Patient.

Later today we shall be heading home on the break of day flight. The PONs will be picked up from the kennels in time for a family dinner. 'The Font' has spent much of the last week monitoring Angus from a sofa in a hospital room and returning to a hotel during the day to catch up on sleep. The nursing staff have been unfailingly patient. Although the hospital is in an old building neither of us have ever seen a place with floors polished to such a high sheen. A team of happy floor polishers beaver away all day ... and much of the night. 

The anaesthetist says that her sedative is like the sweetest champagne which ( according to 'The Font' ) proves she is an excellent judge of character. The surgeon, who comes highly recommended, is a man of equally breezy disposition who tells this patient ' A quick rummage round and we'll have you as right as rain in no time '.  Angus can't help but think that this is the sort of thing a mechanic might say to the owner of one of those 90's era Volvo station wagons much loved by retired Berkeley faculty. The surgeon wears a suit and one of those padded sleeveless hunting, shooting and fishing jerkins . He is, I would surmise, a man who only deals in certainties.

There are two televisions in the room. Why this should be so is something of a mystery. All the channels have been pre-selected to be cheerful and mindless. Angus survives on a diet of uplifting light entertainment. Mike and Molly, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Goldbergs and Third Rock from the Sun. Discharge cannot come too quickly.

A book that is highly recommended. A Dog Anthology. A perfect accompaniment for a patient on synthetic opioids. Read while other weightier tomes have not been touched. An interesting collection of vignettes includes a memorable but disturbing poem by a Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska . An insight into Polands history - and a reminder that in 1945 there were a mere handful of Polish Lowland Sheepdogs left. A vicar writes an uplifting little piece that points out that there's more to life than heaven. At the end of time God remakes all Creation - a time when dogs come into their own as fully loving and loved. This little essay alone a good enough reason for buying the book. For dog owners a charming and kind and thoughtful - and adult - addition to their book shelves.