Third Adoption Anniversary

Born Free

Jen was allowed a run in the garden at lunchtime...

I could hear Paul shouting at her as she headed towards the drive. 

Give her her due, she ran back up and down the lawn a couple of times before heading straight through the building site, out through the ungated gateway, across the road, down to the river, back up to the road, along it at top speed, up the drive and completing her jaunt back at the extension. She was hardly out of breath and looking very pleased with herself. 

I will feel a lot happier when we get the enclosed back garden sorted.

Doggy Post

We are at the time of year that many pet owners fear. Luckily we have only one dog that is terrified of loud bangs.

It was bad enough last week when we had the fierce hail storms with thunder. Jen was visibly shaking.

On Saturday evening we heard several fireworks although we are not sure where from, and they really set her off. Shaking, panting and walking round and round the room.

So we had been prewarned by Ann at the lodge that they were having a family party and fireworks on Sunday. 

I decided to try something new - wrapping her head in my pashmina. Paul thought I was mad but I hoped it may muffle the bangs. I thought it was working to some degree as when there were barking dogs on the T.V. there was no reaction from Jen at first. However, this did not last as the dogs continued to bark and Jen leapt up and joined in, shaking the scarf off as she did so. As it was there were no fireworks - maybe sleeping grandchild was our saviour.

The weather forecast for tomorrow evening is rain so maybe we will be spared again.

Not to leave Poncho out, our dog walk yesterday morning was towards Lintlaw, passing the house where Molly the Border terrier lives. This is always adventurous as if Molly is around she runs up and down her garden barking and taunting our two. Poncho in return twirls, leaps and barks back until we have dragged him past. Yesterday, however, she was safely indoors. Not to miss out on a bit of excitement though Poncho has taken to twirling, leaping and barking at a stone cat that is curled up sleeping on their doorstep and refuses to run away...

Alone Again...

I drove Paul to the railway station yesterday afternoon. There is some dispute as to how long he is away. We are not in disagreement on the date of his return, just whether twelve days and a few hours is 'just over a week' (Paul) or nearly two weeks (me).

So I am now settling in to life with the dogs.

Paul always accuses me of picking the evenings it is raining to have a bath and miss the late night outing. Well, there was no avoiding it last night... come 11 p.m. and I could hear the rain pelting down outside. I got their coats and mine on. As expected Jen didn't care but I had to drag Poncho out the door. He was digging his paws in all the way to the road, then shuffling along in a state of misery refusing to do anything. We returned, drenched and unsuccessful.

At least the sound of the rain drowned out the noise of the bats in the eaves - at least I hope it is bats. They seem to be getting noisier and noisier, with their chittering. I may find them entrancing flying around outside but they are becoming a pain in the **** when I am trying to get to sleep. I am now imagining them as I lie awake in the dark flying around inside the loft, thousands of them. And then breaking out into our en-suite like something from a Stephen King novel...

I still have not got my new camera, although the extra memory for it (from somewhere else) arrived after a couple of days. I sent an email off on Wednesday to find out what was happening. I got a reply in the evening saying they had none currently in stock but were expecting a delivery in the coming week. I got another email last night telling me "Your order has been reviewed and processed and the warehouse is preparing the shipment". So, what would have happened if I'd paid for the express delivery? Or does this mean that someone else did and has got MY camera???

I got a letter today from new building society that I am trying to give some of my money to, telling me the proof of identity I sent was not adequate. So I wasted several hours today
(a) trying to find a suitable document from the Inland Revenue (P2 that was sent was not acceptable) or DVLC to avoid the need for a certified copy of my passport or driving license. I found a VLA from 2006 but apparently they will only accept the latest one.
(b) Failing (a) I then failed to get our Lexmark printer/scanner/photocopier to photocopy. I tracked down via Google that the laptop needed to be plugged in even to just photocopy but it made absolutely no difference.
It's all very well in these times of banks in trouble/credit crunch in trying to spread your assets around but it is not that easy!

Action-Packed Day at Todheugh

Another first of country living for us today. Scottish Water came this morning to empty the sewerage tank. It is located under our rose bed, and seemed fairly straight forward. Apparently the only real problem was a request for next time to do it after we have pruned the roses.

