Wednesday 8th April

Had a nice chat with my sister this evening - sadly one of her little dogs has passed away. She's very upset. The vet had told her that the dog had a terminal condition, and given her pills for the dog which were supposed to maybe give little dog another six months or so, two weeks later, little dog has died. This in and of itself is sad, but unremarkable, except for the fact that this is an almost identical repeat of what happened to my friend Abby's last dog - again, terminal condition, vet gives pills and say may give another six months, two weeks later, the dog has passed. Like I said to Jo, clearly this is a way that vets give people time to adjust to the shock and trauma of loosing a much loved pet. Still, I have to say, Doris was a very sweet little dog, never gave anyone a moments trouble, or anything but unconditional love. She'll be much missed, not least by her sister, Tilly, who also lives with my sister. Poor old Tilly is very confused and upset right now, because her sister has suddenly disappeared. It's such a shame that you can't explain to an animal, that they don't understand the implications of future events. Poor old girl. I remember when Jo first got them, two tiny, tiny puppies, far too small to have been taken from their mother but they got them from the RSPCA I think, so perhaps something had happened to their mother. They both made it through, Doris, frankly in somewhat better condition than Tilly, who seems to have a canine version of ocd. She now even recognises the spelt out version of B.A.L.L. If you stood and threw the ball for her to chase and bring back, you would be the first to drop, before Tilly lost interest.

Tomorrow I think I'm off to the library, check back in with a few books, and I dare say take a few more out. I must make a start on my reading, and devise a means to store possible quotes for the dissertation. I need some more of those big hard back notebooks, and some highlighters too I think. And yes, another wretched ream of printer paper. Stationery is becoming the bane of my existence, no sooner have I bought the stuff than I've run out of something and need to replace it. Oh well. Nose to the grindstone and all that.