Luke's blog

Gideon Gamble

15 February 2012 - 9:23pm
Gideon Gamble

 

Ghengis Khan left a vacuum of power when he died. All got a bit awkward between brothers and I really hope that little Gideon and Noah don’t have a similar fallout when I pop off. Unlikely to be honest. It’s not exactly as if I have the largest empire on earth to pass on and I doubt Pilgrims Veterinary Practice is really going get them all fired up as to who gets the great pleasure of taking that little business on.

Turns out that the Grandson - Kublai Khan - is the really hardcore achiever of the dynasty though. I can’t tell you much about him yet as I have only just started this last book in the series, but suffice to say this gripping series of books by Conn Iggulden got me into a touch of trouble during Gideon’s birth.

The power of the multitool

1 February 2012 - 8:32pm
Duck

So Little Gamble number three is now nine days overdue, family Gamble are on red alert and this time next week it's all going to be different. I can't wait.

I was in a similar state of anxiety last week when I had a little drama at the petrol station en route to remove an overgrown tusk from an adult boar. The boar wasn't my primary concern, the main worry was the fact as I tried to open the petrol cap for the landrover, I realised I had somehow lost the key off my keyring to unlock it. I was almost out of fuel, I was twenty minutes late and there was a queue behind me at the pump wondering what on earth I was doing emptying out the truck at the local Total garage.

Loud owls, mad puppies and fire engines

14 January 2012 - 10:25pm
Squirting the firehose

Totally into fire engines at the moment. Just as well as seen a fair few of them recently. One of the callouts on New Years Day was to a shire horse that was stuck in a river in the New Forest. Very exciting, very dark, and very off road - all great except for bending the landrover aerial in half, and the horse got up and out just as I arrived. A big plus was the fact Hampshire Fire and Rescue were on the scene poised to leap into action - once again, I was feeling a touch underdressed around these guys who seemed to rock up in amphibious monster trucks and like a little kid, I marvelled at the huge fire engines, wanted to climb in them and have a look around and felt a tinge of jealousy that I'll never get a flashing light on the landrover.

Merry Christmas!

23 December 2011 - 8:59pm
Christmas Hat

About two weeks ago, Caroline had the first festive emergency of the season - labrador that had eaten a Christmas bauble - all was well, the labrador was fine (bauble was not) but it served as a sharp reminder that I had to get the Christmas party sorted out.

Rats, mice and desperate deadlines

22 November 2011 - 2:08pm

Battling Death

5 November 2011 - 12:13am
Leuwen and Noah

There have been few updates these last two weeks because all my energy has been focused on some very sick animals. A week last Monday, I started out as a Spartan. No other word for it. A small cat, fitting uncontrollably, sinking into a deep coma, temperature plummeting to 34 degrees C, blind, unresponsive on the edge - where was the production crew during this one I wondered - in their beds was the answer. 20mins kip on the floor, next to a fitting cat was my night. As the cat swallowed it's tongue at 3am and I lurched forward to sort it and top up the ten hour anaesthetic it endured, I told myself I employ staff for this sort of thing, I don't pay them enough I heard myself answer.

The week out of ten

16 September 2011 - 7:14am
Bearded Dragon

 

"Luke, how are you?" Big Trevor said to me the other day,

Baby rabbits

27 July 2011 - 10:43pm
baby rabbit

It's been a week of rescues. By rescues - sort of attempted rescues. One incident involved finding a baby bird, tangled up in a bramble. I picked it up, it pecked me, I let it go. Not the most dramatic story but on letting it go, the bird had a two minute episode of stressed collapse upon which I felt very guilty for not giving it more of a chance to free itself.

 

Alpacas and other Antics

17 July 2011 - 7:17pm
Alpaca's

Bandages, Bandages, Bandages

8 July 2011 - 2:59pm
White Park