Swallows and Gladdich

This morning I saw the first swallows. In Dutch we have a saying that "one swallow makes no summer", but I saw two of them ;-)

The past week we worried again about Gladdich. We thought he ruptured the ligament of his other knee. Today we had an appointmet with our vet. The vet took our worries away, Gladdich has no problem with his other knee.
However, he has some trouble with his back, but knowing now for sure it is not his knee, we can go for longer walks.

So I went for a long walk with Chimay and Gladdich. Gladdich walked better at the end of the walk.

poor Gladdich

It was an eventfull month for Gladdich.

He had trouble with his right knee for some time, it went off and on.
In January he started limping again, but this time it did not heal, so we went to our vet in Dronten.
She took x-rays of both knees and you could clearly see some difference. In the right knee there was more space between the upper and lower bone and the knee was a tad bit swollen.
So the vet sended us to De Tweede Lijn, where we got an appointment with othopedic vet Jauernig. We decided Gladdich would get surgery on February 29th, first artroscopy and if needed ACL surgery.

Gladdich in the garden, before surgery

On February 29th we went to the clinic in Wilhelminaoord. Frank had to work that night, so Jacqueline went with us. Frank, Chimay and I picked Gladdich up in the afternoon. Chimay was very happy to see Gladdich back, you never know what can happen if you leave your Chow-companion at a vet-clinic...
The arthroscopy revealed a damaged, but not completely broken, ligament. So they went on and put an artificial ligament in his knee.

Gladdich was very pitiful and the first night was terrible, a lot of whining and restless.
But he seemed to get better quickly, after two weeks we were optimistic about his recovery. Unfortunately last weekend he made a wrong turn or so (we did not see anything actually happening) and now his knee is swollen and painful again :-(

Friday we go back to the clinic, for the sceduled appointment after 3 weeks, so we wonder what the orthopedic vet has to say about it.

New furniture

Our furniture in the livingroom needed replacement.
The couch (Montis WK-Elan) was not too bad, but there was that first torn in the seam. Frank's chair was worse (Montis Loge) worn out leather and there was a hole in the arm that got bigger and bigger. But not surprising, we bought them 17 years ago.
We looked at possible re-furnishing, but the leather alone is very expensive.

So here the last photo of the couch, Chimays favourite place:

and the last time Gladdich is looking out of the window on the red chair:

The past weeks we were looking around on the Marktplaats site (a bit like Ebay, but of Dutch origin and with different rules) and we found a big, ten year old, blue Leolux couch. With a matching table, the one Frank always liked in the days we roamed design furniture shops.

After we bought the couch and table, we found that our old furniture was worth some money too, a re-furnishing business bought them. We are getting handy in second hand trading ;-)

Chimay and Gladdich are not too fond of change, so the new couch was inspected first with wary faces. But within a day they found out not all change is bad, here Chimay on the new couch:

and Gladdich finds the new couch very comfortable:

Xin-Feng's Don Leo (Bobbie)

And there was suddenly our last visit to Bobbie, who lives in Dieren.
Time flies sometimes...

Bobbie was happy to see us back, and like most other pups he enherited his mothers attitude towards the camera. I have many pictures of Chimay, nearly all of the first four months of her life. Then, at 4 months, she decided the camera was NO fun and ever since most pictures are from her behind, or the back of her head.

But I managed to take a few pictures of Bobbie, decent enough to show ;-)
Bobbie is dark red and has a bit big ears, just like as Chimay.

very blue tongue:

I love his head!

Bobbie turned his head too late...

Xin-Feng's Dao

Today we visited Dao and Ginger, they live with Jan and Jessica in Veenendaal. Ginger (Xin-Feng's Charming Ginger) is Chimays sister and Dao's aunt.

Ginger and Dao were both happy to see us back and we had a nice evening in Veenendaal.
Dao dislikes the photo camera, just like his mom Chimay, but I managed to take a few decent pictures ;-)

Ginger:

Dao enjoys a chewy:

Jan with Dao on his lap and Ginger next to him:

and Dao again:

Xin-Feng's Desdemona (Desna)

The last rough pup we visited was Desna (Xin-Feng's Desdemona), she lives in Veen.
She is growing into a beautiful Chow Chow, balanced and square. She is a happy little rascal, happy to see us again.

Desna had no plans to stand still for a photo:

Frank kept her on place, but you can see she did NOT like it:

for a cookie she would sit for a moment:

In short a cute and stubborn little Chow, who has a great home, again a good visit!