A couple of years ago in 2012 l was at a veterinary practice with a branch surgery, l was staying in the bungalow behind the surgery along with a locum vet.
One morning she said that a couple of times over the last couple of weeks she had been there, she had heard the sounds of someone trying to break into the branch surgery and was not sure what to do and she was very nervous.
I had slept through and not heard a thing, the bosses were puzzled and said best to call the police if she though someone was breaking in.
l told her look just wake me up l am very pissy when woken and will go deal with things ... come to that l am pissy in general so l will go see if you need to bother police or not as they have a lot on and to yank them off something important did not seem right. It was very strange there was no sign of break in attempts scratched locks or anything amiss l wondered if dogs were messing about or foxes?
2 nights later she woke me up with a loud stage whisper into my room "The noise's are back". I flung on my clothes and rang the police as l went storming round to the surgery in my usual foul temper on waking, as l stomped round l called 999. Needless to say they were not happy and insisted that l stay and they would send someone. I told them it would be more than a bit late as a van was pulling out onto the main road.
I bellowed and it stopped, l called the number, type and colour to police while the guy in it started to insist he should be there. I had a short altercation with him and police control were going nuts asking what was going on. The vet was way back yelling to be careful and back away.
As usual l followed my own path and continued walking towards him having a few words with the driver along the lines of you are talking rubbish and updating the police.
Then he pulled his trump card..... He waved a key at me and paperwork and said he was legal, followed by the immortal line a movie script would have been proud of "I am the bodyman".
I relayed this info to police control who went into panic mode almost screaming at me to get away while l almost began hit my head with my hand and making a FFS comment everything coming together with a cymbal crash.
Look l will prove it he said throwing open the back door.
It is ok l told police control he has opened the back and l can see the bodies.
At which point l think the controller l was speaking too freaked into new year and l got a case of hysterical laughter at the whole fiasco and realised she wasn't veterinary...l explained between laughter that we are a vet practice he is collecting the bodies of patients and the clinical waste l checked.
I think l heard her sigh of relief and understanding from several miles away, the vet and l were laughing and the body man also joined in (a bit) before leaving.
About 30mins later a police car rolled up to check we were ok and took it in good heart, the bosses went bright red when informed of the nights going on and at not remembering the collection service who are key-holders, to be fair to them the practice has been there l think over 30 years so things become common place and not thought about.
The night of the "Body's" will long be a legend at the practice l fear judging by the body man's reaction when he saw me the other day for the first time in 2 years when he went to the main practice to do a day clinical waste collection and saw me...he chuckles about it......now.
Showing posts with label Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police. Show all posts
Saturday, 20 September 2014
Monday, 12 April 2010
Alternative Door
The following happened a time ago and had us all laughing in disbelief. The little bitch was a sweetie totally unharmed by the night’s proceedings and took it all in her stride.
The owner had gone down to the pub and taken his dog with him. He had had more drink than was good for him...to put it bluntly he was totally pissed, from here it is surmising but:
Unable to work his front door key when he got home he took the next logical step.
He smashed the lounge window. Not sure how he did this as windows are meant to have safety glass.
Once the way was clear he threw the dog into the lounge, lets face it if she climbed in she may have cut herself.
The police and ambulance were called to take him away where he was treated to we are told “rather severe hand and arm wounds” before he had shiny new bracelets decorating his wrists.
The little bitch was collected and spent the night with us in a comfy bed. Actually she had a duvet folded into 4 and was lost in the middle of it snuggled down with a big bowl of food and water by the bed for refreshments.
The real problem with the above situation was that the drunk gentleman smashed in the lounge window of the house he used to live in. We did wonder if that was also the reason his key did not work?
The owner had gone down to the pub and taken his dog with him. He had had more drink than was good for him...to put it bluntly he was totally pissed, from here it is surmising but:
Unable to work his front door key when he got home he took the next logical step.
He smashed the lounge window. Not sure how he did this as windows are meant to have safety glass.
Once the way was clear he threw the dog into the lounge, lets face it if she climbed in she may have cut herself.
The police and ambulance were called to take him away where he was treated to we are told “rather severe hand and arm wounds” before he had shiny new bracelets decorating his wrists.
The little bitch was collected and spent the night with us in a comfy bed. Actually she had a duvet folded into 4 and was lost in the middle of it snuggled down with a big bowl of food and water by the bed for refreshments.
The real problem with the above situation was that the drunk gentleman smashed in the lounge window of the house he used to live in. We did wonder if that was also the reason his key did not work?
Monday, 25 January 2010
Sweet, Loving, Abandoned.
Saturday night we had a lovely rottie cross brought in. He was a big dog about 45/50kg. His owners had moved out the house and left him. We got a call via the police to go and collect him. If l was going to get another dog he would have been it. I don’t think he knows what the word “nasty” is and is a big lolloping softie.
He knew commands and so despite being scatty and bouncing all over, when l went into the kennel and said settle now lad he would sit and grin his big happy smile, tongue out, front feet slightly twitching waiting to be told he could move.
He has gone onto kennels l just hope he gets the home he deserves and not some scroat who is looking for a tough guard dog and treats him like dirt.
He knew commands and so despite being scatty and bouncing all over, when l went into the kennel and said settle now lad he would sit and grin his big happy smile, tongue out, front feet slightly twitching waiting to be told he could move.
He has gone onto kennels l just hope he gets the home he deserves and not some scroat who is looking for a tough guard dog and treats him like dirt.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Toadstools for Tea
It has been a poisonous time on shift this week not counting the usual cases that we have in.
Had a cat in whose renal parameters were all over the place but the worst was the way the calcium was heading to ground zero on subsequent checks. Given how his bloods stacked the vet was certain it was antifreeze tox. It is so depressing to see a lovely cat folding in and dying his bloods going worse and worse and nothing we could do would help. The vet rang the owner about 2am and had a chat.
A dog we had in had decided on a walk that those yummy orange toadstools growing out that nice smelly pile of cow dung were put there as a meal just for him. Being as he was a Labrador by the time the owner got to him and got him off the “meal” there was not much left.
He had a bad night of hallucinating (we think) as his eyes were like saucers and he was falling all over the place. With the aid of lots of iv fluids and some other treatment at the end of 24hrs he was able to go home with just checks for a couple of weeks.
We were all relieved to see him go because he was farting with a vengeance. To quote the vet “something horrible crawled up the dog’s arse and died” Critical care was so aromatic even with my bad cold l could smell it.
Another Labrador had been pulled off different toadstools [not orange ones] to late and he was very bad. His pcv (thickness of red blood cells) was 76. It should normally be max 55. He was so dehydrated that he did not have blood but syrup in his veins.
He needed fluid flung down his iv in vast quantities. He was shaking and collapsed, he had stinking blood leaking out of his rectum and saliva running like a bath out of his mouth. In fact saliva flowed out of the kennel like a tide onto the floor.
His owners were rung in the middle of the night and warned that it was unlikely he would see the morning and to be prepared for the worst.
Never say never though, at about 4am he was more alert, moved to a comfier position on his own and slowed down salivation. I went to do his stats and he raised his read and checked me out. By change over at 7am his rectal blood had stopped leaking.
He whizzed through 3 litres of fluid in 10hours on my shift, not counting what he had before l got in and more during the day, when l got in l the next night was over the moon to find out he had gone home. Again checks over the next couple of weeks but looking good.
Mind you l recon it was the noisy cat in the kennel above him must have helped keep him awake. He was claustrophobic. He had been in an RTA his back leg was past salvation. They had put a support dressing called a Robert Jones on and he had been going mad the dressing had slipped and it needed changing. The vet decided that if he was in so much pain the leg would come off in the night but in the mean time the 2nd dressing slipped.
He held the cat while l cut it [dressing] off, after first unscrewing the leg a couple of times so it faced the correct way.
We put him back in the kennel to see if he would settle down often animals just can not handle the dressing.
No it was obvious the leg was not bothering him but he loathed the kennel. He would pin himself to the door shaking it and yowling in anger leg whirring in the air. When not pinned to the door he did not even look at his leg but gazed angrily out. Stats were impossible, as soon as l tried to slide open the door l was being attacked by angry cat.
We got too busy for the leg so the vet gave him a very deep sedative and he took several hours to wake up to the agitated state he had been in.
His leg was removed the next day and he was sent home, a bit woozy but he was so stressed, first act on awakening was to attack the door. By now he had made his feelings clear that it was better he was sent home with less strength analgesia treatment instead of keeping him in overnight for stronger as we would normally do.
Yet 2 more dangerous dogs in that were grabbed on behalf of the police with instructions to slide water under the door lob food over the top and don’t go near them. One bit the collection driver the other tried.
Actually it was 3 dangerous dogs but number 3 was a boisterous staffie cross with no manners. We had him out having a game and a hunt the treat time and he was fine with us, what he needed was discipline. The most dangerous thing about him was his snapping for treats so we dropped them on the floor.
Had a cat in whose renal parameters were all over the place but the worst was the way the calcium was heading to ground zero on subsequent checks. Given how his bloods stacked the vet was certain it was antifreeze tox. It is so depressing to see a lovely cat folding in and dying his bloods going worse and worse and nothing we could do would help. The vet rang the owner about 2am and had a chat.
A dog we had in had decided on a walk that those yummy orange toadstools growing out that nice smelly pile of cow dung were put there as a meal just for him. Being as he was a Labrador by the time the owner got to him and got him off the “meal” there was not much left.
He had a bad night of hallucinating (we think) as his eyes were like saucers and he was falling all over the place. With the aid of lots of iv fluids and some other treatment at the end of 24hrs he was able to go home with just checks for a couple of weeks.
We were all relieved to see him go because he was farting with a vengeance. To quote the vet “something horrible crawled up the dog’s arse and died” Critical care was so aromatic even with my bad cold l could smell it.
Another Labrador had been pulled off different toadstools [not orange ones] to late and he was very bad. His pcv (thickness of red blood cells) was 76. It should normally be max 55. He was so dehydrated that he did not have blood but syrup in his veins.
He needed fluid flung down his iv in vast quantities. He was shaking and collapsed, he had stinking blood leaking out of his rectum and saliva running like a bath out of his mouth. In fact saliva flowed out of the kennel like a tide onto the floor.
His owners were rung in the middle of the night and warned that it was unlikely he would see the morning and to be prepared for the worst.
Never say never though, at about 4am he was more alert, moved to a comfier position on his own and slowed down salivation. I went to do his stats and he raised his read and checked me out. By change over at 7am his rectal blood had stopped leaking.
He whizzed through 3 litres of fluid in 10hours on my shift, not counting what he had before l got in and more during the day, when l got in l the next night was over the moon to find out he had gone home. Again checks over the next couple of weeks but looking good.
Mind you l recon it was the noisy cat in the kennel above him must have helped keep him awake. He was claustrophobic. He had been in an RTA his back leg was past salvation. They had put a support dressing called a Robert Jones on and he had been going mad the dressing had slipped and it needed changing. The vet decided that if he was in so much pain the leg would come off in the night but in the mean time the 2nd dressing slipped.
He held the cat while l cut it [dressing] off, after first unscrewing the leg a couple of times so it faced the correct way.
We put him back in the kennel to see if he would settle down often animals just can not handle the dressing.
No it was obvious the leg was not bothering him but he loathed the kennel. He would pin himself to the door shaking it and yowling in anger leg whirring in the air. When not pinned to the door he did not even look at his leg but gazed angrily out. Stats were impossible, as soon as l tried to slide open the door l was being attacked by angry cat.
We got too busy for the leg so the vet gave him a very deep sedative and he took several hours to wake up to the agitated state he had been in.
His leg was removed the next day and he was sent home, a bit woozy but he was so stressed, first act on awakening was to attack the door. By now he had made his feelings clear that it was better he was sent home with less strength analgesia treatment instead of keeping him in overnight for stronger as we would normally do.
Yet 2 more dangerous dogs in that were grabbed on behalf of the police with instructions to slide water under the door lob food over the top and don’t go near them. One bit the collection driver the other tried.
Actually it was 3 dangerous dogs but number 3 was a boisterous staffie cross with no manners. We had him out having a game and a hunt the treat time and he was fine with us, what he needed was discipline. The most dangerous thing about him was his snapping for treats so we dropped them on the floor.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Nights With a Difference
Well it has been a 4night shift of cases that we normally see in singles coming in in pairs or triples unconnected to each other.
2 cats in needing back legs amputated due to damage from cars, both damage to the right hind and both long haired dark tortoiseshell cats.
1 dog in that needed it’s front leg amputated. Running around in the woods it had somehow ripped the whole lower section of it’s front leg off. Apparently only 1 bit of skin held it on. When l got in the leg was all padded up prior to the op the next day once he was nice and stable. I am told that even the vets and nurses looked ill when they saw the damage, the dog was dark brindle. A doggie version of dark tortoiseshell in cats
3 dogs in attacked by other dogs and a lot of damage done to all of them. One of the dog attack dogs was a stray. Severe bite wounds to her front legs and shoulders. When she was under GA for clip and clean they pulled some scabs off and a fountain of pus erupted.
She was very flat for 2 nights, then at about 5am the third night had an “ok no more malingering” moment and started to eat and try to stand. It took till the end of the 4th night before she could walk without falling over.
Her tail never stopped wagging although we muzzled her to inject her as she was so sore and some of the injections sting, even then all she did was cry.
I had a word with the collection driver and he is going to arrange for her to go to a friend of his with an animal rescue to be rehomed. She is a very sweet dog and l am crossing fingers for her.
2 bitches in unable to urinate and blocked solid with bladder stones. Both needed operations, very unusual for bitches to get blocked.
2 animals brought in by police, made a change normally we have to send the collection van.
1 cat that 3 police brought in the back of their van after 2 cars had hit it [cat]. This cat needs to choose a lottery ticket. Apart from bruising it was unhurt.
The second was a dog whose owner had been arrested for being stupidly drunk and abusive. It was a very sweet dog the copper wanted to adopt it and was upset that it was owned.
2 dogs with ear damage that needed head dressings on. One was one of the dog attack dogs with neck and ear wounds. Usually we only get the odd head dressing animal through.
2 jaw cases one a stray dog. His mouth wouldn’t shut, thinking it was a broken jaw he was given a GA. Nope his teeth were so rotted he couldn’t shut his mouth. All teeth removed and about 8hours post op he tucked into a bowl of sloppy food. If anyone wants to rehome a grey grizzle lurcher about 6 or 7 years old let me know, he is great with other animals. This one will also go to rescue.
The other jaw case a young cat with facial damage including a fractured lower jaw according to the owners they have no carpet and the cat was having a mad half hour, couldn’t stop, slid and smacked into the wall.
1 hard talk with police control and badgered an inspector at "Someplace Police" into giving us a fwin for collection of a dangerous dog, and rspca giving a log to have it put down. The Inspector was reluctant as it was a put down at owners request and not police request but the owner couldn't get the dog to us.
I found out afterwards that the law has changed about a month ago and neither police, rspca or us knew. The collections driver did and told me when he brought the dog in and said we couldn't put it down and why.
Now if a dog bites someone and the police are informed it is not allowed to be put straight down, even at the owners request, the police have to prosecute. And they can not prosecute an owner if the dog is dead. So it goes to special holding kennels until post court case, then it is put down. A wonderful waste of police time and money and added stress for the dog.
So l could have trumped the inspectors reluctance without horse trading damm. At least l know for next time because the will be one, Inspectors are tight with their fwins.
This does not take into account the usual post op recovery cases, heart and kidney failure cases, isolation dogs with diahorea and vomiting, RTA pets, general medical cases, and bunny with gut stasis.
The bunny we had in was evil and although not eating normal food was partial to human fingers which made syringe feeding and giving bolus fluids fun.
