Difficult Day for My Friend Joan

Our day started with an early morning phone call from my friend Joan who had woken to find her 11 year old poodle Leo unable to stand and in severe pain. She was very upset and took him to her local vet who discovered the poor dog's hind leg had popped out of his hip joint. Under sedation he put it back but it kept coming out. Joan couldn't decide what to do so we had several long conversations about her options. Ultimately she took Leo to the specialist centre and he has been operated on with the surgeon implanting artificial ligaments. He will stay overnight and have an 8 week period of recovery. Fortunately Joan has a grandson living with her who will be able to help.

 I embarked on the next bunch of windows to be cleaned - in the bathroom. The blinds and brackets had to be removed before the flyscreens could be taken out. I decided not to put the flyscreens back because removing them involves the risk of damaging the blinds and the brackets. I did break one of the brackets!

 We decided to sand and paint the oregon bench used for seating on the front veranda. I had previously coated it with marine varnish but paint seems to last longer. Anita was sitting down on the sanding job. 

We went for a 4km walk allowing the first coat of paint to dry. I have the invoice for the puppy so this is looking promising. His current carer sent me another photo which I am sure you will be delighted to see. Hopefully the fact he is outside the enclosure doesn't indicate he is an escape artist. We sorted through our accumulated dog and cat leads, toys etc most of which will be unsuitable for a tiny dog. I will probably put them on Gumtree as freebies since I can't donate them to the Animal Welfare League for some time. 

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