I said that. I think it is one of those expressions I picked up in childhood from somewhere and anywhere. Having looked it up, it has it’s origins in Scotland and the North of England, which make sense now as my Nan was a Scot, and the family lived first in Scotland , and then moved down to Sunderland where my Dad, and one of my Aunt’s were born, in addition to spending some time in Leeds. So, I must have heard my Dad say it on occasion. As for meaning, it depends what is said in front of it. Here it just means ‘thing’ or ‘different’. It can also refer to a mess or a muddle which does not have any bearing on what I am trying to say about our Lexi, though as a young puppy she did make lots of mess, and somehow managed to muddle through to the beautiful dog she is today.. Unlike Princess, Lexi is neither brown nor brindle. Lexi is an orangey, gingery , coppery colour, and when the sun shines down on her she has little flecks that glow creating a gilt like glittery glow. Her once puppy green (yes green) eyes are now amber to blend splendidly in with the rest of her. Lexi has longer legs than Princess, and her conformation is more balanced. She has four white socks from which her pointy claws curl out and down.
To get back to the why’s and wherefores, of the last couple of weeks, and as to why it has been hard going, I shall tell you now. Lovely Lexi underwent major surgery as she severed or ripped her cruciate ligament in her right rear leg so we were told. We are not sure quite how she did it, but do it, she did. According to the Vet our only way forward was to operate. Our dear little dog had to have some sort of implant put in to hold it all together. She is making great progress but keeping a young active dog quiet, still and calm is a mammoth task and not so easily achieved, especially when there are two dogs and one is still bounding and crashing about. That said, in reality Princess has been gentler with Lexi than usual, though she still takes Lexi’s toys but she has given Lexi space when she needs it, and snuggles too when in demand. There has been only one collision when Princess crashed into the sutured leg, which set us back a bit but each day sees Lexi improve little by little. She has to be led in and out on a lead, and lifted up steps of any kind. It has been two weeks since surgery and the subsequent implant, so it is still early days but hopefully time will heal her and all will be well in our world.
©. Liola Lee 2019
Images are Princess and Lexi, hopefully as described. Lexi’s eyes are amber but on occasion look quite green as in her picture here, depending on light
