Thanks everyone for your amazing encouragement and support. Jerry, we would be HONOURED to have Meg's photo in the gallery

Today is Meg's weekiversary!!! We are now 7 days post op and things continue to go well. Meg seems happy and comfortable. Today I took her for her first post op visit to her rehab vet and she had some acupuncture to ease some areas of tension in her back and some laser treatment on her wound to encourage healing. Most of all she had fun. Meg loves loves loves going to rehab. She starts getting excited as soon as we turn off the motorway, and by the time we take the final turn down the farm track she is all but trying to break out of the car. I wondered how she'd feel about going today, and whether she'd feel up to it, but she was just as excited as ever.

On the way home we stopped at a service station (another of Meg's favourite places. For some reason I can't quite fathom, she has an obsession with service stations, and this is an especially dog friendly one). I took her onto the grass for a sniff around and a toilet break, but it's the first time I've taken her out in public since the op and I was slightly dreading having to deal with comments. I just don't feel quite ready for that yet. Anyway, we got some stares but nobody came up and said anything, which I felt relieved about. Is that pathetic? Normally we're both pretty sociable, and I've met dozens of brilliant people through dogs, but I guess at the moment we're still adjusting and I just feel like we need our privacy.

All warmest wishes from us both,

Meg and Clare