Ghengis Khan left a vacuum of power when he died. All got a bit awkward between brothers and I really hope that little Gideon and Noah don’t have a similar fallout when I pop off. Unlikely to be honest. It’s not exactly as if I have the largest empire on earth to pass on and I doubt Pilgrims Veterinary Practice is really going get them all fired up as to who gets the great pleasure of taking that little business on.

Turns out that the Grandson - Kublai Khan - is the really hardcore achiever of the dynasty though. I can’t tell you much about him yet as I have only just started this last book in the series, but suffice to say this gripping series of books by Conn Iggulden got me into a touch of trouble during Gideon’s birth.

So Little Gamble number three is now nine days overdue, family Gamble are on red alert and this time next week it's all going to be different. I can't wait.

I was in a similar state of anxiety last week when I had a little drama at the petrol station en route to remove an overgrown tusk from an adult boar. The boar wasn't my primary concern, the main worry was the fact as I tried to open the petrol cap for the landrover, I realised I had somehow lost the key off my keyring to unlock it. I was almost out of fuel, I was twenty minutes late and there was a queue behind me at the pump wondering what on earth I was doing emptying out the truck at the local Total garage.

Totally into fire engines at the moment. Just as well as seen a fair few of them recently. One of the callouts on New Years Day was to a shire horse that was stuck in a river in the New Forest. Very exciting, very dark, and very off road - all great except for bending the landrover aerial in half, and the horse got up and out just as I arrived. A big plus was the fact Hampshire Fire and Rescue were on the scene poised to leap into action - once again, I was feeling a touch underdressed around these guys who seemed to rock up in amphibious monster trucks and like a little kid, I marvelled at the huge fire engines, wanted to climb in them and have a look around and felt a tinge of jealousy that I'll never get a flashing light on the landrover.

About two weeks ago, Caroline had the first festive emergency of the season - labrador that had eaten a Christmas bauble - all was well, the labrador was fine (bauble was not) but it served as a sharp reminder that I had to get the Christmas party sorted out.

There have been few updates these last two weeks because all my energy has been focused on some very sick animals. A week last Monday, I started out as a Spartan. No other word for it. A small cat, fitting uncontrollably, sinking into a deep coma, temperature plummeting to 34 degrees C, blind, unresponsive on the edge - where was the production crew during this one I wondered - in their beds was the answer. 20mins kip on the floor, next to a fitting cat was my night. As the cat swallowed it's tongue at 3am and I lurched forward to sort it and top up the ten hour anaesthetic it endured, I told myself I employ staff for this sort of thing, I don't pay them enough I heard myself answer.

"Luke, how are you?" Big Trevor said to me the other day,

It's been a week of rescues. By rescues - sort of attempted rescues. One incident involved finding a baby bird, tangled up in a bramble. I picked it up, it pecked me, I let it go. Not the most dramatic story but on letting it go, the bird had a two minute episode of stressed collapse upon which I felt very guilty for not giving it more of a chance to free itself.