Dogless for the day….

I mentioned that Meg had a consultation with the vet in New Mills last evening; well the upshot is that she needs to have a couple of teeth out. She’s damaged them, catching sticks or something similar, one was slightly displaced exposing the root and allowing an infection to take hold.



She was as good as gold during the examination, allowing the vet to poke and prod with only the odd wince.

So this morning I took a very hungry dog (no food since half-eight last night) back and left her for her operation. All being well I’ll be able to collect her this evening. The 15 minute walk there will likely be rather longer on the way back as she’ll still be recovering from the general anaesthetic.

Our little convoy is breaking up a bit this morning. The Rockers are moving down to Marple, then tomorrow heading down Marple Locks on the first leg of their trip up, through and down to Huddersfield on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. That’s 32 locks up, 42 down with a mere 3¼ mile long tunnel at the summit All in 20 miles.
We did the same trip last autumn although in the opposite direction. R’n’R is too long for the Huddersfield Broad, so they’ll have to turn around and come back the same way. Suckers for punishment.

We had a bit of a going away party on R’n’R last night, “Come round for a drink, it’s the last we’ll have together for a bit” said Carol. 4½ hours and several empty bottles later we staggered the 20 yards home…..

Since I’ve written the above George has been to tell us they’re waiting till tomorrow before getting going, they want to see that Meg is OK before they leave us.

We’ll obviously have to continue to hang around, there’ll be a follow-up consultation with the vet early next week to make sure all is well before we can follow as far as Dukinfield Junction. From there we’ll turn left, travelling with M2L down into Manchester.
During this pause I’ll try to get new zips fitted to the cratch cover, two have failed now and it’s a nuisance having to unclip it from the cabin side to get in and out. Roger Olver has found me a contact in Macclesfield who may be able to do the job. Roger is a mobile narrowboat engineer based on NB Fizzical Attraction and knows most folk around here.
I’ve also got a new-second-hand digital recorder/DVD player/DVD recorder to collect that I “won” on ebay last week. It’s going to Mags’ grand-daughter’s address, and it’s silly to post it on again. So I’ll wait till my entry pack for the Manchester 10k arrives then we’ll hire a car for the day and collect everything in one go.

I’ve got to ring the surgery in about an hour to see how Meg got on, and I expect I’ll be able to collect her around 6 o’clock. It’s very quiet on board at the moment…

Back to the boat repaint, thanks for the feedback, folks, particularly Adam who points out that if we know that red fades more quickly than other colours, why use it for the name panel? There’ll be an expensive signwriting job on there. Good point, well made. Red on the handrails only, then. 
Locks 0, miles 0