Paradise lost

Tags

beach, cat, dog, family, fear, pet, potholes, roadworks, swim, veterinarian

My friend Noodle has been feeling a bit under the weather lately (you can read all about this on his blog noodle4president), and he had to visit the veterinarian to get his blood works done. Luckily it turned out that he is just fine.

I was so distressed by this that I developed a sympathy illness (this happens when you have such a close emotional link to a friend with whom you empathize so strongly that you start to feel ill yourself). So, after my daily swim today, I suddenly started coughing and soon I was in the grip of a severe asthma attack. Not to be outdone, Sissy went into a full scale panic attack and Mom decided to drive us to the veterinarian 20 kilometers away.

We were racing downhill on a very narrow lane, when all of a sudden … the road disappeared. We thought that the bridge had collapsed, because everything was under water. Mom, of course, drives like a bat from hell (says Dad, so I’m sure I’m allowed to repeat that) and she just put her foot down on the pedal. The next moment we were slipping and sliding through the murky water.

Mom didn’t even realize (or maybe she did?) that the road was caving in due to the pressure of the water spewing from the burst water pipes running underneath the surface. There was no time to stop and Mom would not turn around in any case, because her favorite doggy was sick, see? So we made a beeline for the vet’s office where I received an injection and antibiotics which will hopefully cure me.

The vet says he thinks I may have an allergy. We have been battling the ant hordes who are trying to take over our kitchen and have been getting into our food bowls. Sissy has been spraying all the surfaces with a vicious smelling concoction which could have caused my problem. So Mom bought Our Cat and myself new food bowls which are slightly elevated so that the ants cannot get into our food.

While we were away, Dad called the local council and they managed to stop the flow of water, but we could not use that road, because the surface was severely damaged and there was a large hole in it. The council workers put those orange cones all over the road to indicate to motorists that there is a problem, but it is probably too late in the day to fix it. It will have to wait till tomorrow.

I just wish you could have seen Mom’s face when she saw the damage and realized in in how much danger we actually were of having a real nasty accident. Just look at the expression on her face – priceless!

This meant that we had to drive all the way back home on the dirt road that winds through the hills where sugar cane is grown.

The road was real bumpy and Mom still drives her small little city car, not really suitable for the area to which we moved recently.  Sissy says it is a very good thing that our car did not fall into the hole, because we would never have found it again.

We were awfully glad when we saw the river and the railway lines at the bottom of the hill on which our house is built. We were back in known territory.

But, would you believe this, when we arrived home, Dad greeted us with the news that the electricity was down, due to the load shedding schedule being enforced AND we had no water – of course not, the council had to turn off the mains in order to repair the road.

Well, the power is back on, but tonight the family will have to skip their baths 😀 We hope to have water by the weekend.