IT is said that you learn something new every day but it seems to me that sometimes weeks can go by and nothing new occurs.

And if nothing new happens, how, on earth, can you learn something new?

Furthermore, at my age, it worries me that I might start forgetting things faster than I am learning them so that, in time, my head will become empty.

Now, whilst I accept that for some of you this might come as a blessed relief, I have decided, as my New Year’s Resolution, to discover something fresh every day and to try and retain this new found knowledge within my ancient cranium.

This, so far, has not been at all easy. Here we are only three days into 2020 and I have little of great interest to report to you. Day one started promisingly when I pointed out to my wife, with considerable excitement, that I had learnt that I was no longer able to cope with going to bed after midnight. Unfortunately, this could not be counted as original information, as she told me she had only been too aware of this for years.

Sadly, for me then, it was back to the drawing board. Day two saw me back at work and eager to make up lost ground.

Hard though I tried, this was a difficult day for novel data accumulation. Granted, a lot was happening but none of it was new. None of it was inspiring.

On the plus side, much of my current knowledge was, however, reinforced. I learnt again that no matter which day of the year it is, a dog somewhere will be scooting its bottom along the ground because it has full anal glands and not because it has worms.

I remembered with fondness that male Westies will invariably cock their little legs and pee against the reception desk as they leave the consulting room and my memory was stirred but not shaken as it was painfully reiterated to me that not all Border Collies can be trusted not to bite you when their nails are being clipped.

Despite all this, Day Two day ended with another blank in the new knowledge front. Today, however, I am not very pleased to say, was different. Enter, stage left, a cat with crispy, black ears and a cold tail. I’m not kidding.

This poor wee soul had ear flaps which were dead and sloughing off and a tail that was about to do the same. Closer examination revealed two toes that were similarly cold and lifeless.

The owner was concerned he may have been burnt or subjected to attack with some strange chemical. Some research suggested otherwise.

Cold Agglutinin Disease is a very, very rare, immune mediated condition in which components of blood agglutinate in the vessels causing thrombus formation with subsequent loss of the blood supply. With luck, we will save the cat but not his ears or tail.

Already, I wish life was humdrum and repetitive again and I hadn’t seen something new.