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A Period of Drama: The Modane Train Disaster 1917

Tom Kane

December 17, 2018

In December 1917 the Great War had been raging since 1914 and many lives had been lost in combat on both sides. In the period coming up to Christmas that year, French soldiers were travelling back from fighting in Italy and attempting to go home. Travel was difficult in the Alps at the best of times, but this party of an estimated one thousand soldiers and officers were attempting the journey by train. Their journey was to start in Turin, Italy and take them across the Alps to Lyon in France.

A single locomotive had nineteen carriages attached to it, but the train driver was refusing to leave the station in Turin. Sixteen of the carriages had no brakes and the driver was concerned for the safety of his train. Though the locomotive was capable of pulling the carriages loaded with men and their equipment, his concern was that he would be unable stop such a heavily laden train.

As most of Europe was at war, manpower and equipment were in short supply on the railways and the railway lines were considerably overloaded. The French officers naturally wanted their men to be home by Christmas and the driver’s warnings were dismissed. At one point an officer pulled a gun on the driver and threatened to shoot him if he didn’t get the train started. Reluctantly the driver agreed, and the train started its slow journey up and through the mountains.

Approaching the town of Modane, the train came out of the Cern tunnel and began a steep descent. But as the driver had warned, the brakes on the train were too inadequate to slow the train and the sheer weight of the carriages pushed the train faster and faster down the steep gradient. The train careered wildly down the steep track and was out of control by the time it came to the bottom of the descent, near a wooden bridge. It was then that the first carriage shot of the rails and the remaining carriages crashed into each other. The carriages were made of wood and some caught fire, developing into an inferno in a matter of minutes. An estimated 800 people died and in some cases the bodies were unrecognisable because fires in some carriages burned very fiercely.

The tragedy was compounded by a cover-up by French authorities because senior army officers were involved in the decision to begin the journey with an overloaded and essentially unsafe train. Having kept the accident a secret for over a decade the truth only came out when the driver of the train, who survived, told his story.

Read extracts from the soon to be published The Brittle Sea by Tom Kane here.

As a English expat author living in Cyprus, you may think my life revolves around cocktails by the pool. You would be wrong. From snake charming for beginners to flying dogs, in ten years on the island I’ve had my fair share of adventures and interesting experiences.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

You can also read a free sample of my World War II action adventure novel Operation Werwolf – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on Kobo

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

A Period of Drama: Paris Metro Fire 1903

Tom Kane

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December 14, 2018

Technology in the early part of the 20th Century was a new and wondrous experience for many people. But the infancy of any technological expansion will inevitably lead to human error, often with catastrophic and deadly consequences.

The Paris Métro fire of 1903 also known as the Couronnes disaster, after the station where most deaths occurred. This disaster took place in Paris, France, on the 10th August 1903.

Line 2 North of the system was was less than a year old and mainly underground, though it included an elevated section which was four stations long. Boulevard Barbès to Rue d’Allemagne was worked by a mixture of four and eight car trains. The line had loop tracks at each end where the trains turned, thus making sure the same car always remained at the front of the train.

The disaster began just before seven in the evening when double train Number 43, double trains having electric motors in the front and rear cars, arrived at Boulevard Barbès station with heavy smoke pouring from one of the motors on its front car, serial number M202.

Immediate evacuation of the passengers commenced and they were told to stay on the platform. Meanwhile, the shoes that control the flow of power were lifted from the third rail to cut off the electric flow. The burning subsided. It seems no further investigation was completed and the rail staff’s focus was on the station platform full of angry passengers. Restoring the service now became the staff’s priority. To facilitate this, the train had to be moved but there was no siding.

Unaware that the motor had not simply overheated, but in fact had a serious short-circuit, the decision was made to move the train under its own power. The train left the station in a cloud of black smoke and it wasn’t long before the fire on car M202 reignited with a greater ferocity. The scene was set for the drama to unfold into a disaster.

The train moved into the tunnel and then stopped for help at the next station, Combat. There the shoes were once more lifted whereupon the burning stopped. But then power was reapplied, and the burning restarted and this time the wooden paddles used to lift the shoes were consumed by the fire.

The only way the train could be moved was by getting another train to give Number 43 a push. Passengers waiting at Barbès had boarded the next train, a single train designated number 52, which advanced to Rue d’Allemagne where it awaited the signal to continue. Train 52 was then ordered to unload its passengers and was driven to Combat. Here it coupled-up to the rear of train 43. This triple train slowly moved forward, but the short circuit on the front car M202 was still live and feeding the fire.

