Thank you very much for your kind words, Maggie - I’ve shown them to Mrs Backwoodsperson and she also sends her thanks.

He’s being a good boy so far as his stitches go, he hasn’t made any attempt to get at them, and we haven’t needed to resort to the cone the vet gave us, nor to the recovery suit (like a doggie-leotard) that the Mrs bought for him. Our main problem is that he’s very reluctant to eat - he has to have five small, low-fat, 76-calorie ‘meals’ per day in order to prevent pancreatitis, and we’re finding it difficult to get him to eat anything like the required amount, which means we have to ‘top him up’ with liquid food through the tube in his neck. Hopefully we’ll get there soon, but it seems a long haul.

Other things, such as carrying him up and down stairs (our house has three storeys, and our living room and kitchen/diner are on the middle floor) to prevent his internal stitches being pulled out, we are coping with pretty easily, but the feeding issue is a worry. And, of course, there will be the biopsy results…

I’m very aware that certain people don’t understand the bond between humans and their dogs, but my wife and I have been unable to have children of our own, and he is our joint-‘significant other’!

Thanks again for your kind words, they are very much appreciated.