Auf Wiedersehen Pet

As I waited at the vets this evening for my post-operative little boy to be returned to me, a woman came out of the consulting room, crossed the floor in front of me, and burst into tears. Her shoulders heaved as she sobbed into her hands, weeping loudly, long agonised sobs. A few minutes before a man had come from the same room, and as I glanced now over my shoulder I saw him hunched across the steering wheel of his car, clearly grief-stricken. The reason for their pain was the death of their cat by lethal injection, it now being too old and sick to enjoy any quality of life. Proper shook me up, it did. People and pets. What are we like? I helped my emasculated little man into the car and out again, his zombie face staring unseeingly at me as I fastened him into his seat belt and he gently eased his long body down. It looks like a massacre down there, from what I have glimpsed. I'm not going to probe. He is obviously tender and hasn't really been able to pee properly so far, the effort of standing on one leg while cocking the other just too much. He normally squats sometimes too, but even that uses muscles that hurt. It may be a long few days until he is back to normal.

While Hugo was on the operating table I went to lunch at the home of two lovely friends and two of their friends, and somehow got roped into holding a table tennis tournament in my garden. Everyone, it seems, loves to play but doesn't have access to a table. I have a table. These women are all so busy in their retirement, running things, organising things, giving lectures and classes, doing good and useful stuff I'm surprised they have the time. Respect. When the two I hadn't met before asked what sort of things I do I mentioned everything except the one day a week I volunteer for CAB. They must have thought I was a right useless bit of fluff. But they still want to come and play so that's good. Now I'll have to get the garden into the peak of condition again before they all see it, and I must stop saying: "You should have seen it last week. It was all so perfect then!" I'm already a laughing stock.

This evening the sky suddenly turned from a clear blue to black as thunder crashed overhead, lightning crackled and sparked, and then the heavens opened and the rain slammed down. It was quite apocalyptic, but at least it means I won't have to water any plants. Within half an hour it had passed over leaving the air cool and fresh. I'd love a walk but I can't leave Hugo alone in case he licks his wound. I'll put his cone collar on when I go to bed so he can't reach it, the void that was his manhood. I hope he doesn't miss his bits too much. He'll have more time to sleep now. He used to spend ages polishing them.