Ahh well l have just agreed to another load of nights. I wish l could say l liked days as much as nights but for all my moaning about nights and the lack of sleep it is my favourite because you never know what will come through the door next.
2 cats in needing back legs amputated due to damage from cars, both damage to the right hind and both long haired dark tortoiseshell cats.
1 dog in that needed it’s front leg amputated. Running around in the woods it had somehow ripped the whole lower section of it’s front leg off. Apparently only 1 bit of skin held it on. When l got in the leg was all padded up prior to the op the next day once he was nice and stable. I am told that even the vets and nurses looked ill when they saw the damage, the dog was dark brindle. A doggie version of dark tortoiseshell in cats
3 dogs in attacked by other dogs and a lot of damage done to all of them. One of the dog attack dogs was a stray. Severe bite wounds to her front legs and shoulders. When she was under GA for clip and clean they pulled some scabs off and a fountain of pus erupted.
She was very flat for 2 nights, then at about 5am the third night had an “ok no more malingering” moment and started to eat and try to stand. It took till the end of the 4th night before she could walk without falling over.
Her tail never stopped wagging although we muzzled her to inject her as she was so sore and some of the injections sting, even then all she did was cry.
I had a word with the collection driver and he is going to arrange for her to go to a friend of his with an animal rescue to be rehomed. She is a very sweet dog and l am crossing fingers for her.
2 bitches in unable to urinate and blocked solid with bladder stones. Both needed operations, very unusual for bitches to get blocked.
2 animals brought in by police, made a change normally we have to send the collection van.
1 cat that 3 police brought in the back of their van after 2 cars had hit it [cat]. This cat needs to choose a lottery ticket. Apart from bruising it was unhurt.
The second was a dog whose owner had been arrested for being stupidly drunk and abusive. It was a very sweet dog the copper wanted to adopt it and was upset that it was owned.
2 dogs with ear damage that needed head dressings on. One was one of the dog attack dogs with neck and ear wounds. Usually we only get the odd head dressing animal through.
2 jaw cases one a stray dog. His mouth wouldn’t shut, thinking it was a broken jaw he was given a GA. Nope his teeth were so rotted he couldn’t shut his mouth. All teeth removed and about 8hours post op he tucked into a bowl of sloppy food. If anyone wants to rehome a grey grizzle lurcher about 6 or 7 years old let me know, he is great with other animals. This one will also go to rescue.
The other jaw case a young cat with facial damage including a fractured lower jaw according to the owners they have no carpet and the cat was having a mad half hour, couldn’t stop, slid and smacked into the wall.
1 hard talk with police control and badgered an inspector at "Someplace Police" into giving us a fwin for collection of a dangerous dog, and rspca giving a log to have it put down. The Inspector was reluctant as it was a put down at owners request and not police request but the owner couldn't get the dog to us.
I found out afterwards that the law has changed about a month ago and neither police, rspca or us knew. The collections driver did and told me when he brought the dog in and said we couldn't put it down and why.
Now if a dog bites someone and the police are informed it is not allowed to be put straight down, even at the owners request, the police have to prosecute. And they can not prosecute an owner if the dog is dead. So it goes to special holding kennels until post court case, then it is put down. A wonderful waste of police time and money and added stress for the dog.
So l could have trumped the inspectors reluctance without horse trading damm. At least l know for next time because the will be one, Inspectors are tight with their fwins.
This does not take into account the usual post op recovery cases, heart and kidney failure cases, isolation dogs with diahorea and vomiting, RTA pets, general medical cases, and bunny with gut stasis.
The bunny we had in was evil and although not eating normal food was partial to human fingers which made syringe feeding and giving bolus fluids fun.
Ahh well l have just agreed to another load of nights. I wish l could say l liked days as much as nights but for all my moaning about nights and the lack of sleep it is my favourite because you never know what will come through the door next.
Monday, 22 June 2009
Attacks on Veterinary Staff
Having a peruse of a veterinary nursing site l go on l was shocked to read about a student veterinary nurse, getting assaulted at work. I do not know what practice or where in the UK it is only that it is apparently a small branch surgery. That narrows it down to a few thousand places then.
A client who has mental health issues flung her into a door as a result she is on pain medication, very sore and scared and her state of mind is so demoralised she will be heading for depression and has no work support at all.
It is one thing to get assaulted at work, quite another when your boss not only doesn’t stick up for you but starts to make noises that they feel she may need to leave if she doesn’t feel safe working at that particular branch she obviously “isn’t up to the job”, she has a day or so to decide if she will “behave” and “feel safe”.
Her co-worker is furious that she is pressing charges as the woman is mentally disturbed and should be cut some slack, obviously the woman should be allowed to bash people around.
Apparently the client has a history of verbal abuse and “behaving strangely” but no one had put any warnings on her record and they sent the new student VN (been there a few days) out to deal with her and did not warn her verbally about possible danger despite the other staff knowing the client.
The customer has been back in to threaten the student VN and the student’s co-worker sent the student out the back and spoke to the woman. She assured the woman all charges would be dropped. I understand the student when informed afterwards said no way.
The student is scared, emotionally wrecked and physically painful but determined to make a go of it. Training places are like hens teeth they have her over a barrel, if she leaves it will probably be a long time before she can get into another training practice in her area. Added to that in this age of job losses she can not guarantee getting any job anywhere.
On the thread of sympathy to the student and anger and outrage towards whoever her practice manager/owner is that to the student’s knowledge nothing had gone into the accident book or been reported to RIDDOR. As you can guess both of those were high priorities for her to help cover her back. It turns out that until she asked for it to go into the accident book thanks to many site members advising her there was no accident book.
There are not many physical assaults on veterinary staff but there is a lot of verbal abuse towards us. Us being veterinary nurses, receptionists, students etc. Not so much verbal abuse to vets.
The attitude from the management in the post above regarding staff security is not untypical in the veterinary world though where all too often staff are seen as expendable and not worth protecting.
A client who has mental health issues flung her into a door as a result she is on pain medication, very sore and scared and her state of mind is so demoralised she will be heading for depression and has no work support at all.
It is one thing to get assaulted at work, quite another when your boss not only doesn’t stick up for you but starts to make noises that they feel she may need to leave if she doesn’t feel safe working at that particular branch she obviously “isn’t up to the job”, she has a day or so to decide if she will “behave” and “feel safe”.
Her co-worker is furious that she is pressing charges as the woman is mentally disturbed and should be cut some slack, obviously the woman should be allowed to bash people around.
Apparently the client has a history of verbal abuse and “behaving strangely” but no one had put any warnings on her record and they sent the new student VN (been there a few days) out to deal with her and did not warn her verbally about possible danger despite the other staff knowing the client.
The customer has been back in to threaten the student VN and the student’s co-worker sent the student out the back and spoke to the woman. She assured the woman all charges would be dropped. I understand the student when informed afterwards said no way.
The student is scared, emotionally wrecked and physically painful but determined to make a go of it. Training places are like hens teeth they have her over a barrel, if she leaves it will probably be a long time before she can get into another training practice in her area. Added to that in this age of job losses she can not guarantee getting any job anywhere.
On the thread of sympathy to the student and anger and outrage towards whoever her practice manager/owner is that to the student’s knowledge nothing had gone into the accident book or been reported to RIDDOR. As you can guess both of those were high priorities for her to help cover her back. It turns out that until she asked for it to go into the accident book thanks to many site members advising her there was no accident book.
There are not many physical assaults on veterinary staff but there is a lot of verbal abuse towards us. Us being veterinary nurses, receptionists, students etc. Not so much verbal abuse to vets.
The attitude from the management in the post above regarding staff security is not untypical in the veterinary world though where all too often staff are seen as expendable and not worth protecting.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Furry Exocet
Furry Exocet's AKA Police Dogs. You are big strong and when you walk into a room it doesn't matter if your partner is the worlds greatest sex god/goddess you are the one every stops doing whatever they are doing and looks at.
You work with smaller cousins who are like little fire crackers going off called springer spaniels, generally sweet tempered but can be slightly ditzy. You are the heavy duty dignified brigade.
So when you go into the vet's to have a vaccination what happens to your dignity courage, that tough dog exterior. All the vet did was lift a big fold of skin on your neck so he could give you a little injection. You have hammered it more jumping in and out of vans, over walls and being pushed and pulled about by life. The vet advanced his hand holding a syringe with a small very sharp needle on and you went to pieces. He got to about 6" of your neck and you started to scream in terror. Your partner tried to hold you but you preceded to do the "doggie break dance"
Scream in terror and fling yourself down onto your back on the assumption that what is really about to happen is someone is going to hammer a 9" hole in your back with a blunt pickaxe. Push yourself across the floor as best you can lying on your side/back... screaming, realise that your handlers arm is now not holding you and he is rubbing it. You stop leap up and kiss everyone you also kiss the evil vet(who is actually very sweet).
Round 2 firmer grip from your partner and evil vet moves in nervously. Start to scream again and leap upwards launching in a spectacular leap that smacks into the vetnurse and mashes her into the wall, quick lick in apology in passing, or was that just a tongue lolling out mid scream. Hauled back by handler and start to shake and try to run in a circle.... screaming. All stops while everyone gathers their breath. Everyone gets sloppy kissy licks and you bark happily to tell all the dogs that you have survived.
Round 3 start to get the hang of tying it all together now. Scream so no one can hear anything, fling on you back and push in a circle with hind legs attempting to trip up whoever is daft enough to have their feet there, leap up and outwards in one movement but get hauled backwards. Spin to face evil vet and walk backwards. Continue screaming no snarling as that would not be nice. Evil vet with syringe and tiny but sharp needle is becoming very unnerved. Ignore comments from bystanders and hysterical laughter and rude comments from vetnurse at wussy behaviour - vetnurse is not the one being threatened by a needle!. Break free from partners grip and try to run away but get grabbed. All break as human and furry exocet are becoming fragile.
While all having a rethink on tactics all round vetnurse suggests a muzzle as evil vet is now not happy to come to close even though you never threatened him once. Muzzle placed and white flag is raised. You lie there eyes almost closed and very tense groaning and shaking. It takes 2 goes of your partner asking "Well are you getting up or what?" to realise that you missed the injection going in and it was all over and the muzzle was being removed.
Then a quick sloppy lick to all in reach including the evil vet who is now back to being a good buddy vet. Then back to barking happily to continue the conversation with the dog with the broken leg who is giving you the story of what happened to him, and you think a vaccination is tough.
You work with smaller cousins who are like little fire crackers going off called springer spaniels, generally sweet tempered but can be slightly ditzy. You are the heavy duty dignified brigade.
So when you go into the vet's to have a vaccination what happens to your dignity courage, that tough dog exterior. All the vet did was lift a big fold of skin on your neck so he could give you a little injection. You have hammered it more jumping in and out of vans, over walls and being pushed and pulled about by life. The vet advanced his hand holding a syringe with a small very sharp needle on and you went to pieces. He got to about 6" of your neck and you started to scream in terror. Your partner tried to hold you but you preceded to do the "doggie break dance"
Scream in terror and fling yourself down onto your back on the assumption that what is really about to happen is someone is going to hammer a 9" hole in your back with a blunt pickaxe. Push yourself across the floor as best you can lying on your side/back... screaming, realise that your handlers arm is now not holding you and he is rubbing it. You stop leap up and kiss everyone you also kiss the evil vet(who is actually very sweet).
Round 2 firmer grip from your partner and evil vet moves in nervously. Start to scream again and leap upwards launching in a spectacular leap that smacks into the vetnurse and mashes her into the wall, quick lick in apology in passing, or was that just a tongue lolling out mid scream. Hauled back by handler and start to shake and try to run in a circle.... screaming. All stops while everyone gathers their breath. Everyone gets sloppy kissy licks and you bark happily to tell all the dogs that you have survived.
Round 3 start to get the hang of tying it all together now. Scream so no one can hear anything, fling on you back and push in a circle with hind legs attempting to trip up whoever is daft enough to have their feet there, leap up and outwards in one movement but get hauled backwards. Spin to face evil vet and walk backwards. Continue screaming no snarling as that would not be nice. Evil vet with syringe and tiny but sharp needle is becoming very unnerved. Ignore comments from bystanders and hysterical laughter and rude comments from vetnurse at wussy behaviour - vetnurse is not the one being threatened by a needle!. Break free from partners grip and try to run away but get grabbed. All break as human and furry exocet are becoming fragile.
While all having a rethink on tactics all round vetnurse suggests a muzzle as evil vet is now not happy to come to close even though you never threatened him once. Muzzle placed and white flag is raised. You lie there eyes almost closed and very tense groaning and shaking. It takes 2 goes of your partner asking "Well are you getting up or what?" to realise that you missed the injection going in and it was all over and the muzzle was being removed.
Then a quick sloppy lick to all in reach including the evil vet who is now back to being a good buddy vet. Then back to barking happily to continue the conversation with the dog with the broken leg who is giving you the story of what happened to him, and you think a vaccination is tough.
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Gas Bottle Danger
My dislike of health and safety is probably extreme, but l feel that they have made the world more dangerous to live in, they have taken away especailly younger people ability to think for themselves and have made people think that there is a reason for every “accident” and someone is to blame and it could have been stopped.
Finally when you have a genuine reason to need them or the laws they control they run a bloody mile.
A few years ago at about 23:00 we heard a loud hissing sound and looked all round still nothing. It seemed to be coming from outside. We went out and l realised that it was from the other side of the road behind us. One of the residents parked his work lorry there every night and he had about 3 size E (weight 108kg of which 47kg is propane) propane bottles tied upright on the back as well as a selection of other gasses including several size F oxygen bottles (1360litres/17kg) and other smaller cutting and welding gasses. At least one of the propane bottles was wide open and hissing out. By the look of things some scroat had decided to be clever and have some fun.
I sent the aux in to ring the fire brigade asap and tell them and we debated what to do next. This was a very scary situation all it needed was someone coming past smoking and we would be history, about 20 foot away from the propane was our O2 and nitrous cage which held a further 15 large (f) bottles of oxygen and about 2 big of nitrous. Not much would have been left of the area.
Did we go and try to turn it off, hammer on doors till we found the driver or what. Luckily he heard and came out and turned it off. By this point it had been open about 10 to 15 minutes, about 2 mins before the fire brigade turned up. They had a chat and then drove off.
The next night the lorry was back as usual and l “blew my stack”. I did some research and rang a friend of mine at fire training. He confirmed that the lorry shouldn’t be parked there and needed to be in a secure area. He said he could get the fire brigade round to get him to move it but as l said “Sorry but you have no teeth you can only ask nicely” he did agree and suggested the police.
So l rang the police who said they could do nothing. Despite the fact it was on a public road.
I carefully read what l could find (google) of gas storage rules and the heath and safety site for the UK and rang up the main Manchester branch they said they would look into it.
They rang me back and said that they could do nothing without photos and a written statement, so l took photos of the parking, wrote a statement and sent it in.
Phone call back could they show it to the company that owned the vehicle sure if it means they shift it. I said that if they did not shift it they should make a lockable cage top for the cylinders so no one could turn them on as had been done.
At this point l used to go into the yahoo chat rooms a lot and by chance got talking to a long distance lorry driver that did a lot of dangerous goods haulage. He was furious when he heard and agreed that it contravened a lot of laws and regulations and gave me the names and dates of them
Health and safety called back a few days later. As far as everyone was concerned it was me with the problem, all was safe and to stop hounding some little business, the driver needed it for work. I pointed out that it contravened UK and EU own laws and rules that they had on their site including a whole lot of laws and regulations l had found out elsewhere.” Ermm what laws”. I told them, As you guessed … they would phone back..
