JD and Lola are going to be a bit less neglected in future as I have finished my job today. Now I am ungainfully unemployed and hoping for a few days’ rest.

We “took a turn” around the field to celebrate my new-found freedom from drudgery and, almost within moments of going through the gate, I was presented with a stick…well, more like a dirty great chunk of tree - you see, size does matter when you're a border collie looking for a game to play. As far as JD was concerned, he could see no valid reason why I shouldn’t throw it for him to chase. Ha ha. He may not be aware of a condition known as “tennis elbow” but it’s a condition from which I am suffering. Not because of wielding a tennis racquet, I must be just about the only Brit on the planet who was not inspired by Andy Murray’s Wimbledon win and have no interest whatsoever in taking up the game. I mean – DM was watching the game (match) and trying to explain the rules. Whoever thought it’d be a good idea to set up a tennis match in that way? The first point you get 15 for, the second the same, then it goes down to ten and after that it seems to be some kind of free-for-all.

Anyway, back to my tennis elbow. It’s also a side-effect of using a carpet cleaner and as I’ve spent most of the last week behind a carpet cleaner, I’ve got it good and proper. It’s the un-natural thing of heaving a weighty thing around using elbow power. It’s so bad that I reached out to the coffee table to pick up a glass of wine kindly poured by DM and because of my tennis elbow it slipped straight out of my grasp and onto the floor. He was NOT pleased I can tell you.

So, JD was out of luck even if I’d thought it’d be a good idea to lob around half a tree for him to chase, I was incapable. He did, for a few minutes, lose interest in it, at which point Lola decided it’d be a good idea for her to carry on the game and presented me with the “stick” too. If anything, it was even funnier with her carting it about but she was throwing it at me a bit too close for comfort so I couldn’t get a shot of it happening!

JD regained his “stick” and decided that if I wouldn’t throw it, he’d entertain himself by whittling instead. Much safer all round, I’d say. Lola watched from a safe distance!

BTW we have a new suggestion for how he got his name – the bar in “Lock, stock and two smoking barrels” is called JDs – maybe his first owner was a lover of the film?