New Swap Posted ...... April Fools ATCs

Well, here we are, 1st April - and so I thought it might be fun to make the theme for this month's swap April Fools (see the sidebar for more details).  I'm also adding some new images of vintage gentlemen for you all - you are absolutely free to use these images any way you like, but you might also want to use them on your cards for the April Fools swap.

In the meantime, Mia decided to play a real "April Fool" on us this morning!  I'd just let her out the window whilst I made a cup of tea and she was chewing at a mint plant growing in a pot outside (she seems to like the flavour of it) when all of a sudden she appeared to get something stuck in her mouth.  Well, the fun we had after that ..... she wriggled out of my arms when I tried to pick her up, flew into the house and upstairs, all fluffed up, with us in hot pursuit behind.  She was making a horrible crunching sound with her teeth and I was really worried she was doing some damage to them.  Tried wrapping a towel round her to calm her down (got scratched for my troubles) and opening her mouth (no, she kept her jaw clamped tight shut)!  We just had to let her go and then she seemed to calm down, settled in her basket and Graham reckoned whatever it was, she'd got rid of it and was going to be fine.  He then popped out to the post office up the road.

As soon as he'd left, Mia got up and went to her bowl to try and eat some food, but it was obvious she wasn't able to - she was still making the crunching sound and doing a "wretching" action.  The vets (luckily, right at the top of our road) were about to close in 10 minuts so I rang them up, said please would they still be open if I dashed round now and then I scooped Mia up into her basket, hopped into the car and drove round fast as I could.

When the vet examined Mia he said, oh yes, she has definitely got something caught in her mouth!  He let me look and it was part of a thin twiggy stem from the mint plant, but it was caught at the back of her throat, running horizontally from side to side - there was no way she would've been able to get that out by herself or be able to eat and it could've turned out quite nasty; he pulled the twig out with tweezers and Mia was very brave, not a whimper or a wiggle; had a little bit of inflammation where it had rubbed so she was given an injection and some liquid drops to help ease it over the weekend.

Phew!  What a start to the day!  And now, here she is - none the worse for her adventure!

I just love the way she sticks her little pink tongue out (butter wouldn't melt - she's about to launch an attack on my arm)!