Baby P and Sharon Shoesmith

Hi

Suppose it had been “Puppy P” and not “Baby P.” 

Our new friend - a Cockerpoo puppy

Just one visit from one RSPCA officer, or one visit to our Gloria  or any other vet, would have ensured that Puppy P was put immediately into caring hands at a Wood Green Animal Shelter

www.woodgreen.org.uk  

I know.  Our Moll and I have been there. 

Of course a baby is different from a puppy.  But there is another difference.  RSPCA officers, our Gloria and Wood Green are not afraid of anyone or anything.  For them only the puppy matters.  Everyone and everything else is secondary.

Now to Sharon S.  Our Scottie family tradition, and His, is simple:

“The nearer the top, the nearer the door.”

Sharon S was a Director, not a lollypop lady, not a social worker, not a supervisor, a Director. 

She was being paid a salary of around four times average earnings.

She was deemed to have failed the Clement Attlee test. 

“She was not good enough.” 

For such senior holders of public office, dismissal with one month’s salary is appropriate and fair.

Perhaps one, or more, councillors and a Secretary of State should have gone too.

Paws4Now

Jock

Just sitting in the sun - in the sun

TLC (1) Care and Complexity

Hi

TLC is a big subject.  R Moll and I have been dashing up and down the motorways assisting with caring.  Strokes, dementia, Alzheimers, cancer, we are all getting older and the list of ailments gets longer. 

Off again

And now I too am under doctor’s orders.  You may have noticed a pause in my blog posts.  Well I have a paw’s problem.  No it’s not punny.

My right front is very sore.  Thought it was RSI from all the keyboard work.  But the wonderful Gloria (she is on the home page at www.villagevet.co.uk/milton ) assured me that it was not.  Lured by her smile and her biscuits I am now, as you can see, under medication and treatment.

Only three more days - I hope

There will be a further consultation next Monday and immediate day surgery may be required.  I will be OK.  Gloria is really good.

Patient patient

Back in November 2008, R Moll was near gone.  Heart and lung problems, arthritis, muscle wastage, fainting, we all thought she could not reach Christmas.  I was devastated.  She’s my best chum; she has looked out for me since I was a puppy; she protected me when we were in the Care Institution (some rough characters there I can tell you. See my blog: Prison should work.)

Two heads better than one

Anyhow, Gloria stepped in with new medicines and therapy.  R Moll started hydrotherapy swimming at the Animal Health Trust at Newmarket www.aht.org.uk  He and I used to take her.  We all enjoyed it.  The AHT girls in their wetsuits were Jock 007.  The biscuits and toys were excellent too.

Moll regained muscle and bounce.  However R Moll’s heart is now worse, so the swimming has had to stop.  Still, she stays a happy hungry Labrador, a friend to everyone and my best friend.

This is why I trust Gloria and her network.  Travelling around the country over the last two years, R Moll has had many medical crises.  Using simple fax, telephone and email communication, critical treatment and medication has been co-ordinated and provided on the spot.  It has been simple, effective, immediate and not very expensive.

Foot down - Take five

Him and Her, their friends and families trust the NHS and other care agencies - Professional Skills, Consideration, Courtesy, Commonsense - Five Stars.   Systems, Communication, Co-ordination – One Star.

Crossroads Care is outstanding - Five Stars all round.

Over many years, more than six billion pounds has been and is being spent on the NHS patient information (Summary care record) computer system.  I spotted an email to His MP.  It quoted an informed person in the Cambridgeshire PCT.

“We are still holding off uploading any patient details to the Summary care record, until we are satisfied that the system is safe and fit for purpose.”

Perhaps they should consult Gloria.  It’s a dog’s life.

Paws4Now

Jock

Diuretics! - Spot the Pampers 4+

Pampers Design Instructions in due course. 

Whewlection

Hi

What excitement.  As a Scottie and as a Conservative I wagged my tail off.

The “No” to AV is a mild disappointment.  Thoughtful discussion was overtaken by bad behaviour.  David was unwise, and did not need, to let the Nasty dogs loose from the Stupid kennel.  However all will soon be forgotten in the summer holidays and that dreadful proportional representation (PR) is dead for another ten years.

Lucky, clever, ruthless, the winners, Salmond in Edinburgh, Cameron in London, will now turn on and destroy their common enemy.  They have the power and they have the time.

In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, Cato the Elder’s “Delenda est Carthago” will become:

“Labour must be destroyed, completely.”

Just watch them create the next great British unwritten compromise: the best Fudge, creamy, delicious, thoroughly stirred and mixed, yet each ingredient distinctive and delicious, guaranteed to last three hundred years.

A United Kingdom of Independents under one monarch.  A Conservative England of sixty million people, an SNP Scotland of five million, a Clyde Cymru Wales of three million and a Unionist Northern Ireland of one and a half million, the family will support each other and survive.

My Scottie family is spread around the world, London, Delhi, Washington, often in positions of power and responsibility.  My Welsh Corgi cousins are also rather well known.  We are all very independent and totally international.  Nothing will change that.

Paws4Now

Jock

Osama bin Laden is dead

All puppies are born beautiful, playful, optimistic.  Some become damaged, depressed, dangerous.  I pray for them all.

Osama bin Laden is dead.  Bin Laden’s dismal writings, Qutb’s Milestones, Maududi’s works, now lie with Mein Kampf, National Socialism, Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, hard to read, significant but history.

The turgid prose and atavistic nihilism of such sad and damaged men is not the model for today’s optimistic, devout, young, Muslim scholars in Cambridge or for the Arab Spring.

Turn instead to beautiful writing, a joy to read.   There was a religious fundamentalist political revolution in England too.  In 1647 The Levellers held The Putney Debates, (re-published by Verso, ISBN -13: 978-1-84467-175-5 in 2007.)

St Mary is revered by Christians and Muslims.  The ideals and aspirations voiced in her church in Putney, London, in 1647, now ring through the mosques of the Mediterranean.

The young are decent, optimistic and the future.  My family believed in them then: I believe in them still.

Paws4Now

Jock

A Rhododendron Spring

William’s Wedding and Blake’s Progress

Hi all

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are lovely.

We got dressed up for Westminster Abbey.  The trees were magic.  However our Moll wasn’t too well, so we stayed in Cambridge.

William is wise or lucky or both (the Napoleon standard.)   Catherine is not just beautiful; she has something of William’s great grandmother, Bowes Lyon steadiness.

David Cameron sang up well.  He knew Blake’s words by heart:

Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England's green & pleasant Land

In the Mall, in Hyde Park, in streets and homes our voices, our hearts and our heads sang too. 

David, it is time to start building.

Paws4Now

Jock

Loyal to the last breath