Service on the other trains continued and train number 48, following on from 43/52, had advanced to Rue d’Allemagne. A mass of passengers evacuated from trains 43 & 52 pushed and shoved their way onto the crowded four cars of train 48. As 48 arrived at the next station with a triple load of passengers, smoke was already flowing from the tunnel ahead. The driver of 48 stopped his train halfway up the platform and conferred with the stationmaster. It was now apparent that the danger was so great that passengers should be evacuated to the street. But that decision came too late. The circuit supplying the station lighting was suddenly burned through and the station was plunged into darkness. A cloud of dense and choking smoke quickly emerged from the tunnel as the wooden structure of trains 43/52 were engulfed by the fire. It took only a few more seconds before the station became a death trap. With the thick and choking smoke and sudden darkness inhibiting their senses, passengers and staff alike became disoriented. Many people simply stumbled around in the dark desperately trying to find a way out, only to be asphyxiated by the dense clouds of smoke.

Eighty-four people died on that fateful summer evening in Paris.

Read extracts from the soon to be published The Brittle Sea by Tom Kane here.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

You can also read a free sample of my World War II action adventure novel Operation Werwolf – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on Kobo

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Living in Cyprus: Say Cheese

Tom Kane

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December 10, 2018

Halloumi Cheese Salad

According to a Cyprus government spokesperson, Cyprus is losing the halloumi trademark in the UK after failing to act on time was ‘an act of suicide’ for the interests of Cyprus.

Food trademarks are big business worldwide and the failure of the commerce ministry in Cyprus to respond on time to applications filed by a British company, John & Pascalis Limited, have now led to the trademark for halloumi cheese to become something of a hot-potato in Cyprus.

Halloumi cheese is big business and the production of halloumi cheese has been going on across the island for centuries and is believed to be the birthplace of the cheese. The earliest descriptions of halloumi were recorded in the mid-1500s by an Italian visitor to Cyprus. Whether halloumi originated on the island of not, it’s plain that it’s been made here for centuries and losing the UK trademark would be like Cheddar in the UK losing its trademark to Finland.

Reports are surfacing that a governmental investigation is under way and that the the EU collective word mark of halloumi, registered on 14 July 2000, remains in force across the EU, which includes the UK, and will still be in force after Britain’s succession from the European Union on March 2019.

It seems there is some sort of problem at the department dealing with such matters within the Cypriot government, as it’s reported that the ministry has stated it’s currently handling 79 similar cases in Cyprus and overseas, with a further 64 other cases already having been dealt with.

Seems like someone in the ministry has been out to lunch too long and hasn’t had their eyes on the cheese!

As a English expat author living in Cyprus, you may think my life revolves around cocktails by the pool. You would be wrong. In ten years on the island I’ve had my fair share of adventures and interesting experiences.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

You can also read a free sample of my series Living in Cyprus covering 2013 to 2017 with the new volume, 2018, to be published in January 2019 – Only £1.49 each volume on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

It’s a Cyprus Dog’s Life: In the Swim

Tom Kane

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December 5, 2018

The ‘H’ Team

Swimming comes naturally to dogs and my two English Springer Spaniels are no exception. As you can see from the picture above, Holly (the liver and white) and Harvey in front, taken a few years ago at the local dam, aren’t afraid of open water. Collectively they are know as the ‘H’ Team, because they do everything together.

Which is why I enjoy the summer so much because it gives us a chance to cool off by swimming in the pool. Sadly as time has gone by Harvey has become less and less interested in the water because of his age and arthritis. He’s 14 now and he’s slowed up a lot. But when we first arrived in Cyprus both of them loved the water, so much so they were both prone to falling in the pool when playing, so keeping an eye on them around the pool was essential. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to jump into the pool to rescue one or the other.

It’s a potential problem I’m acutely aware of and there isn’t a year that goes by, here in Cyprus, that a dog has been found drowned in a pool because the owner has gone out and left their dog outside, with open access to the pool. As you can see from the picture above, a toy rubber bone in the pool can be a fatal attraction to lively dogs. Since moving home in the last week or so, it’s been a bit disorientating for them and for me and the whole layout is taking them a while to get their heads round it. We have actually moved into an identical bungalow, but it’s in reverse to what we’re used to. However, the pool area is almost identical in that it’s the same shape and with the same amount of area around the pool for walking round. Of course, it’s winter here now and too cold to go in the pool, so we’ve not been in since we moved here.

