Mud, barbs and collars.

Ahh, to be back :)

The kids are both well, if a little exhausted. They've been enjoying running around (and through) The Bog Of Eternal Stench with Bruza and Mac, and even made a new friend in a Mastiff X named Tiger, who is very handsome indeed. Sahara is still being her usual elegant, ladylike self, and ruling the entire pack with her witchy feminine powers. 

She's been limping quite badly after her last two visits, so I'm looking at getting her into hydrotherapy or massage to see if it can build up her hip and leg muscles. I think it might be time to cut back all the jumping I tend to encourage her to do - I'm still going to keep up her agility training under a close eye, but no more big ditches and/or fences until she's stronger.

Phoenix is getting more mellow by the day, and would quite happily sit for hours on end with his head in ones lap, drooling slightly and looking at you in adoration whilst he gets pats. I've been training him to 'search' - every time we come home, I send him through the house with the signal and he goes in and out of the rooms checking for the sorts of breaking and entering trash/murderers our area is rather prone to. 

Sahara is awaiting her new collar and coat (in pink, of course) I've had ordered in, and Phoenix is looking radiant in her beautiful new studded Staffy collar. I've bought him about 6 since I've had him, and he hasn't liked wearing any (no, seriously. He will actually remove them if physically possible) or they've broken in a day or so. I've been waiting to get him the collar I did for months - Bruza and Mac have them, and they're totally durable - and finally, the day has arrived - I can, once and for all, rid him of the collar he came home to me with. It's a nice collar... I just don't like the thought of him still wearing something from his last home. I know, I get too involved :)

Yesterday I took the kids down to one of my favorite beaches, where they had a blast jumping in and out of the whitewash. As we were leaving, Sahara somehow got a sea anenome embedded in her paw, and as we were driving off she started having what looked like convulsions; jumping all around the car trying to bite her paw off. I quickly pulled over and parked (illegally) and both D and I spent a good half hour sitting on her to keep her still looking for the cause of all the pain in her foot. I washed her leg with water continuously, and it seemed to help, and as I was contemplating the idea of peeing on her if it were a jelly fish stinger, D found the spines in her pad. They were tiny, but deep, and luckily he managed to remove them and she soon calmed down enough to drive him. I kept her warm incase she went into shock (she was very, very upset) and kept a close eye on her all night as I was worried she might get some poison from the barbs, but all seems well. She's a little sooky today, but she soon got into bed this morning and snuffled me in her usual manner, so she'll be fine :)

I think I have a few more grey hairs to add to the collection though...