And I know life is tough in these topsy-turvy times. Everything is faster. The internet has made the whole world closer, and yet more separate. Traffic is more congested and argumentative. Kids know so much more of life than anyone ever knew in the eighties.
The planet is peppered with skyscrapers and workers milling about like ants and rushing through the years until they hurry themselves to the grave.
We don’t have time for the social niceties. We don’t have a moment to breathe and ask after each other’s health.
Some of us may have friends who breeze past in quick succession with very little in terms of detail. They may have families. They may be broken. But the world is too quick and life too short to get caught up in the flotsam of other people’s lives.
Yes, it’s all too fast.
But when the demands on your time mean that you can’t effectively lock the lid on a bottle of medication, you get what I just had this evening: a kitchen floor covered in pre-quartered amantidine and an over excited group of dogs.
The amantidine is one of Doobie’s painkillers. And that’s all well and good.
Until we take a moment to realise that Doobie will put anything that moves into his mouth. (He once caught a lit cigarette. Not mine, I might add.) Really, he’ll eat anything, especially when that something appears to be the sort of non-nommable I don’t want him to damn well have, he will gobble the lot down until I have to dash him to the emergency vets and have a sleepless night of sobbing.
It’s at times like these that I thank whatever deity you care to conjure in times of miracle-level relief, that the pills got a hasty sniff from the Doob and were swiftly deemed unappetising. I remain somewhat pleased with myself for not asking the vet to prescribe something a little more palatable. It may be chalky and bitter, but dammit, at least he hasn’t snaffled the lot. Not tonight anyway.
All of us who have animals, love our furry friends, sometimes more than people, but occasionally the anxiety of loving a sweet little idiot takes a toll.
But look at his silly little face.
Petrina Binney - Author 