Pre-Christmas

This is going to be quick - quick! I tell you - because our computer is now in the front room and the front room has no heating and is bloody freezing. Our friend Benny calls it the Cold Room. It shouldn't be cold 'cause it's at the front of a south-facing house, but the open chimney and single pane windows may have something to do with it.
I'm writing this entry to get a few things down before we are subsumed by Christmas (= Wales), and because although what I'm supposed to be doing is putting stuff on eBay, I can't because the long-awaited new camera's battery is flat and I can't find the charger. Excuses excuses.
So... news. Probably best to start with poor little Lightning, who was attacked by a pitbull-type dog in the first week of November. I keep mis-typing it as attached, but that's probably just as fitting. Damn thing locked on to her back leg and wouldn't let go, and it was awful. Alan (father) and I had been walking the dogs round a local nature reserve and it came out of the blue, this big brute of a dog who wouldn't let go. When the owner finally detached it she went straight to the vet for an hour's general anaesthetic and patching up. I've not yet heard back from the owner about the vet's bills, and was pretty dismayed the police and the RSPCA's assertions that they can do nothing unless it attacks a person.
Two and a half weeks later I took Lightning, Maisie and the boys out properly for the first time post attack, and within a minute of arriving in the park she was attacked by a greyhound. It was tied to the children's play park fence and she went to say hello to it, ergo it is technically her/my fault. The owner had left the dog unattended while supervising his young son in the play park. It's apparently done similar before but was not muzzled. I didn't weep, much, but I did nearly pass out twice in the vet's. Lightning gained two metal staples, followed a few days later by an infection, and a few days after that by surgery to clean out the infection and remove dead skin. Bleurgh. She's okay now, thank goodness, and hopefully it will never happen again. We must rigorously train her not to be so friendly :-( and also invest in pet insurance.
I don't know that we have much other news and my feet are freezing, so that'll do for now.