Jorji has been an absolute joy right from puppyhood. A very playful and resourceful baby, it was always 'Jorji' that worked out how to get out of any barricades that we had devised to keep the puppies out of certain areas in the house. She also had the most beautiful, effortless movement as a puppy and we were very excited about her future show prospects.

At the age of 5 months she was awarded a Best Baby Puppy in Group award at a Championship all Breeds show and then the following week at the tender age of 6 months and 1 day received a Reserve Challenge Certificate against tough competition (her mother "Mali" got the CC) as well as winning Best Minor Puppy in Group!
We were thrilled with her.

A few days later our hopes were shattered when while playing outside with our other dogs she slid under a tin shed and severed all of the tendons in her hind leg just above the hock.Of course Murphy's law came into play as it was after hours on a Friday night. Our vet was wonderful, along with a fellow colleague he performed emergency surgery to re-attach her tendons before they retracted too far to be able to repair successfully. She had to wear a plaster cast on her entire leg to keep it in a straight position held on by masses of bandages around her waist. We were told that she wasn't allowed to walk at all for about 6 weeks which grew into 10 weeks altogether before the cast could come off and be replaced by a thick bandage. After 12 weeks she was allowed limited (5 mins per day) walking on a lead basically just to go to the toilet and gradually the time was built up in 5 minute increments until she could walk around our back yard off lead. Poor Jorji just put up with all of it without complaint and spent the entire time on my lap and in a crate happily chewing on bon bones and Kong toys. At night she shared our bed with us. She had to be under constant supervision to prevent her from chewing her cast off and ruining the chances of a good recovery.