Benji, New Year and Home.

Well, here we are – 2024. This year Benji will be either 12 or 14, which is confusing to say the least – He is a rescue dog as you know, but one set of documents. say he was born in 2012 and another set of documents say he was born in 2010.  Still he’s my boy irrespective of how old, or how young, he is. In  the major news, it is unlikely that Annabell will be coming home. She is now been in the hospital for 25 days and is currently awaiting a place in a nursing home. There is no  place available here, so she will either go to Port Augusta(60 miles away) or Quorn (75 miles away) Yes, she will be going into care. This last seizure caused a lot of damage, mentally and physically making her unable to do anything. Currently I spend most of my day at the hospital. She sleeps I sit and read. The nurse feeds her breakfast and I feed her lunch and dinner. During a period of clarity I once asked her – as I was feeding her – ” when you said I do all those years ago,  did you ever imagine that I would be hand feeding you?” Her reply was ” no I did not, but did you ever imagine you would be doing it?” — Annabell is still in there!

The boys are not too happy with me. They wanted me to stay with them and Connor for New Years Eve. I said no, I wanted to be  home. Just me and Benji, but it was where I felt I needed to be. Yes other than Benji and I, an empty house, but as I said this is where I wanted to be and where I felt I needed to be. Don’t ask me to explain that because I can’t. Weird, but there you are. I have already been through the depression stage and, having recovered from that, I feel quite fine. I did have a good analyst to see me through – his name is Benji and he is really a great listener  :o)

So, that’s our start to the new year – sitting waiting  care placement for Annabell. At the moment I spend most of the day there at the hospital but that’s a cost of about $90 a week in fuel costs. Travel on the Port Augusta/Whyalla Highway is not too bad during the daylight hours, but not so good in the night and early morning – Kangaroo times… I will have to sit down and work that out. Although it is summer and still light late at night, so I have until March to think about that. By that time I hope there will be a placement back here – well, actually I hope long before that.  I am told that the Port Augusta facility is very nice and that might be so but it’s still  60 miles away.

Benji is very good. He is left in the house for most of the day. I do come back about twice each day to check on him, ensure he has enough food and water and so he knows he is not abandoned. And yes, before you ask- there is a dog door!  When I come home from the hospital in the evening, we gear up and go out for a walk. Of course we still go out for our morning walk at 6am.  Between hospital – home – hospital and walks with Benji,  I still manage about 14,000 steps a day – roughly about 6 miles.

Goodness, January 2nd already!  Yesterday was not the best of her days and apart from  some  exchanges in the morning, she was out of things for most of the day. She had breakfast but refused to take lunch. I was not there at lunchtime. I fed her at dinner time, and she finished off almost all of that and the Ice-Cream as well! Then I helped her drink some coffee.  I suppose, more than anything else, that the sleeping is doing her good and will, partly, help in the recovery. A recovery that  is taking a lot longer this time.

Now that the holiday  period is over and people are back at work, I  hope that we will see some movement. I am not anxious for her to go to Port Augusta but at least there will be  staff back in the hospital and I might find out a bit more that  what I have been told over the holiday period. However unless something changes, I don’t see us not going to Port Augusta. There are six wards in the new part of the hospital and four of them are closed down.