.. a small, pink triangle of tongue peeking out of his mouth.
His "corner" has expanded as he has pulled his cushion and the bath mats and towels across the kitchen floor and all four legs are outstretched into the room.
Getting at the kettle and the toaster on the counter above his head presents a challenge. Does one lean across him at an angle, hoping not to drop the two slices of bread in the process? Or does one try stepping over him without treading on a vulnerable paw, half hidden under the scrunched up bedding?
He's recovering from his early morning walk with Tod, half way round the park in town, which progresses at a leisurely pace as every giant pine tree has to be marked, several times.
The wonderful bi-lingual surgeon in Bordeaux showed us Bertie's X-rays at six weeks and warned that as he is an elderly dog, the mending and growth of new bone below his knee would be slow. The vet drew a diagram of steps going upwards, each step representing a week and showing a bit more freedom - another five minutes added to each walk, then being able to move at a trot, and finally, being able to walk upstairs and jump up.
We should have shown the diagram to Bertie! We won't talk about the afternoon he managed to open the kitchen door by standing on his hind legs, run along the veranda and down the steps at the end and out onto the drive. Or the time we took him, on the lead, round to friends and he jumped into their armchair without so much as a by-your-leave. Nor indeed that, left in the back to "guard the car", his reaction is to bark with all four feet off the floor.
The diagram takes us to Christmas Day and then, all being well, freedom and the chance to run free.
For all of us.
