Ponderings . . .

Do you ever wonder if anyone famous has visited your blog or website? I was pondering that thought today as I was working in the studio. I have no idea what made me think of that, maybe it has something to do with wishful thinking. Not that it really matters, I guess, whether or not they actually read my blog, but it would certainly be fantastic if they dropped by my website or eBay auctions and actually purchased something. I guess the conundrum then arises in that one part of you would so love to brag to everyone you came across, "Oh, xxxx (insert famous person's name) purchased my beads/jewellery", but in reality, you would probably have to maintain confidentiality. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have to worry about being in that situation any time soon, but hey.. like I said, it was just a thought . . .

And to totally change the subject . . . my poor Labrador, Toby, has some sort of skin infection and/or allergy. It all started about 4 weeks ago when DH Russ & I noticed him frantically scratching under his chin. In the past, he developed a reaction to his collar, but after an injection from the vet, a 2 week course of antihistamines and liberally applying some sort of steroid cream to the affected area, it cleared up. This time however it reached the stage where he was scratching himself so much that he had actually broken the skin and the poor guy was bleeding.

So, we took him to the vet again last week, and after numerous blood tests, we're still not really sure what's causing the itch. The vet seems to think it's a combination of an infection and an allergy and he's now on a 3 week course of antibiotics to hopefully help clear it. Unfortunately, so far, the tablets don't appear to be doing all that much - and the scratching has moved to his rump, top of his head, and even to his paws. The poor baby is scratching himself silly and I'm actually quite worried about him. He's spending most of the time in the house at the moment, as whenever we let him outside, he seems to spend the majority of his time rubbing up against shrubs to scratch himself. One shrub in particular was a favourite, so yesterday DH Russ pulled the whole shrub out of the ground in an effort to stop him. That fixed the problem for a little while, until we caught him digging a hole near our back porch to get at a piece of wire so he could scratch his neck on that. When he's in the house, he doesn't seem to scratch as much - just sleeps more or less peacefully on his bed.

Which is now leading me to suspect that the allergy theory is closest to the truth - what I'm finding particularly disturbing about this is that a few years ago, our next door neighbour's dog developed a similar allergy, and it reached the stage where it was that bad they had to have him put down. I'm hoping and praying that whatever it is that Toby's picked up clears fairly soon - because I don't even want to have to consider putting him down.

I'm so glad I don't have children - I'm bad enough with the animals, so I can't even imagine how traumatic these sorts of situations must be for those of you with children who are ill. Knowing there's nothing you can really do is the hardest part. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that whatever is causing this problem sorts itself out soon.

And speaking of Toby, it's time for his dinner - I also better check on dinner for us humans too. Catch you next time.