The First flower of 2018

Jaunty pulled a claw out of his left back paw the week before Christmas.... as is his habit, he'd slipped out of sight when I was bringing the dogs in from their kennels in the evening and had gone hoolying across the fields. But they were frozen solid. He came home looking OK - but then I was not expecting anything to be wrong. He lay down by my side in the snug that evening - as usual. When he got up later on I noticed he was limping - "Jaunty's leg's gone to sleep" I said to The Big Boss.
It was still asleep when I put them all out in their kennels for the night.
And the next morning. So I had a closer look and thought I saw a missing claw. "Well" I thought "That explains it". So I bathed his paw in salted water - twice a day for three days. Then I had another good look and realised the claw I thought was missing was actually still there. I know. Old age and all that. On closer inspection it was actually the claw alongside the one I thought was missing which was the problem. I rang the vet. We went that afternoon. The claw was not 'loose' enough to pull off and not 'tight' enough to stay on. "No wonder he can't put it on the ground" said the vet, giving him anti-inflammatory and antibiotic jabs and prescribing 10 days of antibiotics...... It came off two days later - well, he pulled it off when we were going across the field.... After that he could put his weight on the paw.
Good then.
But Not.
He chewed it over night and made it all yukky and bloody.
A good Twitterpal sourced a single boot for him. That helps on wet walks. The rest of the time when on his own he is wearing the dreaded 'lampshade'. He does not like it. Who would? We go for long walks on lead - he does not like it. What spaniel would?  In the afternoon I let him run round on the extending lead..... he doesn't much like that either. What spaniel would?
It was whilst twirling round on the end of the long lead this afternoon that he almost squished the first flower of the year. On the other paw, if he had not been twirling round on the end of the long lead I would not have seen it.
Well done Jaunty. Thank you for showing me the first flower of the year.