Boys and their toys

As previously mentioned, Jack's favourite toy is his rope pull; his original one was bought in preparation for bringing him home, but when confronted with a vast array of knotty toys in the pet shop, our memory of his actual size went hazy & we completely underestimated how wide his jaw was. This has meant that once he's got 'his' end of the pull in his mouth, there's not a lot of it left for us to hang on to, with the result that we've both had accidental nips when play has got a bit boisterous. Hubby's latest nip must still have been on his mind (or rather, his knuckle) when he went to buy some bird seed this morning, so when he saw this enormous rope toy he decided to buy it. It's easily five times the size of his old one (it's almost as long as he is!), & not even the same colours, yet the second hubby took it out of the bag he knew exactly what it was; as I was trying to cut the packaging off it he was leaping around turning somersaults of excitement - & very nearly got his whiskers shortened. Looking at how hard he's trying to destroy it here you could be forgiven for thinking that he didn't like his new toy, but as any dog person will know, this is a sign of true gratitude; I imagine that our fingers & knuckles will be equally grateful. We have realised however that we won't be able to toss it around for Jack the way we did the old one: he's pretty good at intercepting his toys in mid air, but this one is so weighty that it could well knock him out!

Huge strides forward have been made on the tooth front today: I bit_into _a_biscuit! Admittedly it was a pre-dunked, slightly soggy biscuit, but even so I did manage to sink those new gnashers in & break a piece off (the biscuit, not the denture). I've also found an area where I can chew, & managed to eat some crust (again pre-dunked, this time in soup); it's the one area of mouth not masked in plastic (& which therefore gives me a better sensation of where the food actually is), but I still feel that this is real progress. I've realised that I'm being held back by one particular part of the denture that's painful to put pressure on, yet it's not an area of gum which is still particularly sore, so I suspect that a slight technical adjustment is needed - it's something the dentist warned me may crop up, & so I'm going to see him tomorrow. I doubt that my next blip will feature the eating of a crusty wholemeal roll, but I'm beginning to believe that such culinary delights could be a part of my future.
No painkillers were involved in the making of today's report.

Things we've learned about Jack
He's highly absorbent; it rained & rained & rained today, meaning that each outing resulted in an extremely soggy dog: despite having a brisk towel down, he still managed to shake an inordinate amount of water over me.
Rope toys are the business!