It was my job to predict the right point to mate the girls and I’ve failed. Oh, I got it right with Shadow. I was absolutely right. With Megan I told my Mistress ‘Every season she is ready on days 12 to 14.’ ‘Are you sure, Alfie?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’m absolutely certain.’ Oh, how I’ve let them down. I’m sorry. How was I to know that this time, when it really mattered, Megan wasn’t going to be ready until later? My Mistress has had to take the difficult decision to extend her stay so that they can go back to the stud dog later in the week. Even that process didn’t go smoothly.
The reason Megan didn’t go for another blood test here was that the weekend got in the way and she needed to sort out her travelling. Anyway, yesterday after another failed visit to see her boyfriend she went for a blood test. The result was supposed to be available this morning, except it is May Day and in Belgium, where they are staying, that makes it a bank holiday. What that means is that the result couldn’t be sorted out in the usual way. The only hope was to get the result turned round in the same afternoon and the only way to sort that was for my Mistress to take the blood sample from the vet and do an emergency drive across to the other side of Antwerp during rush hour traffic to take it to the laboratory in time for testing. Megan wanted a blue flashing light on the car and one of those signs saying ‘blood supplies’. I pointed out she wasn’t really supplying the blood but she said that was missing the point. Anyway, it all worked and they got the result last night. That was the good news. The bad news was that there is no point in them trying again until Thursday. So today my Mistress is trying to sort out all the arrangements to stay longer and she has asked if I would mind staying here and looking after Ari. I have said it is conditional on her sending extra supplies to keep us going so she has promised to try to sort that out. If not, I’m checking out whether she likes it or not!
Alfie Dog with a little help from Rosemary J Kind alfie@alfiedog.me.uk
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA