The Adventures of Fripp

 Hi everyone I am still recovering from losing Fripp but I do realise that he had many thousands of followers on various platforms. I have decided to repeat his blog again going back to the first post which was March 2020! You will be able to see them on Facebook only, either on my own page which is public (Nix Cuthell) or on The Adventures of Fripp also on Facebook. Thank you all for staying strong for me 🙏

  RIP Fripp 5.1.2010 - 8.2.25 My darling Fripp has crossed the bridge 😪 He passed very peacefully this afternoon in a lovely special room with a bed for him and a sofa for me. I am okay, I think, and I know time will heal.  A little bit about my gorgeous boy…he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease when he was 7. He did really well on his home cooked diet but when he was eight he developed autoimmune thrombocytopenia due to some meds he was given…not by Bron. He went on a high dose of steroids, lost a lot of his coat with his gorgeous tail being almost bald. He survived the disease and went on to become strong but always with the kidney disease in the background.  Some months later he got sick again and went into kidney failure. He spent a week at North Downs Referrals where they discovered his ureter was blocked with a stone and so he received a subcutaneous ureteral bypass from his kidney to his bladder. He was one of the first dogs to get it and I’m told he has be...

 Hello one and all 🙂 Well Nix and I made our way to the new vet practice this morning. It was really hard to park, the machine wasn’t working and then it started to hail! On top of that I got the dire rears on the way and so it wasn’t the best morning. On top of that my blood results are not good, in fact they are really quite bad. I sort of feel okay in myself but I am very very tired. Nix had to help me in the car and then help me out again when we got home and now I am going to sleep for the rest of the day as I am still very tired. Anyway, we are thinking it might be time for me to go over that other bridge and maybe meet up with Billy. I hope they have a churchyard there to visit, Billy and I could go for walks together. I know that Nix will let you all know, maybe tomorrow but please know that I love you all very much.

  Nix got me these beef thingies which I really like. She had to fry them and I got them while they were lovely and warm. I wasn’t so keen on the ones that were left over, Nix tried to serve them cold for breakfast…I think not.  I did feel a lot better this morning so we walked a little further. Nix looked and by the time we got home we had walked almost a mile. We used to do at least five miles a day but I don’t think either of us fancy that again.  Nix is going to her celebration this evening and Rita will sit with me. I expect I’ll get a walk round the block when Nix gets home. This will be a short blog today as I have already had my second walk over to the churchyard so Nix hasn’t had a lot of time. I don’t think she actually wanted to go over into town but I gave her the look, always works 🙂 We are going as planned to see Bron tomorrow so I shall have more news then but for the time being I feel really okay 🙂

  Nix says we’re still riding the roller coaster. Yesterday I ate everything put in front of me in the morning but during the afternoon and evening I refused everything and got very restless. I only slept for short bursts and then would find Nix and just stare at her.  When she went to bed she let me out in the garden and this time she kept her bedroom door open. When I came in from the garden I went straight into my bed in her bedroom and went straight to sleep. I did go out a couple of times during the night but Nix didn’t wake up.  This morning I did eat the remains of the beef but I refused everything else. Nix just managed to find some beef slices locally which I have eaten and we’ve had a little walk in the sunshine. When we went out this morning it was early and the sun was just rising and the boardwalk was too slippy to walk on. It was much nicer this afternoon.  I might get an extra walk in an hour or so because Nix has a meeting and she doesn’t want to put ...

 I’m still ‘rallying’ apparently, in fact I’ve ‘rallied’ so much Nix has had to order more food for me. I now have some beef slices, my favourite, some ham slices and some chicken slices. Nix also got me something called Chappie which is meant to encourage me to eat…seriously!!! Bring me the beef slices, that’s what will encourage me to eat. I also got a doggie muffin this morning. Nix asked on our neighbours WhatsApp group if anyone would like some of the treats that I won’t eat. They got snapped up very quickly but not surprisingly not a single person wanted the Chappie 🤣 Louisa at number 40 took the treats for her Bella as she is in training and she brought me a Naked Woofin which was very nice. Nix put it on the floor expecting me to ignore it and I ate half of it 😋 Nix has had a long chat with Bron and we are going to see her now at 12 noon on Friday. She will check my blood to see how my kidneys are doing but we know they won’t be getting any better. I don’t mind so much, I...