They phoned back and said, no it doesn’t break any regulations or laws, I made the point it very much did and when the whole area went up then as far as l was concerned they would be done for murder as l made sure that everyone knew and l would go to the papers next so residents knew just how dangerous the situation was. I then informed the cretin on the phone that “He and his health and safely team were the biggest bunch of bureaucratic arseholes since bureaucratic arseholes were invented”
“I take it you do not like us then?” was the reply.
I just put the phone down there was nothing more to be said.
I spoke to my friend the lorry driver again. He said he had a phone number that he shouldn’t give me but under the circumstances l needed to because the situation was so dangerous. The phone number was a pvt line for a judge who had been involved in some of the major enquires for new roads. I rang the judge and they were very pleasant, considering some total stranger had rung them, fuming about what was happening and the lack of help.
They asked for statement, photos, who l had spoken to and all that had gone on. That from the sounds of things it needed looking into. To leave it with them, once they got all my info they would “look into it”.
Within the week the lorry was parked about 15 yards away on a bit of private dirt road, but only about 5 yards off the main road.
About a week later I got a phone call from the judge to see if things had improved. I explained what had happened that l was not happy as from what l could see they tried to use the excuse they were not on a public road so the law did not apply.
You do not piss off a judge, especially not one with a lot of pull. That lorry was never seen on the dirt or public road from that night on, it was parked it in a locked yard at the end of the dirt road.
The judge did not ring back they did not need to.
Finally when you have a genuine reason to need them or the laws they control they run a bloody mile.
A few years ago at about 23:00 we heard a loud hissing sound and looked all round still nothing. It seemed to be coming from outside. We went out and l realised that it was from the other side of the road behind us. One of the residents parked his work lorry there every night and he had about 3 size E (weight 108kg of which 47kg is propane) propane bottles tied upright on the back as well as a selection of other gasses including several size F oxygen bottles (1360litres/17kg) and other smaller cutting and welding gasses. At least one of the propane bottles was wide open and hissing out. By the look of things some scroat had decided to be clever and have some fun.
I sent the aux in to ring the fire brigade asap and tell them and we debated what to do next. This was a very scary situation all it needed was someone coming past smoking and we would be history, about 20 foot away from the propane was our O2 and nitrous cage which held a further 15 large (f) bottles of oxygen and about 2 big of nitrous. Not much would have been left of the area.
Did we go and try to turn it off, hammer on doors till we found the driver or what. Luckily he heard and came out and turned it off. By this point it had been open about 10 to 15 minutes, about 2 mins before the fire brigade turned up. They had a chat and then drove off.
The next night the lorry was back as usual and l “blew my stack”. I did some research and rang a friend of mine at fire training. He confirmed that the lorry shouldn’t be parked there and needed to be in a secure area. He said he could get the fire brigade round to get him to move it but as l said “Sorry but you have no teeth you can only ask nicely” he did agree and suggested the police.
So l rang the police who said they could do nothing. Despite the fact it was on a public road.
I carefully read what l could find (google) of gas storage rules and the heath and safety site for the UK and rang up the main Manchester branch they said they would look into it.
They rang me back and said that they could do nothing without photos and a written statement, so l took photos of the parking, wrote a statement and sent it in.
Phone call back could they show it to the company that owned the vehicle sure if it means they shift it. I said that if they did not shift it they should make a lockable cage top for the cylinders so no one could turn them on as had been done.
At this point l used to go into the yahoo chat rooms a lot and by chance got talking to a long distance lorry driver that did a lot of dangerous goods haulage. He was furious when he heard and agreed that it contravened a lot of laws and regulations and gave me the names and dates of them
Health and safety called back a few days later. As far as everyone was concerned it was me with the problem, all was safe and to stop hounding some little business, the driver needed it for work. I pointed out that it contravened UK and EU own laws and rules that they had on their site including a whole lot of laws and regulations l had found out elsewhere.” Ermm what laws”. I told them, As you guessed … they would phone back..
They phoned back and said, no it doesn’t break any regulations or laws, I made the point it very much did and when the whole area went up then as far as l was concerned they would be done for murder as l made sure that everyone knew and l would go to the papers next so residents knew just how dangerous the situation was. I then informed the cretin on the phone that “He and his health and safely team were the biggest bunch of bureaucratic arseholes since bureaucratic arseholes were invented”
“I take it you do not like us then?” was the reply.
I just put the phone down there was nothing more to be said.
I spoke to my friend the lorry driver again. He said he had a phone number that he shouldn’t give me but under the circumstances l needed to because the situation was so dangerous. The phone number was a pvt line for a judge who had been involved in some of the major enquires for new roads. I rang the judge and they were very pleasant, considering some total stranger had rung them, fuming about what was happening and the lack of help.
They asked for statement, photos, who l had spoken to and all that had gone on. That from the sounds of things it needed looking into. To leave it with them, once they got all my info they would “look into it”.
Within the week the lorry was parked about 15 yards away on a bit of private dirt road, but only about 5 yards off the main road.
About a week later I got a phone call from the judge to see if things had improved. I explained what had happened that l was not happy as from what l could see they tried to use the excuse they were not on a public road so the law did not apply.
You do not piss off a judge, especially not one with a lot of pull. That lorry was never seen on the dirt or public road from that night on, it was parked it in a locked yard at the end of the dirt road.
The judge did not ring back they did not need to.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Police Dog Antics
We had a police dog in with gastro enteritis. She was so sweet but that hid a neurotic interior. She stood for her drip just kept trying to give sloppy kiss licks to the nearest person but at least she did not try to eat us, she just wriggled a lot.
Then into her kennel which we figured as a walk in would be nice and big for her. After about 20 min. l went in to do some bits and pieces. She had pulled her drip out by walking in circles and it was twisted up on the floor. Stop work, rude comments used and a redrip. Continue other stats get to her and the bag has a huge hole in the kennel is soaking.
Very nasty language used, new bag on and drip stand placed outside the door and the line fed through gap.
20mins later and her drip stand is lying on the floor drip line pulled out. Calling all the gods to flame her and getting big doggie grin and sloppy kisses does not improve things. She could at least look contrite.
All back and working walk off and pretend to go out to see how she took out the drip stand. Under the door comes 2 paws and she bashes around at the wheels. I got the stand just as it went. I swear l heard her mutter “dammit caught” I glared at her muttering very dark thoughts, if she could just stop being so sweet that would help.
Bitter spray on bag and tied back onto her kennel door, inside and her eager grab rebuffed when she aimed for it left her spitting a horrid taste out of her mouth, l got on with work. Having decided she had taken up enough time. 30min. later the same aux that was with the BF situation marches out.
“Didn’t you hear me shouting for help?” she snapped
“Help, No what happened?”
“That stupid, neurotic bloody tit tried to climb into the other kennel l grabbed and pulled it back in but she was bloody heavy and flattened me, then tries to lick me all over the face!”
I didn’t need to ask who she meant. Quick council of war and we put the police dog into a normal large hospital kennel, put the former occupant in the walk in.
Screams and hysteria hit the dog room. There was no way she was being locked in a “tiny kennel” the whole kennel rattled as she hit the doors with paws and teeth and flung her body at the doors. Ignoring her for 5mins while she settled was not going to work. The worst behaved prisoner could have learnt lessons, or maybe she had from them… FFS back to a walk in.
Come 2am and l am doing the stats of the dog next door, a head appears over the top of the wall. Could almost hear the comment “ello there what’s up with him?” I bellowed in frustration and the head and body disappeared backwards with an apologetic scramble and crash as she toppled backwards and knocked the door.
Another council of war and we tie her to the table in prep so she is with us more, not locked in a kennel. Oh no that’s not good enough she does the table walk. Around and around and opps look l pulled my drip line out.
Yet another drip placed and the auxiliary sat, for about 2 hours, on the floor in prep area on a nice thick duvet. Almost hidden under a huge police dog snuggled up on her lap and snoring happily and mug of coffee to hand until she went home.
By then the patient had decided that she would behave. Well apart from the fact that as the aux. walked off the drip was chewed out. We called quits at that stage I left the drip out and she lay down and just moved her eyes around to watch whatever room l went into to make sure l came out again. Thankfully she went home that day.
Then into her kennel which we figured as a walk in would be nice and big for her. After about 20 min. l went in to do some bits and pieces. She had pulled her drip out by walking in circles and it was twisted up on the floor. Stop work, rude comments used and a redrip. Continue other stats get to her and the bag has a huge hole in the kennel is soaking.
Very nasty language used, new bag on and drip stand placed outside the door and the line fed through gap.
20mins later and her drip stand is lying on the floor drip line pulled out. Calling all the gods to flame her and getting big doggie grin and sloppy kisses does not improve things. She could at least look contrite.
All back and working walk off and pretend to go out to see how she took out the drip stand. Under the door comes 2 paws and she bashes around at the wheels. I got the stand just as it went. I swear l heard her mutter “dammit caught” I glared at her muttering very dark thoughts, if she could just stop being so sweet that would help.
Bitter spray on bag and tied back onto her kennel door, inside and her eager grab rebuffed when she aimed for it left her spitting a horrid taste out of her mouth, l got on with work. Having decided she had taken up enough time. 30min. later the same aux that was with the BF situation marches out.
“Didn’t you hear me shouting for help?” she snapped
“Help, No what happened?”
“That stupid, neurotic bloody tit tried to climb into the other kennel l grabbed and pulled it back in but she was bloody heavy and flattened me, then tries to lick me all over the face!”
I didn’t need to ask who she meant. Quick council of war and we put the police dog into a normal large hospital kennel, put the former occupant in the walk in.
Screams and hysteria hit the dog room. There was no way she was being locked in a “tiny kennel” the whole kennel rattled as she hit the doors with paws and teeth and flung her body at the doors. Ignoring her for 5mins while she settled was not going to work. The worst behaved prisoner could have learnt lessons, or maybe she had from them… FFS back to a walk in.
Come 2am and l am doing the stats of the dog next door, a head appears over the top of the wall. Could almost hear the comment “ello there what’s up with him?” I bellowed in frustration and the head and body disappeared backwards with an apologetic scramble and crash as she toppled backwards and knocked the door.
Another council of war and we tie her to the table in prep so she is with us more, not locked in a kennel. Oh no that’s not good enough she does the table walk. Around and around and opps look l pulled my drip line out.
Yet another drip placed and the auxiliary sat, for about 2 hours, on the floor in prep area on a nice thick duvet. Almost hidden under a huge police dog snuggled up on her lap and snoring happily and mug of coffee to hand until she went home.
By then the patient had decided that she would behave. Well apart from the fact that as the aux. walked off the drip was chewed out. We called quits at that stage I left the drip out and she lay down and just moved her eyes around to watch whatever room l went into to make sure l came out again. Thankfully she went home that day.
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Roe Deer RTA
I am on a set of nights. Actually so far it has been pleasantly easy, unlike my last several sets of nights. However that can change with the weather.
Friday morning brought a new police call out a deer (size unknown) had been hit by a car, could we attend. I rang the driver. He arrived back about 6:30 with a roe deer in the travel cage in his estate car and parked inside the building. This was lucky as normally the van would park outside.
I helped him start to lift it out when it woke up fully. Although roe deer are not large when you factor in the fact it was scared silly and fight or flight was in full flow and it had a double branched antler so was fully adult and not a baby it was a handful.
While the driver was trying to stop it hurtling off and hitting a wall or us l tried to wrap the towel tight around it’s eyes while holding hard down on the antlers which were long and had a double spike, to try and stop them slashing upwards into the driver who was bent over, trying to control it and myself trying to keep a hold of the towel so l could wrap it. After a short hard struggle it gave up and stood still the towel nicely blocking sight.
“Iso” l said and he agreed. Isolation was in the same area as the car so easier than anywhere else. We dragged and pushed it to iso and had just got in when it went off again.
I had the horns but we also had a slippery floor that was wet to contend with. We all started to slide downwards. I jammed my foot into the drain hole as l did not want the deer to stick a leg into it. And that seemed to slow us down. I saw the drivers head snap back and thought l heard a hollow “pock” noise so l pushed harder down on the antlers. Again after a few minutes we got control shoved the deer into the walk in and l looked at the driver.
He was holding his nose and wiping blood off it. An antler had slammed into the bridge of his nose, another mm and it would have been in his eye. Thankfully he just had a nasty bruise on the way. It was also lucky the car was parked inside Had we been outside and the deer got away from us it would have been a danger to traffic as well as being confused and lost. Having said that trying to catch it in the building would not have been fun, assuming it had not slammed into a wall and killed itself.
The deer had a sore head from meeting the car but there was no obvious damage. Well apart from the cut on the drivers face and scrapes on the deer’s head and it was released later in the day where he was found.
A relaxed Roe Deer, defiantly not our one.
Friday morning brought a new police call out a deer (size unknown) had been hit by a car, could we attend. I rang the driver. He arrived back about 6:30 with a roe deer in the travel cage in his estate car and parked inside the building. This was lucky as normally the van would park outside.
I helped him start to lift it out when it woke up fully. Although roe deer are not large when you factor in the fact it was scared silly and fight or flight was in full flow and it had a double branched antler so was fully adult and not a baby it was a handful.
While the driver was trying to stop it hurtling off and hitting a wall or us l tried to wrap the towel tight around it’s eyes while holding hard down on the antlers which were long and had a double spike, to try and stop them slashing upwards into the driver who was bent over, trying to control it and myself trying to keep a hold of the towel so l could wrap it. After a short hard struggle it gave up and stood still the towel nicely blocking sight.
“Iso” l said and he agreed. Isolation was in the same area as the car so easier than anywhere else. We dragged and pushed it to iso and had just got in when it went off again.
I had the horns but we also had a slippery floor that was wet to contend with. We all started to slide downwards. I jammed my foot into the drain hole as l did not want the deer to stick a leg into it. And that seemed to slow us down. I saw the drivers head snap back and thought l heard a hollow “pock” noise so l pushed harder down on the antlers. Again after a few minutes we got control shoved the deer into the walk in and l looked at the driver.
He was holding his nose and wiping blood off it. An antler had slammed into the bridge of his nose, another mm and it would have been in his eye. Thankfully he just had a nasty bruise on the way. It was also lucky the car was parked inside Had we been outside and the deer got away from us it would have been a danger to traffic as well as being confused and lost. Having said that trying to catch it in the building would not have been fun, assuming it had not slammed into a wall and killed itself.
The deer had a sore head from meeting the car but there was no obvious damage. Well apart from the cut on the drivers face and scrapes on the deer’s head and it was released later in the day where he was found.
A relaxed Roe Deer, defiantly not our one.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Pigs Might Fly
The title for this post comes from when l had just completed my veterinary nurse training. One of the police dog handlers who was a sweetie and often visited us once arrived with his sergeant. JB the dog handler was trying to convince me that my boss whom l shall call Agent Orange (he was so toxic) actually appreciated what we staff did. I snorted and told JB that “Pigs might fly” a comment l often use without thinking.
JB boomed with laughter, his sergeant gave me a weird look but said nothing, l am so used to weird looks l ignored it. It took me almost a week for my comment to ding home in my brain. I had an embarrassed chuckle over it but figured oh well foot is always in mouth so nothing new there.
I thought that the comment would fit this post, whether it does or not l don’t know, but what the heck l like it.
I decided as a plain old MOP, Member of Public as opposed to being a thing to clean the floor, to give my take on the modern police force. Speaking to police l meet at work l understood a bit and I have learned a lot more reading police blogs [l have linked some of them here where l felt they fitted] about police powers and how generally pissed off they are.
What they can not do it seems to do, is to protect anyone or their property and that includes the police themselves. The "system" conspires against them. The "system" being, politicians, bleeding hearts = various groups of concerned people, think tanks, and the media.
