Part of the reason for me doing this blog is to force myself to make a record of the placement for myself. However, if it was just the case of writing it down in a diary with a few pictures I would never do it. Hence this 'fake' weekly deadline - which I have missed. For a non-fake, not quite dead, not quite lion read on.
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| Some drawing activities today |
We started a bit of a pilot last week. The idea being to give patients the opportunity to become more involved in the running of their club sessions. We are inviting patients to attend for a half or full day to help to host the sessions. We are trying this with patients of all levels of ability. Early days, but even if the involvement is simply observing, it will at the very least help to widen experiences. We had two hosts last Thursday, one from a female and one from a male ward. They were really interested to chat about each others experiences of being in the hospital and also enjoyed the extra responsibility of working with us. We also have permission to start to run a number of mixed male/female sessions. We have tried a couple of mixed sessions in the past which worked out very well.
Festival time
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| Main street thronging with happy punters with scary ride in the background |
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| Traditional band which turned out to be much better than it sounded. |
Not many photos this week, and I can't find one of myself. Therefore here is a drawing done by a patient of me yesterday.
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| An almost perfect likeness |
Animal welfare
Kiki and myself were warned before we came out here that we might be troubled by the number of stray dogs and cats - and also that it is a "no-no" about taking strays into the house. There are a lot of strays, but on the whole they seem to look reasonably OK, and people are actually OK to them. There are three regular stray dogs in the hospital grounds (Snowy, Blackie and Funny Eared Dog - we have kind of given them names). There is a small family of cats that live in the corridor up to the club (all called Jim for some reason). One of the nurses was calling out "Kitty, Kitty" walking up the corridor with a tin of kitten food today - very sweet. All of our neighbours have dogs and cats - and one was walking his gaggle of ducks down the street the other day. The supermarket has an isle dedicated to pet foods. We often meet dog walkers when we go out jogging - confusingly for me (see first blog for a clue why) they are not all Staffs named after boxers. So, basically we have here a normal pet friendly society.
Therefore it was a real shock last Saturday to witness the single most cruel and deliberate act on an animal I have ever seen. Kiki and I were walking back from town at about 14:00. It was raining hard and very cold. We were just past the hospital on the other side of the road when a car (green Volkswagen Golf?) stopped at the end of the road to the station about 10 feet in front of us. The female passenger opened the door and dropped what looked like a small bundle of rags or rubbish on the road. I was already scowling and remostrating with her at this act of litterbugging. She looked at Kiki and myself directly with a real self-satisfied smirk of, "Ha, Ha, I've got away with it". She shut the door still smirking. The car drove off, the back wheel running over the bundle - which then twiched. It was a kitten. About two weeks old. Eyes still closed...
I really cannot express just how strongly I feel about that evil smirking woman - she seemed to enjoy doing what she did. I cannot fathom how anyone could do what she (and the driver) did.
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| After a quick dry-off. |
Our 'non-intervention' policy had to go out of the window. We simply couldn't step over a dying animal and walk home as if it hadn't happened. He was still breathing, but not looking good. Large cut in lower abdomen. Very wet and bedraggled.
Our neigbour was equally shocked about what had happened and found us some milk (we know cows milk is not good for cats so couldn't use it). A contact from the hospital supplied a VET's number. VET was closed for Saturday, but opened up especially. He examined the little chap. No internal damage. Loads of injections; plus a formula for making 'kitten milk' (see maths problem later). The cost - "Oh nothing, you did your bit by pulling him out of the road, I'm just doing my bit". I am sure there are UK VETs who would do the same for no charge - Yeh, right!! The VET called us late on Sunday, unexpectedly, to find out how he was doing and then did another (free) examination today - possible hernia; too small to operate.
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| Still small, but still with us and eating very well indeed. |
We are starting the search for a permanant home for him and have called him Oliver - after the little boy who kept asking for more. He has lovely colouring and markings and is eating extremely well - the VET has actually put him on a bit of a diet as he was gulping down 10 ml at each feed - it should be 5 ml.
His eyes opened today, and apart from the hernia, he seems to be doing well. We think one of the small pot holes in the road saved him. He was probably partly in one when the car wheel drove over him.
Maths problem - answer next week. Mother cat milk is 5% fat. Cow milk is 3.5%. Condensed milk is 7.5%. We need to mix the cow milk and condensed milk in the correct ratio to make 5% fat. Also we need one egg yolk per 200 ml of the final 'kitten' milk. How many ml of cow milk and how many ml of condensed milk do I need to mix to get 200 ml of 5% fat kitten milk. You have 25 minutes to solve this. Go...
Anyway, Enough for this week.
Pe Curand
Paul
