Yikes!  It’s been ages since I‘ve dictated to Mummy. Now we have to do it long distance, because Mummy is in Bad Zwischenahn for three weeks of rehab after getting a new knee. That repair work last year didn’t solve the problem and meanwhile the good knee was even more painful from carrying the burden.

It’s been a year of various walking strategies. Sometimes the knee was good and we did our normal walk through the fields or along Gráinne’s Woods, using Aunt Uschi’s walking sticks. Sometimes we did 2 walks of 45 minutes each. When her knee was really a mess, we drove into the fields and she used crutches while I determined my own speed off leash.  I don’t go too far away except when I dash into the field of 8-foot corn. Then Mummy has to wait and call every now and then in case I lose my orientation in the maze. Twice Mummy saw a deer and once a fox and changed directions or put me on the leash before I saw them.

We had a Wheaten Meetin' in Oldenburg. Mummy was pleased that after we hosted it 3 times, my half-sister Lilly did it this year. Better for Mummy’s knee. The others all took a walk on the dike and Mummy stayed at Lilly's house with a book and a cold pack. I was the only Wheaten to go in the water, up to my belly. I saw the water and off I went, much to Daddy's dismay. On the way back the same except replace water with mud. Lilly's dogsitter was along with her cocker and she took me to her yard and three people hosed me down!  Seven Wheatens were present, all bought as a result of their families falling in love with me at the pet fair, including my goddog Wylie.

Wylie was supposed to stay with us for 4 weeks this summer while his family flew to the U.S. on vacation. Then came Corona Virus and they couldn’t go. So he came for 4 days before Mummy went to Hamburg for a new knee. The poor little twerp was homesick for a few hours but fit right in, behaved admirably and had good walks with us. Mummy drove us into the fields once or twice a day and for that short distance we shared my car crate.  When we went farther, Wylie got the crate and I was on a blanket on the back seat with my seatbelt. He even went to my training with us.  Sometimes the neighbors took the two of us and he marched along just like me.

I have been at the neighbors’ since Mummy left. It’s easier for them to let me out early in the morning at their house. Mona and Lisa have school vacation so they are glad to have me. When Daddy visits Mummy at rehab, he takes me along so that I don’t forget who she is. Fat chance! I have a great memory.

Mummy is already negotiating when she will be allowed to drive me into the fields after she gets home from rehab. The doctors and therapists are saying that she should be able to do agility with me in future. Just in case, we have taken up Hoopers so that if we have to quit agility, we’ll already have a certain competence in Hoopers. Now we go to agility (our trainer runs with me), Rally Obedience (only walking) and Hoopers (Mummy stands in one square while sending me through hoops and tunnels and around gates and barrels), altogether 3 times a week. I’m on vacation while Mummy is away but as soon as she can drive, it’s back to work again.