I do not buy papers but do listen to the media (tv or radio) in the background while l do other things. The media story is funnily enough at odds with those police who have a chance, albeit under pseudo names to tell the stories from their side of life.
I may well totally misunderstand the situation but this is my take on the average street level slowly going insane and drowning under paperwork and many badly thought out rules and procedures copper, and the "system" that they operate under. I have added comments on how l feel it affects my family and l.
Not all police are good, just as not all people in anything are good. The majority are and just want to do the best they can under a deteriorating "system" with people, who are often not fit to run a crèche, being in charge of them [police].
Starting with the protests as they have been in the news so often lately…..
These major G20 type protests are known trouble areas. If people go to them then they shouldn’t be surprised that they get hurt.
Police should be allowed to use water cannons to clear problems and protect property that is being destroyed. Just because someone has a small shop that is no reason to smash it up, and/or steal from it. Someone worked hard to set it up, they may employ others and they keep people employed down the line making items, window cleaning and just supporting it. The person owning the shop is probably less well off than half the protesters on their dole and other handouts.
I am not sure on rubber bullets but it may well be worth considering (nope maybe not l can hear the mutters of not happy police having to use them)
Quite frankly, if my business was damaged or destroyed l would like anything used against the people that destroyed it. That would be an emotional rather than a realistic view though, so l guess not really valid.
Tear gas l do not like the idea of because people who live in the area and are staying locked indoors and also animals will be affected and they are innocent of any trouble making.
The fact that police are also under attack is immaterial, well not to the police, l mean to the system. The average “Joe Copper” seem to be expected to protect themselves, others and property by saying “l am the police, please do not be nasty to me, other people or the property you are destroying because that makes you a naughty person”
For some reason doesn’t seem to work, not sure why l mean calling people naughty should work, shouldn’t it?
I do not know what Ian T did do or didn’t do that day but then neither do the media, let investigations get done.
Unfortunately l doubt the police will come out well, no matter what they do it will have been wrong. It seems that the abuse, bottles and missiles thrown from the crowd are all forgotten. This is understandable we all know it is the police’s fault.
As to the other episode with the woman that was slapped. I finally saw the clip on the news last night. Quite frankly she was out of order and a total idiot. She went looking for trouble from the start. She was right up behind the copper screaming in his ear. If l was him l would feel threatened no wonder he pushed back as he turned. With the general behaviour there he probably did not know if he would get knifed or bottled in the back. And instead of getting the hint the stupid cow keeps going in on the attack. And now she is whinging that she was brutally attacked. Nope “love” you got less than you actually deserved. Go try and do that in a different country and see what happens.
I am not stupid enough to go to a major demonstration. I know that there will be trouble makers in there. The woman above is a case in point. If there is any doubt just watch the build up to these protests. After all the build up and you still want to go, then do not start screaming police brutality, especially when the police are trying to protect themselves or others property.
Many demo's do pass peacefully but are never or very rarely reported and police behaviour is never commented on, good news is not news.
I have been on one demo/protest. It was only small, a few hundred people outside the Zimbabwe embassy a few years ago. Think we had a couple of police there and another one passed by stopping to chat to his mates and us. There was dancing, singing and chanting. Strangely enough we were not corralled, hit with batons or anything untoward.
Gosh l feel cheated, l may have to send in a complaint to the IPCC and find someone in the media to represent me in my claim for unfair treatment.
Moving on from protests into general life, people have been killed or injured in high speed chases with the police and the police are blamed WTF for?
The blame should go to the scroats who have done whatever for the police to chase them. If an innocent person gets caught up in the debacle l feel terribly sorry for them but put the blame on the scroats that caused it. You never hear any blame on those who broke the law and caused the chase, it is only the police for not doing the right thing and no matter how much they do it still isn’t right.
Yes, the accident has to be investigated, ways may (again they may not) be found to avoid it happening again, however it was an accident. Banning police chases is plain stupid, all that does is allow scroats to rule the streets and has lead to unresponse cars as opposed to response cars.
When the great unwashed public, that is the likes of the average just want a quiet life and try and live within the law person need the police they do not turn up ASAP or can not for several days. The way they are sent on various jobs this doesn’t come as a particular surprise given the control rooms wiz round.
My hub and l have been a victim of control rooms, and it was not just us that were upset and angry. The police that turned up were furious with control and as they pointed out that they relied on the idiots if they were in danger. This is not to say that all control room are idiots, they probably have a ton of restrictions as well but boy that night we had the world’s collection of idiots in one room. That’s a different story for another time.
People who have a crime sheet as long as their arm are let out of jail early on “good behaviour” as soon as they are out they start on bad behaviour again. There is lots of excuses for this but at least while inside there is one less trouble maker on the street.
I do not have a problem with those inside taking lessons to improve reading or writing or trying to better themselves, but given this opportunity how many do. And if they do how many keep it up when released, not many, so is it worth them doing anything inside well apart from them learning how to be better criminals. Better, means how to get off when they are caught….l should say ‘if’ they are caught. They may not be in a target group so it is best to ignore them. Perish the thought that some upper echelons and politicians should have a muddied target sheet.
Mind you, it seems that there is more who never actually get to jail than do. They are let off on a variety of technicalities that is called the revolving door syndrome
No matter how vicious or drugged up they are, in fact, it seems the more they are drugged and vicious the less likely they will go to prison. Poor things never had a chance being poor and from a no hoper background, cut them some slack.
If l remember rightly Abraham Lincoln was dirt poor farm stock and taught himself to read and write.
It helps knowing how to play the system l guess and the worse the scroats and scum are the better they know the system and the less likely to be locked away even for a couple of months.
The above situation cost JB his job and the force a f**king good officer and dog handler the only plus side is at least he is still alive but it was close. The thing is he was a police officer, spent a long time in hospital and rehab, ended up having to retire on health grounds and the scum were let off. What chance do the rest of us have?
Paperwork is needed for good policing. Now it has become the “god of policing”. Notice l took the o out of good?
I was in a practice when an officer came to discuss a theft and have a statement signed. He had written that he entered by the left, front double doors that were inward opening on the west side of the building 5 paces from the car and proceeded 10 paces to the reception desk and on and on in that manner. I had to ask him if it was for real and he confirmed yes it was. My jaw hitting the ground made an audible “thunk” and l had a big bruise on it. Maybe l should complain for the bruise? I may get something for it after all it was police brutality.
Or as another example, the pony This was a stray pony for goodness sake, not a dead body.
Quite frankly as an MOP l am tired of scroats and "the system" ruining my and my family's perception of feeling secure. I do not need more rules and snooping from government. What l need is police that know the area, that know what’s going on and who is doing what because they walk or use a bicycle around it.
That when l call for help it will be there, fast and know that the police are not to worried to help someone because those in charge will have them on some trumped up disciplinary.
Stuff your initiative’s back in your little brains those that dream them up. Let proper police run the police, not people who are fast tracked because they are good at either boot licking or paperwork. Allow people that KNOW what the hell they are doing. Now there is a novel idea, l do not suppose it will ever take off though. Think of all those wasted initiatives if it did, those would be the first thing dumped.
I agree that there has to be standards in all walks of life. The police are in a position that the ordinary public are not and as such have strict standards and rules. They do not mind having rules and standards, sensible ones allow them to operate and know their bounds.
The problem is that rules are being put in place over other rules, common sense seems to have been flung out of the window with sensible rules. This protects the scroats, heaven forbid that they should be proved doing anything wrong, there goes the targets again.
Innocent people are often caught up in problems and are easy targets. I have learnt that it is not the police who are to blame, well not all the time, but very often the prosecution service who like easy targets. The generally "try to be honest citizen" does not know how to twist and abuse the law so it is easier to get them locked up or fined anything really to look good on the target sheets.
For those who think this is a police state you are wrong. A police state is a place like Zimbabwe. And when the police end up in the same true situations as 2 friends of mine one who writes the above blog and was a white serving policeman in Zimbabwe the other was a white farmer whose land was grabbed his workers abused and/or killed and driven off to starve while the land was also destroyed, that is a true police state being made. (On the above 2 links click on review)
The good police are relocating to other countries police forces, get other jobs or retire. At the rate the police force is being destroyed by bad leadership there will be no one left to teach the newbie’s the job as they come through the system or do the real work of policing and protecting people and property.
It is said that “the law is an ass”. Well an ass is a hard working animal that can survive in extreme conditions and is often poorly treated which shortens its life span. The problem is not that the law is an ass, it is that it is being controlled by the incompetent "system" in place today.
JB boomed with laughter, his sergeant gave me a weird look but said nothing, l am so used to weird looks l ignored it. It took me almost a week for my comment to ding home in my brain. I had an embarrassed chuckle over it but figured oh well foot is always in mouth so nothing new there.
I thought that the comment would fit this post, whether it does or not l don’t know, but what the heck l like it.
I decided as a plain old MOP, Member of Public as opposed to being a thing to clean the floor, to give my take on the modern police force. Speaking to police l meet at work l understood a bit and I have learned a lot more reading police blogs [l have linked some of them here where l felt they fitted] about police powers and how generally pissed off they are.
What they can not do it seems to do, is to protect anyone or their property and that includes the police themselves. The "system" conspires against them. The "system" being, politicians, bleeding hearts = various groups of concerned people, think tanks, and the media.
I do not buy papers but do listen to the media (tv or radio) in the background while l do other things. The media story is funnily enough at odds with those police who have a chance, albeit under pseudo names to tell the stories from their side of life.
I may well totally misunderstand the situation but this is my take on the average street level slowly going insane and drowning under paperwork and many badly thought out rules and procedures copper, and the "system" that they operate under. I have added comments on how l feel it affects my family and l.
Not all police are good, just as not all people in anything are good. The majority are and just want to do the best they can under a deteriorating "system" with people, who are often not fit to run a crèche, being in charge of them [police].
Starting with the protests as they have been in the news so often lately…..
These major G20 type protests are known trouble areas. If people go to them then they shouldn’t be surprised that they get hurt.
Police should be allowed to use water cannons to clear problems and protect property that is being destroyed. Just because someone has a small shop that is no reason to smash it up, and/or steal from it. Someone worked hard to set it up, they may employ others and they keep people employed down the line making items, window cleaning and just supporting it. The person owning the shop is probably less well off than half the protesters on their dole and other handouts.
I am not sure on rubber bullets but it may well be worth considering (nope maybe not l can hear the mutters of not happy police having to use them)
Quite frankly, if my business was damaged or destroyed l would like anything used against the people that destroyed it. That would be an emotional rather than a realistic view though, so l guess not really valid.
Tear gas l do not like the idea of because people who live in the area and are staying locked indoors and also animals will be affected and they are innocent of any trouble making.
The fact that police are also under attack is immaterial, well not to the police, l mean to the system. The average “Joe Copper” seem to be expected to protect themselves, others and property by saying “l am the police, please do not be nasty to me, other people or the property you are destroying because that makes you a naughty person”
For some reason doesn’t seem to work, not sure why l mean calling people naughty should work, shouldn’t it?
I do not know what Ian T did do or didn’t do that day but then neither do the media, let investigations get done.
Unfortunately l doubt the police will come out well, no matter what they do it will have been wrong. It seems that the abuse, bottles and missiles thrown from the crowd are all forgotten. This is understandable we all know it is the police’s fault.
As to the other episode with the woman that was slapped. I finally saw the clip on the news last night. Quite frankly she was out of order and a total idiot. She went looking for trouble from the start. She was right up behind the copper screaming in his ear. If l was him l would feel threatened no wonder he pushed back as he turned. With the general behaviour there he probably did not know if he would get knifed or bottled in the back. And instead of getting the hint the stupid cow keeps going in on the attack. And now she is whinging that she was brutally attacked. Nope “love” you got less than you actually deserved. Go try and do that in a different country and see what happens.
I am not stupid enough to go to a major demonstration. I know that there will be trouble makers in there. The woman above is a case in point. If there is any doubt just watch the build up to these protests. After all the build up and you still want to go, then do not start screaming police brutality, especially when the police are trying to protect themselves or others property.
Many demo's do pass peacefully but are never or very rarely reported and police behaviour is never commented on, good news is not news.
I have been on one demo/protest. It was only small, a few hundred people outside the Zimbabwe embassy a few years ago. Think we had a couple of police there and another one passed by stopping to chat to his mates and us. There was dancing, singing and chanting. Strangely enough we were not corralled, hit with batons or anything untoward.
Gosh l feel cheated, l may have to send in a complaint to the IPCC and find someone in the media to represent me in my claim for unfair treatment.
Moving on from protests into general life, people have been killed or injured in high speed chases with the police and the police are blamed WTF for?
The blame should go to the scroats who have done whatever for the police to chase them. If an innocent person gets caught up in the debacle l feel terribly sorry for them but put the blame on the scroats that caused it. You never hear any blame on those who broke the law and caused the chase, it is only the police for not doing the right thing and no matter how much they do it still isn’t right.
Yes, the accident has to be investigated, ways may (again they may not) be found to avoid it happening again, however it was an accident. Banning police chases is plain stupid, all that does is allow scroats to rule the streets and has lead to unresponse cars as opposed to response cars.
When the great unwashed public, that is the likes of the average just want a quiet life and try and live within the law person need the police they do not turn up ASAP or can not for several days. The way they are sent on various jobs this doesn’t come as a particular surprise given the control rooms wiz round.
My hub and l have been a victim of control rooms, and it was not just us that were upset and angry. The police that turned up were furious with control and as they pointed out that they relied on the idiots if they were in danger. This is not to say that all control room are idiots, they probably have a ton of restrictions as well but boy that night we had the world’s collection of idiots in one room. That’s a different story for another time.
People who have a crime sheet as long as their arm are let out of jail early on “good behaviour” as soon as they are out they start on bad behaviour again. There is lots of excuses for this but at least while inside there is one less trouble maker on the street.
I do not have a problem with those inside taking lessons to improve reading or writing or trying to better themselves, but given this opportunity how many do. And if they do how many keep it up when released, not many, so is it worth them doing anything inside well apart from them learning how to be better criminals. Better, means how to get off when they are caught….l should say ‘if’ they are caught. They may not be in a target group so it is best to ignore them. Perish the thought that some upper echelons and politicians should have a muddied target sheet.
Mind you, it seems that there is more who never actually get to jail than do. They are let off on a variety of technicalities that is called the revolving door syndrome
No matter how vicious or drugged up they are, in fact, it seems the more they are drugged and vicious the less likely they will go to prison. Poor things never had a chance being poor and from a no hoper background, cut them some slack.
If l remember rightly Abraham Lincoln was dirt poor farm stock and taught himself to read and write.
It helps knowing how to play the system l guess and the worse the scroats and scum are the better they know the system and the less likely to be locked away even for a couple of months.
The above situation cost JB his job and the force a f**king good officer and dog handler the only plus side is at least he is still alive but it was close. The thing is he was a police officer, spent a long time in hospital and rehab, ended up having to retire on health grounds and the scum were let off. What chance do the rest of us have?
Paperwork is needed for good policing. Now it has become the “god of policing”. Notice l took the o out of good?
I was in a practice when an officer came to discuss a theft and have a statement signed. He had written that he entered by the left, front double doors that were inward opening on the west side of the building 5 paces from the car and proceeded 10 paces to the reception desk and on and on in that manner. I had to ask him if it was for real and he confirmed yes it was. My jaw hitting the ground made an audible “thunk” and l had a big bruise on it. Maybe l should complain for the bruise? I may get something for it after all it was police brutality.
Or as another example, the pony This was a stray pony for goodness sake, not a dead body.
Quite frankly as an MOP l am tired of scroats and "the system" ruining my and my family's perception of feeling secure. I do not need more rules and snooping from government. What l need is police that know the area, that know what’s going on and who is doing what because they walk or use a bicycle around it.