Partly because of the sewerage tank being emptied and partly because I overslept we reverted back to a later dog walk. I had got them ready and we went out to wait for the SW man to finish. As we were waiting a Scottish Local lorry came by - road sweeping the edge yet again. Then another smaller SB van passed by.

As we set out for the walk we could see the van parked down the track by the bridge. The lorry was coming back. We waited. It stopped. We carried on. The van went across the bridge, reversed off the road and stopped. At this point Jen dived into undergrowth, and despite having her muzzle on emerged with yet another mole. She gave it a good shaking and then dropped it. I managed to pull her away, and it made a shaky exit to the verge on the other side of the road. We continued on our walk.

When we came back there was a temporary road sign on the far side of the bridge with a 20 mph limit and 'beware of skidding', shortly followed by a 'mobile roadworks' sign. Another 'beware of skidding' one on the other side. Jen had obviously remembered the mole and suddenly pulled towards where it had last been seen. I stopped her and could not see it so it may well have survived its ordeal.

We then went food shopping - one of life's necessities but it is so much more civilised being able to avoid the weekend. When we got home there was a council worker at the bottom of the hill trying to stop us taking the road towards Edrom. As we only needed to go about 20 yards he apologised and let us through.

They appear to be doing something to the road in front of the long bank...I'm off to look.
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wibblywobbly lines as time passes
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It was like something out of Thunderbirds...Mobile roadworks was a perfect description. They have completely relayed the road surface from as far as I can see up past Margaret's and the last I saw they were heading towards the bridge.

Lorry at the front laying tar.

Lorry behind with conveyor-belt putting gravel on top of the tar.




Lorry behind loading gravel into conveyor-belt lorry.



Vehicle (no idea what it is called - a non-steam steam-roller) behind just driving up and down bedding down the new road surface.

And this is on top (literally) of all the road repairs they did at the end of May...

Poncho the Hunter

Poncho is obviously feeling his caninity in question after Jen's recent exploits.

Not to be outdone earlier this week he dived into the undergrowth by the bridge and came out with...a Scotch pie wrapped in clingfilm.

Lost Dog Reunited with Owner

I just had to beat Huttonian to this scoop. Dogs AND FreeCycle. No doubt it will make the Berwickshire News next week...

~~~

Hi, (moderator hope this is ok)

A large tri colour hound type dog wearing a collar has been handed into
the BARK kennels Thursday Morning. We understand he was seen running
around Chirnside last night. He was picked up on the Chirnside Duns
Road near Briery Mill.

Please contact BARK if you have any information on 01289 306299

~~~

Thanks to Freecycle within minutes of posting a reply led to the owner
contacting the kennels.

Thank you on everyone's behalf

It's Never Too Late

I have started a new morning routine.

Get up whenever. Do not take the dogs straight out - do not want them to think that waking me up means they get rewarded! Have a cup of coffee, catch up on my email and start on the cardbox. Once coffee drunk then take dogs out for a walk. Feed dogs breakfast on return.

This now means I have a much longer 'free time' gap before the lunch time routine.

