A good start to the year...

As in previous years, I'm counting my kilometres this year and donating them to a charity that funds research into multiple sclerosis. Our year got off to a really good start. Not too many rainy days, and we managed to walk 350 km during January. That's already about 17% of our annual target, which is to walk 2022 km in 2022.

 

Happy New Year

It's the first day of February, but it's also my first blog post of this year. For a variety of reasons, there were no posts during January Even though it's late, Maiki, Teddi and I wish you happy new year and many blessings in 2022.

Christmas outreach in Alhaurīn...

Christmas is just around the corner but, as we all know, not everyone remembers the real meaning of this special time of year. That's what prompted us here in Alhaurín to plan a special outreach concert in one of the town's main squares, the Plaza de España.

It was a joint venture between our church, CCA (Centro Cristiano de Alhaurín) and the local Catholic church, San Sebastien, with musicians and singers from both congregations taking part in the celebration. It's only relatively recently that evangelical churches have been recognised as legitimate here in Spain, and so this "ecumenical" celebration caught people's attention and won the support of the Ayuntamiento (the town council).

A couple of hundred people turned out on Saturday night, some sitting on benches around the square, some on the chairs that had been provided, some standing at the back... some wearing masks and others "socially distanced" as covid regulations require.

Members of our CCA worship teams presented Christmas songs in a variety of styles, while some from the Catholic church presented Christmas songs in a flamenco style, which added a real Spanish flavour to the evening. Scripture readings were given by people from both congregations, our pastor preached a short message, and a group from San Sebastian performed a short drama about the link between Christmas and Easter.

As the celebration drew to an end, it was very moving to see so many people, both church members and passers by, holding candles and singing, "Silent Night" together.

Videos of the whole concert have appeared on various web pages, including that of the town council and one of the local newspapers. The newspaper,  Diario Alhaurín, also published lots of photos of the event.

I had gone to the celebration with my neighbour Matilde and the dogs, so we had to laugh when we discovered ourselves, together with Buba, Bonnie and Maiki, among the newspaper's photographs.

Perhaps the most exciting thing, though, was to see those words, "Dios con Nosotros" (God with us) as the backdrop to the stage, as we proclaimed God's presence and peace over our town of Alhaurín de la Torre.

Mission impossible ...

 

You might remember that I usually set myself an exercise goal at the beginning of each new year. Over the past few years, it has been to walk (with the dogs) the same number of kilometres as the year. I can then "donate" those kilometres to a charity that helps fund research into multiple sclerosis.

So, this year, 2021, our goal was to walk 2021 kilometres. We managed to keep up our kilometre tally over the summer, even when Maiki had a broken knee and wasn't allowed to walk or run for three months, because I could do the walking and push Maiki in her "invalid buggy." I was thrilled when we reached our 2021 target during August, so I decided to see if we could clock up another thousand, and reach 3021 km by the end of the year.

We were pretty much on track until the beginning of November, when I returned from a trip to France (for the KKI Europe regional conference) and discovered that it was incredibly painful for me to walk. Turned out that I had "shin splints" or medial tibial stress syndrome (here in Spain they usually call it tibial periostitis) and the doctor prescribed complete rest for the whole month of November. Friends and neighbours had to help out by taking Maiki for walks and play dates while I was on house rest for five whole weeks. Our end of November total remained at 2844 km and our 3021 km target entered the realm of Mission Impossible.

Finally, in the second week of December, the physiotherapist said it was good for me to begin walking again... but no more than one or two kilometres at a time. I'm walking with a stick, but I can drive the car to a starting point where I can walk a short circuit of no more than 2 km and the dogs can still get a good run.

So, we're not going to walk 3021 km this year, and we're probably not even going to reach last year's record of 3005 km... but I'm very thankful that both Maiki and myself seem to be healing well from this year's misadventures, and we're thoroughly enjoying our winter walks across the fields. When my leg gets stronger and the pain has faded, we'll be able to go for walks in the forest again.

All grown up...

Back in October, I wrote a blog post about Maiki's growth, with a photo taken when she was nine months old. For a variety of reasons during October, it never got posted and just remained in my drafts folder. I only discovered it this week when I decided to post this latest photo - taken yesterday on Maiki's first birthday. 

Yes, it's now official: I no longer have a puppy in the house, as she's theoretically now an "adult" dog (though border collies are notorious for having puppy energy right through the first few years of life.)

She hasn't grown in size over the past couple of months (apart from gaining one last kilo and filling out a little), but we've continued to commemorate each new month of growth, together with her littermates, as you'll see below. These were their photos when they reached ten months, and then eleven months of age.

