Thursday, April 21, 2011

Rosie Goat...

I inherited the care of Rosie Goat from my friend and neighbour Gloria. Rosie is old (no-one knows quite how old), cantankerous, arthritic and has never been well socialised. She is tethered by a chain that runs along a long wire  :-(  Her only real interest in life is food.

I have become very fond of her. She has character.
Breakfast!
Christmas!

Posing in my winter coat

One day recently I got a phone call from neighbour Janet Gough to say that Rosie had just been attacked by a dog. I high-tailed it down the road to find Rosie on the ground, bleeding from multiple puncture wounds in the neck, hyperventilating and clearly in shock. The Gough family, whose daughter Naomi is a doctor, were doing everything possible - most importantly compressing the worst of the bleeding. We took it in turns to sit with Rosie over the next several hours while we tried to get a vet - an endeavour complicated by the fact that it was the day of the memorial service for the earthquake victims and a public holiday. We needed to know whether Rosie had a chance of survival or would need to be put down.


Finally a vet who was willing to come out. By this time we had got Rosie on her feet. She was given antibiotics, painkillers, a spray to discourage flies and a great deal of TLC. Three weeks or so down the track she is thriving (as much as 'elderly' can be said to 'thrive'), especially on the additional attention and food treats. The neck wounds seemed to have healed cleanly. And a local retired gentleman has offered to build her a more commodious (deluxe) wooden shelter for the winter!
On the mend - neck bandage and fancy dog harness 

3 comments:

  1. Poor Rosie! She's lucky to have so many kind caretakers in the good people of Governor's Bay. What happened to the dog?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I miss the angora goats :( Rosie looks angora/saanen cross. Thank goodness she recovered. Poor old thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The dog (a husky) belonged to a visiting family who apparently had lost their New Brighton (ChCh seaside suburb) home in the second quake. Naomi saw what was happening and literally pulled the dog off Rosie. People and dog had gone by the time I got there but I suspect the dog may have been spooked by the quake. So as far as I know nothing happened to the dog.

    ReplyDelete