That when l call for help it will be there, fast and know that the police are not to worried to help someone because those in charge will have them on some trumped up disciplinary.
Stuff your initiative’s back in your little brains those that dream them up. Let proper police run the police, not people who are fast tracked because they are good at either boot licking or paperwork. Allow people that KNOW what the hell they are doing. Now there is a novel idea, l do not suppose it will ever take off though. Think of all those wasted initiatives if it did, those would be the first thing dumped.
I agree that there has to be standards in all walks of life. The police are in a position that the ordinary public are not and as such have strict standards and rules. They do not mind having rules and standards, sensible ones allow them to operate and know their bounds.
The problem is that rules are being put in place over other rules, common sense seems to have been flung out of the window with sensible rules. This protects the scroats, heaven forbid that they should be proved doing anything wrong, there goes the targets again.
Innocent people are often caught up in problems and are easy targets. I have learnt that it is not the police who are to blame, well not all the time, but very often the prosecution service who like easy targets. The generally "try to be honest citizen" does not know how to twist and abuse the law so it is easier to get them locked up or fined anything really to look good on the target sheets.
For those who think this is a police state you are wrong. A police state is a place like Zimbabwe. And when the police end up in the same true situations as 2 friends of mine one who writes the above blog and was a white serving policeman in Zimbabwe the other was a white farmer whose land was grabbed his workers abused and/or killed and driven off to starve while the land was also destroyed, that is a true police state being made. (On the above 2 links click on review)
The good police are relocating to other countries police forces, get other jobs or retire. At the rate the police force is being destroyed by bad leadership there will be no one left to teach the newbie’s the job as they come through the system or do the real work of policing and protecting people and property.
It is said that “the law is an ass”. Well an ass is a hard working animal that can survive in extreme conditions and is often poorly treated which shortens its life span. The problem is not that the law is an ass, it is that it is being controlled by the incompetent "system" in place today.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Car 54, Where are You?
I have been on nights so not really with it much the last 6 nights. First night on we had another police incident. I was trying to decide what to call this blog. Either after the American sitcom 'Car 54 Where are You' or 'Very Special, Special Branch'
When l told the vet who had been involved with the previous incident about the following when she finished laughing said.
" There is Special Branch and a Very Special Branch, we seem to get the Very Special Ones."
We had a dog in that had to have a mouth swabbing. At least the sergeant l spoke to this time was very helpful and said he would get someone and swabs to us as soon as possible. No behaving like a prick like the last one l dealt with.
The police we get are pleasant but what are they taught? The 2 that came were not the probationer material we had last time, these looked to have been in a bit longer.
About 5am 2 officers turn up with 2 huge packets of swabs. I only needed 2swabs out of about 50 in 2 bulging packets of sealed swabs.
They were clueless about what was needed. Did they leave the swabs then go, did they write them up, where did they take them. I insisted they stay while l swabbed which took all of 2 minutes. As to where they went to I suggested they ring their sergeant for info
After swabbing they looked at the swabs like they were aliens so l passed 2 empty evidence bags and said seal them in there and write the details on, my name area swabbed FWIN etc. still blank looks, and nothing written on the bags, oh well not my problem, l had told them and offered the details.
The male officer grabbed a packet of suture material and asked what it was. I told him, he looked blank. “To stitch things up” l tried again, still vacant looks. His partner, female stared at him with an ‘oh no here we go again look’
Shrugging the male put the suture material in the bag with the unused swabs. What did you do that for l asked?
“ermmm” he looked at me blankly.
I grabbed the packet from him and took out the suture material and said “That’s our biosyn to stitch up animals.. unless there are some scroats mouth you want to use it on?”
His partner raised her eyes to heaven as it was obvious from the blank look the male officer did not understand what l was saying only the fact he was not walking off with our packet of biosyn.
He was a cat person and asked to chat to some cats. I introduced him to one of the medical cases on his way out, my mistake they stood purring away at each other, well the cat purred he stood muttering ohh who’s a lovely lad then and other such comments.
His partner mindful of time said to hurry up the nurse is busy, was it that obvious l thought.
“Coming” was the reply.
After about 3 goes she grabbed his arm and dragged him out.
Outside the practice on the front steps he stopped, and said “ohh we don’t have your details”.
“Nope l did try and give them to you” l replied.
So he gets down on his knees and plonks everything onto the floor and scrabbles round his pockets for his notebook while trying to gather up the spare swabs and evidence bags that have come out of the plastic bag and spreading across the floor out of control.
With a sigh his partner takes hers out and writes my name down, he manages to gather everything up, stands up and they disappear, literally it turns out.
At about 8:45 just about to sink into my bed l get a phone call from work.
“Did you have the police here earlier to swab that dog?”
“Yes, what’s up?”
“Well police control have been on do you know who they were because they have disappeared, well not exactly disappeared but they do not know who came down and there was just a garbled message about things from some one in the police, they do not know who the message is from and no one knows who or where anyone is”
“No l didn’t bother with names l was busy and tired, ring the sergeant dealing with the FWIN”
“Which station were they from?”
“I don’t know l said” getting a tad miffed, “for gods sake get the police to put a call out for a nice but vague male officer that likes cats and a pleasant, but exasperated female officer who is organised”
So if anyone recognises the pair and they are still lost, please do not ring me, l am to tired to care.
When l told the vet who had been involved with the previous incident about the following when she finished laughing said.
" There is Special Branch and a Very Special Branch, we seem to get the Very Special Ones."
We had a dog in that had to have a mouth swabbing. At least the sergeant l spoke to this time was very helpful and said he would get someone and swabs to us as soon as possible. No behaving like a prick like the last one l dealt with.
The police we get are pleasant but what are they taught? The 2 that came were not the probationer material we had last time, these looked to have been in a bit longer.
About 5am 2 officers turn up with 2 huge packets of swabs. I only needed 2swabs out of about 50 in 2 bulging packets of sealed swabs.
They were clueless about what was needed. Did they leave the swabs then go, did they write them up, where did they take them. I insisted they stay while l swabbed which took all of 2 minutes. As to where they went to I suggested they ring their sergeant for info
After swabbing they looked at the swabs like they were aliens so l passed 2 empty evidence bags and said seal them in there and write the details on, my name area swabbed FWIN etc. still blank looks, and nothing written on the bags, oh well not my problem, l had told them and offered the details.
The male officer grabbed a packet of suture material and asked what it was. I told him, he looked blank. “To stitch things up” l tried again, still vacant looks. His partner, female stared at him with an ‘oh no here we go again look’
Shrugging the male put the suture material in the bag with the unused swabs. What did you do that for l asked?
“ermmm” he looked at me blankly.
I grabbed the packet from him and took out the suture material and said “That’s our biosyn to stitch up animals.. unless there are some scroats mouth you want to use it on?”
His partner raised her eyes to heaven as it was obvious from the blank look the male officer did not understand what l was saying only the fact he was not walking off with our packet of biosyn.
He was a cat person and asked to chat to some cats. I introduced him to one of the medical cases on his way out, my mistake they stood purring away at each other, well the cat purred he stood muttering ohh who’s a lovely lad then and other such comments.
His partner mindful of time said to hurry up the nurse is busy, was it that obvious l thought.
“Coming” was the reply.
After about 3 goes she grabbed his arm and dragged him out.
Outside the practice on the front steps he stopped, and said “ohh we don’t have your details”.
“Nope l did try and give them to you” l replied.
So he gets down on his knees and plonks everything onto the floor and scrabbles round his pockets for his notebook while trying to gather up the spare swabs and evidence bags that have come out of the plastic bag and spreading across the floor out of control.
With a sigh his partner takes hers out and writes my name down, he manages to gather everything up, stands up and they disappear, literally it turns out.
At about 8:45 just about to sink into my bed l get a phone call from work.
“Did you have the police here earlier to swab that dog?”
“Yes, what’s up?”
“Well police control have been on do you know who they were because they have disappeared, well not exactly disappeared but they do not know who came down and there was just a garbled message about things from some one in the police, they do not know who the message is from and no one knows who or where anyone is”
“No l didn’t bother with names l was busy and tired, ring the sergeant dealing with the FWIN”
“Which station were they from?”
“I don’t know l said” getting a tad miffed, “for gods sake get the police to put a call out for a nice but vague male officer that likes cats and a pleasant, but exasperated female officer who is organised”
So if anyone recognises the pair and they are still lost, please do not ring me, l am to tired to care.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Dog DNA
Had yet another dog brought in last night for attacking kids. Not the dogs fault he was only young. Apparently he had been "trained" with various methods that scum train fighting dogs with.
The police Sargent sent a message they wanted us to test it for DNA, fine but no instructions on what to use to store or keep it in. This is a new one usually we just keep any dog faeces and bag it for the forensics.
The vet rang the police control said they would get the sgt who was dealing with the case to ring up sometime. So as she is a new vet to our place and very quiet and believing she said ok and put the phone down.
I was not happy with this. They would ring up when we were up to our necks, and at some time means if lucky at all and most importantly how long would the dog have to go without food and water just so it was convenient for the police.
So l rang police control and asked for anyone in a forensics capacity who could give us advice. They said no one was available but that the sgt would ring back. Nope not good enough l want it sorted now, not at some vague point. We can not leave the dog without food and water for hours, just because it is not convenient for some Sargent to ring us back They promised he would ring back within 10minutes would that do. I glared at the phone and agreed.
Sure enough l got a call back. Yes he confirmed they wanted DNA.
"Ok l said how do we collect it and what do we store it in"
Silence.. "l don't know that's your job we just need it" He was being sulky and obtuse over it.
Now he had me annoyed and that is not good. "You want it you need to tell us how etc. If you do not know who is there in forensics to help? we can not leave the animal for hours with no food and water"
Sarcastic laughter "It is a Saturday night what do you mean forensics, they don't work weekends"
"Well what happens if someone is shot"
"They come out, that is a major crime"
"Well tell them someone has been shot"
Shocked silence "What...."
Me now very pissed off at what is asked and no advice given and a sarcastic Sgt being unhelpful. "Ok give me the phone number and l will deal with your forensics and get the info, no need for you to ask them and get you in trouble for waking them up. I can get the info and am happy to wake them. I am not leaving the dog for hours without food and water, because it is not convenient to you lot."
More silence as possible he sees a problem he may have just started asking for DNA, namely the realisation that if need be the vetnurse will make the night hell for the police and go higher up the food chain and piss off any senior officers who are skulking about. Or l may say sod you and wreck the DNA he is being so prissy about by giving the dog food and water and it will be his fault for being unhelpful.
"Ok ok l will have someone there within an hour with the kit. I assume the dog will be alright that long without food and water" He added the last part somewhat sarcasticly.
I refrained form making any comments which l was wanting to do "One hour yes that's fine the dog will survive, l gave him details of where we were and left him to spit his dummy into the corner and sort things"
Around time 2 WPC turned up. One knew all about the practice one did not and was puzzled about what we were. She seemed to have trouble grasping that we were a vet practice. The important thing was they had 2 BIG new packs of swabs for DNA.
We sedated the dog. He was a very mixed temperament. One second sweet the next nasty. No way were we sticking our hands near his mouth with him awake. One jab of dom/torb (sedative) and he slept peacefully. I popped the dog, onto the table.
I asked how many swabs to use and they didn't know but guessed about 2 or 3. They were adamant they were just couriers. I said nope looking at the 2 packs and feeling evil If they sent about 60 swabs they must want the lot. I grabbed about 10 out of one of their hands to start with, and said hang onto the others l will be back.
I held the mouth open and the vet swabbed. One of the WPC got a bit nervous about how many swabs l grabbed and rang the sgt.
He said he only wanted about four, two each from two different areas. Tough l handed the 4th mouth swab to the vet who was not really listening.
Being as l feel kind, and the two WPC were looking a bit intimidated at me holding the wadge of swabs in my hand and not knowing what to say. I grinned at them and as soon as the vet finished the mouth with the fourth swab, l pulled the tail up handed her another swab.
The WPC went a bit pale. I think they are new to the job and still a bit squeamish. If they were not new they would have been a tad more forthright over things not so shy.
Afterwards one of them was filling out a statement and had to ask where we swabbed. I said "mouth" but she wanted to know areas. So l told her the areas within the mouth that had been swabbed, she looked at me and muttered "mouth will do". I grinned at her.
My suggestion that she also write. "Shoved 5th swab up dogs arse" was vetoed by nurses, vet, and all others in the prep area watching. Some people are much to serious about life.
As to the dog that will be going off to holding kennels and up to the courts to decide on his fate.
The police Sargent sent a message they wanted us to test it for DNA, fine but no instructions on what to use to store or keep it in. This is a new one usually we just keep any dog faeces and bag it for the forensics.
The vet rang the police control said they would get the sgt who was dealing with the case to ring up sometime. So as she is a new vet to our place and very quiet and believing she said ok and put the phone down.
I was not happy with this. They would ring up when we were up to our necks, and at some time means if lucky at all and most importantly how long would the dog have to go without food and water just so it was convenient for the police.
So l rang police control and asked for anyone in a forensics capacity who could give us advice. They said no one was available but that the sgt would ring back. Nope not good enough l want it sorted now, not at some vague point. We can not leave the dog without food and water for hours, just because it is not convenient for some Sargent to ring us back They promised he would ring back within 10minutes would that do. I glared at the phone and agreed.
Sure enough l got a call back. Yes he confirmed they wanted DNA.
"Ok l said how do we collect it and what do we store it in"
Silence.. "l don't know that's your job we just need it" He was being sulky and obtuse over it.
Now he had me annoyed and that is not good. "You want it you need to tell us how etc. If you do not know who is there in forensics to help? we can not leave the animal for hours with no food and water"
Sarcastic laughter "It is a Saturday night what do you mean forensics, they don't work weekends"
"Well what happens if someone is shot"
"They come out, that is a major crime"
"Well tell them someone has been shot"
Shocked silence "What...."
Me now very pissed off at what is asked and no advice given and a sarcastic Sgt being unhelpful. "Ok give me the phone number and l will deal with your forensics and get the info, no need for you to ask them and get you in trouble for waking them up. I can get the info and am happy to wake them. I am not leaving the dog for hours without food and water, because it is not convenient to you lot."
More silence as possible he sees a problem he may have just started asking for DNA, namely the realisation that if need be the vetnurse will make the night hell for the police and go higher up the food chain and piss off any senior officers who are skulking about. Or l may say sod you and wreck the DNA he is being so prissy about by giving the dog food and water and it will be his fault for being unhelpful.
"Ok ok l will have someone there within an hour with the kit. I assume the dog will be alright that long without food and water" He added the last part somewhat sarcasticly.
I refrained form making any comments which l was wanting to do "One hour yes that's fine the dog will survive, l gave him details of where we were and left him to spit his dummy into the corner and sort things"
Around time 2 WPC turned up. One knew all about the practice one did not and was puzzled about what we were. She seemed to have trouble grasping that we were a vet practice. The important thing was they had 2 BIG new packs of swabs for DNA.
We sedated the dog. He was a very mixed temperament. One second sweet the next nasty. No way were we sticking our hands near his mouth with him awake. One jab of dom/torb (sedative) and he slept peacefully. I popped the dog, onto the table.
I asked how many swabs to use and they didn't know but guessed about 2 or 3. They were adamant they were just couriers. I said nope looking at the 2 packs and feeling evil If they sent about 60 swabs they must want the lot. I grabbed about 10 out of one of their hands to start with, and said hang onto the others l will be back.
I held the mouth open and the vet swabbed. One of the WPC got a bit nervous about how many swabs l grabbed and rang the sgt.