So, now they're all grown up - three beautiful little border collies, born this time last year... rescued and adopted in early 2021.

As for Maiki's DNA testing - which you can read about in the post below - all the tests came back normal. No sign of any of the genetic diseases that can sometimes be found in the breed. It means that anaesthetic doesn't present a risk, and I'll be able to get her spayed at the beginning of the new year. 

Growing, growing.... gone!

Since the day that Maiki arrived, back in February, I've been taking a photo now and then to show how much she's grown. Well, this one is going to be the last of the "growth photos" taken with that little teddy bear - partly because Maiki has stopped growing now. She's been the same size for the past couple of months - almost as high as my knee, and around 15 kilos, which is at the lower end of the size range for a border collie. 

The vet thinks that the months of injury and the medication she was taking during that time combined to stunt her growth a bit and she has remained slightly smaller than normal. She's not as tall as all the other border collies we know in the town. Having said that, Maiki's mother was not a particularly big dog and so I guess there's every possibility that her size is just genetic and not to do with the injury at all.

The second reason why this will be the last photo with the teddy bear is because Maiki ripped its brains out at the weekend! The poor bear still has a body, but his head is gone... or at least it's devoid of stuffing now.

This past weekend, I felt a bit like a character in a TV crime show, as we swabbed the girls' cheeks for DNA testing.

Rough collies (that's the kind of dog that played Lassie) often have a gene mutation called MDR1, which makes them intolerant of certain drugs and anaesthetics. About 5% of border collies have the defective gene too. It's a tiny percentage, but it's worth doing the test so that you don't need to worry about whether the vet will prescribe your dog a dangerous medication or whether you could lose your beloved pet on the operating table when she's being sterilised. 

So together with a friend in town, who owns the red border collie, Cumbia, in the photo above, we did the DNA swabs yesterday and they're being picked up by the laboratory today. In three weeks or so, we'll get the health report that will let us know whether the dogs tested positive or negative for the gene.

 

A partridge in a pine tree...

It's October and, as if to confirm that Christmas isn't that far away now, we saw a partridge on our walk this morning. The poor creature must have come closer to town because hunting season has begun and there are men with guns, hunting rabbits, pheasant and partridge up in the woods every weekend.

In the several weeks since Maiki has been recovering from the difficult months with a fractured knee, we've been going out very early for our morning walks. Originally, it was so that we wouldn't meet other dogs that would tempt her to run flat out and put strain on the recovering bone. So it's often still dark when we leave the house in the morning and we see the sun rise every day - often with a stunning display of God's creative artistry.

Being out and about that early means that we occasionally see wildlife - like this morning's partridge. The dogs got quite excited about the encounter, because the bird was really close. Fortunately they did obey when I called them back from setting off in hot pursuit. The partridge got a shock to meet the dogs, though, and as it fluttered into the air, I just missed getting photos of "a partridge in a pine tree" and "a partridge in an olive tree." (I'm afraid there are no pear trees where we go for our walk.)

Immediately after meeting the partridge, we spotted "eight deer a-fleeing" as they headed up the mountain... and by this point the dogs had grasped that any kind of frenzied chase was completely forbidden. I was so proud of them.

Then, having successfully resisted chasing either the partridge or the deer, Nelson completely failed the ultimate test and disappeared over the horizon when he spotted our friends, Enrique and Antonio, throwing balls for their dogs!!

Maiki is recovering well from her injury. The vet says we should be careful until she reaches a year old and the growth plates in the bone have completely closed. She's not supposed to run too much or to climb steep hills. But she's a much happier little dog now that she is allowed to run and play with other dogs at last. And a few days ago, we were allowed to go on an uphill walk for the first time. We made a short, easy ascent to a spot with a great view over the town.

 And so we're enjoying our early morning walks with Nelson and our afternoon walks with Buba... and this week, for the first time since April, we were able to go for an evening walk with our whole pack of four, including Hugo. We're getting to that time of year where it's pretty chilly in the mornings and we see those stunning "after the rain" sunrises. But it can still be warm in the afternoons and we're glad of the shade in the forest. 

Despite Maiki's injury, I've continued to count our kilometres, so that I can "donate" them to the charity that raises funds for research into multiple sclerosis. We managed to reach this year's target of 2021 km during August and by the end of September we had clocked up 2430 km - proof that lots of small efforts can add up to a worthwhile achievement. During the early weeks of Maiki's recovery, I counted even the short walks of 1 km or less, and it's been amazing to see how they've all added up to a grand total. Makes you realise that all kinds of things could be achieved if you put in just a small effort every day. May you know success in whatever you hope to achieve this autumn and winter.