I am feeling quite smug about it this morning as the weather was very pleasant when we were out earlier and now (when we would have been out before) it is decidedly yukky.

~~~~~

I got 'buzzed' by someone I knew from uni via Friends Reunited last night. So after some faffing (my account needed reactivating) I went on and replied. It is now free to send people messages so I started trawling back through my 'places'.

I found my 'bestest' friend from primary school and memories came flooding back. We had been virtually inseparable until the age of about 10 when we had a major falling out and virtually never spoke to each other again. She moved away from our home town a couple of years later so we never did rekindle our friendship. I sent her a message apologising for the stupidity of youth. I am so pleased I did as I got an email back from her later that evening.

Jen The Serial Killer

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth but wildlife is another matter...

It started a couple of months back when a chick had fallen from its nest in our eaves onto the path below. After a brief game of 'tag' with Poncho she grabbed it back and ate it.

On Saturday Penny came over to pick elder flowers to make some cordial. We were heading towards the bridge when I almost had my arm pulled out of its socket as Jen dived into the undergrowth. She emerged with a mole in her mouth. It took quite an effort to get her to drop it, and I only succeeded when she tried to rearrange its position and lost her grip on it.

Last night as we were heading down the steps to the top of the drive she suddenly leapt into the pergola-covered oil tank area. Poncho dived in after her. A sudden loud squeal and I tried to pull them both back - I was worried they had found a hedgehog. I shone the torch in and could see something that was not prickly, and Jen was straight back at it. Out she came, shaking a very large rat. She threw it back down and I took the chance to drag them both away. On coming back about 10 minutes later I could see that it was still alive, and had crawled onto the bottom step. Jen was all for finishing the job but I turned them around and back to the house via the building site.

I must now go and remove the dead rat from our steps...

Berwickshire News Misses Animal Scoop Story

A mother and her family of three had a near miss encounter with a lorry at Whitemire stud.

An eye-witness gives the following account:
"I was walking back home with my two greyhounds, Poncho and Jen, when I heard the lorry approaching behind me. I turned to see where it was and pulled the dogs onto the verge. As I turned back I saw four stoats run into the middle of the road and stop. I held my breath as the lorry thundered on towards them. At the last moment they made a dash for it, and I saw them all reach safety and disappear through the hedge on the other side of the road."

The above is for Huttonian in case he is having animal-story withdrawal symptoms - although he hasn't yet featured our neighbours' (Sheila and Margaret) success with Australian terrier Melba at the Kelso show :)

Poncho had his own encounter with wildlife yesterday. In a quick internet search trying to find out what to do I found a great deal of conflicting advice. I decided a quick trip to the vet's open surgery was the most sensible course of action, where the offending tick was removed free of charge. I have now invested in an 'otom' tick remover kit...

Dog Days

I drove Paul to the airport on Sunday.

Two weeks in Pau with his 'other women' and I am now the sole focus of the dogs.

I feel trapped on the sofa - every move is watched and if I attempt to reposition myself they are both up and looking at me expectantly. I have to be careful with what I say as well. I told them to chill out yesterday. This was obviously heard by them as '????? OUT' and had the opposite effect of what I wanted.

Two weeks of getting up early - at least I am clearing my cardbox before the morning walk, and have started adding more in again. I won my match against Allan last week - well, I had a winning draw 4.5-4.5 but had a better spread of 43 points after nine games. A nail-biting finish if I had any nails left after my gardening...

A Good Day

Today has been a 'good' day.

We took the dogs on an unplanned long walk this morning - it was perfect weather, sun shining and a nice breeze. Over the bridge and up the hill to the Chirnside/Preston road. We continued on taking the road to Lintlaw, turning right at the top. As we approached the Billiemains road Jen and Poncho were up on their toes at the sound of a dog barking. Suddenly a hare came racing around the corner and ran straight up the road in front of us before veering off into the field on our right. Luckily there was no sign of the dog we heard chasing it. It took quite a while before Poncho stopped pulling me up the road in a state of great excitement. A little further along and they both dived into the undergrowth - a pheasant emerged from the back, squawking and flapping away frantically. There were no further incidents which was just as well - it still took them both about half an hour to stop panting when we got home.

I cleared my cardbox before lunch.

After lunch I got out in the garden.

I started weeding the left hand side of the high bank. Considering it is a year since I last ventured up there the bottom section was not too bad - one sack of weeds, moss and general debris. I was really pleased to find some self-seeded foxgloves - I had been hoping the ones I planted last year would spread. Unfortunately the top section looks as if the brambles have taken over again.

