Star

I meant to post these pictures of Star's weekend last week, but other subjects came up (like poor Lennox) that were more pressing so Star got bumped to this week, but I'm sure she understands. Last weekend the forecast was for the last weather resembling anything like summery so we decided to make the most of. On Saturday we headed for the beach. Both our dogs love the beach, but for different reasons. Buddy loves to chase a ball across the sand and then cool off with a paddle. Star loves to dig for all she's worth and then sit and contemplate life. I managed to capture her doing just that in the first picture here, and it's one of my favourite shots of her. She can be a little monkey, but she does have a serious side.

Star has gone from strength to strength since my last post about her, The Restorative Power of Baked Potato. She is so much better that she's been back on the dog food for weeks - being indulged with baked potato is a distant memory, thank goodness. I'm sure she would choose being out of pain and being able to move around freely over the molly coddling she received.
 

It's four days after Star's TPLO surgery for a ruptured cruciate ligament now, and it's been a rough four days for us all, but especially Star. She doesn't take pain well, and I don't blame her if I'm honest. She is normally such a cheerful dog and it's been upsetting to see her spirits and her tail down for so long. She refused to drink until yesterday, so we've been dosing her with water using a syringe from a bottle of children's medicine. She has objected to the procedure, but eventually resigned herself to it.

We wanted to get out and about recently to enjoy the good weather we were lucky enough to have in the UK, but we had a problem. How could we take Star out and about when she is only able to use three legs? Since her cruciate ligament rupture she has been completely lame in her hind right leg. Then we remembered the stroller we bought when she was a tiny puppy. We ordered it before we even brought Star home as we suspected she would never manage to keep up with or cover the distances that Buddy does. We were wrong; once she was about ten months old she has had no problem keeping pace with our Labrador. She did use the stroller when she was little, and we brought it back out to save