Monsieur Bearnard...

Riley must have had some kind of adventure in the fields of broad beans while I was in Sussex. His paw swelled up a little and it looked like something might have gone into a small entry wound. We've been there and done it with grass seeds when Harvey was a puppy and he had to have three surgically removed from his ear. They can be dangerous things. A friend of ours had a Springer with a grass seed that travelled through to its spinal cord and paralysed it. It had to be put down. Terrible.

So, we weren't going to take any chances with this lump on Riley's paw. £241.75 later and he's had an operation to investigate and repair the tissue and had the paw stapled together. No foreign objects, just a wound. He took an extra hour to come round (snoring apparently) and he wagged his tail when I picked him up. I cried with relief on the way home. The vet had detected a heart murmur when he examined the paw for the first time and I was worried he might not be the best candidate for an anaesthetic.

Harvey paced up and down all day not quite knowing what was going on. He was pleased to see Riley again and did something quite amazing; he dropped his precious tennis ball into Riley's bed where he was resting. He never gives up his tennis ball for anyone. Must be brotherly love! Never mind that Riley couldn't pick it up with his cone on!

He's got to wear the plastic cone for ten days while the paw heals. So far he is pretty rubbish at negotiating steps and furniture. I've even lifted him into his bed after watching him repeatedly fail to lift his head up far enough to get in! He finally settled when I sat down with him on the sofa and luckily I had my latest project within reach. He's been fast asleep beside me for as long as it took to run up two arms, one leg and a French beret for Monsieur Bearnard! That was quite a long time actually. I haven't knitted for yonks and I was a bit rusty. I had to remind myself what skpo was! Definitely not my neatest piece of knitting but Monsieur Bearnard will be travelling on the dashboard of my jeep while we drive right through France to Italy.

(The bear comes as a free kit with the latest issue of Simple Knitting.)