Rather than continue up that route, which is very wet and slippery, I decided to start on my next big project - a path up to the top from the right-hand side of the fruit bush area. It is the ideal route as there are no plants other than weeds up there. It will also give me access to the rest of that area, which does appear to have had some shrubs planted in it by the previous owners.

So far that section has been totally ignored by me. It is overgrown with ground elder, nettles and brambles. I had no intention of attempting to dig them out properly, that would be impossible. However, I have done quite a good cosmetic job on it - enough to remove all the crap down to the bare soil. I then raided our building site, selecting some of the good-sized flat chunks of concrete and stones. Back to my path and I now have a series of stepping stones up to the back of the tree stump which leads to the top of the high bank. It was too late to continue on, so I settled on clearing the weeds at the back of the gooseberry bushes. All in all a good session, as shown by five sacks of rubbish.

Jen to the Vet

Jen appears to have been jealous of Poncho's visits to the vet and developed a stomach upset last week. This only manifested itself in the evenings and overnight. After four evenings, including one when I slept on the sofa, it was time for her visit to the vet on Friday evening surgery.

He couldn't find anything obviously wrong. She was not dehydrated and her temperature was normal. However, she has been given some tablets (dog equivalent of Immodium) and is now into day two of three on a diet of boiled rice.

4 tablets twice a day. Jen is not like Poncho, who will just swallow anything you give him. The first four were given to her when she got back. She ignored them. Paul rubbed them with a smelly treat and she did then eat them. We were not so successful with the next four, but she did eventually manage three of them when Poncho tried to get them...

The next morning and they were mixed in with her rice. She was not impressed. I don't blame her - I don't like rice either. She is also a very messy eater, and we ended up with grains of rice all over the lobby floor. Poncho is normally a hoover for any spilt food, but even he ignored this.

Lunchtime - more rice no tablets. She was obviously hungry and tried her best. We have found that Poncho will eat rice if it is in a food bowl...

Last night I decided to allow her some Chappie with the tablets, mixed with a little warm water. This worked a treat. Poor soul must be very hungry now - never seen her lick her bowl so clean.
This was repeated this morning with similar success before her breakfast - more rice.

The tablets are working. We will only know if she is better when the treatment ends...

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...

Spot The Difference

Poncho has been very frustrated at not being allowed to go on walks - with the padding and pain killer he has forgotten that he has two broken toes. He just gets taken out to the garden to do what must be done. This is a bit of a palaver as we need to wrap his bandaged paw in a plastic bag to keep his dressing clean and dry.

In his bounciness after being taken out at 8 p.m. last night he managed to step on the plastic bag and before we knew it there was the bag with bandage fully intact inside - he had managed to pull his paw completely free.

So I phoned the vet's emergency number. As Poncho seemed okay - lying down licking his paw - we were advised to wait until the morning unless he was in obvious distress. Back to the vet's first thing this morning. Luckily the toes were looking a lot better and the vet was able to re-bandage it without having to sedate him. We are back to red bandage...

Jen, often not the keenest dog to go for walks especially if it is very cold or there are bangs, has decided that she does not want to go far on her solo walks. She digs her paws in and other than dragging her there is not much you can do about it when she is in that mood.

Life would have been much easier if it had been Jen with the broken toes...

Poncho in the Wars - Again

We decided to let the dogs have a run in Margaret's field this morning. The stubble field had been ploughed over the weekend and we know that she is also considering ploughing at least some of the hay field because of the number of mole hills in it, so future opportunities may be limited.

We let Jen off first and she trotted happily away. Then we let Poncho off and he quickly disappeared at speed over the brow of the hill. We wandered up and saw him at the other end of the field. He appeared to be hobbling. When we got to him he was looking very sorry for himself, and he was clearly suffering. He would manage a few limping steps and then stop. Paul took Jen home and then came back with the car.

While I was waiting for him David walked past with Florence, which normally causes much jumping, twirling and barking. Other than another two or three hobbles towards the gate there was little reaction. We managed to get him into the back of the car but had to lift him back out when we got home.

We gave him a half dose of pain killer with some food and decided to see how he was when we got back from shopping. Things were obviously not great as he had not broken into the kitchen and the lounge was still intact. His left paw had now swollen quite considerably. I phoned the vet and we got an appointment to take him in at 2.30 p.m.

Again he had to be lifted in and out of the car, and once inside took very little notice of a Yorkshire terrier waiting ahead of us.

The vet decided to keep him in to X-ray it - she thought he had broken his middle two toes. This was later confirmed, one very badly broken and the other one cracked.

