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Grin and Bear It

• Kim Lenaghan
• 12 Feb 08, 08:20 PM

¡°Now, I was wondering if you had seen the lovely picture of the treasured doggie Ella and I in the Belfast Telegraph last Friday night. The reason for our appearance in print was to highlight the very popular ¡®Days Like This¡¯ slot on Radio Ulster which, this week, is featuring a number of the station¡¯s presenters including me. My special memory was the day I met the puppy who would go on to become the ¡®Princess of Pooches¡¯, although I did briefly consider going with the moment when I first learned to kiss ¨C but that is a story for another occasion¡­..let¡¯s just say that realising I was supposed to breathe through my nose changed my life!! And, in case you¡¯re wondering, I was only 14 and girls were a lot more innocent then.

Back to Ella, and along with the photograph in the paper I had to say a few words about how wonderful she is, which was all completely heartfelt, and I really wouldn¡¯t have missed the last 12 years with her for anything.

However, old dogs are like old cars and once they start to go wrong they¡¯ll end up costing you a fortune. Since my public declaration of canine devotion there is no going back, even if I wanted to, so at the weekend when the vet suggested a series of tests to determine the state of her health, as well as get her ears cleaned out under general anaesthetic, what could I do but agree. I love her.

Fast forward 48 hours and I have just forked out many hundreds of pounds to be told that Ella¡¯s ears are grand and she is fit as a fiddle. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I am absolutely delighted to hear it, don¡¯t begrudge a penny spent, and the vet did a fine job. I just want to know why everything has to be so expensive these days. I seem to spend my life robbing Peter to pay Paul. For example¡­.I have a cracked filling, a root canal job, and whilst it isn¡¯t sore it is sensitive and I know it needs fixed. But it was the vet or the dentist, because there is no way any normal person could afford both in the same month. So I have to postpone getting my teeth fixed now until after Easter. To be honest, even at the best of times, you practically need a second mortgage to visit the dentist, and I¡¯m not talking the cosmetic stuff here, this is just for the basic oral upkeep.

Remember the good old days when dentists had NHS practices and you didn¡¯t have to save up for weeks beforehand, or pay it off on you credit card over half a year. I think there are still some NHS dentists out there, I certainly don¡¯t have one. Indeed I¡¯m beginning to suspect they may just be an urban myth as rare as the proverbial hen¡¯s teeth ¨C pardon the pun.

Also lets be honest, given what they charge, dentists and vets must be making a fortune!! Oh I so wish I¡¯d been better at science at school.

So the conclusion of this shaggy dog story is that Ella is happy and healthy while I am broke and must avoid biting off more than I can chew. And the moral¡­..make sure you get pet insurance and a private dental plan and you¡¯ll never need to worry.

¡®Days Like This¡¯ with Ella and I is on Radio Ulster at 08.55 on Saturday morning.¡­.

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