Mission........Impossible......Failed !!

Its a good bit of kit...but..I think its a bit of operator error !!.....

Haggis and Dougal.....no pedicure today !!

Today was the big day.....for Dougal and his pedicure.....however... we failed !!

The vets arrived (3) to be precise !! to help with the mission to trim Dougal's feet. I had more helpers in the way of my parents also....we were ready ! or so we thought !!

The generator was strapped to the quad and it was Showtime !! I had read all the instructions and familiarised myself with the piece of equipment .....and the dart was loaded with the injection to knock Dougal out....for a little sleep ......

I walked down into the field, it was my turn to see if I could actually hit the moving target, I'd practiced on the bale of straw....but its now a moving cow ! Well as luck would have it....the wind started to pick up and it was just typical.....

I moved into my firing range....and stalked Dougal round the field..just waiting for the wind to drop and make my aim.....Dougal was not happy..and started to walk off...I followed and waited for my right time.... I fired the crossbow and hit my target right on the arse !!......however....due to operator error....the dart did not hold in the skin and there was a bit of an air leak on the syringe !! Most of the injection was lost in mid air !!....not ideal.....!!

However I managed to hit my target so in a way I was quite pleased.....I returned back to the vets....to re-fill......the syringe....now it needed 15ml of sedative to drop him...so another 15 ml was needed.......we began the process all over again..to re-fill the dart gun.....

The way the Medi-Dart works....is via a pump which you fill with air into the big orange piece of the dart, now on the needle side of things..there is a plunger which is pushed back as the needle hits the target....the air is then released from the air chamber and this then re pushes the plunger back to retract the needle out of the animal.....if the plunger is not fixed into its locked position..then this allows the liquid to pass through the needle. Are you following me...?

Mistake .....on our behalf......the vet loaded the liquid back in and I then inserted the pump into the bottom of the orange tube.....however...we did not check the lock valve on the plunger !!....It normally takes 4 pumps to load the chamber.....I gave one pump and the sedative....just squirted out the top of the dart !.....Oh dear...this was the second amount wasted.......

The vets were running out of sedative.......and we found the last amount....re loaded the dart and off I went back down the field........no pressure there then to get it right.....

I once again stalked Dougal round the field....and waited for the wind to drop and take my aim.........Bingo....I hit my target....for the second time....I was once again quite pleased.......however........we had put too much air in the chamber.....and the needle held for a moment..but the plunger pushed it out too soon.......and it only delivered half the amount of sedative......I walked back to get the pump to re charge the needle chamber again.......

I passed it to one of the vets...and he was going to top up the sedative with some more.....but he unscrewed the wrong collar....and the remaining fluid squirted out all over the floor again....

Now bearing in mind....the vets had no more sedative......that put pay to that.......so to round the story off....in a nut shell.....we failed....to get him sedated enough to trim his feet.......

Dougal had a bit of a lie down....but no where near.....sedated.......

I'm afraid its going to be another.....try....another.....day.....

Lets hope ....the operators.......have less error...... and the aim is just as good......

A bit of Trial and Error........I will persevere.......

No doubt .....when I succeed....you will know....about it !!!!!!!!!!