The trouble with stress is that, due to one thing and another, one tends to make mistakes and have accidents. It's the how things are.
And I am in pain.
Last Wednesday I had an argument with our dog. I'm not blaming him, he was confused and upset, and I made the mistake of putting my right hand near a mouthful of a canine's canines.
As a writer I'm always on the look-out for new experiences - for example, exactly how painful is it to have one's hand (and thumb mostly) chewed by a dog?
And now I know the answer. I managed to hold it together while we got the poor puppy sorted out and under control so he didn't disgrace himself again. However I was dripping blood all over the carpet for a while. Then this poor old body of mine went into shock which was quite interesting. The Teacher is a dab hand with the first aid (fully trained and regularly re-certified) so she patched me up.
The thumb came off worst with a 2cm gash crosswise just below the last joint - this has been very inconvenient as I lost the advantage of an opposable digit for a couple of days. It's getting better now but occasional I bend the joint too much and that is quite painful so I end up uttering an "ow" which generally surprises the people around me.
I probably should have had stitches but the prospect of hours in A&E (as a non-urgent case) was not my idea of a good night out. I'll have an interesting scar.
I have finally got around to moving my computer and my nice chair (which I bought when I was working in Reading) to the office so that I can work without interruption. And I need to because I'm falling behind.
Yesterday we auditioned the kids for the Monsters trailer, we needed two girls for important roles, one for a less important role (but a few lines of dialogue), and one boy for three words. The casting call specified 16 or over but we were, of course, deluged with 15 year olds wanting to audition. We couldn't take them, because then we'd have to mess about with licences and that's just horrible.
Did I mention we have a new producer? Unfortunately Kate decided she couldn't do the project justice, but suggested Tiffany who has real TV producer experience, and she's great. We're also having a change of DoP, because the shoot date has been decided (the only weekend all the actors are available) and the current one couldn't do that weekend. We're shooting on the 19th and 20th of this month.
Only two weeks.
And there's so much to do ... and I really don't have to do much, which is hard.
In other news...
The Teacher is now the "Assistant Headteacher" but I'll still call her the Teacher in the blog because it's shorter. The Boy has the dates for going down to shoot Bamzooki for CBBC. No new news for the Daughter as yet, but she's working hard as Production Designer for the Monsters shoot.
What's on the turntable? "Overture" by Bjork from "Vespertine Live" (courtesy of Spotify)
Showing posts with label dogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dogs. Show all posts
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Monday, August 18, 2008
Trouble with Cats and Dogs
I'm prevaricating. I'll write this then I'll stop prevaricating and do some proper writing, after I've washed up and got the clothes out of the washing machine. Ahem.
I've been meaning to write this for ages. It was Lucy's blog (and the need to do some serious writing) that prompted me to actually get it down on ... electrons.
Our pets tend to last a long time. Cats that go for 13 years (mind you, we had a gay tom that died of a broken heart when his mother got hit by a car, seriously), dogs that last 18 years, fish that go on forever. But we had more or less run out of pets recently. Only my daughter's cat, Socks, (and a goldfish) remained.
Then we got snails. African snails, you know, the big ones. When things are quiet you can hear them crunching through cucumber and cuttlefish bones. Spooky.
Then we got a new cat. A friend was moving and couldn't take him with her. So we got Darjeeling. It has to be said that Darjeeling is an incredibly handsome cat, and he knows it. He's a blue* (which is blue in the same way white horses are grey) and clearly has some oriental ancestors. He's also very friendly. Unfortunately Socks seemed to have forgotten she used to live with two dogs and two other cats. Darjeeling only wanted to be friends while Socks was going round like a princess with her nose out of joint.
Quick flashback to when we promised the boy that he could have a dog when he finished Primary school. He didn't forget - he never forgets anything. (Actually he's very reliable when it comes to remembering stuff.)
So we got a puppy. Toby. He is half Labrador and other proportions include Beagle and something else, or maybe a Pointer of some sort.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Suddenly Darjeeling and Socks were best buddies, well mostly. Poor Darjeeling, he's clearly had unfortunate encounters with dogs, he's been terrified. Socks' level of resentment went up several notches. First another cat, now a dog.
Toby just wants to be friends. He got his ear clawed when he tried to be friends with both of the cats at the same time. And, in an effort to demonstrate his friendliness further, he managed to corner Darjeeling alone on Saturday.
Toby enjoyed his trip to the vet on Sunday to see about his eye that had been viciously clawed by a cornered cat. He likes the vet, the vet gives him treats. He still likes the cats, and getting attacked has not quelled his enthusiasm.
Hopefully when he's less puppy he'll calm down and let the cats be friends on their terms. If he lasts that long.
What's on the turntable? "Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp from a Greatest Hits album. Unfortunately this album doesn't have some of the best songs from "Crisis? What Crisis?"
*As I'm prevaricating I thought I'd look up blue cats. Turns out that Darjeeling must have a big percentage of Russian Blue but he's no pedigree. He has socks and his face is flatter than your typical Russian Blue. Personally I think that makes him even better looking.
I've been meaning to write this for ages. It was Lucy's blog (and the need to do some serious writing) that prompted me to actually get it down on ... electrons.
Our pets tend to last a long time. Cats that go for 13 years (mind you, we had a gay tom that died of a broken heart when his mother got hit by a car, seriously), dogs that last 18 years, fish that go on forever. But we had more or less run out of pets recently. Only my daughter's cat, Socks, (and a goldfish) remained.
Then we got snails. African snails, you know, the big ones. When things are quiet you can hear them crunching through cucumber and cuttlefish bones. Spooky.
Then we got a new cat. A friend was moving and couldn't take him with her. So we got Darjeeling. It has to be said that Darjeeling is an incredibly handsome cat, and he knows it. He's a blue* (which is blue in the same way white horses are grey) and clearly has some oriental ancestors. He's also very friendly. Unfortunately Socks seemed to have forgotten she used to live with two dogs and two other cats. Darjeeling only wanted to be friends while Socks was going round like a princess with her nose out of joint.
Quick flashback to when we promised the boy that he could have a dog when he finished Primary school. He didn't forget - he never forgets anything. (Actually he's very reliable when it comes to remembering stuff.)
So we got a puppy. Toby. He is half Labrador and other proportions include Beagle and something else, or maybe a Pointer of some sort.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Suddenly Darjeeling and Socks were best buddies, well mostly. Poor Darjeeling, he's clearly had unfortunate encounters with dogs, he's been terrified. Socks' level of resentment went up several notches. First another cat, now a dog.
Toby just wants to be friends. He got his ear clawed when he tried to be friends with both of the cats at the same time. And, in an effort to demonstrate his friendliness further, he managed to corner Darjeeling alone on Saturday.
Toby enjoyed his trip to the vet on Sunday to see about his eye that had been viciously clawed by a cornered cat. He likes the vet, the vet gives him treats. He still likes the cats, and getting attacked has not quelled his enthusiasm.
Hopefully when he's less puppy he'll calm down and let the cats be friends on their terms. If he lasts that long.
What's on the turntable? "Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp from a Greatest Hits album. Unfortunately this album doesn't have some of the best songs from "Crisis? What Crisis?"
*As I'm prevaricating I thought I'd look up blue cats. Turns out that Darjeeling must have a big percentage of Russian Blue but he's no pedigree. He has socks and his face is flatter than your typical Russian Blue. Personally I think that makes him even better looking.
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