Canine surgery and more from Cheverny

I'll continue the France photos in a moment, but first a note from the canine front. You may recall the need for Dodger to have surgery a couple of years ago to fix a torn cruciate ligament in his back right leg. I posted a few times about it. In the end, he healed well, and you'd never know the leg ever was a problem.

Well, about a week ago, Mandy was running in the yard when she suddenly yelped and pulled up her rear left leg. Opposite side from her brother's problem leg but the same behavior. Sure enough, the same thing had happened to her. So today was surgery day. She's in recovery now, and we hope her healing and return to normal use of her leg goes at least as well as Dodger's recovery did.

Now then, let's get back to those France photos. We were heading out the back of Cheverny to check out the Orangerie and some of the grounds:


A view of the back


From the perspective of the main house, looking towards the Orangerie


The path to the Orangerie


The Orangerie itself

An interesting thing at Cheverny--they still keep a kennel of foxhounds. So, of course, anything with dogs got our attention. Since they were just lounging about during our visit, we got a good look at the whole pack:



They slept in a giant pile, sprawled all over each other...





And then there was a bark in the distance, and everyone was up!



Of course, they barked and howled in French. First the bark in the distance, and then dozens of dogs jumping up... "Sacré bleu! Le woof! Le woof!"

Well, that's what it sounded like to me... that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! ;)

Anyhow... there was a sign asking people not to excite the dogs...



And yes, while my French is far from perfect, exciter is "to excite." Even so, this is how they translated it for those speaking English...



Who knows, perhaps "exciter," when used in that sense, is colloquially taken to mean "tease." Not that it matters. I tend to get too concerned about these little things! :)

Okay, still plenty more to come!