For those of you out there who may have been concerned about Tess’s fitness after her day at the vet’s being x-rayed etc while under anaesthetic, she was eventually passed fully fit and totally healthy. No bone or ligament damage and absolutely no sign whatsoever of hip or any other joint problems. Just a touch of probable soft tissue damage that she acquired goodness only knows where (probably while chasing a ball or a frisbee) and permission was given for her to return to work after a day or so to allow her to fully recover from the anaesthetic (note the shaved area on her right front leg in the above photograph where the cannula had been attached).

So, it was back to work two days later….Work that involved mostly low impact scenting, tracking and swimming (her favouritist type of work which she’d do it all day if I let her) along a stretch of Otter inhabited Cotswold river….and the weather was bright and sunny and springlike and altogether pleasant.