He said he only wanted about four, two each from two different areas. Tough l handed the 4th mouth swab to the vet who was not really listening.
Being as l feel kind, and the two WPC were looking a bit intimidated at me holding the wadge of swabs in my hand and not knowing what to say. I grinned at them and as soon as the vet finished the mouth with the fourth swab, l pulled the tail up handed her another swab.
The WPC went a bit pale. I think they are new to the job and still a bit squeamish. If they were not new they would have been a tad more forthright over things not so shy.
Afterwards one of them was filling out a statement and had to ask where we swabbed. I said "mouth" but she wanted to know areas. So l told her the areas within the mouth that had been swabbed, she looked at me and muttered "mouth will do". I grinned at her.
My suggestion that she also write. "Shoved 5th swab up dogs arse" was vetoed by nurses, vet, and all others in the prep area watching. Some people are much to serious about life.
As to the dog that will be going off to holding kennels and up to the courts to decide on his fate.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Book Recommendations
I love books and have read 2 very good ones. Zimbabwe is in the news a lot nowadays. Cholera, anthrax and rabies, starvation, brutality, rape and aids are all finally coming to the worlds view. The rose coloured glasses that people have worn have been ripped from their eyes, probably to late to save the country but maybe one day.
This is the story of 2 people that lived under the early days of the regime. One person is still there, the other now lives in the UK.
“Without Honour” is written by Robb Ellis. He served in the Zimbabwean Police. He and his wife live in the UK and are good friends of ours.
Robb was disabled in UK in an accident in early 2000 He is looking for work but even though it is only his arm that was damaged. It was a major not just "an only" problem but it was not his brain. People have a problem with the word disabled and hearing that everything dissolves into blanking out all he has done and can do.
The other “Jambabja” is by someone l have spoken to online and would love to meet one day Eric Harrison. He was a farmer and still lives in Zimbabwe I call him an absent friend.
Eric uses a pseudo name and has changed the name of his farm for a very simple reason. If he used the real details he would be traceable, and dead, as would his family. The cio (zimbabwe secret service) is feared for a very good reason, to them, the truth like Eric’s story needs suppressing.
There is widespread famine in Zimbabwe. As Rhodesia it was the bread basket of Africa now it is the dead basket of Africa. This is the story of the destruction of once fertile land, farms and lives, black and white.
Is written by Robb Ellis, it details Robb’s experiences in the Zimbabwe Republic Police in Matabeleland South in the early to mid 1980's.
Robb was a serving police officer in Zimbabwe during which time Robert Mugabe unleashed his Korean-trained Fifth Brigade on the Matabele people - twenty to thirty thousand people lost their lives in that time. Neither Mugabe nor his armed forces have been brought to book for the massacre.
The police force had always been Robbs ambition. mugabe tried at one point to use him as a propaganda tool, thankfully for Robb it did not work.
Without Honour is excellent. It has a lot of emotion anger and humanity. What surprised me was his naivety. In fact even with things falling down around him there was still some there, possibly the disbelief that it could happen as it was, so that meant there had to be another reason, not the obvious one.
I felt anger and sorrow with the occasional laugh. For me what came across was that it was a release of demons within Robb as he tells his story. This is part of the book and does not overwhelm it, more ripple along like a sub tune within the overall story. Not mentioned but felt.
I recommend it, you can immerse yourself in the book, it will cause raw emotion and is a very humbling read.
Hard Books can be ordered from Lulu or Amazon
If you prefer you can order the PDF file and read it on your computer or print it out Robbs Blog (scroll down on the right to his advert)
The other book is:
Eric was a white farmer who was kicked off his land. His workers were booted off as were all most all of the workers from white owned farms. Many were also butchered. If you have any farming connections or a love of the land Eric's story will break your heart.
This humorous and devastatingly poignant novel is a fact based story of a white African's agonizing battle to save his home, farm and family from brutal and intimidating terror attacks. A Major Work, exploring the collective character of a rebellious Nation torn apart by racism and rationalization and offering an exciting insight into relationships between good governance and State sponsored thuggery and terrorism.
The reader is taken into the story with such gut-wrenching reality, that putting down the book, is like fighting your way out of a vivid dream.
15% of all takings from this book goes to support SOAP an organisation that tries to get food and essentials to pensioners who are suffering in Zimbabwe.
Jambanja can be ordered from Lulu
Or direct from Robb (scroll down on the right to his advert)
This is the story of 2 people that lived under the early days of the regime. One person is still there, the other now lives in the UK.
“Without Honour” is written by Robb Ellis. He served in the Zimbabwean Police. He and his wife live in the UK and are good friends of ours.
Robb was disabled in UK in an accident in early 2000 He is looking for work but even though it is only his arm that was damaged. It was a major not just "an only" problem but it was not his brain. People have a problem with the word disabled and hearing that everything dissolves into blanking out all he has done and can do.
The other “Jambabja” is by someone l have spoken to online and would love to meet one day Eric Harrison. He was a farmer and still lives in Zimbabwe I call him an absent friend.
Eric uses a pseudo name and has changed the name of his farm for a very simple reason. If he used the real details he would be traceable, and dead, as would his family. The cio (zimbabwe secret service) is feared for a very good reason, to them, the truth like Eric’s story needs suppressing.
There is widespread famine in Zimbabwe. As Rhodesia it was the bread basket of Africa now it is the dead basket of Africa. This is the story of the destruction of once fertile land, farms and lives, black and white.
Is written by Robb Ellis, it details Robb’s experiences in the Zimbabwe Republic Police in Matabeleland South in the early to mid 1980's.
Robb was a serving police officer in Zimbabwe during which time Robert Mugabe unleashed his Korean-trained Fifth Brigade on the Matabele people - twenty to thirty thousand people lost their lives in that time. Neither Mugabe nor his armed forces have been brought to book for the massacre.
The police force had always been Robbs ambition. mugabe tried at one point to use him as a propaganda tool, thankfully for Robb it did not work.
Without Honour is excellent. It has a lot of emotion anger and humanity. What surprised me was his naivety. In fact even with things falling down around him there was still some there, possibly the disbelief that it could happen as it was, so that meant there had to be another reason, not the obvious one.
I felt anger and sorrow with the occasional laugh. For me what came across was that it was a release of demons within Robb as he tells his story. This is part of the book and does not overwhelm it, more ripple along like a sub tune within the overall story. Not mentioned but felt.
I recommend it, you can immerse yourself in the book, it will cause raw emotion and is a very humbling read.
Hard Books can be ordered from Lulu or Amazon
If you prefer you can order the PDF file and read it on your computer or print it out Robbs Blog (scroll down on the right to his advert)
The other book is:
Eric was a white farmer who was kicked off his land. His workers were booted off as were all most all of the workers from white owned farms. Many were also butchered. If you have any farming connections or a love of the land Eric's story will break your heart.
This humorous and devastatingly poignant novel is a fact based story of a white African's agonizing battle to save his home, farm and family from brutal and intimidating terror attacks. A Major Work, exploring the collective character of a rebellious Nation torn apart by racism and rationalization and offering an exciting insight into relationships between good governance and State sponsored thuggery and terrorism.
The reader is taken into the story with such gut-wrenching reality, that putting down the book, is like fighting your way out of a vivid dream.
15% of all takings from this book goes to support SOAP an organisation that tries to get food and essentials to pensioners who are suffering in Zimbabwe.
Jambanja can be ordered from Lulu
Or direct from Robb (scroll down on the right to his advert)
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Quid Pro Quo (Part 2)
At this point the auxiliary pointedly looked at the dog and poked my ribs. I had been about to sort it and did not need telling twice. Muttering "Excuse me that patient is in trouble" and went over. I picked up the dog and carried him out to the vet asking the 2 white women [owners] that the black couple had brought from somewhere via car, to wait a few minutes please. The obnoxious client started to rant at me, l ignored her.
The vet came over to examine the patient and went to call the owners in. I went back to the front. As l was walking back the taxi turned up.
I went out and told him what was happening and asked him to wait as the police would be here and probably escort her to the taxi.
“Err huh”? He said
l slowly repeated it.
“So l do what?”
My snarling reply made a rabid Rottweiler in attack mode look sweet. The driver sunk into his seat muttering
“I wait here huh” and locked his door.
I stomped back in. Busy tired and fed up. As l walked into reception the black guy was still leaning against reception.
“You know” he said with a grin starting to bubble up. “You are not racist”
I had enough for one night and was about to let rip. Being male he saw danger signs, being smart he backed off fast, held up both hands and laughed “No no he said please let me explain”.
I decided to give him about 10 seconds, if he talked fast. I was not in the mood for laughing, and l had enough BS to last a year.
You know when you carried the dog through. The crazy woman started to scream you were a racist do you know why?”
“No, l don’t l just blocked her voice out” I told him.
“Because she has a white cat and that was a black dog you took through. She is not right in the head l do not know if it drink or drugs, possibly a mix of both”
His wife piped up “And you were right about her stories, she has changed it so many times my head is spinning, l think it just has hair matts and is not comfortable.”
I knew what she meant about spinning heads. My brain was also doing the salsa trying to join all the dots up of black, white, dogs cats and everything inbetween.
“Let me try something” he said. Walking to the client who had fallen silent and was staring vacantly ahead he said “You know you look awful and you agree your cat is not ill just uncomfortable. What about taking him home and then in the morning going to the vet, it is better than going with the Police tonight, l will even hold the door open”
By now the woman seemed to be have hit her wall. She looked round with a glazed look. “Yes, yes no, l don’t know what l want anymore you all confuse me l will ok go ok” and staggered to the taxi.
“Many thanks, l have to say l have had enough for the night” l said to him.
He smiled “So l noticed and think nothing of it. I know what you mean about Zimbabwe I understand. I am also fed up about people ranting on about racism. Racism is ugly but so are many things in life. Unfortunately it is an easy target for people to carry on about. They do not understand what real racism is though and all they do is cause problems and muddy the waters.”
I rang the police to cancel the call out. As l was about to put the phone down the controller said “wait wait l just realised your ……… vet’s aren’t you, we have a vet type problem”.
I did consider saying “No you wrote the name down wrong, we are ……” l knew l was not going to like whatever occurred to the control. Now l know how Houston felt when they heard ‘Houston, we have a problem’.
“Yes, go on, hit me with it, it’s a fair cop” l said trying to lighten my gloom.
“Great, RSCPA won’t help us and we do not know what to do. What do you know about spiders that spit poison”
I looked for something to poke my self with to see if l was dreaming. “Go on” l sighed
“Well we have someone that was brought a spider over illegally from Australia, and gave it as a gift to a friend. The spider has escaped and is spitting at him. The thing is, it is a poisonous spider and the spit is also poison the guy says”
Trust me to think of calling the police for help. I should have guessed they would want a return favour, swop one crazy client for one poisonous spider that is hardly a fair quid pro quo.
“I want ALL the detail on it l told him. I will consider going only if l know everything about it. In the mean time shut the door and no one goes near it. Possibly it can be sucked into a vacuum cleaner and then dealt with. Block under the door as well so it can not escape.”
“Great you lot handle so much” the control chuckled “l don’t know why l did not think of you before, l will ring you back”
I stared at the phone, glad he was having a night he could chuckle over. I am getting nightitis (fed up of nights)
The couple who had brought the 2 women with the ill dog were looking at me. “Having fun?” he said. I told him what was requested.
“You are just going to get it… just like that”
“Well someone has to and spiders don’t worry me” l replied.
He looked at me like l had just confirmed the crazy woman was still here, he had helped a sane person to the taxi.
I went back to see the vet and tell him what had happened also confirm if the dog was going to be put down. The dog looked and smelled like it had Parvo, the clients no money. The vet confirmed all 3 predictions to me.
At this point the police arrived even though l had cancelled the call. The auxiliary came down to hold the dog for the vet and l went to speak to the pair. They probably wanted an excuse for a break and a coffee.
Before l went l mentioned the poison spitting spider to the vet. He point blank refused to let me go. It really did not worry me l was quite happy to go, he however was not happy about me going.
He stated that as we had no proper protective gear, did not know what the spider or toxin was he flat refused. I said l would find out more, then go. He grinned and said over his dead body. That would be easy to arrange l told him. Men can be a PIA at times, it needed sorting l was happy enough to sort it. All l needed was a plan, and they are easy enough to make.
I had a quick chat with the 2 lads that turned up. Oh god l am getting old l never thought that police would look so young. I always thought that was a myth that my parents and older people said. I pointed at the coffee and said to them “Sort it yourselves l am busy”.
I rang Chester Zoo emergency line, no answer, rang Whipsnade zoo, no answer, Manchester airport animal handling no such department Manchester airport told me. I thought of Heathrow and googled their animal handling department.
Nice bloke l spoke to, but he told me the same info l had told the control, so that was not much use.
I rang the police control back to tell them l could not come out and give them Chester Zoo number to keep trying. A female controller told me it was sorted. She wouldn’t elaborate. I tried to push to make sure that who ever the idiots were they were prosecuted. As to what happened to the spider or the people that had it, I don’t know.
The vet came over to examine the patient and went to call the owners in. I went back to the front. As l was walking back the taxi turned up.
I went out and told him what was happening and asked him to wait as the police would be here and probably escort her to the taxi.
“Err huh”? He said
l slowly repeated it.
“So l do what?”
My snarling reply made a rabid Rottweiler in attack mode look sweet. The driver sunk into his seat muttering
“I wait here huh” and locked his door.
I stomped back in. Busy tired and fed up. As l walked into reception the black guy was still leaning against reception.
“You know” he said with a grin starting to bubble up. “You are not racist”
I had enough for one night and was about to let rip. Being male he saw danger signs, being smart he backed off fast, held up both hands and laughed “No no he said please let me explain”.
I decided to give him about 10 seconds, if he talked fast. I was not in the mood for laughing, and l had enough BS to last a year.
You know when you carried the dog through. The crazy woman started to scream you were a racist do you know why?”
“No, l don’t l just blocked her voice out” I told him.
“Because she has a white cat and that was a black dog you took through. She is not right in the head l do not know if it drink or drugs, possibly a mix of both”
His wife piped up “And you were right about her stories, she has changed it so many times my head is spinning, l think it just has hair matts and is not comfortable.”
I knew what she meant about spinning heads. My brain was also doing the salsa trying to join all the dots up of black, white, dogs cats and everything inbetween.
“Let me try something” he said. Walking to the client who had fallen silent and was staring vacantly ahead he said “You know you look awful and you agree your cat is not ill just uncomfortable. What about taking him home and then in the morning going to the vet, it is better than going with the Police tonight, l will even hold the door open”
By now the woman seemed to be have hit her wall. She looked round with a glazed look. “Yes, yes no, l don’t know what l want anymore you all confuse me l will ok go ok” and staggered to the taxi.
“Many thanks, l have to say l have had enough for the night” l said to him.
He smiled “So l noticed and think nothing of it. I know what you mean about Zimbabwe I understand. I am also fed up about people ranting on about racism. Racism is ugly but so are many things in life. Unfortunately it is an easy target for people to carry on about. They do not understand what real racism is though and all they do is cause problems and muddy the waters.”
I rang the police to cancel the call out. As l was about to put the phone down the controller said “wait wait l just realised your ……… vet’s aren’t you, we have a vet type problem”.
I did consider saying “No you wrote the name down wrong, we are ……” l knew l was not going to like whatever occurred to the control. Now l know how Houston felt when they heard ‘Houston, we have a problem’.
“Yes, go on, hit me with it, it’s a fair cop” l said trying to lighten my gloom.
