INJURIES!

Mabel: Well I've had a visit to Katie and she says I'm much better. BUT THEY STILL WON"T LET ME OFF THE LEAD. I'm like this until Friday. They do allow me to trot and I got to paddle on Tuesday but it's all getting so boring. I just want to run and chase and ambush and run. I've also got a boot on. Again. Because we're doing so much walking on hard surfaces my paw is getting hard and I'm getting wax on to soften it. Morris gets to do what he wants but then he's been limping too. He's skinned a pad so he's wearing a boot too. Ewen has a sore knee so he's wearing a support, sometimes two. We are all so decrepit!!

Morris: No matter how sore Pam or Ewen are we always get our walks. I'm enjoying the peace but my paw was sore the past few days. I really skinned a pad on my back paw and had to walk hen-toed and limpy. Mabel says it's because males always make a bigger thing of it when they are ill. Females just have to get on with it. The boot helped. I also enjoyed getting some attention. It's all been about Mabel recently. Making sure she's on the lead, making sure she's getting walked where she can't want to run, keeping us away from rabbit and tree rabbit areas so she doesn't want to chase, no ball throwing because she'd want to run. It's all so BORING!

FED UP!

Mabel : This staying on the lead thing is driving me nuts. I am very fed up. Morris, bless him, doesn't help. He keeps running after things and then coming back and asking me why I'm not running too. We usually chase together. Ii's nice to know he's missing me. I've has laser again and at least it meant I didn't have to do hydro. Just watched Morris do his.

Morris: It's not so much fun chasing things on my own. There's no one to compete with or do pincer moves with or to egg me on. I'm trying to get her involved but she's on the lead all the time. I know she's getting fed up. In the long run I know it's better for her but she is getting a tad upset.

LEADS!

Morris: I am having the most amazing time. Mabel is lead bound so I get to run about without worrying what's she's up to, where she is, or does she need a hand chasing something. I get to play with the ball without being charged down, ambushed or tackled. I've made chums with some new pets because she's not there sticking her nose in, being the life and soul of the party. All in all it's been quite fun. I am more tired because I'm running about more but this is just idyllic. Mabel: I had laser and massage on Wednesday. It was brilliant. I just fell asleep. So warm and relaxing. Things are lookng better already but I'm still on this lead thing. I managed to break it the other day. which astounded everyone. I saw our friends Lexi and Murphy and wanted to say hello. Pulled Ewen over and pulled the lead to bits. Pam kept going on about F=ma or something like that and that I really must have leapt forward.

Anyway, having sore joints means that I need to be comfortable when I lie down. Usually it's Pam who gves me jacket, coat or jumper. Managed to crack Ewen!!!!

OH DEAR!

Morris : Been a quiet week. We went to see Katie but I wasn't really involved. They took my wee sister away and did a whole lot of things to her. I missed her. When she came back she wasn't allowed to run about. She's on the lead for six weeks. This means I get a lot more freedom. I don't have to keep checking on her all the time. Nor does she keep ambushing and attacking me. And I get to give smells a really good sniffing without being interrupted by Mabel sticking her nose in. It has its benefits. On the other hand she is the one that finds things to chase and I'm missing that.

Mabel : Thursday was a bit brutal. They said I was going to visit Katie, our physio, to get some laser on my knee. When I got there Katie gave me an examination and led me off to see a vet. Next thing I know I'm being led away and then I wake up in a strange bed. And then I'm given drugs that make me a bit woozy. I really needed a run to clear my head but I'm not allowed. I had to make do with sticking my head out the window and letting the wind clear my ears. Very fed up. No running. Hurrmmppphh.

Mabel had a bit of a limp. We took her to see their favourite, wonderful physio and hydrotherapist Katie Roethenbaugh, at Greenside Regenerative Therapies and Rehabilitation. Katie gave her a once over and took her off to see one of the vets there Suzie Bendall. The stars alligned. Suzie had a cancellation. She didn't like the feel of Mabel's back right knee. Over the next few hours Mabel was given an absolute work over. Every part of her body was X-rayed, with the practice head Andy Armitage checking in too. At not even 5 years old, it turns out Mabel has bad arthritis in her knee, which has given her arthritis in that left shoulder she's always moaning about. She even has it in her toes. She's on limited walks for six weeks, medication and physio. We cannot convey how amazingly lucky we feel to have Greenside so near. They have become friends and are so supportive. It was perfect fate on Thursday. We are so thankful. Katie and Suzie were just AMAZING. Mabel, like Pam, will always have arthritis but with care, physio and some meds we hope she'll be running again soon. Maybe not up hills and dunes but enough to feel the wind in her ears and enough to seriously irritate Morris.

CLOCK CHANGE.

Mabel and Morris : The clocks have changed and we are out seeing a lot of dawns now. We have to admit the change in time and loss of an hours sleep did knock us a bit. We are up early to catch the early rabbits. We wish!! Met the dog walking group. Mabel just loves Wee Hector. He's a Yorkie. Leader of the pack, he is. Small but feisty.

RUNNING.

Mabel : I like to run. And I like to chase. When we go to the beach I can do both. We went in Pam's car because ir's cheaper to run than Ewen's mobile kennel. Apparently someone has started a war and it's affecting fuel prices??? Anyway, we got to go to the beach again which I just loved.

Morris : She does love to run. She'll chase anything. Rabbits, birds, other dogs but especially me. Just look at her legs in that picture!!!!!

HOLIDAYS.

Mabel and Morris : This is going to be a biggie because we have been away and have been visiting places, meeting new things and an awful lot of new people! It all started at the beginning of February. We left, duriing the night of the first and arrived on the Isle of Wight in the morning. It was our first ferry ride. We were allowed in the main salon because we were so well behaved.

The weather wasn't great but we soon settled in. We went to a beach in Yaverland A LOT. There we could run for ages, play ball, try and attack each other and meet new dogs. It was a really friendly place.

We also discovered Apply beach which we both adored. It was busy and we met lots of new admirers. We played golf, with Ewen, at Freshwater and the people there remembered us , but not Ewen, when we played again.

We walked to see the Needles. Bit scary steep!!

We went to a big house where we fitted in well.

The whole island was really dog friendly, bars, cafes and even restaurants. We were different from any other dog there, so we got a lot of attention.

But that went to a new level when we went to the Cotswolds. There are lots of Asian visitors in the Cotswolds and they hadn't seen dogs like us before. They either avoided us as if we had fleas or they wanted a picture of us......and even wanted their picture taken holding us. It was tiring but Mabel, in particular, showed off. We visited lots of lovely wee villages and towns. We visited Bath and ate out. We went to Glouscester and Cheltenham, Chepstow and Quenington and Bibury and Burford.

Then we went to Oxford and had our picture taken with a bunch of lovely Japanese people who kept stroking us and saying ooooo. In the pub we were surrounded by Australians who reckoned we would be good for the rabbits........ and we got our picture taken. All this fame and attention is lovely but sooooo exhausting It's just cause we're big dogs. Luther, Orry and Murphy would have been the same. All the dogs we saw were wee, apart for the odd Labrador. We had a fab time but getting back to our own beds was just bliss.