Last week started innocuously enough. Monday was a public holiday for Australia Day so Lindsey, Jim, Stella and I went to Pipers by the Lake for lunch and then I took Stella back to Mount Martha.
I stayed overnight and went directly to work from there. Jim was at our place and moved up to Hill House when Ian picked him up mid morning.
Thereafter nothing particularly interesting happened. The week progressed in an orderly manner.
Until Friday. It was a high fire danger day, and a total fire ban day in our region (which includes both Ballarat and Melbourne.) It wasn't a particularly unpleasant day. A bit hot, but not too bad. Not too windy. Nothing particularly exciting.
Until I went home from work.
As I was approaching Bacchus Marsh I could see smoke. I couldn't see where it was in relation to Bacchus Marsh. The road winds around the mountains and hills and I don't know the geography well enough to be able to pinpoint the location of the smoke. But I knew it was unlikely to be a planned burn off. They don't tend to happen on total fire ban days.
I went past Bacchus Marsh and the smoke disappeared. It reappeared in the form of a grass fire burning a slope in the Pentland Hills on the approach to Myrniong. Excitingly, it was lapping at the side of the freeway on the inbound side. I was on the outbound side heading away from Melbourne. In places it was stepping over to the median strip. There were vehicles stopped on the outbound side. I don't know what they were doing. Calling 000? Taking photos? No idea. But there was no way I was stopping. I kept going, wondering where the emergency services were. Then they started heading towards me from Ballan and Ballarat. Inbound traffic was diverted. Lindsey says that she, passing by around 30 minutes after me, was diverted off the freeway just before Bacchus Marsh but was put back just before the fire. She assumes some sort of accident.
I got home and it started to rain. Rain was very welcome.
The next morning our rain gauge said we had had 14 ml since it had last been read. Good.
Lindsey, Jim and I went to the Bridge Mall market on Saturday. It wasn't actively raining but it was cool and damp. It was a smaller market than usual. I think the rain and wind overnight had put some of the traders off. It didn't put us off
On Sunday Lindsey (but not Jim who had discovered the existence of a Sunday sports program on the television) and I went to the Buninyong blueberry farm and picked blueberries. Lindsey said that Hugo was subdued, off his food and vomiting. He wasn't tormenting Rupert or jumping around, but he was chasing rabbits and magpies.
In many ways, Hugo is a much fussier eater than Rupert. But of the two
of them it is Hugo who is more likely to eat carrion and other manky
stuff. So it seemed a likely explanation of unexplained vomiting,
especially since he didn't seem to be in distress. Subdued, yes but not
distressed.
On Monday Lindsey and Ian headed off to work. Jim went up to Hill House. I stayed in Tani for the morning doing Useful Things. Jim reported that Hugo had thrown up his breakfast and was looking a bit sorry for himself. By the time I got there he had perked up and was eating small titbits. He positively demolished some roast chicken and rice in the evening. There was some running about in the evening but Rupert was still being very gentle with him. He (Hugo, not Rupert) also had diarrhoea.
I went to bed reasonably early and suggested that Jim leave the back door open for Hugo Just In Case. Jim closed our bedroom door so the dogs could access the back door but not jump on our bed. At midnight he got up and made Rupert come in. It is very unusual for us to close our bedroom door and Rupert had gone outside to our floor to ceiling windows and was banging at them and howling. He closed the back door but did not open the kitchen door.
At 2:00 the dogs were whining. I got up - and found puddles of diarrhoea dotted around the kitchen. I wasn't cleaning up at that time of the morning. I opened the kitchen door and the dogs went out. I went round and put layers of kitchen paper over the puddles I could see.
I went to go back to bed. And found one husband and two great danes on the bed. No room for me. I couldn't be bothered arguing and went to the spare room, where I was joined ten minutes later by Rupert looking to see where I was. Hugo came in and got up onto the bed. Rupert went back to our bed.
And that would have been all fine, except that Hugo took up the middle of the bed, leaving me not much room.
Not much sleep for me that night.
Normally I head down to Melbourne fairly early on Tuesday mornings and don't come back until Wednesday evening. I didn't really feel that I could head off, leaving Jim with a sick great dane, a poo-y kitchen, general chaos and no car. I rang Lindsey and told her I wouldn't be in.
By lunchtime I had: cleaned up the poo, washed the affected areas of floor, swept the slate areas of the South Wing of the house, washed the slate areas, swept them again, washed them again, washed the dog blankets and hung them out, cleared up the kitchen, been out and bought chicken fillets, poached the chicken fillets. By bedtime I had walked over 13000 steps.
Hugo was off his food and very subdued all day. He spent all afternoon asleep on the bed. I was just saying to Jim that I might put him in the car and take him to the vet in Buninyong because eating carrion really shouldn't still be affecting him - when he came in, sniffed both the dog bowls, rattled them, snuffled at the treat box. I gave him some poached chicken. He wanted more. I waited a while and gave him some more. He ate that and rattled his bowl. I gave him a small amount of pasta and meat.
Next thing I knew was that he was rushing up and down in the backyard, jumping all over a rather surprised Rupert. Whatever it was, the long afternoon sleep seems to have fixed it.
No excuse to stay at home for another day, then.
The kitchen end of Hill House did look very, very lovely after all that sweeping and washing. Before the dogs started rushing around in it!