  Thank you everyone for all the lovely messages yesterday, I’m sorry I worried you all. I still felt poorly when I woke up this morning, but I decided I’d like to go for a little walk anyway. It was very nice outside, a bit like a spring day really, sunny and no wind. As you may know, even when I haven’t been eating my food, I still like a little treat every now and again. I usually get these when we go on our walks and I don’t want to go round the corner or after I have my photo taken. Nix had this brainwave to swap my treats for kibble, she thought I wouldn’t notice and to be honest I didn’t really.  The kibble was quite tasty, not that much different from the treats really.  Anyway, Nix seems to think I have ‘rallied a bit’ whatever that means but I do feel a bit better in myself. As of this morning I still hadn’t eaten apart from the few bits of kibble so Nix decided to have one more attempt to get me to eat. She took herself off to the supermarket while I was asle...

 I didn’t feel very well when I woke up this morning. I did go with Nix to the beach but as soon as I’d done my poo I wanted to go home. We decided not to go to church but then the sun came out and so I thought I might like to go and see everyone. We didn’t go for coffee afterwards but came straight home.  I didn’t want to get into the car and Nix had to persuade me. Then when we got home I didn’t want to get out of the car. As I was getting out of the car…very slowly… our neighbour Edith stopped and asked Nix if she’d like a hug which she accepted but it did make her cry a bit, not sure why. When we got inside Nix did me some scrambled eggs but I’m not really hungry. All the food smells horrible and tastes even worse so I think I’ll make do with the occasional treat.  When I woke up this afternoon the sun was shining and it was quite warm. I really felt like going to the beach and walking along the boardwalk rather than come straight home so that’s what we did. I got a l...

 Thank you for all being worried about me…I’m okay. I don’t always feel like eating and Nix doesn’t try and force me but she just started chopping up treats and adding them to my food which is the same thing really 😉 Today I have had some turkey mince which Nix cooked in the oven and some chicken sausage treats chopped up and added to it. I wasn’t really that hungry but I did eat some.  Can’t remember if I told you but Nix had a long chat with Bron yesterday . She is in her new practice now so next Friday we are going in to see her and she will take some of my blood so we can see how my kidneys are doing. They will be able to do it while we wait so Nix and Bron can have a good discussion about where we go from here. I’m still not taking my medication but Bron agrees that I shouldn’t be forced. Every now and again I fancy a custard cream ball and I know Nix sneaks some paracetamol in there 🙂 This afternoon I wanted to go over the bridge into town. Barney from next door was ju...

 Nix has scrubbed the rug three times now and she says it will never be the same again, she doesn’t seem to mind however so that’s okay. We had a very good night, as discussed the garden door stayed open all night and I was in my bed right in front of it guarding. This meant that Nix slept through the whole night and we both had quite a long lay in this morning. When we eventually did get up, we went to the beach but unfortunately it started to rain and we both got really wet. We hadn’t been back that long when Jackie came to visit to see how we were. That was very nice because Nix asked her to take some pictures of us together because we don’t have that many. I’m a bit bedraggled because of the rain.  Bron called this morning and the plan is to go visit her next Friday in her new practice and she will take some of my blood to test and see how much my kidneys have deteriorated. Because I’m not taking any of my medication she has suggested a liquid version of paracetamol which...

 So, as you know, I do like to be out in the garden for most of the night. Nix usually goes to bed and after she’s finished watching one of her programmes I’ve quite often come back in and I’m asleep in my bed. At this point, she closes the door but last night after about half an hour, I woke her up and asked to go out again. Do you know what she said to me, she said, “you’ve only just come inside, you’ve been out there for hours, you can’t possibly want to go outside again“ and she didn’t open the door for me. Well, it’s not my fault is it if I do a big poopy on her new rug, hopefully she will have learnt her lesson. We had a short walk on the beach this morning and that was  very nice. I then slept for most of the morning but suddenly the sun came out and I felt like going for a walk. I let Nix know that I was happy to get in the car and we went to the Adur Rec and had a walk through the little wood, which was very nice. I was very tired when I got home and went straight to ...

 I meant to say yesterday that Nix and I have our night time routine worked out perfectly. She goes to sleep, I wake her up by getting caught behind the blinds, she opens the door to let me out and then uses her Heath Robinson affair to make sure the door will stay exactly halfway open. I have a long drink of water from the bowl in the garden, gaze at a few stars and depending on my mood and the weather, either come back inside and go to bed or go to sleep in the garden. This generally happens three times each night which Nix seems to think is too many but it suits me perfectly 🙂 She was so tired last night that she let me out at midnight and went back to bed and didn’t wake up again until this morning! I actually came straight back in at midnight and slept in my bed in front of the open door…very nice 😴 I felt quite energetic this morning after a good night’s sleep and so decided we should walk a little way up the beach. I really enjoyed that but I don’t trot any longer, I can o...