He now has a very large padded bandage that we have to try to keep on for 10 days before he goes back for a checkup. No walks for the forseeable future, and no runs for at least 6 weeks. If the worst comes to the worst and the badly broken toe does not set it may have to be removed.

Doggy Post

This post is for my friend Jackie who recently complained that there were not enough photos of the dogs in my blog. It is a little delayed as my old laptop went to the place old laptops go when they refuse to boot up. My shiny new one arrived on Monday. I installed my photo software yesterday and had a few problems but eventually got it working. Then Paul said he had found an updated version for Windows Vista. I uninstalled the old version and downloaded the new version and it didn't work... Paul took over and did it all over again. It still didn't work... This morning he tracked the problem down to the device driver for my camera and then found that as my camera is so old there is no new device driver available for it. I uninstalled everything again and went back to what I had originally installed...

Well here they are enjoying rawhide bone treats. These were good value - it took Poncho an hour to eat his. Jen was still going over an hour later. At gone 11 p.m. she got up when she decided it was time to go out for the late night pee break, and then finished it when we got back.


Poncho and Jen were given a 'bath' last week. They are both so well behaved - they just stand there while they have water sponged over them, shampooed and then rinsed off. Poncho just loves the rub down with a towel afterwards.

When they had dried off I went over them both with their grooming gloves. A lot of old dead hair came out, and their coats are now beautifully shiny and silky.

Jen and Poncho - Nightmare Day

Yesterday was a nightmare with Jen and Poncho. It all started uneventfully enough with the first walk of the day.

Come 10 a.m. and off we set over the bridge and on towards the Preston/Chirnside road. We saw a rabbit on the road. I had just calmed them down when I saw David with Florence emerging from his drive. Luckily the dogs didn't, as they were straining at the leads to get to where the rabbit had been. When we got there there was much feverish sniffing from the pair of them and when Poncho cocked his leg I was too slow to pull Jen out of the way - all over her head and neck...

We continued on around the corner towards Chirnside. There had been some sort of accident a while back on that corner, obviously involving something transporting potatoes. I was very surprised to see that they had now all been bagged up, and the bags just left inside the hedge. We went as far as what we call the turning circle - this is a short track through the woods to a field where last summer you could see where tractors obviously turned from the flattened undergrowth - before heading back for home.

There was no sign of David and Florence so all was well, until we crossed the bridge and turned the corner. There they were just in front of us. Lots of barking, jumping and twirling as I dragged them back towards the bridge. David headed back the other way while I tried to get the dogs under control. He probably wondered why I was so long, but one of the poo bags had split in all the commotion and I was trying to re-bag it. Eventually I emerged with both dogs held by the collar - not particularly pleasant given Poncho's earlier party trick. We could still see David about half way along our bank, but I managed to frog-march the dogs up our drive and home.

Lunch time. We set off down our drive and towards Margaret's. A female pheasant emerged from the long bank followed by about five chicks, and they all crossed the road and disappeared into the undergrowth on the other side about ten yards in front of us. The dogs had actually behaved very well at this, and were just standing watching with interest. Suddenly the pheasant came flapping and squawking out of the undergrowth, flying straight at the dogs. She obviously thought they were a threat to her chicks. I managed to pull them backwards. She came at them again. I was dragging them back towards the drive - they did not have their muzzles on and although the pheasant was brave she was also very stupid. Luckily I managed to get them far enough away and turn them around to walk the other way.

For the evening walk we went towards Craigswalls. They had behaved themselves, and as we headed back approaching the brow of a hill I spotted Karen heading towards us with her dog Ben. I was lucky that they were not visible from Jen and Poncho's viewpoint, and turned around and headed back the other way. I guessed that she would be going into Margaret's field and when I judged it would be safe turned back for home again. I was right. However, the dogs had guessed something was up and Poncho started jumping as we approached the field. He spotted Ben and he walked/jumped all the way back to the gate to the field. By this time Ben was no longer visible and we got home with no further incidents.

This morning I awoke to Christmas. The stuffing from the cushion was again over the lounge floor like snow. Poncho had found the musical snowman I had put in Paul's stocking, and was running around with it in his mouth to the sound of Jingle Bells.

On this mornings walk, however, they were both perfect angels...

Border Raiders

On Thursday Aldi had garden parasols and bases on their 'Special Buys'. I did a little research on the internet and decided they were very good value, especially the bases. It was a lovely day so I got my car roof down for the first time this year on the trip into Berwick.

