We'll pretend we're walking home

I can’t believe that I haven’t written a blog entry for a month and a half? What have I been doing? Trouble is, there’s never a huge amount of variation in my life, so I tend not to think there’s anything worth writing about. And when there is, I forget! Plus, of course, a lot of people tend to keep up with what’s going on via Facebook now. Anyway, I’ve renewed, so I’d better get back to this blogging lark. What I thought I’d do is rather than write a huge update in a single entry – which will bore everyone silly – I’ll do it in little updates.

So let’s start where we left off with Max. Max has settled in nicely now. He’s confirmed our initial thoughts that he’s not the brightest spark (about two sandwiches short of a picnic, if you ask me), but he’s generally well behaved and very affectionate. And looking back at the early photos, he’s grown quite a bit – which is an achievement as he was already big for a Springer when we got him. The vet keeps telling me he’s putting on too much weight, although he agrees he’s not overweight. I don’t think he’s taking the growing into account.

So, how would the vet know, you ask yourself. Well, did I mention the lump on his front paw. I think I did – it was a histiocytoma (benign tumour) that’s common in young dogs. It should have gone away of its own accord but, of course, it didn’t. Then it became ulcerated and we had to have it removed. So for nearly 2 weeks Max has been wearing a Buster collar. He’s clumpy enough at the best of times, but he was lethal with that thing on. Anyway, for those of you who didn’t see the pics, this is Max looking very sorry for himself when I bought him home from the vet.



Of course, that bandage didn’t stay put for long, so the next morning we were back at the vet where the nurse decided to leave it off. We were supposed to keep it clean & dry, but that turned out not to be a problem as every time we tried him on a short walk it split open. So we’ve had nearly two weeks of no exercise for him. That didn’t stop him play fighting and chasing round with Jez though, and a few days ago he got caught on a bush in the garden and the Buster collar came off the worse for wear.



Fortunately he had his stitches out on Saturday. We left the Buster collar on round the house until yesterday to prevent him licking it so much, and then took it off as Dad & Pat came to lunch. Now I’m just making sure he doesn’t lick it too much – and he only seems to o that when he’s bored now.

So I’ll leave it there for now and maybe do another short update in a little while.