This morning I did make the almost fatal mistake of assuming my dogs were coping with our new home and used to the pool after six years in a similar environment… similar, but not the same.

At five O’Clock this morning I awoke to a cold, dark, wet and miserable morning, with the rain lashing down. As always the first thing I did was let the dogs out for a pee. It’s been miserable weather lately and today promised more of the same wet weather we have had all week. I started the coffee and then stood at the back door waiting for two bedraggled dogs to wander in because the rain was so heavy. Holly came around the corner and into the kitchen, where I toweled her off. Next was Harvey, or so it should have been. But being Harvey, an inquisitive soul, he was probably sniffing something around the corner in the pool area. After a minute or two with no sign I decided to bring him in, or he was going to be soaked by the rain. But as I rounded the corner to the pool area what did I find… Harvey in the pool, swimming desperately in circles trying to find the steps out of the pool. He had never been good at finding the steps in the old pool, even after six years living there. This pool had steps on the opposite side and he was searching the area they used to be in the old house. Generally speaking they don’t wear collars around the house, I decision I immediately regretted. But luckily he had his anti-bark collar on and I managed, in the dark, to steer him to the steps and out of the pool.

With no apparent damage to him and both of us soaked to the skin, I rubbed him down, dried him off and then he decided that he had such a good time in the pool he was going to go a little potty with excitement. Harvey is a typical mad springer. After nearly an hour I managed to calm him down and he’s finally gone back to sleep, none the worse for his little adventure.

In future, I’m going outside with them come rain, snow or tornado, just to be on the safe side and because jumping in a freezing pool rescuing my dogs is not exactly a fun way to start a cold winter morning.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

You can also read a free sample of my series Living in Cyprus covering 2013 to 2017 with the new volume, 2018, to be published in January 2019 – Only £1.49 each volume on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Living in Cyprus: Storm Warning

Tom Kane

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December 4, 2018

Tonight there has been yet more rain and the latest storm is one of a long line of storms. But a few days ago what started out as a dire warning of a major storm about to hit Cyprus, turned out to be quite a spectacular light show. Nevertheless, it became a night with very little sleep.

I have no idea what time it was but I awoke to what seemed to be a flashing light outside my bedroom window. It was as if someone had a car parked outside with a signal light going on and off at irregular times. It wasn’t long before curiosity got the better of me and I opened the curtain to see what was going on. My first glimpse of the lightning was pretty spectacular. It was pitch black when suddenly the entire night sky was lit by a rolling curve of lightning that flew through the dark and forbidding clouds from one side of the sky to the next. There was no thunder though. It was as if Thor, the Norse god of thunder and lightning, had forgotten his thunder. It also seemed he had forgotten his rain, because at that time the outside seemed pretty dry.

For a full twenty minutes I was entertained with a spectacular light show that no firework display or laser show could have matched. Dark, boiling clouds were lit up on the left and this followed different sections of the sky being lit in an ever more spectacular display of natures force and majesty.

It reminded me of the first lightning display I saw in Cyprus, when I first moved here ten years ago.

I lived near Paphos then, on the coast, and was awoken in a similar fashion to last night. This time it was a thunderstorm out at sea with forked lightning. The odd thing was the lightning was pink in colour.

Until I saw this coloured lightning, I had only ever seen white lightning before, I hadn’t realised lightning can show many different colours depending on factors like haze, dust, moisture and numerous other particles in the atmosphere. All these can effect the colour by diffracting the the white light of lightning.

Nature’s a wonderful and complex thing, sometimes displaying natural wonders that are quite spectacular.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

You can also read a free sample of my series Living in Cyprus covering 2013 to 2017 with the new volume, 2018, to be published in January 2019 – Only £1.49 each volume on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Living in Cyprus: Holiday Time

Tom Kane

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December 1, 2018

Protaras Golden Coast

Okay, it’s actually cold and wet and damp here in Cyprus as I write this on the last day of November 2018. But it’s about this time of year many people, in Britain at least, look to booking their summer holidays.

According to official figures from the Cyprus government, the number of tourists arriving here in 2018 is up on last year. In Jan to Aug 2018 tourist arrivals amounted to 2,719,622.

Cyprus is one of the safest locations in the eastern Mediterranean, indeed in the world. There are coast to coast blue flag beaches and sunshine most of the year round.

