June 30, 2022, 4:38 a.m. -  Lynx .

Mike, first up, sorry for your loss, he sounded like an amazing dog. As you said, they leave us way too soon and they take a piece of our hearts with them, size dependent, but sounds like he took a good "bite" out of yours, something I've also experienced when I lost my first and wonder, can I do that again another 12 times, as it sits right now. As you say, I think as we get older and we've learned so much, it takes more "persuading" to us old dogs to learn new tricks or sometimes to remember that we need to due to injury etc. Think I popped loose the scar tissue holding the piece of my fractured knee cap loose again on Monday; was being pushed on a climb by a visitor I was showing about, that I didn't expect to climb so well, was inspired to try and clean the loose, slippery climb and just made a bobble, slipped a tyre and instead of falling/stepping to my good leg side, lost balance and went on that side, fully loaded and folded the leg - _have to learn to chill a little and be careful with even what was once considered easy, because I can't fold/bend past 60 degrees with that knee and if I do, bad things happen._