The Joys of Owing a Labrador

Warning - do not read if you have a weak stomach.

Some of you know that when we were still in NZ we had a problem with Cassy being constipated. He had eaten some ashes because Wouter had burned some juicy leftovers to prevent them being eaten, but Cassy got them in the end (pardon the pun) which blocked up his plumbing, so to speak. The result was an emergency weekend visit to the vet at Helensville followed by a visit to our local vet which left Cassy knocked out for the day for manual removal, us with a bill for around $400 and Cassy with a sore rear end for a few days. What they removed were sticks, stones, ashes, and other unidentified objects. Goodness knows how he got them down - but where there's a Labrador there's a way - and of course they wouldn't come out the other end without medical assistance.

So when we saw him this morning on the front garden trying to go to the toilet we started wondering if we have to go through the same thing again. But this time it's the opposite - the runs. He has a sore rear end as it's red. Then it must be itching as he scoots across the muddy ground (blast - our first real rain in weeks and this is the day he picks to do that!) ending up with muddy paws full of clods of earth, bottom fur caked with mud and still no apparent relief from the discomfort.

Now for the reason - the other day we were innocently taking a look at the vineyard at the back of our place to see if it had been picked or not as the season is getting on now and we could still see grapes. Aha - all picked but they missed a few bunches (the ones we could see) with the machine. So Cassy has been over there inspecting and harvesting as you can see from the evidence below:

(contains entire grapes)

(photographed as found)

We now know we obviously cannot trust him out of our sight as he loves his fruit and by nature he is a hunter gatherer, just like us, but he does not know when to stop. So he is confined to quarters until further notice and pit stops are on leash until we can fence off that boundary.