We've been so busy we hardly noticed the time clicking down to the end of April and tax returns. It hardly seems like April in any event since the last several weeks has been wet, cold, windy, more like late fall than early spring. And so, one of us is busy preparing the tax returns and it isn't me.

It's been two days since we removed the cone off Jackie, for the last and final time. All previous attempts had him licking furiously at his surgical wound area, and we didn't want to risk his opening of the wound again, necessitating another trip to the veterinarian hospital to have it restitched. As it is, during one of the times we thought it was safe to free him from the cone, he managed to pull out the last stitch done to ensure the wound healed completely. Now, he can lick to his heart's content without inflicting damage, and he does lick, with no damage ensuing.

Jillie, smart girl, has been cone-free for a week. She does get into plenty of mischief but she showed no interest whatever in inflicting misery on herself as Jackie did. Now that they're both freed of that impediment to freely impetuous movement, they've re-engaged in ripping around the house, wrestling, challenging one another to exciting physical feats of amazing dexterity and no little amount of incidental physicality bordering on insanity.

Once again they're sharing a nighttime crate since we no longer have to separate them for fear one will inflict incidental damage on the other's surgical area; both are completely healed. I sent an email expressing our gratitude to the Ogdensburg veterinarian hospital.

Yesterday, incidentally, though it was a raw day, we got out for our usual ravine walk after a hiatus of almost a week and a half avoiding it. Too difficult with Jackie wearing that cone, and too many days of heavy rain transforming the ravine into a veritable bog. The trail system remains a mess thanks to the tracked vehicles, the earth movers and shovels and bulldozers used for months in the bridges replacement work.

It was the first time Jack and Jill have ever been in the ravine with an absence of snow and ice. We did find some areas off the trails that continue to host large sheets of packed ice, but they'll soon melt, when/if/as the weather begins to warm up for prolonged periods, as it surely will.