Rough start to the year

It has been a really rough start to the year for me
Between Christmas and New Year my son was bitten by a redback spider (very venomous) and was in a lot of pain for nearly a week. Luckily the doctors here have access to antivenine injections for this spider so he didn't die.
Then during the second week of the new year I was vacuuming my home office and our four month old Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy was chasing the the cleaner head around the floor from behind my legs when she pounced on the cleaner head using my lower left leg for traction. The result was she ruptured the main artery in my calf that goes to my ankle/foot and with blood squirting everywhere, a trip to hospital was required where they glued the wound back together. After resting up for a couple of weeks and missing work (I am a contractor so no pay) we then were having a heatwave and first one car died in the heat, then the big split system air conditioner for our house died and then the following week the other car died. Both cars required towing to the Volvo dealer and the turbo wagon is still there waiting for parts to come from Sweden. The home air conditioner appears is OK but just doesn't run whenever the temperature is over 35°C which defeats its purpose as we had five days in a row over 40°C whewww :cry and most days have been making it into the mid 30s and some days it has been working and others not :confused I was told by the air conditioning tech to build a shelter for the compressor unit outside and put a cool water spray inside to keep it cool and it will keep running.....WTF it is only an air conditioner and it is supposed to keep me cool not me build something to keep it cool :confused

Next thing is my wife finally got results of some tests she had last year and this required immediate major abdominal surgery which was scheduled on Valentines Day. The operation had some complications taking three hours instead of the usual one hour and she required two blood transfusions and a brief trip to the ICU. The surgery appears to have been successful but we won't know for a few more months if they removed everything to prevent regrowth. She will be confined to bed and out of action for at least two months while she recovers.

As if all this is not enough my father died in hospital last week and after I had arranged the funeral for Monday 24th Feb and called all the relatives and friends we get notified by the Coroners Office that they require the body as part on an ongoing investigation of the hospital. Crikey as if things aren't stressful enough and now we may not have the body back in time for the funeral tomorrow. Too late to cancel the funeral as people are coming from interstate so now it might just be a memorial service with a funeral service later. Why issue the death certificate before informing the Coroners Office? Grrr :mad

I am hoping things start improving as surely there is not much more that can go wrong rolleyes

Time for a bourbon and coke methinks and then I will call the Coroners Office yet again and try and get some straight answers whether they will release my father's body rolleyes

 

Man joffa, suddenly all my troubles this year seem mild. I really hope things start looking up. My condolences

 

Wow! Sorry for your loss and troubles.

 

Damn Joffa, seems to be pilling up on you. Sorry, hope things work out. Have always been intrigued by the Rhodesian Ridgeback breed. Lion or tiger hunter? How is their disposition dealing with people?

Thoughts and prayers sent for you.

 

"A" bourbon and coke? How about as many as you can handle? I'm sorry your year is sucking so bad, Joffa. Hopefully you've gotten your allotted amount of crap out of the way and the rest of it will be smooth sailing. Healing thoughts to you and yours.

 

Heck will probably be unemployed again Monday if I tell my boss what I am thinking now. Salute, with a nice shot of Tequila. Cheers. :-D

 

Sorry for your loss and troubles.
Thoughts and prayers.

Cheers..

 

A big thank you to everyone for all the kind thoughts and prayers :-D

I hope Sgt. Tibbs is correct and I have now got rid of the back log of crap to go wrong in my life

 

And they are the lion hunters. The dog. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesian_Ridgeback

This might be my next dog, as long as they are cool with the lions being in the zoo. :-D

Don't tell Maxwell...

 

Thanks for the kind thoughts
Re: Rhodesian Ridgebacks
This is our second pure breed ridgeback and we love the breed.
Ridgebacks are loyal and very protective family dogs and they are very good/tolerant of young children. The problem is they are a very smart dog with a strong will and only do things that they think are important. Originally bred to track and then pin down lions until the hunter comes and dispatches the lion so they work independently of the hunter and have to make their own decisions in order to stay alive until the hunter catches up hence their independent nature. If you want a dog that is always craving attention and constantly needs to be cuddled then this is not the dog for you but if you want a strong active dog that has a playful adventurous nature and is a wonderful protective guard dog then this is the one.
Speed wise they are nearly as fast as a greyhound but a lot stronger. The secret to success with the breed is positive re-enforcement training from a young age allied with good socialisation with other dogs, people and animals. This is our second ridgeback (our other one died of cancer) and both have very similar characteristics and as such were both true to the breed. If you want a purebred then they are very expensive but getting a purebred means there are no surprises with temperament that can occur with crossbreeds and when you have a big and powerful dog then having a good temperament is vital.

If you want to read up on the breed here is the wikipedia entry and this from Pedigree.

Here is a link to some pics of the litter from the breeder at six weeks. Our pup's name is Ujaama Strawberry Fields but we renamed her Shiloh. We got her at 8 weeks and she started Alpha training at 10 weeks just like our previous pup.

Here are a couple of pics one in my office and the other in the family room.
http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae163/joffa666/Shiloh_pup_zps76f33497.jpg
http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae163/joffa666/Shiloh_3months_zps28faae6f.jpg

 

I don't know about lions but my ridgebacks don't like cats.... especially the one next door that hunts and kills native birds in our yard. Since the new pup came home there have been no more dead birds :-D:cool Maybe Maxwell is safe but then again...... :-D

They are really great dogs Fred you won't be disappointed. Try and get a purebred and check out the litter and the mother before you buy. If the mother is unfriendly or nasty then be wary of getting a pup from that breeder as they may not be properly socialised. When you see the pups for the first time try and get one that is outgoing and is happy to come to you and likes to be patted. If you want info on breed specifics please pm me as I have a lot of info on ridgebacks and I also did a lot of research on German Short Haired Pointers and Weimaraners but in the end we went back to another ridgeback.

Prior to the ridgebacks I had a flat coated retriever who was trained as a gun dog and we used to go duck and fox shooting together on my uncle's 5,000ha rice, wheat and beef farm. She was great company in my 4wd and we used to take her away camping but her long black fur was everywhere hence why I now prefer short haired dogs

Cheers

 

Dad's funeral service will go ahead today as the Coroners Office released the body early this morning pity it was so much stress and angst to get them to do the right thing :mad

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes :cool

 

Thoughts and prayers to you Joffa and your family.

 

Please accept my condolence for your loss and troubles. That's a whole lot of stuff going on in the past months. It can and must only get better from now on ....

 

Just got back from the funeral and then the wake and everything went quite well :-D Dad had a good send off :cool

Thanks oma
I really hope all my bad luck has been used up and I have a much better run for the next couple of years ..... I don't want to tempt fate but what else could go wrong rolleyes

@Fred thanks again for your kind thoughts :cool