Office reopened for buisness

As discussed in the last instalment the top priority was to try and get my office back up and running by the time the Cheltenham Festival began. Well i'm happy to report the deadline was met as far as the decorating was concerned but I delayed moving the furniture back in for a few days as I found it quite handy to be working next to the TV in the lounge whilst the racing was taking place.

It has certainly made me think about a second screen near my desk but it looks a right hassle getting Virgin to it without buying a second box for a small fortune. Anyway thats for another day possibly.

The racing delivered pretty much as promised with some great sport in parts but as usual by the time the Gold Cup comes round on the last day i've just about had enough of hearing how dominant the Irish have been.

I don't know whats happened to the English trainers lately, its seems like ages since Nicky Henderson had his seven winners and Mr Nicholls had Kauto Star and Denman to deliver the goods.

Even when Willie Mullins has a bad day at the office (which is rare) a certain new kid on the block by the name of Gordon Elliott steps in with a treble. He ended up with six winners and won his first Festival title. It's on to Aintree next month and then Punchestown, yet more glory for the Emerald Isle me thinks.

So with the racing done and the decorating finished for a bit it was all systems go for a nice quiet spell.

Suzy had booked a week off and we were looking forward to the next few days and spending some time in the garden. Well all that went sideways when our Sky took ill and to cut a very long story short she was diagnosed with diabetes.

It sounds bad, and it is, but we were convinced she had a tumour or something by the way she had deteriorated in such a short time so we had braced ourselves for the worst. That day we took her to the vets to get x-rayed and get her bloods done was a very long one. I for one thought it was her last so to be told she has to have two injections a day to keep her alive seemed like a good deal to us.

Unfortunately the tears of joy were short-lived as it slowly dawned on us that our precious little Sky had lost her sight. It's not uncommon apparently in diabetic dogs but at the same time not something I was prepared for at this stage.

Since the diagnosis we have been getting to grips with a different Sky and it's been great to see that she can still make us smile each and every day, just like she used to do. It will take time to adjust and everyone says how dogs adapt much better than humans, that actually doesn't help dealing with seeing someone you care about so much struggle to do the most simple things.

I suppose the truth is that this has affected us more than Sky, these beautiful creatures can take us through the mill at times and it doesn't matter how often these things happen, you never get used to it.