We can always tell how well the island is doing by the number of ‘Z’ cars, that’s self-drive hire-cars with a Z in their registration plate, which is coloured black and a dark red colour. This year there have been hire-cars on the roads all year round. Even today, in the rain and with a storm brewing I’ve seen five hire-cars in the space of a few minutes.

So what is it that brings visitors to Cyprus?

It’s relatively safe
It’s not too expensive
Wall to wall sunshine
Great scenery
Blue flag beaches
Good hotels
Good food
Greek & English speaking

I’ve lived in Cyprus for ten years. I’ve seen the country go from a Communist government that brought the island to its knees and a banking crisis that almost killed off tourism, to a phoenix rising from the ashes to become a leading player in tourism around the Mediterranean. Cypriots are, in my experience, a resilient bunch who know their island needs a good tourist industry, which is essential to their future prosperity.

In ten years a lot of small, but significant changes, have been made to bring in the tourists. Like the ATMs you see almost everywhere now. Ten years ago there were only ATMs at banks, so getting money out was a bit of a problem for many tourists. Prices have been kept down and tourists are made very welcome by and large.

But the important thing is Cyprus has something for everyone, from a long and varied history, spectacular scenery and more than enough blue flag beaches and tourist hot-spots anyone could wish for.

Kalamies Beach Restaurant

Protaras Strip

McKenzie beach, Larnaca

Omodos village

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

You can also read a free sample of my series Living in Cyprus covering 2013 to 2017 with the new volume, 2018, published in January – Only £1.49 each volume on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Living in Cyprus: Another Briquette in the Wall

Tom Kane

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November 26, 2018

Moving house isn’t too hard when it’s only next door. All you do is pack up your stuff, carry it all next door and unpack it. That’s the easy bit. The hard bit is getting to grips with where everything is located in a house that’s identical to the one you’re vacating, only reversed. I work from home and have for six years walked out of my office, turned right and walked into the lounge and then the kitchen or outside the house. This new home is in reverse. So while I’m carrying boxes of my stuff from one house to the next, once I leave my new office I have to turn left. Ninety-nine percent of the time I’ve turned right. I would hate to think how many extra kilometres I have walked these last few days.

On a brighter, and warmer note, the heating system in our new home is different. The old home has gas fired central heating that’s a little bit cranky. The boiler is located outside in a small brick housing, which requires the user to get on their hands and knees, stretch in and increase the water pressure manually, before it will turn on and heat the water. That’s a daily chore.

Our new home has a wood burner, or briquette burner if you want to be a little more green. This only heats the main living room and we have fitted electric heaters for the other rooms if needed. Getting to grips with setting a fire is essentially plonking a 21st century office worker into a 18th century backwoodsman scenario. (As a footnote to this story, I’ve discovered a British meaning for backwoodsman – Informal British term for a peer who very rarely attends the House of Lords.) In days of yore a north American backwoodsman would have had to chop down a few trees, let them dry out a little, then chop the tree into logs and hey-presto, he has the means to keep warm in the winter. Not quite true as I have discovered.

First off I need to put some newspaper into the burner. Then a little kindling. I light the newspaper which in turn lights the kindling. Once a good fire is going I carefully lay a briquette onto the fire, shutting the burner’s door by 90%. Once the briquette is burning I can shut the door fully and open or close the flue depending on how much air I want to let in to make the briquettes burn faster or slower.

Okay, that sounds simple enough, until you realise that you’ve used up your one and only source of newspaper! I buy one newspaper a week, on a Saturday. Then you also realise you have to use a chopper to create your own kindling. I have never used a hand-held chopper in my life. I’m a computer programmer, a designer and a writer. Where in all these skills does it say in the manual of life you need to be skillful with an axe?

Chopper skills I need to learn on the job or I start to freeze at night. Cyprus is sunny during the day mostly, but the winter nights are very chilly.

So, dear reader, if you notice my average posts on here begins to suffer a few spelling errors and in general is getting less and less, it only means I’ve taken off a few fingers in my desire to be one with nature and as green as possible.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Read a free sample of my WW2 action/adventure novel Operation Werwolf – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Living in Cyprus: Moving Day

Tom Kane

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November 24, 2018

Moving home is considered to be one of the most stressful things you can do. I’ve never had a problem with moving, in fact it’s usually been pretty easy. I’ve worked in many cities in England, from Newcastle to London, Belfast to Birmingham, Ipswich to Epsom and even had a stint in Madrid and Paris.

