Poncho - Now I am Six

It was Poncho's birthday yesterday.

Treat number one was a visit to the vet to get his bandage removed. He is still hobbling as the skin between his toes has been rubbed raw, so now he is on antibiotics as well as pain killers. The vet thinks the cracked toe has healed well but the other toe is slightly twisted. She hopes that with the bandage off it will straighten back up. There is now much licking of paw.

Treat number two was to let him walk down the drive, along the road in front of the house and back up the side of the cowshed. This soon looked like a mistake - I spotted an unknown woman with a small dog coming around the corner of the road as we were walking down the drive. There was no way in hell that I was going to get him to turn round, but I managed to keep him back so he did not see the dog. Luckily they headed into the undergrowth towards the river and bridge, and the dog was soon out of sight. Poncho was so excited, walking three steps, sniff, pee, look back to see if woman was still visible. And then he started doing his paw scraping after peeing - not a good idea. The adrenalin had run out by the time we got to the cowshed and paw was being held aloft. It was just garden toilet breaks for the rest of the day...

For his birthday present I bought him a new outdoor jacket from the retired greyhound trust - his old one is covered in tiny rips where he went through a gap in a fence on one of his first adventures off the lead...