Something is ‘cooking’ …

Oh dear, we are not off the hook yet.

‘Timan’s temper tantrums were coming more and more often, were louder and louder, the meals were consumed in smaller and smaller quantities, and at the same time he was getting more and more clingy by the day, hour or even minute.

There is something cooking.

And it’s something else than the stomach flu we thought ‘Timan’ had.

Off to the pediatrician we went, for round number two.

What a day. And it’s not over yet, I fear for worse.

Today we had:

Lack of cooperation to deliver a peepee in a jar, lack of cooperation to eat breakfast, lack of cooperation during the examination at the pediatrician, lack of cooperation swallowing the medicine, lack of cooperation during the time spent in town, full cooperation on the way home, full cooperation during lunch (because really hungry by now), full cooperation to go for a nap, what’s next?

Oh, I know, until dinnertime we are staying in the ‘full cooperation’ mood, but when the time for the medicines (plural!) comes, we are switching to the ‘lack of cooperation’ mood in the flick of a second.

And this is going to be the way we will spend the next seven days, three times a day.  I really fear for the worst because I know ‘Timan’. The doctor told me this morning that I have to think positive, need to take a positive attitude towards the medicine drinking and ‘Timan’ is going to drink it without a hitch.

Dear Doc, this may work for you, your kids, but not for ‘Timan’. I’ve tried it in the past, and every time we’re back in this situation I try it again, but the outcome stays always the same.  You saw and heard it at your office today, didn’t you?

A big ‘thank you’ to whoever invented the medicine  syringe and the few leg/arm/hand maneuver to prevent ‘Timan’ from kicking, arm wrestling and closing his mouth and another big ‘thanks’ to my ex-vet, who taught me how to administer my cat a medicine while preventing her to spit it out (works not only for cats but for babies and toddlers alike).

Or are there other ways to get ‘Timan’ to drink his medicine of his own will, ways I don’t know of?  Ladies and gents, your suggestions would be very much appreciated and I thank you so much.

Of dogs and cats (and maybe burglars)

Why does everyone in Paradise need to have a dog?

To have a companion? No. To have a pet? No. To have a friend for the kids? Maybe. To have a security guard? Probably. Not even paradise is the safe place it used to be at one point in history.

The dogs in paradise however, they do have a downside. And this is not only affecting the owner, no, it’s affecting everyone, and especially me.

Picture this: You are lying in bed, on the brink of drifting off to dreamland and some little innocent pussy cat (or a trespasser, or whatever) catches the attention of one of your neighbours dogs. Do you have any idea what is going to happen here in paradise?

You will not fall asleep for the rest of the night – well, that’s my impression – but your peaceful sleep is doomed for next  30 minutes at least. And this is solely because the inhabitants of the paradise like dogs. They like lots of dogs.

Our neighbourhood is built of many little houses. Each and every one of those houses is home of at least one dog. Some neighbours have two or three of them, some have even more. But all these dogs are not living inside the house, oh no, they are living outside in the gardens. All the neighbours with dogs have fences around their property, luckily, so there is no dog running free on the street. At least something.

But back to the beginning: The pussy cat, the burglar, or whatever, is running for his life from the dog that is barking his throat out. Dogs are a pack, and it doesn’t matter what breed they are, when one dog is barking, every dog in an area of 1/2 km starts to bark. It goes off like an avalanche.  Lots of little houses with lots of dogs living in front of them, you do the math and you will realise that I am talking about hundreds of dogs now. A choir of howling dogs.

But not all areas in paradise are like ours. In many of them the houses do not have fences around them or the dogs don’t have an owner and are running free. And being natural little creatures, doing what every animal is doing at one point, they are all making little puppies and the ‘dog choir from paradise’ is getting bigger and bigger by the minute. (Oh, and the cat choir too, by the way – and I can say this even tough I am an established cat lover – a tiny bit I hope ‘Timan’ is going to follow in my footsteps with this ;-)).

So I’m asking all paradise inhabitants who might be reading this post and you, my dear reader, in case you own any furry friends: let them sleep inside (that way it’s going to be much easier to bite the burglar in the butt), take them on a leash and most of all neuter your four-legged buddies.