Anxious times once more.

As regular Baggees will be aware, the theme of Baggy's life is that it rarely runs smoothly! Not surprisingly therefore, having allowed Creative Clara to write about how positive and happy the gang was feeling, the inevitable curve-ball flew in. 

Ever since Pepper Pooch's emergency trip to the vet with severe sickness three weeks ago, he has been trying to clear his throat - for want of a better way of describing it. He hasn't been sick since, but he regularly appears to retch, as if he's going to. Freda Fretter has been worrying about it for a while now, and finally decided to speak to the vet about it for the second time, on Tuesday. 

"Do you think you could get a video of him doing it?"

"I can try, but it doesn't last long, so whether I could be quick enough..."

Furry Mama was sitting on the settee next to Pepper, so she switched her phone onto video, and started to stroke his neck. After a minute or so, Pepper began to gag, then retch. Hmmmm! Clever Bird sent the video off to the vet. Shortly afterwards, Furry Mama received a phone call from the vet, who explained that she was concerned that Pepper might have something stuck in his throat. Because this area is so delicate, the only way to know for sure, would be to do a CT scan of his neck, which would require going to a specialist practice. Amazingly, this had been deemed to be urgent enough, that an appointment was made for the next day - today. Naturally, this put Freda into a panic!

Baggy slept appallingly last night, and was up at 7.30 getting ready for a long day. The appointment was for 11.00am in Newmarket, which is a good hour-and-forty-five-minute drive away, so to be safe, they left at 9.00. Pepper sat on Baggy's lap the whole way there, as he is a snuggly Boy, but he could also sense that something was amiss.

Clever Bird had not realised how large the practise was, and it was so busy, that even though there were literally dozens of parking spaces, it took a while to find an empty one.

Once they had finally managed to park, Furry Mama phoned to let them know they'd arrived. Eventually, a vet called back, and had a long chat about Pepper. Then he came out to collect Pepper and to get Baggy to sign the consent form; only the vet had forgotten to bring a lead out for him.

"It's okay, I can walk over with you and take his lead and collar back."

"Okay. Does he normally limp?"

"No! Do you mean his back left foot? He bruised it really badly the other day."

"No, the front right one."

"Oh! That's the one that he cut a few weeks ago."

"Yes, I saw that on his notes, but I doubt it's that."

Having agreed to have a check over of Pepper's leg, the vet took the Boy away, and Hormonal Hannah tried not to cry. Furry Mama played "spot the breed", as she waited for the vet to return - there were probably twenty dogs waiting to be collected, or with nurses, being given a leg stretch. It was incredibly busy!

When the vet eventually reappeared with Pepper's collar and lead, he explained that his initial examination had shown nothing untoward. But also that, unfortunately, there was no CT scan slot available until Friday.

"Oh! What day is it?"

"Wednesday."

"So?"

"Well, either you can take him home and bring him back tomorrow night, or you can leave him here, and with luck, a slot will become available tomorrow. I'll book an endoscopy for Friday as well."

"What would you rather we do?" asked Furry Mama, who was desperate to  take her Boy home, at the same time as Clever Bird realised that this probably wasn't the plan, as the vet had not brought Pepper back out again.

"I think it would be best if you left him here."

Baggy and Calum arrived back at home at 2.30pm, both constantly wondering where the Pooch was, as usually he follows Furry Mama around the house. Freda worried that he might think that they'd abandoned him, and wished she could have explained to him what was happening, and that they would be back for him as soon as they could be. So now they all have a long wait...

To distract Hormonal Hannah who was getting rather distressed about the whole situation, Calum and Grotty Groom headed over to the yard and did their usual, new routine of riding the horses - who were once again, both complete angels.

It is now 8.30pm, and the vet has literally just called. Apparently, he and a senior surgeon have both examined Pepper's throat and neck, and can find no  obvious mass, or blockage, which is good news, so they've decided to do an endoscopy first. This will happen tomorrow at noon. Pepper is anxious, but has let them do all the examinations without any fuss, although he won't eat anything, and is just in his kennel being quiet. Freda explained that this was a sure sign that he was actually very anxious, and to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't start to chew on his leg.

The vet will call again in the morning. It remains to be seen whether Baggy will get any sleep tonight...

Baggy's current state!

Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Yellow.

Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 6.
Tears: Urrrmm.
Overall days: Worrying.

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!