Pale gums.

The 'font' was worried about Wilfs behaviour. He was uncharacteristically lethargic,looked at, rather than chased the ball and to top it all skipped lunch. As Wilf ranks food as his greatest single pleasure in life this was a particularly worrying sign. A quick examination showed that he had unusually pale gums. Rather than face a sick dog during our exodus to France,he was in the back of the car and off to our marvellous vet within record time. These were the exact same early symptoms of the poisoning that nearly finished him off in early 2008. The local hunters put down poisoned chicken pellets to kill the foxes ( on our land ) and naturally Wilf being Wilf managed to sniff out some of these tasty but lethal morsels. Hence the 'fonts' alarm .

Of course, the very second we got him in the car he perked up and by the time we got to the vets the colour was back in his gums and he was raring to meet the vets attractive young female Briard . After twenty minutes of tests the diagnosis? Tiredness. Usually the boyz sleep for a couple of hours in the morning and again for three hours in the afternoon. Recently, with so many visitors coming to the house Wilf has been sleeping less and playing ball more ... much more. Last night he retired with as much dignity as he could muster at seven and slumbered for eleven hours solid. This morning he is back to his usual form and ferreting around in the courtyard while his little brother dozes under a pine tree in the sun.