All is well this week. Well, sort of well…
Mum is out of hospital. She is no longer blocking a bed. And now she is being royally looked after by a small army of carers.
These are the unsung heroes. We need more of them and we should shout about them – and for them.
Because they are not just a helping hand. Not simply trained workers who come in and out to make meals and keep the vulnerable clean and tidy.
Carers a cut above
They are a ray of sunshine in many an older life. They are a smiling face and a listening ear.
Keeping a watchful eye, they are magnificent – and they deserve better recognition.
In the meantime, mum’s appetite has returned and, at the grand old age of 92, she seems to be eating for Scotland.
Shepherd’s pies, stovies, haggis, neeps and tatties… Jelly and ice-cream. You name it, she is enjoying it.
And with all that food onboard, energy levels have returned.
There is the careful morning-exercise from her armchair – and she is even getting used to the walking frame she vowed she would never use.
So, when not watching the swans on the loch from her sitting room window, she is to be found whizzing up and down the hallway.
Smiling as she goes and uttering phrases like ‘here I come – Poppy the Warrior!’
Three months ago, this was the woman who appeared to be on the way out. The change is remarkable – and we watch with great relief.
Indomitable spirit
Such is the human spirit. Then the canine spirit, too, is hard to crush.
Our soon to be fifteen-year-old spaniel may spend most of his day sleeping. He may be as deaf as a post, poor boy.
Yet when the word ‘din-dins’ is uttered, magically, there he is. Staggering into the back kitchen and ready for a slap-up meal.
Yes, our Barra would still walk five hundred miles for a bowl of meat and biscuits.
The Chow, meanwhile, is as greedy as they come. Yet the smallest MacNaughties has his eye on fare of a different kind.
Check on the picture. This is what happens when you leave a Norfolk Terrier puppy unattended for half an hour.
And that’s not all. You should see the underlay beneath the sitting room rug.
Somehow, he has managed to work out that it is easy to chew – and great fun, too.
Then there is the chief’s hundred-year-old MacGregor tartan carpet. Where he has found a stray thread, and pulled and pulled…
Wee Benbecula, to give him his correct title, is proving something of a pawful.
Then what young dog isn’t? At least he is almost house trained. Which at five months is not bad.
Now, you will probably tell me your dog was perfect at three months. And Barbara Woodhouse certainly would have done.
Remember her? Dog trainer, author, and TV personality. Her motto, that there are no bad dogs, only bad owners.
We are trying. We are trying to do our best!
