I'm Back

 I didn't go anywhere; I just took a break from this blog. Didn't feel like writing. I think little Pip's poor health had something to do with it. She had been off her food for a while and I tried different approaches and types of food which worked maybe once or twice, then not. Depressing it was to see our little mate losing weight and leaving her food bowl hardly touched. Sometimes she'd come back to it for another mouthful but often it was left untouched. She could no longer jump and struggled a bit to get up the step here and there, as well as much reduced vision and hearing. I went to the vet and bought some special soft food. I was relieved she ate some enthusiastically that night, but she spewed it up later.

Knowing she was nearing the end I took her to the vet to confirm that it was time. The vet agreed, saying her kidneys were failing. I made an appointment for the next afternoon to return for her euthanasia. Coincidentally Robbie was coming from Victoria that very day, so we all had a final night together to say our goodbyes to her. Lib and I took her back to the vet the next day, the boys didn't come; they didn't think they could handle it. She's buried in our back yard where she spent the last almost 4 years of her life.

 

It was a tearful time for all of us, I had a lump in my throat many times when she came into my thoughts through daily routine of feeding etc. A wonderful family companion she was for nearly 18 years. We grieved. We grieve still, but it's easing. We were so lucky to have her for so long. She survived being poisoned by eating snail bait in my van when she was young, anal gland infection and operation, toe amputation following an infection, snake bite and several near misses from traffic. Once she disappeared down a wombat hole and I couldn't get her out. I thought the wombat must have crushed her to death but just when I was about to give up all hope, she came gingerly trotting after me, covered in red dirt. 

I took a break also from my Vietnam book. I borrowed 'Capricornia' by Xavier Herbert from the library and had four weeks to read it before returning it. It's a long book, a novel, set in Nth Australia from say WW1 time to about the late 1930's when it was written. I'd read it some 30 years ago and loved it and wanted to read it again after telling friend Geoff up the road about it. Geoff was raised in Darwin which is essentially the hub of the story. It illustrates the hardships and inherent racism that existed at that time when blacks, half castes and yeller fellers had little chance in life. The racism was not just reserved for the indigenous, it extended to Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos, all of which were plentiful. The boom and bust of the cattle industry and the cruel climate of floods and droughts affecting agricultural pursuit show that life in the top end wasn't easy.

I'm back into 'Vietnam'. I find it - in a word - disgusting. The corruption, the atrocities and brutality by both sides, the stupidity, costing countless thousands of lives. A political war based on ideology. I won't overload you with statistics but by the end of 1966 there were 385,000 Americans in Vietnam and it was announced there would be many more coming. The cost of the war had been budgeted for $2billion for 1966, but the final bill came in at more than $15billion and would rise to $17billion in 1967. Thousands of tons of bombs and defoliants were dropped wiping out villages and food supplies. Hard to comprehend.

I will read on.