News Hounds Ady & Flo www.sunlive.co.nz

The water jump was my downfall, and so like Valerie, I went from tears of pain, to grins of joy.

There were drugs involved as well. Really, where is the problem? Miss/Mr Upchuck was only abiding by the theory that they would not make them unless they were good for you.

But I digress. The boss had to make a visit with me to Joerg the Mobile Vet, as I fell at the last hurdle. The bloody water jump did me in again.

It all started with the boss putting me through my paces Saturday morning. His training regime is East European! All was going swimmingly until we reached the last obstacle, a huge lake. Seeing two black swans on the water, the event changed from the dogathlon to my main event, swan chasing!

I get so engrossed chasing these pests, time has no meaning, so when I started to realise that the noise and abuse, coupled with hand signals, from the old bald headed dude in the second row, was actually the boss wanting me to get out of the water, I was rather exhausted. So getting me back to the kennel and being dried was a cool option, but after an hour, my second best leg joint began to swell (like a certain athlete's trousers) and a further few hours later I could not walk. It was a hoot though having the boss carry me out in the pouring rain to go to the toilet.

Sunday morning enough was enough, so a call was placed to Joerg, the Mobile Vet in Totara Street the Mount. He is the man!

The day progressed like this: examination, injection, sleep, and apparently pictures were taken, wake up, wobbly still on my pins, and then discover a green bandage where my leg used to be. Oh joy. But all is good now, Flo is under control (yeah, right) and the green skin comes off Wednesday morning, sweet!

Now a verdict has not been reached on what actually occurred, but Joerg reckons my leg had been used by a stinging thingy as a dart board. Could have been a hornet, could have been a whitetail spider. Who knows, but it sure hurt, so I am with ya, Val!

Now I have to mention the way I was treated by Joerg and his crew at the Mobile Vet Centre, simply superb, so many thanks team from the bossman and me, and if any of you canines out there need to visit a hospital, Mount Mobile Vets is the place to be.

Till next week, Ady.