The case of the wandering cat and the sore muscles.

Did I mention that I went back to work on Tuesday.  It was very nice to see everyone and I didn’t really do much on my first day other than wander around talking to people and answering inquisitive questions about my surgery.  Several people did not recognise me without my bandana which was permanently fixed to my head for a year after the first round of surgeries, but I have hair on show and I have a fringe – they are amused by this.  I was quite tired after my first day though but am glad to be back – although I probably won’t be glad to be back once they start letting me do some actual work haha

Funny thing happened at work that first day.  I was bored so I was browsing the Internet on my break and I had my weekly look at the Cat Protection League cats for re homing section that I check out to see if there is anything that remotely resembles my cat Charlie who had been missing for nearly 6 months.  We had pretty much convinced ourselves that he was not coming home.  I saw a cat which looked a bit like him so I called the girl to ask a few questions about him.  First thing she said was that the cat was found in Blantyre which is 8 miles away from me, so I thought unlikely to be him.  She asked me some questions and the more I answered the more she went “hmmmm” and then she asked me to give her a few minutes till she called the cats foster-er.  2 mins later my phone rang and the foster-er is telling me that the cat I am describing is identical to the cat she has sitting in her living room.  My heart almost jumped out of my mouth at the thought of it being him….so we arranged for me to go straight to her house after work to see the cat so I could see for myself if it was him.  All the way there from work I convinced myself it wasn’t him but when I walked into the house and saw him lying on the couch there was no mistaking my boy Charlie.  To say I was deliriously happy would be an understatement – I was crying tears of joy and the little bugger just sat there like “hey mum where have you been”.  So he came home with me there and then, is now grounded for the remainder of his 9 lives and is happily snoozing at the bottom of my daughters bed where he always sleeps.

So, yesterday I got on board my horse for the first time in 4 months.  I was delighted that when I tried on my riding hat Thursday, there was no pain so immediately confirmed my riding lesson with Dawn for first thing Friday morning.  Kev came with me to photograph the event and off we went, having dropped the kids off at school and headed straight to the yard.  I was like a kid at Xmas I was so excited.  He had not been ridden for 2 weeks over the holidays and had been kept in his stable for a week seeing as he had the start of some mud fever and I didnt want it to get any worse.  So I lunged him first which is just as well cause he was like a bucking bronco for 1o mins on the lunge.  So I mounted up and we had a lesson with Dawn and it was knackering, it was sore,  my position was awful, I was red in the face and completely out of breath but it was the best half hour of the last 4 months and I loved every second of it.  Today, every inch of my body is aching, with the exception of my toes possibly, and I feel as stiff as a board but at least my body has remembered what muscles we are supposed to be using when riding.  I have a long way to go to get back to where I was 18 months ago but it is a start and I have every confidence in myself and my RI that I will get there  Tomorrow I am going for a hack with my friend Francis and I have another lesson booked for Monday.  I am back in the game at last.

First ride in 4 months