Day three and counting.... We had nightmares thinking about how Jack and Jill would cope, wearing plastic cones over their heads for almost a week, but they're managing, and so are we. We had to change their drinking bowl to a very large, deep, wide one to enable them to use it with the interfering cones. And when they have their meals, they've got to position themselves just so, centering the bowls within the orbit of the cone opening and in so doing, are able to scoop up everything with ease.

We thought the cones would interfere with their out-of-door browsing habit, but no such luck. Although the cones tend to scrape and sound awful when they're sliding them along any surface, they still manage to stick their little sharp muzzles out sufficiently to be able to grasp detritus to their hearts' content, and our dismay.

Suddenly, while coping with the discomfort of a post-surgery ordeal complicated by the cones meant to keep them from reacting at the surgical site by licking or scratching, Jackie has incorporated the inspiration to become a mountain goat. He now effortlessly leaps prodigious heights with no ill effects, and although we've tried to keep them both calm and less physically inclined, it hasn't always worked. From time to time, though Jill's recovery time is understandably longer and deeper than Jack's, they will face off in a mutual invitation to rough-tumble wrestle.

On the really positive side, their undersides look quite amazing for two little animals who have so recently undergone a surgical procedure. No bruising, no swelling, no bleeding, as per our past experiences, just smooth skin and a few visible stitches which will themselves dissolve; some surgical glue was used on the exterior; dissolving stitches on the interior.

Jillie, who tends to be aloof at times, wants to snuggle close on our laps at down-time. Jackie, who insists that we be within eyesight at all times, prefers to leap onto the back of any sofa we're sitting on, to balance himself on the back, rather than the seat of the sofa, above or level with the height of our heads.

Although Jackie is quite ready even now to have his cone removed, and we know it drives him to distraction, since he's forever trying to scratch it, he'll have to wait until Jillie catches up with him. And that will be at least another two days, and at that time they'll both be relieved of the nuisance of wearing the damn things, when we're assured that they're beyond the potential of inadvertently harming themselves.