Bouncing Furry Legs

It was on my cousins return visit from Durness that we realised Henry had begun to turn a corner with his body.

My cousin noticed that he was ever so slightly less skinny and there was the beginings of fur appearing on his legs. I suppose that being with him every day I hadn't noticed this but it was a major turning point for Henry and his recovery from near starvation. These pictures of him a short while later as for the first few weeks of his life with us my camera wasn't working and so the only really bald pictures we have are on a mobile phone but you should be able to see that his back legs are still very sparse and the lower parts of his front legs are the same.

In fact he was so skinny and so cold because of his lack of fur that he had to wear his lovely thick fleece coat all the time even when he was indoors and he had to wear another one on top when he went outside. Every evening he would curl up next to me, really close and I'd hold his poor skinny bald legs to keep them warm, he was a total heart breaker and all I could do was love him loads.

It was around this time that he started to become bouncy. And I mean really bouncy. He seemed to love having my cousin and family to stay, perhaps it was an extended pack thing but he really started to come out of himself, chasing balls, socks, anything really and it was about this time that he started to perfect his 'wind you in the stomach' leap. This involved (and still does) running at you full pelt, jumping into the air and poking you in the stomach with his front legs. It' a bit hard to describe how he does it exactly as he does a sort of extra jump on his back legs just as he does it, but it just about knocks you out! It seems to be his 'special' way of saying hello and over the last few months I've learned to very skillfully avoid it!

He also learnt to leap onto the windowsill with the skill and grace of a mountain goat. (In fact some neighbours have got goats and the way they move is very similar to Henry) he leaps with all four paws onto the arm of the sofa and then stretches his front legs accross the gap onto the windowsill to look outside. It's quite amazing to watch and rather funny when someone is sitting at that end of the sofa as a rather big dog springs onto the arm.

The main problem with this is having to constantly clean the dog art from the window, left there by Henry's nose and also being ready to clear up spilt tea from suprised visitors.

I suppose he shouldn't really be allowed to do it at all but it is rather funny to watch.

So, Henry the Leaphound was christened.