CFZ "PEOPLE": Prudence

My greatest hero; the late, great Gerald Durrell; once wrote (I think in Menagerie Manor) that animals always choose the most inconvenient and expensive times to become ill. Ever since we have had her, Prudence has had a large, completely benign dangling wart on her inner front leg. It is completely harmless, so we have ignored it. However, in bed last night, she managed to scratch it, and when I awoke this morning our bedroom looked as if the Manson Family had been playing Musical Chairs in it. Pru (although apparently in no discomfort whatsoever) had bled copiously and then rolled in it, so the bed and the dog were both covered in blood, which was continuing to drip enthusiastically from the wart.

Luckily my stepdaughter is a vet (and a bloody good one) and she talked Graham through the procedure of tying off the wart with a ligature, which slowed the bleeding down but didn't stop it. So we telephoned the emergency vet, bundled Pru into Graham's car and took her down to  Stratton (outside Bude) to the emergency surgery. The vet complimented Graham on his handiwork, augmented it with a ligature that wasn't using Corinna's embroidery silk, patted Pru on the head and charged me £108. The joys of animal ownership, eh?

Happy Boxing Day.