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YOU Magazine Fashion
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Travel Home Life Liz Jones
LIZ JONES’ S DIARY In which I face an agonising wait By You Magazine - October 27, 2019 It all started two weeks ago. I was on my post-Newsnight walk with the three collies. Suddenly, Gracie crouched, whimpering.
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I examined her paws for thorns: nothing. She got up and carried on as normal. I took her to the vet the next day.
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She was given an anti-inflammatory painkiller. I kept her in for a couple of days, just allowing her to potter.
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After a week of her seeming to get worse, I insisted on an X-ray. The news wasn’t great: arthritis in her front right paw. Abbey Lossing at handsomefrank.com But the pain seemed so extreme, I wasn’t convinced arthritis was the problem.
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She didn’t flinch when I squeezed her paw, but when she moved she started to pant, and cry. She stopped eating, so I had problems getting drugs down her.
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Yesterday afternoon, her pain was so bad I called the vet to my home. She was still insisting it was arthritis. And then, by 1am, Gracie was yelping in pain, mouth agape, writhing.
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I let her out in the garden and she crept under a bush. I couldn’t extract her. It was cold and raining.
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Her screaming was so loud, I’m sure she woke the neighbours. I managed to get her inside and called the emergency vet while Gracie crawled on to my lap, clinging on with her paws.
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I noticed a swelling on her spine. It was soft and pliable.
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The vet said she had already given her the maximum amount of pain relief and there was nothing she could do. I was to bring her in first thing. And so, this morning, I took her to another vet, who this time agreed it was not the arthritis, as the pain was so acute.
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He could feel and see the swelling, and so he referred her to a specialist, just south of Newcastle. I’m reminded of the last time I rushed to this clinic, clutching Hilda, who had suddenly started vomiting blood.
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While she was under anaesthetic, I was told a tumour had burst in her stomach, and that the cancer had spread to other organs. We didn’t wake her. She had survived 13 years on a Romanian rubbish tip, only for this to happen, just as she was getting used to M&S pork pies and being showered with kisses.
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But Hilda was 16, 17. Gracie is just 10. When I first got her, I only had Sam, my elderly collie.
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I thought he’d enjoy a companion, so I called Wiccaweys, a Border Collie charity then based near Nottingham. I’d driven there with the intention of adopting a female who had been picked up, heavily pregnant, in Ireland: she was so abused she wouldn’t let anyone touch her. But when I arrived at the kennels, the mum had been rehomed.
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Just one of her puppies was left – Gracie. And, my goodness, she has been a trial.
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No concept of weeing outdoors. So nervous, she shook if you even clipped on a lead. Asked to get in a car, she would cower beneath it out of reach.
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She has chewed numerous sofas, wellies, doors, walls, Dries Van Noten jackets, my Eames office chair. In my previous house, on a popular walk in the Dales, she would nip the calves of runners. In a West London hotel, she tore a guest’s Versace trousers.
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I blame the person who abused her mother in Ireland: her fear seeped into her puppies. I sometimes toy with the idea of having a reunion of the litter to compare stories and bank balances (she also destroyed every seat in my car and, at the last count, no fewer than 14 seat belts; today’s referral alone, including tests, is already £5,000).
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Nic, my assistant, picked us up. On the way to the clinic, she had to stop twice, as Gracie was screaming. We carried her into reception, and a nurse rushed forward with a trolley.
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The surgeon examined Gracie, who was crying all the while. ‘The arthritis was a red herring,’ she said.
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She outlined what would happen: a drip, blood tests and an MRI scan. I felt as though I was in an episode of The Supervet: the one where the owner sobs.
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The surgeon looked grave, worried. ‘I want extreme measures,’ I said as I left, clutching Gracie’s now empty collar and lead.
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‘She had such an awful start in life.’ She’s the most loving dog I’ve ever known. She sleeps every night on the pillow next to my head, groaning with pleasure.
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She has the face of a meerkat. She has a thing about hosepipes.
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She can eat off a fork. Ever the optimist, she chases aeroplanes.
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I am now waiting for the call from the clinic. Waiting to learn her fate.
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