Yay for Jakey…..

Today was another in a long line of vets visits.  You may remember that Jake the dog busted his leg way back in October.  Well it turned out that he had popped his ligaments and snapped off the bottom of his femur.

Now anyone who has had a similar injury will tell you the bone healing is easy compared to the ligaments.  The vets wanted to operate and put a metal framework in but I wasn’t keen.  I don’t believe in surgery as a first resort.  Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with surgery the way I know some people are against it….. I just believe that Mother Nature is amazing at repairing things and we often don’t give her the chance.

Of course it’s a lot easier when you’re making the decision for yourself.  But in this case, it was for my dog.  I basically had three choices :

1. Surgery to rebuild the ligaments and put a metal frame on the leg, pins etc….
2. Strap up his leg with a splint and see if it heals
3. Amputate the bottom of his leg

Not a nice list of options.  However I decided to go for option number 2.  I had a similar injury many years ago and that was the option I chose for myself, so I felt it was ok to choose this for him.

That’s when the on going visits started.  Since the end of October he has been going in to the vets roughly twice a week to have his ‘cast’ changed.  This was basically a splint bound onto his leg with lots and lots of bandages.  It also had to be kept dry as once wet you couldn’t dry it off.  Of course getting Jake to understand this wasn’t easy.  So no walkies, especially in the snow.  Well, 8 weeks later it was time to see if his leg was able to support him without the splint (I might add that he had broken 3 splints bounding about on it while it was bandaged up).

My heart was in my mouth as we got him down off the table and tentatively allowed him to put his foot down on the floor.  Then disaster!  He immediately tried to jump up and down, squealed in pain and hopped over to ‘mummy’ and refused to leave my side again.

Hoping it was just the initial shock I brought him home and flopped on the sofa feeling sick to my stomach.  However slowly he started using his leg again and now 4 days later he’s happily bounding about on it.  Phew!  Obviously he’s not out of the wood yet and walkies are a long way off (I know how he runs about)…..  but it’s looking like he’ll be able to enjoy a lovely holiday next summer exploring somewhere new…..  All of these shots were taken on our trip to Bonny Scotland in August this year.  Jake thought it was brilliant……

Winter Wonderland

Right now I have two dogs.  One is a very happy dog…. the other isn’t.

This is Pebbles.  Pebbles is a happy dog.  Why?  Well she’s just been for a run down the woods in the snow.  This as far as Pebbles is concerned is wonderful.  She gets to run and snow plough and bound about like a puppy.  Mummy is there and she even remembered her camera.

Jake on the other hand had to stay at home because of his leg.  This means Jake is not a happy dog.  There is snow out there and he should be outside playing in it.  Life just isn’t fair when you’re a doggie with a poorly leg…..

It was a beautiful day down the woods, even if the walk had to be cut short because I was freezing.  I had lots of layers on but still I could feel myself getting colder and colder.  I love the cold but it just doesn’t seem to love me.  It never ceases to amaze me how such a familiar landscape can be transformed by a dusting of frozen water.

While we were out I spotted these pine cones with snow on them.  How very seasonal.  I also saw some holly with snow on it but couldn’t really stop that since it would have meant holding up the traffic going into Tesco’s car park.  I didn’t really think that would go down well.

But the main object of desire for my camera was my beautiful Pebbles.

I took loads of shots of her bounding about and simply looking happy in the snow.  There are few things I love more than to be out and about with my dogs and my camera.  This last one of her has got to be one of the funniest shots of her I’ve ever taken. 

I have lots of shots of her with her ears bouncing up and down like pigtails on a little girl but having the tongue out as well really cracks me up.

Anyway now we are back in the warm, safe and sound with several large sacks of doggie food stacked behind the sofa to make sure we don’t run short.  Time to snuggle up and get out the knitting…. and maybe a cuppa tea

 

 

I liked it so much I’m making another one….

Remember that blue hat I made?  The one I photographed down the woods with the help of Pebbles the dog…  Well I liked it so much I’m making another one.

Yesterday we had a road trip to Woodbridge in Suffolk.  A new yarn shop has opened up and naturally we wanted a peek…. Well wouldn’t you?  Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no shots of yarn shops for you to oggle at (I know I’m always oggling at photos of yarn shops on peoples blogs) but I can give you a link to their website.  It’s called Twist and we enjoyed looking at all the lovely yarn there.  They’ve only been open a week so I was a little disappointed as a lot of their stock such as Manos del Uruguay hasn’t arrived yet.

However we did get a peek at the room which is being kitted out for workshops at the back and given it’s not to far away I’m going to be keeping an eye open to see if there will be anything of interest going on.  I understand that there will be courses in the new year so hopefully not to long to wait.

We also visited a more established shop called Anjays which sold yarn and fabric.  It was a much smaller shop but one of those you can mooch about in (provided you can find the room).  I do love a good mooch….

So anyway I came home with two balls of Tapestry yarn by Rowan.  I’ve knit with this before and it’s a nice double knit.  I have mixed feelings about Rowan as so many of the balls I’ve had in the past have contained knots.  I know some knots are going to happen but with Rowan I find a lot more than I think I should.

Anyway those two balls are being knit together into another Weekender hat by Woolly Wormhead.

If this hat works as well as the last one then I’ll be a happy little knitter!

Unfortunately The weather cut short our trip to the woods today.  Once again I forgot my camera so it’s just piccys from my phone I’m afraid.  The scarf is made from yarn I bought at The Yarn Gallery a few weeks back.  I love the colours and I’m hoping that the new Weekender hat will work with it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pebbles ran and ran and ran and ran around in circles.  I did take some video on my phone but as yet I’ve been unable to work out how to transfer it to my computer.  Maybe I’ll get it uploaded during the week……