Photo Diary

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Freedom at last!

Monday, April 30th, 2007


DSC_0012.JPG, originally uploaded by michael_jecks.

For those who’ve been wondering about the puppy (she’s still only eight months or so), she was given a full clean bill of health on Wednesday last week, 24th April. Since then, she’s been free to run about. I was sensible. I took her for a walk, then played with her a little, just to see that she would be tired and ready for a rest for the afternoon. Instead, she immediately set about tormenting our old Bernese, then stealing everything she could from counter tops, tables and window-sills. And then robbing the baffled Bernese of her favourite toy again. After watching her chasing the older girl about our yard for the twentieth time, eventually I locked her in her cage. To be honest, I think she was rather glad herself. She was asleep in moments!

Puppy is less of a puppy now

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007


Puppy is less of a puppy now, originally uploaded by michael_jecks.

Berry had a very nasty infection when she was only six months old. It’s called Discospondylitis, and it means that an infection has clambered in between two vertebrae. In Berry’s case, that meant that she was literally having her spine eaten away. When I saw the X-rays, I was horrified to see that she’d lost the bottom third of the joining surfaces of two adjacent vertebrae and the disc in the middle.

The worst thing was, there was no way to see what was the matter. All I knew was that, during a period of play, she suddenly started yelping with pain, and it took a week before vets could work out what the problem was.

Still, she’s well on the road to recovery, two months later, and with luck she’ll be fine in another few weeks. I say hopefully, because I need some uninterrupted writing time!