A Poya Weekend

Mum is sitting on the porch talking to Dusty. The conversation goes from an encouraging “That’s it. On you go up the stairs!” (I don’t have stairs). To a threatening, “ Oh shut up! That’s an awful noise.  Nobody will want you. I’ll put you in the water.” Referring to the pond next to her.  Dusty is tied up and not happy. Understandably – she hasn’t exactly had that great a weekend either.

It should have been a good long weekend. Friday was poya and a British Council holiday. I had planned to pick up the puppy, renamed from Destiny (cos I couldn’t see me running around shouting Destiny) to Dusty because with the mix of white and black she looked like a Dusty, on Thursday afternoon about 3 leaving enough time to drive down south before dark. I had forgotten what travelling with an untrained puppy was like in a car. She was everywhere, trying to get into the front of the car, between the seats, under the seats (I felt my accelerator foot being licked) and between the seats again. Eventually she settled down and slept. But it took a while.

Going through Panadura, a seaside town on the outskirts of Colombo, I squeezed the car through a space at the roundabout. Unfortunately the tuk tuk next to me had its rain covers down and didn’t see me, therefore set off and hit my side mirror. Right in the middle of a busy roundabout. Police were off to the side and we stopped with the tuk tuk driver and family inside looking very serious. There was no real damage and had the police not been there I doubt either of us would have stopped. It was one of those situations where the driver looked to make a quick buck by pointing out all the damage – scrapes, torn rain cover, none of which were in the right place to have actually been hit by my side mirror. The policeman didn’t even ask us for our paperwork. Obviously he had been primed. However with a mother with Alzheimers aged 90 in the front seat, a puppy in the back seat, the obvious solution seemed to be to offer to pay for the ‘serious’ damage and  get back on the road. This having been done, we all left on our way quite happily.

The Dusty on arrival at the house eyed up Crazy, my other dog, as did she. They did this most of the night, eventually settling down to a ‘I guess we have to live with each other’ attitude. Crazy whose chilled out life of sleeping and eating had been completely destroyed by the puppy’s youthful exuberance retreated to a cool spot under the fan in the living room and stayed there with the odd bark to deter the puppy from approaching too closely.

The next morning I wanted to take Dusty to the vet because I had noticed what looked like a rash and under the more careful scrutiny of my reading glasses some very small animals. So we headed off to Habaraduwa to see the ‘dog doctor’. Chaminda was driving. I had gotten a text message about there being queues at petrol sheds in Colombo the night before and that morning I had gotten another about there being a run on petrol. Something to do with contaminated petrol from India and a break in the supply chain. Therefore we ended up in a bit of a squashed, but slowly meandering queue for petrol in Habaraduwa. After that the vet confirmed what I suspected – the dog had ‘animals’: lice. This immediately made me feel itchy and I still do. She was given two injections (which she really didn’t like) and some pills and we were instructed to get some ayurvedic oil and coat her and Crazy in it for a day, then give them a sea bath and finally a proper wash with special dog shampoo. Joy! The tasks for the weekend.

Then we went to Galle to do my usual Saturday shopping, once more stopping off at a petrol shed this time in an even longer and more squashed queue to get the tuk tuk filled up.  Part of the shopping consisted of lots of insect spray and washing powder.  Had to fumigate the house and spray all the covers and everything she had been on and then wash everything. This was not the way I had wanted to spend the weekend. On Sunday morning after having kept Dusty tied to the bars on the window to limit her access to anything, she was methodically covered in the oil with a toothbrush. We hadn’t bought enough ayurvedic oil so Chaminda had to go back to Galle to get some more to do Crazy. Crazy didn’t look like she had lice but who knew and better to play safe. Finally the dogs were set free to lick their way through the oil.  At least the noise disappeared. Then it was a case of keeping away from the dogs because they were covered in oil. This was easier said than done and I spent most of Sunday washing the oil off me. I can still smell it. My house was shut up (which it never is) and so was Chaminda’s.  Crazy looked for safety under mum’s seat and Dusty sprawled out on the porch. Everywhere the dogs had been there was oil left behind. Hopefully tomorrow when the dogs are given their sea baths then properly washed, I will come back to the house on Friday to exceptionally clean and animal free dogs and a much cleaner house. 

Could do with another poya weekend next weekend to recover really!