I’ve turned down a few job offers in exotic locations, but perhaps my two regrets were not moving to New York USA and Winchester UK. I’ve been to America, Los Angeles, but only stayed for a couple of weeks. The New York job offer was almost 30 years ago and all I can remember about it was the location, Times Square. I was sorely tempted if only because as a programmer it would have looked great on my CV. But no, I turned it down because in retrospect I didn’t fancy living in such a busy location. Winchester, in England, on the other hand is somewhere I would have dearly loved to have worked. But down to the last two candidates and I lost out. C’est la vie.

However in my jobs, moving to new locations has been straightforward.

Here in Cyprus I’ve lived in Paphos and Larnaca. But perhaps the shortest duration was our first home in Secret Valley, just outside of Paphos. We came, we moved and withing a few weeks we had moved away again. It was a period in our early days here, ten years ago, that was full of turmoil interwoven with a steep learning curve. But that was then, and you can read a free sample of my move to Cyprus if you scroll down the page.

Today, it’s perhaps our last but one move, or maybe even our last move. But at least it’s pretty easy because we’re only moving to the bungalow next door to our current home. As I get older, I like my home comforts too much to stray to far!

Told you I found moving easy.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Read a free sample of my WW2 action/adventure novel Operation Werwolf – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

We All Know Trump is a Fart

Tom Kane

One Comment

November 21, 2018

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “England and America are two countries divided by a common language.” Being half British and half American, Churchill knew better than most the differences between our two people. He was of course correct in saying that and none more so evident than since Donald Trump came to power in the US. There have been so many legal wranglings and abuses of power that following the madcap antics of Trump and his gang has become almost like watching a soap opera. But this has also thrown up a lot of words and pronunciations I have never heard.

If the American president, Donald J. Trump has taught me anything, it’s a few new words and how to be civil and respectful… nah, I’m only joking. Civility aside, I have learned a few new words since Trump took office.

A good example of ‘new’ words is Closure and Cloture which mean the same thing. That’s something I’ve learned today, having never seen the word cloture before. Cloture is used almost exclusively to describe an American Senate rule that permits the shutting off of debate. Based on the French cloturer, which means a closing or in English, closure. That’s one of many new words I’ve discovered that we simply don’t use in Britain.

Redaction is another good one. It may well be used in legal terminology in the UK, I have no idea, but certainly I had never heard of it before Trump came to power.

Other oddities in our shared language have popped up while watching American news coverage, in particular the way we pronounce certain words so differently. The best example of that is Iraq. Amercans say Eye-RAK and we Brits pronounce it E-RAK.

Yes, the last two years of watching Trump make a mockery of the United States has been a lesson in how not to run a country, but it’s truly taught me that Americans and Britons are very different people.

As an English expat author living in Cyprus, you may think my life revolves around cocktails by the pool. You would be wrong. In ten years on the island I’ve had my fair share of adventures and interesting experiences.

Read a free sample of A Pat on his Back – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Read a free sample of my WW2 action/adventure novel Operation Werwolf – Only £1.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Read and download my FREE books on Amazon Kindle

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging

Living in Cyprus: 2015

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Hitler’s Secret Atomic Bomb here

An Indie Author Quick Guide to Blogging here

It’s a Cyprus Dog’s Life: Bark, Bark, Bark.

Tom Kane

5 Comments

November 19, 2018

If you have followed Harvey’s illness you will know he’s been very anxious since we brought him home from the vets a few weeks ago. So much so he was constantly barking if I wasn’t in the same room. He even barked if he couldn’t see me despite being in the same room.

That has now thankfully passed and he’s a lot happier dog. We still have a long way to go in his treatment but he’s walking with greater confidence, jumping up low steps and able to walk down a few steps at a time. He is thankfully stumbling less and less as his spinal injury recovers.

But the poor boy has a small problem derived from his original injury. He goes out and has a normal wee, but on occasions he will do an involuntary wee indoors. Again, this we are told by the vet is normal and should clear up. But the poor boy has also caught ringworm, probably either during his stay in the vets or from the innumerable stray cats that wander through our garden at night. He’s certainly in the wars, but he’s a brave fighter.

Interestingly our other springer, Holly, initially ignored Harvey when we brought him home, but the pair are now re-bonding. We assume she knew he was ill and wanted to distance herself, even to the extent she wouldn’t let Harvey lick her. Now she’s allowing him to lick her.

Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Download my FREE books on iPhone Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

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Download my FREE Books on Amazon Kindle

Download my FREE books on iPhone Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Download my FREE books on Kobo

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here

Download my FREE books on iPhone
Living in Cyprus: 2015 here