What were you doing at 3:00 a.m?

I'm going to meet Number Three daughter shortly – she's coming to dog-sit while Barry and I go out for the evening. Our daughters are very accommodating and while they may think we're being a little neurotic about our dogs they're always ready and willing to help out. (Our son would, too, but it's a long trek from New York.)

We cannot leave Gentle Dominie for any length of time as she has difficulty getting to her feet and needs help to 'go potty' as the Americans say. (I go potty some days too, but in an entirely different sense.) Last night she had a stomach problem which soon evidenced itself all over my side of the bedroom at 3:00 a.m. While Barry bathed her and then went downstairs to make a pot of tea I shampooed the carpet. We have a very efficient machine, a Hoover 'Brush 'n' Wash' which makes a horrible job quite acceptable though still not pleasurable. Clean and fresh once more Dominie went back to her bed and for the next couple of hours we listened anxiously to the gurgling coming from her insides and wondered if the whole cycle would be repeated. We had given her a dose of 'Diarsanyl' which is effective usually in soothing a troubled gut so we hoped cautiously that she would be all right. Eventually she was comfortable enough to go back to sleep and after a while we too fell asleep.

We had a late start this morning and though I would normally starve a dog for twenty-four hours after a stomach upset I knew Dominie would not settle without breakfast so I scrambled eggs for her. Very binding, eggs!