"The black colour (of the scrotum) is normal," my friend told me.

She was in her late twenties. From an internet generation of Singapore and has had much more knowledge of dogs than anyone from my baby-boomer generation.

Still it was difficult to talk about her need to clean up a specific part of her male dog's body in our tele-conversation. The private part of the male dog. Which part?
The part I called "scrotal bag" or "scrotum". This word meant nothing to her or she did not reveal her knowledge.

"The skin of the bag that holds the testes had not been washed for a long time," I said. "It had a big layer of black carbon-like dirt and I had to scrub it for several minutes to remove them before I could neuter the dog."

She might understand what I was talking about. To be sure, I said, "the bag holding the balls..."

"My friend told me that black is a normal colour," she replied.

"The colour is normal but the scrotum becomes blacker and blacker with dirt over the last months as it was not washed during bathing."

"OK," she said. I might or might not meet her during discharge of the Silkie from the surgery today. So, it was better I let her know.