I am Cazareth

We took Cas the Rat to the vets’ first thing this morning for his operation. The vet told us she’d give us a call when there was news, so we sloped away, beside ourselves with worry, knowing he was very unlikely to survive the ordeal. The general aesthetic alone is something which often kills little animals – especially those with large, heavy tumours – because the vet often can’t calculate the animal’s actual weight.

On the way home, we took ourselves to Hampstead Heath for a couple of razzes down Parliament Hill on our plastic sledges, which are rapidly falling apart. The Heath looked astonishingly beautiful. The sun was shining, the ponds were frozen solid, the trees were white with snow.

Parliament Hill is such a magical place in the snow. The slopes are currently littered with tiny pieces of plastic from all the rubbish sledges which have disintegrated after hitting bump and ledges. The dogs were having a wonderful time, running behind sledges speeding down the hill. One little fluffy thing came bounding up to me, leapt on my shoulders and started licking my face with great alacrity.

We went back home, and I spent the afternoon sending emails and filling in more funding bids. Looking for money is a lonely old business!

At 5pm we heard the great news that Cas had survived his operation, so we rushed back to the vets’ to pick him up and bring him home. He looked surprisingly well, and immediately devoured an enormous piece of cheese. The vet was thrilled, and perhaps a little surprised that Cas had pulled through. He was weighed before and after the operation and seems to have lost a sixth of his body weight. Apparently someone walked down a corridor in the animal hospital saying; “we’ve just removed a rat from a tumour!”

So it is with a happy heart that I write this blog tonight. I always said that Cas was invincible, and he’s taken another leap towards this particular status.

I leave readers with a photograph of the beautiful Heath. It never fails.