“Great, RSCPA won’t help us and we do not know what to do. What do you know about spiders that spit poison”
I looked for something to poke my self with to see if l was dreaming. “Go on” l sighed
“Well we have someone that was brought a spider over illegally from Australia, and gave it as a gift to a friend. The spider has escaped and is spitting at him. The thing is, it is a poisonous spider and the spit is also poison the guy says”
Trust me to think of calling the police for help. I should have guessed they would want a return favour, swop one crazy client for one poisonous spider that is hardly a fair quid pro quo.
“I want ALL the detail on it l told him. I will consider going only if l know everything about it. In the mean time shut the door and no one goes near it. Possibly it can be sucked into a vacuum cleaner and then dealt with. Block under the door as well so it can not escape.”
“Great you lot handle so much” the control chuckled “l don’t know why l did not think of you before, l will ring you back”
I stared at the phone, glad he was having a night he could chuckle over. I am getting nightitis (fed up of nights)
The couple who had brought the 2 women with the ill dog were looking at me. “Having fun?” he said. I told him what was requested.
“You are just going to get it… just like that”
“Well someone has to and spiders don’t worry me” l replied.
He looked at me like l had just confirmed the crazy woman was still here, he had helped a sane person to the taxi.
I went back to see the vet and tell him what had happened also confirm if the dog was going to be put down. The dog looked and smelled like it had Parvo, the clients no money. The vet confirmed all 3 predictions to me.
At this point the police arrived even though l had cancelled the call. The auxiliary came down to hold the dog for the vet and l went to speak to the pair. They probably wanted an excuse for a break and a coffee.
Before l went l mentioned the poison spitting spider to the vet. He point blank refused to let me go. It really did not worry me l was quite happy to go, he however was not happy about me going.
He stated that as we had no proper protective gear, did not know what the spider or toxin was he flat refused. I said l would find out more, then go. He grinned and said over his dead body. That would be easy to arrange l told him. Men can be a PIA at times, it needed sorting l was happy enough to sort it. All l needed was a plan, and they are easy enough to make.
I had a quick chat with the 2 lads that turned up. Oh god l am getting old l never thought that police would look so young. I always thought that was a myth that my parents and older people said. I pointed at the coffee and said to them “Sort it yourselves l am busy”.
I rang Chester Zoo emergency line, no answer, rang Whipsnade zoo, no answer, Manchester airport animal handling no such department Manchester airport told me. I thought of Heathrow and googled their animal handling department.
Nice bloke l spoke to, but he told me the same info l had told the control, so that was not much use.
I rang the police control back to tell them l could not come out and give them Chester Zoo number to keep trying. A female controller told me it was sorted. She wouldn’t elaborate. I tried to push to make sure that who ever the idiots were they were prosecuted. As to what happened to the spider or the people that had it, I don’t know.
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Quid Pro Quo (Part 1)
This is rather a long story so l will split it over a couple of days.
It happened about 5 months ago. Reception rang down the back about 2am saying that a woman was in with her cat and it had not passed faeces or urine for several days. However the cat basket smelt of strongly to belie the faecal comment added to that the woman smelt of booze and had a huge black eye.
The vet was operating so l went to collect the patient and take it down the back and triage it on the other prep room table [He was “fettling” a cut foot).
Apart from the strong faecal smell the cat was a lovely long haired white cat with a lot of matted hair.
And a loud purr, no temperature, normalish heart rate [average for a cat that’s stressed at the vets]
The vet said to tell the owner we would need to admit it and he would phone her later. With what she had described we would have to keep him in, run bloods and possibly drip etc.
I went back to explain this and the cost and the woman became agitated started on about how she had lied to get us to see the cat. It had been to the toilet just before she put it in the carrier. It was just not eating or drinking.
I went back down to speak to the vet. He rolled his eyes heaven wards. If she wants me to examine it when l have finished this op tell her the cost and including blood test. However he was happy enough that the cat was not in danger over anything and would be ok to see a vet in the morning.
Back l trotted with the message. She blew up and said “Your accent, is not English, you are South African?”
“No actually l said l am Rhodesian, although it is called Zimbabwe now” l said with a gritted smile.
“I knew it you are a South African racist. You hate me because l am a foreigner”. She looked possibly Greek and had an unpronounceable name and about as white as l am.
“Actually l am also a foreigner here” l said knowing this was going no place fast.
The client became very fractious and came out with about 5 different stories about the cat. While chanting every few words that l was a racist.
The story that sounded most plausible about the cat was that she found the matts in the coat and felt they were uncomfortable.
“Uncomfortable, no shit Sherlock” but it was not an emergency, l did not say that just thought it. I told her that the cat was fine until morning and to go to her own vet to have the cat’s matted hair clipped.
I tried to get her to give me her benefit status, she did not fall into criteria for at least one of the local charities. And of course it was my racist fault she did not fit the criteria, as l was a racist that hated foreigners.
I got fed up and told her l would ring her taxi or the police she had a choice. Still she refused to move just swearing and cussing. So l picked up the phone and said ok police makes no odds to me. She seemed to become more sober and spat a taxi firm number at me.
I rang them and then told an auxiliary to stay behind reception till the taxi arrived. Then l went back to finish helping the vet with the anaesthetic. Anaesthetic is a veterinary nurses job but on nights when there is small shifts we do all sorts including temporary racist.
After about 15 minutes the auxiliary rang back and asked for the “racist veterinary nurse” while trying not to laugh.
She also mentioned that the clients taxi had not arrived yet. I was getting pissed off by now a joke can go so far. As l walked into reception l mentally swore this could get nasty and it was not a laughing matter.
A black guy was at reception. Thankfully he was well dressed in a suit and tie. Not a yob in street clothes with a big mouth. Even so l was not going to back down or be ashamed of who or what l was.
As l walked through he looked at me and asked if l was the South African.
“Nope l am the Rhodesian and before you say it is Zimbabwe don’t bother. My birth certificate says l am Rhodesian and l do not want to call myself a zimbo and further l do not support the sociopathic scumy psychopaths zanu in charge over there that have destroyed my country”
His mouth twitched slightly. “So what’s the story here” he asked.
To keep the peace l explained things to him, while l looked over at the 2 women holding a dog on their laps. It needed a vet fast. My problem was that the vet was busy and no other nurses were about to sort things. And l did not want the present problem to escalate.
A black woman, also well dressed was sitting with the problem client and looked over very unfriendly and said “Do you not care about animals? This lady just told us all about you”
I told them briefly what had been going on and that the woman’s cat was not dying just had hair matts, she was drunk, possibly on drugs, rambling and incoherent and inconsistent in her stories of the cat and what the vet had said.
The obnoxious client now said she was not leaving.
I picked up the phone and rang the police to get over please ASAP. They are always very good if we have a problem.
It happened about 5 months ago. Reception rang down the back about 2am saying that a woman was in with her cat and it had not passed faeces or urine for several days. However the cat basket smelt of strongly to belie the faecal comment added to that the woman smelt of booze and had a huge black eye.
The vet was operating so l went to collect the patient and take it down the back and triage it on the other prep room table [He was “fettling” a cut foot).
Apart from the strong faecal smell the cat was a lovely long haired white cat with a lot of matted hair.
And a loud purr, no temperature, normalish heart rate [average for a cat that’s stressed at the vets]
The vet said to tell the owner we would need to admit it and he would phone her later. With what she had described we would have to keep him in, run bloods and possibly drip etc.
I went back to explain this and the cost and the woman became agitated started on about how she had lied to get us to see the cat. It had been to the toilet just before she put it in the carrier. It was just not eating or drinking.
I went back down to speak to the vet. He rolled his eyes heaven wards. If she wants me to examine it when l have finished this op tell her the cost and including blood test. However he was happy enough that the cat was not in danger over anything and would be ok to see a vet in the morning.
Back l trotted with the message. She blew up and said “Your accent, is not English, you are South African?”
“No actually l said l am Rhodesian, although it is called Zimbabwe now” l said with a gritted smile.
“I knew it you are a South African racist. You hate me because l am a foreigner”. She looked possibly Greek and had an unpronounceable name and about as white as l am.
“Actually l am also a foreigner here” l said knowing this was going no place fast.
The client became very fractious and came out with about 5 different stories about the cat. While chanting every few words that l was a racist.
The story that sounded most plausible about the cat was that she found the matts in the coat and felt they were uncomfortable.
“Uncomfortable, no shit Sherlock” but it was not an emergency, l did not say that just thought it. I told her that the cat was fine until morning and to go to her own vet to have the cat’s matted hair clipped.
I tried to get her to give me her benefit status, she did not fall into criteria for at least one of the local charities. And of course it was my racist fault she did not fit the criteria, as l was a racist that hated foreigners.
I got fed up and told her l would ring her taxi or the police she had a choice. Still she refused to move just swearing and cussing. So l picked up the phone and said ok police makes no odds to me. She seemed to become more sober and spat a taxi firm number at me.
I rang them and then told an auxiliary to stay behind reception till the taxi arrived. Then l went back to finish helping the vet with the anaesthetic. Anaesthetic is a veterinary nurses job but on nights when there is small shifts we do all sorts including temporary racist.
After about 15 minutes the auxiliary rang back and asked for the “racist veterinary nurse” while trying not to laugh.
She also mentioned that the clients taxi had not arrived yet. I was getting pissed off by now a joke can go so far. As l walked into reception l mentally swore this could get nasty and it was not a laughing matter.
A black guy was at reception. Thankfully he was well dressed in a suit and tie. Not a yob in street clothes with a big mouth. Even so l was not going to back down or be ashamed of who or what l was.
As l walked through he looked at me and asked if l was the South African.
“Nope l am the Rhodesian and before you say it is Zimbabwe don’t bother. My birth certificate says l am Rhodesian and l do not want to call myself a zimbo and further l do not support the sociopathic scumy psychopaths zanu in charge over there that have destroyed my country”
His mouth twitched slightly. “So what’s the story here” he asked.
To keep the peace l explained things to him, while l looked over at the 2 women holding a dog on their laps. It needed a vet fast. My problem was that the vet was busy and no other nurses were about to sort things. And l did not want the present problem to escalate.
A black woman, also well dressed was sitting with the problem client and looked over very unfriendly and said “Do you not care about animals? This lady just told us all about you”
I told them briefly what had been going on and that the woman’s cat was not dying just had hair matts, she was drunk, possibly on drugs, rambling and incoherent and inconsistent in her stories of the cat and what the vet had said.
The obnoxious client now said she was not leaving.
I picked up the phone and rang the police to get over please ASAP. They are always very good if we have a problem.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
The Dangerous Dog
I decided to put up about a dangerous dog incident l was involved with at the start of the year. The dogs behaviour is not unusual for what is faced when we get calls for dangerous dogs, if anything the animals are getting worse not better.
Several times we have been told the ARV have been activated but as far as l know our drivers have managed to get the animals before they were needed. I am sure it will come soon though the way things are going.
There was a phone call about 1am from the police for a pit bull that was locked in a bedroom and out of control. The owner had been arrested just before new year, he had been bailed that day, about 5 days later. Normally people inform the police that they have animals and the animals are taken into care, this cretin did not think to do so.
He had gone home via a bar and at about midnight tried to break into his own house. A neighbour heard him breaking in and rang the police. The cretin tried to take a swing at them and got a nice pair of shiny bracelts, the neighbour mentioned the dog. There was no point getting the cretin to try and catch it as he couldn’t handle it and was scared of it, hence wanting it put down.
He signed a handwritten consent for destruction order and was hauled off someplace deep, dark, smelly and full of cockroaches (well ok, it would be nice if he was thrown into a place like that).
The vet asked me to go with the driver P. (same driver as the “Midnight Snake Hunt” episode). He said it would be safer and easier to put it down at the house than taking it back wards and forwards from the house and then putting it down back at work.
I loaded up with a bottle of rompun (sedative) a lot of needles, big syringes and a bottle of pentobarb (to put the dog down with).
By the time we got there someone had tazered the dog and managed to get it into the human cage section in a police van. This was a mixed blessing. We did not have to try and grab him in an open space like a bedroom, but he was now round and pumped up on adrenaline. Had he been left in the bedroom he may have been easier to handle. That however is an unknown and the situation was now the one to deal with.
He was not happy, in fact it was fair to say he was murderous. About 30kg to 40 kg of mainly pitbull possibly crossed at some point with bull mastiff, mind you that was immaterial, he wanted, and was fully able to kill.
I did check up if l should take it back into work with the van following us but the vet was just going into a major op, l was told stick to plan A.
The van the dog was in had a cage affair at the back. The inner door was a slider and the outer (back) was an standard pull open door. It made life easier, the door could be slid slightly open for P. and the police dog handler that was also there to try and get their dog grabs on the dog. Sliding meant he could not slam into it like an exocet missile and get the door open.
When they had their front end sorted I was to open the back door and inject him while they held him.
Simple enough except the dog had worked out dog grabs. He ducked his head, swung his body around, opened his mouth and grabbed the loops, slammened into the doors and made clear he was not stupid enopugh to get caught.
He also got his jaws onto all 3 metal dog catching poles at various times that P. and the dog handler had between them. They were mangled, that necessitated emergency fixing.
And a quick prayer from me, that when they did grab him he would not break free, swing and get me when l shoved a syringe of Rompun into him.
Some plod (none to bright) muttered tazers. P. and l heard him, l have an idea that my snarl and and P. comment made him think that maybe the pitbull was not as angry as we would be if they did that to it again.
The poor dog was in for a bad enough end as it was, we were dammed if it was going to be made worse. No dignity here as it was, anger and fear were the way he was going to die. No one, was going to add the pain of tazers to that.
It took a good 3/4hour of fighting to get the loops onto him. By now there seemed to be a hell of a lot of police standing round, they must have had a boring night, or wanted to see someone eaten.
I pulled open the door, eyeing the loops on the dog catchers to see if they looked secure. I planted about 8ml+ of Romun into his backside as best as l could, given that his backside was moving all over as he fought to get free of the grabs and get to me he came off the needle a couple of times and l needed to reinject.
I backed off and locked the door, he broke out of the loops at about the same point. There is a god! He let me get out the van and shut the door first.
We sat back and waited, 20 min. later there was no sign of any effect he was so pumped up with everything. I rang the vet to confirm worth giving more as usually there is no point on adding as it won’t have an effect. The message passed back was go for it given what was happening another dose may or may not work, but unless tried we wouldn’t know.
This time it took about 10min to get the dog, not sure if it was a slight slowing down on his part or just better aim with the grabbers. I put in several more mls of Rompun in and thankfully he did not get off the grabbers this time.
By now he had had a huge dose of sedative and we sat waiting. The reason l did not use the pentobarb straight off is that if something had gone wrong and l self injected or injected someone by accident if the dog got free while l was trying to get the needle in then l would rather not be using a drug that can kill.
Finally about 20min later he went down enough that when the grabbers went onto him he chomped at them but did not stand up. Now there was no point in top up’s of Rompun and it was time for the final injection.
I decided that veins were out of the question. I could not get anyone to raise one l wouldn’t risk that, and my tornique was no good as he was to concious. Trouble was l could not leave it longer in case he started to fight off effects off the drug. I opted for an injection into the kidney. Due to the blood volume going through the kidneys it can be better than a vein. On dogs they can be hard to find if they are fat but his build made it easy. In under a minute he had died.
It was so bloody undignified and scary for him. I wished eternal hell and damnation on the owner, yes the dog was dangerous but only thanks the human race.
Not all pitbulls are nasty, it is just that they are generally owned by people who have them to prove how tough they are. In fact l belive that the dog that holds the most championship medals for various tests about 17 is a pitbull. The championship medals include hearding ducks and cattle, searching in fact a whole gamut of tests.
The dangerous dog in question could have been and often is a German Shepherd, a Rotweiller or any other full or even cross breed. So long as it is big, nasty, unmanagable and has big teeth it uses then the &*%$** are happy.
