Tide's Out

My humans disappeared for a couple of days. Our neighbour visited me a couple of times a day but I stayed hidden while he was here.  When my humans returned F needed Dr Tigger. Something had gone wrong with the direction of flow in her alimentary canal. 

When you connect up a garden hose and turn on the tap, water comes out the other end. Disconnect it from the tap and water comes out both ends (for a while). However if water is flowing out both ends, the reservoir must be falling in the middle.  If F swallowed even a teaspoonful of water it set off a nasty counterflow. She went to bed. I curled up against her tummy. I could feel her heart thumping hard. Dehydration.....

I reckon if (purely in the interests of science you understand) I had opened her up, her blood would have been like estuary mud when the tide goes out. People from the oil drilling industry know it takes special pumps to move mud.

Or possibly molasses.... bang bang bang. She was clanking away like one of those Aermotor water pumps. (And just in case you don't know what Aermotor is link here. Iconic water pumps, that were also in use all over NZ Canterbury farmland when F was growing up. She said you could hear them clunking away through the night when the nor'westers were tearing down off the mountains and scorching their way across the open plains.)

I snuggled in close and vibrated her tummy at healing frequency. 

She told me they had been to York to give Aunty B a colourful send off. Fortunately that was all over before F's tide went out. In fact they even fitted in a visit to the National Railway Museum at the suggestion of the neighbour who filled my food bowl while they were away - and they took one of the small humans.

I'm just pleased they are home again.