Page 51 of Sun, Sea & Strawberry Shortcake
‘So is she all right now?’
‘I’m not sure. She hasn’t been sick for a while. But she’sjust lying here on a plastic sheet, all limp, when usually she’d be going wild,sniffing out brand new territory.’
‘Oh, no.’ I can hear Emma jabbering away in the backgroundand my heart clenches with love. ‘Do you think we should get Luna checked out?’
‘Definitely. Ken, the owner here... he’sphoning the local vet as we speak.’ There’s a dull sound as he covers the phoneto speak to Ken. ‘We can take her along as soon as you get here,’ he says,coming back. ‘They’ll fit her in as an emergency.’
‘That’s great. I’m almost with you. Oh, poor Luna.’
‘We’ll wait for you in the car park,’ he says and the phonegoes dead.
When I get there, I park up and join Harry, Emma and Luna inHarry’s Mondeo. All the doors are open to air the car and when I get in, Harryand I exchange a quick hello. He looks stressed and exhausted, which I guessisn’t surprising after the journey he’s had.
Emma is fast asleep in her car seat in the back, lookingadorable, her thumb in her mouth and my heart melts. ‘I’ll just go and sayhello to Luna,’ I tell Harry, and go round to the boot.
As soon as I open it, the smell of her travel crate – stilllingering even after Harry’s scrubbing – flies up my nose. But when I see Lunaflopped there, hardly able to lift her head to greet me, the only thought on mymind is:We need to get her to the vet as soon as possible.
We find the building straight away, thanks to Ken’sexcellent directions, and we’re whisked in to see one of the vets almostimmediately. She’s called Maria, and after we’ve lifted the puppy onto thetable, she asks us lots of questions as she examines Luna with gloved hands,firmly and gently. We watch anxiously, Emma squirming a little in my arms, aswe wait for Maria’s verdict.
She’s feeling Luna’s tummy with a frown, and at last shesays, ‘I’m going to do an abdominal x-ray, just to see what we’re dealing withhere.’ She smiles. ‘If you’d like to head out there to the waiting room? Andwe’ll come and get you, okay?’
We shuffle out and find a seat. Emma is wide awake now anddesperate to be down on the floor to toddle around, but the waiting room is toobusy for that, so I hold her fidgety little body on my knee and Harry tries todistract her by making funny faces.
At last, the nurse comes out and ushers us back in, and Mariadelivers the news that Luna appears to have swallowed something that’s wounditself around her lower intestines, and she’ll need an operation to remove it.They’re going to perform the surgery straight away and they’ll keep her thereovernight.
‘I’m so worried about her,’ I confess on the way back to thehotel.
Harry grunts and I glance over at him. He doesn’t reply,just stares grimly ahead, and I wonder if he even registered what I said. He’snormally the one to lift my spirits with a joke. He must be really worriedabout Luna, too.
True to her word, the vet’s nurse calls after the operationto say they’ve removed the obstruction and Luna is doing fine.
‘Thank goodness,’ I sigh, relaxing for the first time inhours. ‘Maybe we should order a bottle of champagne with room service tocelebrate?’
Harry rubs his hand over his face. He looks shattered. ‘Abeer would do me. And an early night,’ he murmurs.
‘Of course. You’ve had a chaotic day.’ I put my arms aroundhim and kiss him. ‘You just relax and I’ll order some food.’
‘I think I’ll have a bath.’
‘Okay. Good idea. It’ll help you relax.’
As he goes off to the bathroom, I call, ‘Love you.’
He stops and walks back to me. And I feel his arms around mefor the first time today as he draws me into a tight hug. ‘Love you, too,’ hemurmurs against my hair, and we stay like that, locked together, until Emma,who’s been playing with her toys on the floor, crawls over and wants to bepicked up.
I sit on the big bed with Emma and her favourite cuddlymonkey, listening to Harry running the bath water, and I smile to myself. It’snot exactly the romantic scenario I’d been dreaming about. But it’s family lifein the raw... full of drama, chaos and a whole lot of love.
It’s so good to be back with Harry and Emma.
I’m never going to take any of this for granted ever again...
*****
Next morning, after breakfast, we head down to the vet’s.
Luna is looking much livelier, and the vet tells us thatshe’d managed to swallow some underwear which had got entangled in herintestines.
‘But she’ll be okay, now that you’ve removed it?’ I ask.