The other type of dangerous dog is owned by a well meaning nice family who do not understand dogs, have self trained it, if any training was done on the dog and it turns on them or someone.
P. had just got back to work after an operation and was not going to try and help lift the body to our van, I would not have been happy had he tried. This left the 15 or so police (all males) standing round watching and chatting.
I considered asking for help but decided that as none was a gentleman enough to stepforward and offer to help l was dammed if l would ask for help.
I picked the dog up carried him to our van and placed him down as gently as l could. It did not matter, he was dead, somehow it seemed the best l could offer him after all he had been through.
Several times we have been told the ARV have been activated but as far as l know our drivers have managed to get the animals before they were needed. I am sure it will come soon though the way things are going.
There was a phone call about 1am from the police for a pit bull that was locked in a bedroom and out of control. The owner had been arrested just before new year, he had been bailed that day, about 5 days later. Normally people inform the police that they have animals and the animals are taken into care, this cretin did not think to do so.
He had gone home via a bar and at about midnight tried to break into his own house. A neighbour heard him breaking in and rang the police. The cretin tried to take a swing at them and got a nice pair of shiny bracelts, the neighbour mentioned the dog. There was no point getting the cretin to try and catch it as he couldn’t handle it and was scared of it, hence wanting it put down.
He signed a handwritten consent for destruction order and was hauled off someplace deep, dark, smelly and full of cockroaches (well ok, it would be nice if he was thrown into a place like that).
The vet asked me to go with the driver P. (same driver as the “Midnight Snake Hunt” episode). He said it would be safer and easier to put it down at the house than taking it back wards and forwards from the house and then putting it down back at work.
I loaded up with a bottle of rompun (sedative) a lot of needles, big syringes and a bottle of pentobarb (to put the dog down with).
By the time we got there someone had tazered the dog and managed to get it into the human cage section in a police van. This was a mixed blessing. We did not have to try and grab him in an open space like a bedroom, but he was now round and pumped up on adrenaline. Had he been left in the bedroom he may have been easier to handle. That however is an unknown and the situation was now the one to deal with.
He was not happy, in fact it was fair to say he was murderous. About 30kg to 40 kg of mainly pitbull possibly crossed at some point with bull mastiff, mind you that was immaterial, he wanted, and was fully able to kill.
I did check up if l should take it back into work with the van following us but the vet was just going into a major op, l was told stick to plan A.
The van the dog was in had a cage affair at the back. The inner door was a slider and the outer (back) was an standard pull open door. It made life easier, the door could be slid slightly open for P. and the police dog handler that was also there to try and get their dog grabs on the dog. Sliding meant he could not slam into it like an exocet missile and get the door open.
When they had their front end sorted I was to open the back door and inject him while they held him.
Simple enough except the dog had worked out dog grabs. He ducked his head, swung his body around, opened his mouth and grabbed the loops, slammened into the doors and made clear he was not stupid enopugh to get caught.
He also got his jaws onto all 3 metal dog catching poles at various times that P. and the dog handler had between them. They were mangled, that necessitated emergency fixing.
And a quick prayer from me, that when they did grab him he would not break free, swing and get me when l shoved a syringe of Rompun into him.
Some plod (none to bright) muttered tazers. P. and l heard him, l have an idea that my snarl and and P. comment made him think that maybe the pitbull was not as angry as we would be if they did that to it again.
The poor dog was in for a bad enough end as it was, we were dammed if it was going to be made worse. No dignity here as it was, anger and fear were the way he was going to die. No one, was going to add the pain of tazers to that.
It took a good 3/4hour of fighting to get the loops onto him. By now there seemed to be a hell of a lot of police standing round, they must have had a boring night, or wanted to see someone eaten.
I pulled open the door, eyeing the loops on the dog catchers to see if they looked secure. I planted about 8ml+ of Romun into his backside as best as l could, given that his backside was moving all over as he fought to get free of the grabs and get to me he came off the needle a couple of times and l needed to reinject.
I backed off and locked the door, he broke out of the loops at about the same point. There is a god! He let me get out the van and shut the door first.
We sat back and waited, 20 min. later there was no sign of any effect he was so pumped up with everything. I rang the vet to confirm worth giving more as usually there is no point on adding as it won’t have an effect. The message passed back was go for it given what was happening another dose may or may not work, but unless tried we wouldn’t know.
This time it took about 10min to get the dog, not sure if it was a slight slowing down on his part or just better aim with the grabbers. I put in several more mls of Rompun in and thankfully he did not get off the grabbers this time.
By now he had had a huge dose of sedative and we sat waiting. The reason l did not use the pentobarb straight off is that if something had gone wrong and l self injected or injected someone by accident if the dog got free while l was trying to get the needle in then l would rather not be using a drug that can kill.
Finally about 20min later he went down enough that when the grabbers went onto him he chomped at them but did not stand up. Now there was no point in top up’s of Rompun and it was time for the final injection.
I decided that veins were out of the question. I could not get anyone to raise one l wouldn’t risk that, and my tornique was no good as he was to concious. Trouble was l could not leave it longer in case he started to fight off effects off the drug. I opted for an injection into the kidney. Due to the blood volume going through the kidneys it can be better than a vein. On dogs they can be hard to find if they are fat but his build made it easy. In under a minute he had died.
It was so bloody undignified and scary for him. I wished eternal hell and damnation on the owner, yes the dog was dangerous but only thanks the human race.
Not all pitbulls are nasty, it is just that they are generally owned by people who have them to prove how tough they are. In fact l belive that the dog that holds the most championship medals for various tests about 17 is a pitbull. The championship medals include hearding ducks and cattle, searching in fact a whole gamut of tests.
The dangerous dog in question could have been and often is a German Shepherd, a Rotweiller or any other full or even cross breed. So long as it is big, nasty, unmanagable and has big teeth it uses then the &*%$** are happy.
The other type of dangerous dog is owned by a well meaning nice family who do not understand dogs, have self trained it, if any training was done on the dog and it turns on them or someone.
P. had just got back to work after an operation and was not going to try and help lift the body to our van, I would not have been happy had he tried. This left the 15 or so police (all males) standing round watching and chatting.
I considered asking for help but decided that as none was a gentleman enough to stepforward and offer to help l was dammed if l would ask for help.
I picked the dog up carried him to our van and placed him down as gently as l could. It did not matter, he was dead, somehow it seemed the best l could offer him after all he had been through.
Sunday, 26 October 2008
2 More Police Calls
The call came in, in the early hours from the police about a pony wandering along the busy ‘A’ road.
The driver was not to sure if it would go in the back of the van, but we had been assured it was only a tiny animal.
He was also worried about being kicked. I gave him a big sheet and told him to cover the pony’s eyes and all would be fine, and finally a couple of tied together dog leads to go around animal’s neck.
He trundled off and came back about an hour later with the pony in the back. We lifted it out in a reverse of the procedure to get it on-board.
We covered pony's eyes over (if we did not the driver was not helping me) and finally hurt our backs lifting him out.
We only had isolation free that was practical for use. I raided all the bunny hay l could find and found and bucket for water.
He was claimed later in the day, he had gone walkabout from a gypsy encampment.
I am not surprised that police go nuts at the paperwork. Apparently the copper was writing down that the pony was facing in a north easterly direction along the side of the eastbound carriageway on rough ground. Along with a lot more erroneous information. I mean for gods sake doe’s it matter?
Pony in 'iso'
*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*
l worked at another practice when the police rang ahead that they were bringing in a dangerous dog. It had almost attacked the officers that grabbed him and they were bringing him in at great personal risk.
I grabbed dog grab and gloves and awaited the great coming.
About 10minutes later a big van turned up with 2 very scared police officers in.
“Be careful” they shouted as l creaked open the side door slightly to get a look. It did seem very quiet for a killer dog, then l saw it.
A small Jack Russell Terrier was scratching his ear, and making grunty noises at the itchy feeling.
“Psst, whatya doing scaring those poor lads”? l said to him
The dog waddled over and licked my hand. I picked him up and carried him in past 2 very deflated police.
I don’t know what excuse they came up with to other officers that asked about the “dangerous dog” but l am sure they managed to think up some excuse.
To be fair JRT can sometimes be nasty. l knew one that no one could get near, he was deaf, kept in a stable and never handled.
This one was sweet, l think it just was the lads were genuinely scared of it.
The driver was not to sure if it would go in the back of the van, but we had been assured it was only a tiny animal.
He was also worried about being kicked. I gave him a big sheet and told him to cover the pony’s eyes and all would be fine, and finally a couple of tied together dog leads to go around animal’s neck.
He trundled off and came back about an hour later with the pony in the back. We lifted it out in a reverse of the procedure to get it on-board.
We covered pony's eyes over (if we did not the driver was not helping me) and finally hurt our backs lifting him out.
We only had isolation free that was practical for use. I raided all the bunny hay l could find and found and bucket for water.
He was claimed later in the day, he had gone walkabout from a gypsy encampment.
I am not surprised that police go nuts at the paperwork. Apparently the copper was writing down that the pony was facing in a north easterly direction along the side of the eastbound carriageway on rough ground. Along with a lot more erroneous information. I mean for gods sake doe’s it matter?
Pony in 'iso'
*====*====*====*====*====*====*====*
l worked at another practice when the police rang ahead that they were bringing in a dangerous dog. It had almost attacked the officers that grabbed him and they were bringing him in at great personal risk.
I grabbed dog grab and gloves and awaited the great coming.
About 10minutes later a big van turned up with 2 very scared police officers in.
“Be careful” they shouted as l creaked open the side door slightly to get a look. It did seem very quiet for a killer dog, then l saw it.
A small Jack Russell Terrier was scratching his ear, and making grunty noises at the itchy feeling.
“Psst, whatya doing scaring those poor lads”? l said to him
The dog waddled over and licked my hand. I picked him up and carried him in past 2 very deflated police.
I don’t know what excuse they came up with to other officers that asked about the “dangerous dog” but l am sure they managed to think up some excuse.
To be fair JRT can sometimes be nasty. l knew one that no one could get near, he was deaf, kept in a stable and never handled.
This one was sweet, l think it just was the lads were genuinely scared of it.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Midnight Snake Hunt
It was just after midnight when the call came in from the police. A young couple reported a snake of about 10ft length in their garden. The ambulance/collection driver took one look at the message and said something along the lines of good for them nothing to do with me!.
Possibly because l grew up in Africa, or more likely just cause l am a bit weird l like snakes. I told him if the vet was willing for me to go out with him would that be ok. The vet agreed, not that he had a choice under the circumstances, someone had to catch it.
I collected an old duvet cover and pillowcase as holding bags, and we set off. The house was in a maze of back streets and took a bit of finding. The night was cold, wet and windy. Not the sort of night to squelch about after snakes.
“Any torches” l asked as l got out the van, the snort of laughter from the driver reminded me not to ask such daft questions. Any torches that may have been about were long since dead of batteries, or broken.
I rang the doorbell and a young lass in her early 20s came to the door.
“Your snake?” l enquired.
“Ahh yes through here” she said leading us to the kitchen the driver staying firmly at the rear.
A lad of similar age was just tucking into his evening meal, a bit late l felt, but then l like an early evening meal, each to their own.
He stood up to take over. “I put a dust bin upside down over the top of it to keep it secure” he informed us.
We went out to the back. About 10 feet from the back door, down a short flight of steps, was the bin, placed as said.
l looked out at the pitch black yard and then up at the light. “Any chance of you putting that on?”
No, it doesn’t work, but l have this” he nipped to the table, came back, and handing me a tiny keyring light that made an anaemic firefly look like a searchlight. If l took my finger off the button it went out.
Then he and the driver huddled on the top step, ready to show their metal as the male of the species… and run like hell the moment they saw the snake.
Oh great l walked over to the dustbin. Tipped it slightly and shone my light under it, nothing. I tried to angle the beam up in case this 10ft snake was up there, no.
Behind me the young lad screeched “there there”
I glanced back to see where he was pointing as it had obviously escaped. “Where?”
“There by your foot he yelled back”
I bent down and glared at the mark on the floor. From about 1 foot away l could just make out a drowned worm. “Do you mean this dead 3inch worm?” l asked hanging the little body over my finger.
“Yes yes that’s it….…errr worm?” he asked looking at me.
“Yup l don’t think we can do a lot for him l will just sling him back into your garden if that’s ok by you.” I did not wait for a reply just flipped it into a flowerbed,
We walked back into the house and he sat down trying not to look embarrassed. I was impressed the driver and l managed to keep a totally straight face out of the house and into the van. Then we collapsed hysterically.
To round off the night we decided to ring the practice. The vet answered. I told him it was a highly venomous cobra, I caught it but it had bitten me.
We were heading fast as possible for the hospital, the driver would then drop the snake off back at work for them to sort.
There was a stunned silence, then OMG and a cuss, more voices as he told the others what had happened and more OMG’s could be heard and stronger words.
Unfortunately the driver and l had another fit of giggles and gave the game away. For some reason none of them back at work were amused, no sense of humour some people.
Possibly because l grew up in Africa, or more likely just cause l am a bit weird l like snakes. I told him if the vet was willing for me to go out with him would that be ok. The vet agreed, not that he had a choice under the circumstances, someone had to catch it.
I collected an old duvet cover and pillowcase as holding bags, and we set off. The house was in a maze of back streets and took a bit of finding. The night was cold, wet and windy. Not the sort of night to squelch about after snakes.
“Any torches” l asked as l got out the van, the snort of laughter from the driver reminded me not to ask such daft questions. Any torches that may have been about were long since dead of batteries, or broken.
I rang the doorbell and a young lass in her early 20s came to the door.
“Your snake?” l enquired.
“Ahh yes through here” she said leading us to the kitchen the driver staying firmly at the rear.
A lad of similar age was just tucking into his evening meal, a bit late l felt, but then l like an early evening meal, each to their own.
He stood up to take over. “I put a dust bin upside down over the top of it to keep it secure” he informed us.
We went out to the back. About 10 feet from the back door, down a short flight of steps, was the bin, placed as said.
l looked out at the pitch black yard and then up at the light. “Any chance of you putting that on?”
No, it doesn’t work, but l have this” he nipped to the table, came back, and handing me a tiny keyring light that made an anaemic firefly look like a searchlight. If l took my finger off the button it went out.
Then he and the driver huddled on the top step, ready to show their metal as the male of the species… and run like hell the moment they saw the snake.
Oh great l walked over to the dustbin. Tipped it slightly and shone my light under it, nothing. I tried to angle the beam up in case this 10ft snake was up there, no.
Behind me the young lad screeched “there there”
I glanced back to see where he was pointing as it had obviously escaped. “Where?”
“There by your foot he yelled back”
I bent down and glared at the mark on the floor. From about 1 foot away l could just make out a drowned worm. “Do you mean this dead 3inch worm?” l asked hanging the little body over my finger.
“Yes yes that’s it….…errr worm?” he asked looking at me.
“Yup l don’t think we can do a lot for him l will just sling him back into your garden if that’s ok by you.” I did not wait for a reply just flipped it into a flowerbed,
We walked back into the house and he sat down trying not to look embarrassed. I was impressed the driver and l managed to keep a totally straight face out of the house and into the van. Then we collapsed hysterically.
To round off the night we decided to ring the practice. The vet answered. I told him it was a highly venomous cobra, I caught it but it had bitten me.
We were heading fast as possible for the hospital, the driver would then drop the snake off back at work for them to sort.
There was a stunned silence, then OMG and a cuss, more voices as he told the others what had happened and more OMG’s could be heard and stronger words.
Unfortunately the driver and l had another fit of giggles and gave the game away. For some reason none of them back at work were amused, no sense of humour some people.
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