I'm out at the farm with the puppies (in real life we currently have 9 5-weeks-old Golden Retriever puppies who are very difficult to manage). We've taken them up in the field to play (emulating something we do with them at home often), and rather than carry them all back, I suggest that we put them in the van (like my old Dodge, with a big sliding door on the side). So we do that, but back at the house, we have some trouble keeping them contained. I think Steve tries to get out or something, but we don't want the puppies out, and when he closes the van door it chops off one of their tails. I'm outside the van, and I come over to see the chopped-off tail on the floor of the van (it's more like a grown-up retriever tail than a puppy tail), and the puppy with just a bloody little stump for a tail. Seems there is nothing to be done, it can't be reattached or anything.

In real life nearly all the puppies are already spoken for, so I say to Vera "oh no, somebody will have to choose another puppy, or have one with a chopped-off tail, and there's already that other one that can't bark right".

She shares my concern about the tail, but questions what one can't bark right; she doesn't think any of the puppies have this problem.