A Christmas poem - by Molly

After our recent seasonal visits and all the chaos Molly decided to put paw to paper to give her thoughts:

Misunderstood

I love to go out visiting, I'm really very sweet,

My coat is brushed, my collars clean, so I'm all nice and neat.

And as for my behaviour, it's really very good,

And if it's not, it's not my fault, I'm just misunderstood.

I'd never seen an indoor tree with lights on it before,

I only thought the balls might look better on the floor,

And sparkly bottles are such fun when pushed over and rolled,

With humans moving very fast when I pick them up to hold.

If they put things on a table, and then don't let me see,

Who wouldn't pull on the cloth to make them nearer me?

And who would keep food scraps in a bin upon the floor,

If they did not want me to keep dipping in for more.

So now when we go visiting lots of people are not in,

Seems very odd, mum says they are really just hidin'

Mum says it's all my fault, and I must learn to be more good,

And I tell her I am angelic, and I'm just misunderstood!

by Molly - aged 2 and a bit

Christmas

Christmas is a time for visiting folk - so visiting we did!  Over the course of our visits Molly managed to remove a bauble from a Christmas Tree, search through a stack of presents under a tree like a crazed drugs dog, go bin raiding, bark at musical ornaments, discover snow globes move when whacked with a paw and last but not least try to pull off a tablecloth to get at the food on the table.  Good job Christmas is only once a year really - maybe everyone will have forgotten by next year when we schedule our next visits!!

I was also very spoiled by Mollys Auntie Marianne and a lovely generous and talented lady who took a fantastic picture of Molly.  Here is Moll investigating

What is it?

Well I have no idea who that is supposed to look like?

No look at me - me I said - MEEEEEEEE

It is a fantastic picture which captures her personality perfectly - what a lovely present!

Fun with friends

As well as physio exercises Molly is allowed as much free running as she likes so we have been meeting Auntie Tricia and her dogs Leo and Poppy for walks over Coundon Wedge.  Thankfully we seemed to have turned a corner with Mollys behaviour off lead and she is now much more reliable and checks in with me frequently as well as generally staying with me rather than going off hunting as she used to.
She has very much enjoyed her runs with the other dogs and despite her knee problems is a happy girl!!

We even managed to fit in a little posing when the dogs had ran around enough to satisfy them.

I had not thought about it at the time we took the pictures - but looks like Mollys problem with being asked to stay when she is near another dog is fairly sorted as she seems to have no problem having her photo taken so close to the lovely Leo.

Not quite right

Although Molly was recovering from her hurt I was not totally convinced that all was well so decided to take her down to Cardiff to get checked out properly.  Before the serious business of the vet check we met up with a crowd of friends for a walk as Cosmeston Lakes.  17 dogs all got on brilliantly and we had a great time.

The next day we got down to the serious business of the vet check and unfortunately the conclusion was that she has luxating patella affecting both knees and needs to build up a significant amount more muscle than she currently has.
She had some acupuncture and then a session in the hydro treadmill as well as given a whole load of physio exercises to try and sort her out.
We have been working hard on the exercises and also had some acupuncture locally and my local vet feels she has improved her muscle mass a fair amount already so hopefully things will not be too bad.