Things are relatively calm with Gryphon at the moment, he seems to be able to go three or four days between cortisone doses, and is getting around reasonably well. There are the few glitches where he will try to climb the stairs or get onto a couch and his back end just won't cooperate, but he seems to take these setbacks with aplomb, simply waiting until someone can help him out.

This is where things get a little fraught. I have realised that my life now revolves around a German Shepherd with a dicky back end. He has realised that he has this house of slaves that he only has to look sad at for action to occur. During the night he knows that slurping from the water bowl provided in his sleeping area is enough to wake one of us up to then let him out if he needs to, or if that doesn't work, head-butting the door. He knows that if his back end fails on him while we are heading out I will support it, either with a sling, or failing that just by holding it up. So three times a night I now wake up and deal with Gryphon's needs.

Still, Gryphon won't be with us forever, and if I can make his time with us comfortable, then I really don't mind.