A close shave…

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little Staffie called Tessa. Tessa loves to play in Richmond Park with all the other animals, albeit for the most part, the other animals don’t want to play with her. The squirrels can’t abide her and so they run away as soon as she arrives and the deer in the park are aloof and at best, disinterested in her.

But still she tries; never giving up the chase in her quest to make friends. Tessa has always been keen on making friends with the deer and particularly so, the males. The males are easy to spot because they are huge and have massive horns sticking out of their head. These horns are like spears and they use them as weapons but even so, despite all the warnings…

Yesterday, Tess was at the park with her mummy owner and she finally got an animal to play with her… and now with hindsight she probably wishes that this animal had been a squirrel and not a stag.

The antler pierced Tess’s underside and penetrated her body by about five inches which brought an immediate end to the game. The vet explained that the antler narrowly missed piercing her abdomen which could easily have been fatal or Game Over.

After an emergency operation (£700), Tessa is now at home and hopefully reassessing her friendship groups and what games that she might like to suggest going forward.

Her daddy owner has yet to give her his ‘I told you so’ speech, (too early) but it is coming – he is just waiting for the right moment.

This was truly an awful episode with many tears shed and lessons need to be learned, especially for the daddy owner because any smugness he is currently enjoying about having pet insurance will soon turn to hurt when someone on the phone (in Manilla or Mumbai probably) explains that his insurance policy has a specific clause about Staffs that don’t listen…

He knows that this is going to happen. It’s bound to and it might hurt a little – but nothing like as much if Tess had been seriously hurt ‘playing’ in the park and was not set for a full recovery.