I've had a bit of a bad week with Barney my young Golden Retriever.  Firstly his old private parts injury started to bother him again (for those of you who didn't know, he sliced his penis open while running through some scrub at the local airfield - ouch!)  He's only a baby and the sheer joy of running out in the open air made him a little over-excited.  The vet managed, during a tricky operation, to stitch him up and he came home a few days later.  A couple of weeks passed and I suspected it had become infected (as he spent more time than usual cleaning it).  That particular area is very hidden and I couldn't really tell what was happening inside.  I booked him in for a check up on Friday morning as it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Thursday last week was the really stormy day and the winds here were unbelievable. After returning home from a very enjoyable 'wild walk' I hosed Betty and Barney down (don't tell Anglia Water) and dried them off on the back garden before letting them in the house. In the few seconds it took me to close the kitchen door, to stop them paddling through the house, four panels of fencing came crashing down next to the dogs and sent Barney flying, in a blind panic, down the drive and out into the road. Now, I live in a village that is not known for it's traffic, but, you guessed it, at that exact moment the fates conspired to place a silver Mini-Metro directly in his path.  I heard the squeal of brakes, and the thud, and, with my heart in my mouth raced to the road to see what the damage was. Fortunately, his youth had helped him to bounce and he was able to walk to me after I located him hiding in our garden, which was such a relief. He has taken a lump off his black velvet lip, just under his nose, and has a pink splodge there at the moment, but, other than that he seemed pretty unscathed, just shaken and a bit bruised on his hip (which must have taken the impact). The poor lady driver came back later on to check on him and he was well enough to lick her hand and wag his tail furiously. She told me that she rarely drives above 20mph through the High Street and I swore to myself there and then that I'll never mutter under my breath about, 'slow boats to China' ever again when I'm following a careful driver.

The vet prescribed some Metacam for his aches and pains and antibiotics to clear up his infected private area but one of them has made him as sick as a proverbial dog.  So, I'm back off tomorrow for a change of medication and hopefully he will be back to his normal high spirits very soon.  Let's hope he's learnt his lessons about running through long grass in an excited state and avoiding moving vehicles, albeit very slow ones!