A rollercoaster weekend.

It has been a weekend of ups and downs here in Patouland. I know it's now Tuesday evening but I am not really sure where Monday went?

Anyway on Saturday Sue and I actually went out for the evening to a party. Not a particularly unusual thing you might think except that Sue and I hardly ever go out for the evening. What with work (conflicting shifts), on calls, lack of babysitters due to living in the middle of nowhere (a nowhere we are particularly fond of mind you) and the constant call of the many animals requiring this or that it has become a bit of a rarity.

Sue volunteered to drive which left me free to play. The party had a 'heroes' theme. Strangely Sue ended up going as a Crunchie bar (!?!?!) and I just went as myself................ obviously!
I have only myself to blame for my condition on Sunday so no sympathy requested but we were then straight into a barbecue lunch. Just what was required a 'hair of the dog' and a relaxing evening. Half past midday our guests arrived and apparently they left at around half past eleven that evening. A very pleasant lunch/afternoon turned into a 'screamingly good evening' with great company, great music, (I'm talking Lady Ga Ga here folks!) and far too much seriously tasty wine. Luckily I was the only one working on Monday and that was a 3 O'clock start. I know, we should know better.
Monday morning was made worse by the fact that Belle, one of our new kittens, was in a great deal of distress. She couldn't stand up and was obviously suffering from some sort of balance problem. It wasn't nice to watch so I was off to the vets as soon as they were open. Should I have been driving? I think not. That's life. The prognosis from the vet was not good. She was admitted and they threw the kitchen sink at her............not literally, she would have been squashed.........they took blood, tested her for everything, administered antibiotics and gave her steroids. She tested negative for everything and didn't show any signs of improvement. I discussed euthanasia with the vet, which just wasn't nice. We decided to give her to the end of the day and if there was no improvement we would make the hard decision.
The vet rang late afternoon and said that she had improved slightly and that she was being taken home by one of the nurses to see how she was in the morning. They still didn't know what was wrong with her.

This morning the vet Sophie, (we have an alpaca called Sophie after she (Sophie the vet) pulled her out of her mother two years ago) gave us the news we wanted to hear. Belle had made a dramatic improvement overnight and could come home in the afternoon.

A long chat with Sophie (the vet, not the alpaca) revealed that she still didn't know what caused the problem and that it was very much a 'wait and see' situation. Once the drugs wore off she could go back to how she was, or she could improve and that would be that.

Now some of you may wonder why we are going to so much trouble over a 6 week old kitten that cost us ten quid from a local farm. The vet bill is already into three figures and we haven't finished yet. The answer for us is simple. Belle and Sebastian became members of the Steele/Patou family last week and we stick up for each other here. It is a no brainer, we fight for our animals and that's just the way we are.

Anyway as this is an alpaca blog, so some alpaca news. They are all fantastically healthy and look fabulous.

PS. I do have some pictures but am struggling to get them on the blog. Maybe tomorrow