Isn't he utterly gorgeous?
He IS, isn't he?
Well, this compelling, cunning, caddish, caring, occasionally curmudgeonly creature has just attended an appointment with one of the lovely ladies at Vale Veterinary Surgery for his annual inoculations and general health check and has been declared as not only in reasonably fine fettle (as becoming for a dog on the wrong side of 10-years old), but definitely and decidedly In The Pink.
Isn't that great?
I always have this underlying fear that the vet will take one look at him and discover something utterly horribly (and possibly incurably) wrong with him that I should have spotted but didn't. Thus far, such a thing has not happened, but the fear is always there, every year.
He's even lost weight, down from 38 to 37.5kg (Aunt.1 will HATE that. Paddy has always been the tubbier of the two - Bingo is ridiculously skinny by comparison - and vets, like doctors, are overly fond of getting their knickers in a twist over the amount of girth a patient has, no matter how healthy they may be. She gets a lecture every year and it is a source of mild irritation that I don't); which made the lady vet very pleased.
Anyway, he took all the poking and prodding and heart listening and ear peeking and lump massaging (he has quite a collection of bumps now, all - proven to be - harmless and quietly growing bigger and bigger as time passes) like a champ; and as for the unavoidable stab with the needle...let's just say he was far calmer about that bit than Mommy was.
A highly successful visit, all round.
He is now sprawled out on his bed, dreaming happy dreams having had yet another happy day.
Good boy.
Someone deserves a bone.
And when he wakes up, he'll get one.
Alice x
P.S. in case anybody is wondering, the oh-so-professional looking picture above was taken 6 years ago. I don't have any recent pictures (a circumstance I aim to rectify over the next few days), but Bingo looks much the same now as he did then; just a little more (...okay, a lot more...) grey around the chops.
I think the silvered fur gives him an air of distinguished sophistication, anyway. And, needless to say, every other bit of him is still going as strong as ever it was.
In The Pink, indeed.
.....I am so happy.....
So happy to see another photo! ~ And what a good looking boy you've got there! I couldn't imagine life without our girls - who, by the way, shake and shiver the minute we pull into the vet's parking lot. A bunch of babies they are! :-)
ReplyDeleteAh, no such fears beset Sir Bingo Little Collison. He charges in there at full speed, greets everyone and everything in sight (as intimately as I will allow him) and then sits between my knees panting and looking about him at all the interesting things going on before barking uproariously at the sound of someone calling his name (and calling anyone else's come to that).
ReplyDelete...It's THEN that he tries to leave again, because he knows that the fun part is over and that at best he will be poked and prodded and his ears peered at (he hates that).
But once he is in there and he has wandered around determinedly but unsuccessfully trying to find an exit he stands calmly - close to the door so that he is ready for the second it opens again - and submits to whatever is coming.
Then again, this is the same dog that flinches and hides behind me when skinny little terriers bark at him and is scared of the sound of motor boats.
Brave boy, he is.
Alice x