When we got there they had already sold out of the bases, but we bought a parasol. I then had the bright idea of phoning Maureen to see if the branches near her still had the bases. We didn't have her phone number on us but Paul got it from one of the enquiry numbers. She very kindly said she would try, and managed to get the penultimate one from her branch for us. She will bring it down when she and Colin come to stay for this year's Jim Clark rally, which will be going past our house again this year.

Friday morning I spent removing an agapanthus that I had brought up with me from Sandhurst from its pot and dividing it up into four. I potted them up and gave one to Anne.

Maggie over at Preston had sent me an invite to her spring opening of 'Outside-In' - urns, pots and other garden accessories. I asked Anne if she would like to come along so it was arranged that I would pick her up on Friday afternoon. It was another lovely day so I put my roof down again - Anne said that it was her first time ever in an open top car!

We were a little disappointed when we got there - there were a few garden things but I think our expectations had been a lot higher. I did buy a garden ornament pottery squirrel which I will have to find a place for him to peek out from. We met Penny, who is a good friend of Anne's, and I had met for the first time at the Berwickshire Bridge Congress recently. We all came back to mine for coffee.

I had missed my garden over the weekend, and on Monday morning did my patrol to see what developments had occurred. Jean had invited us to come over some time to see her garden so we arranged to go over in the afternoon, and she had said to bring the dogs. I was somewhat nervous about this as she has two dogs of her own and we weren't sure how ours would behave.

As it was they were fine. It must be a territorial thing and they knew they were the guests. We all went for a walk together up to the top of a hill where we had an excellent view of the countryside for miles all around. Other than Poncho wanting to be in the lead and occasionally being over enthusiastic in his interest in the other two dogs he was very well behaved. Jen, after the initial sniffing, acted as if there were no other dogs around.

When we got back Jean showed us around her garden. It is the complete opposite of mine - dry, flat and alkaline. It was thriving with a great variety of shrubs, trees, perennials and vegetable patch. Many of the shrubs had been raised from cuttings and were now enormous. It gets a lot more sun than mine, and where we had plants in common hers were well ahead of mine in size and flowering.

Jean then got a spade and a large pot, and dug up pieces of a variety of plants for me - euphorbias, viola, Japanese anemones, phlox, polyganum, thyme, echinops (?) and a large clump of something I have forgotten the name of already but I divided into six decent sized plants when I got home. She also insisted on giving me a cutting of an unknown indoor plant - I am not good with house plants, the average lifespan of them normally being measured in weeks...

We stayed for a coffee and chat, and then headed back for home after a very pleasant afternoon. Poncho was even very good in the car on the way home - he lay down, which is almost unheard of, rather than standing staring out of the window. I spent the next hour or two potting up my goodies - it looks as if there are only a couple of casualties that may not pull through.

Jean is invited back to us for a reciprocal garden viewing/raid...

Paul also went raiding over the weekend on the garden budget. Spurred on after chatting to Anne he bought an electric lawn rake from Aldis. It lasted one day before it broke and was duly returned this morning and the garden budget has been re-credited. The only trouble is that he is now enamoured with the idea and is looking at more expensive ones. I am now suggesting the garden budget is split into two - lawn/verges (his responsibility) and borders...

Rabbit's Revenge

I spoke too soon...

We noticed on Wednesday evening that Jen was struggling a little to stand up - her back legs looked very awkward. On Thursday morning we were woken early by whines. Paul went downstairs to check and found Jen lying in the hall feeling sorry for herself. When he got up for proper she had not moved, and did not want to go out. In fact she did not want to move. All attempts to get her to stand up resulted in squeals of pain.

We managed to manoeuvre her duvet under her between us, just in case we needed to move her and also for damage limitation...

Paul phoned the vet when they opened at 8.30 and asked for someone to come out as there was no way we were going to be able to get her up and in the car. They were very good - I needed to go into Duns to get some shopping and when I returned the vet had already been and the hall was clear of dog and duvet.

Paul said that when he arrived Jen got up, albeit slowly. Typical. He gave her a thorough examination but found no injuries. He thinks it was just her muscles seizing up and aching from the rabbit incident. I can relate to that - it is normally two or three days after I have been gardening that I really ache. He gave her an injection of pain killer and a prescription for more pain killer to be put in her food.

On Friday she was a lot better but in the evening Poncho was showing the same symptoms and yesterday we were getting little squeals from him when he got up, but unlike Jen nothing was going to stop him going out. Jen is back to her old self now so I think we will give Poncho the rest of her pain killer...