apologies again

Hello world! again - I'm back! where have I been? well after the "rabbit incident"I've been traumatised and took to my bed.... yeah, like I'd be able to do that! I've just been too busy. I got recruited by a national school debating competition to judge their Aberdeen heat. It's a different kind of competition, based on content rather than style, with the judges being required to get involved and ask the speakers questions, push them on their arguments etc. To do that, of course, you are required to read all the material that the speakers read.... so I've spent the last 2 weeks on the internet reading all the arguments for and against animal experimentation.

Plus we were in Norway again for the weekend, having a wonderful time visiting our friends and eating, walking and drinking - oh yes, and spending time with Katie, their delightful 2 and a half year-old (who with an irish mother and a welsh father (although he sounds more home counties) is now coming out with a terribly posh almost BBC accent!!) I spent a lot of time and effort teaching her Scots words so she remembers she's got a Scottish almost-auntie!

see ya soon!

oooooh dear....trauma

well, he did it. finally properly broke my heart. I took Murphy and Charlie out for a run along the railway this morning and halfway back Murphy managed to get a poor rabbit who couldn't get away under the fence.. and he got him and broke his back again.

I couldn't leave this one, so while having hysterics I found a stone... then a larger one .. oh god, I'm going to have nightmares about this.. one girl came along with her dog and sympathised but couldn't help. Or watch.

After it was over 2 other girls came jogging along. I told them what I was doing and they were really nice, they understood the tears and said I'd done the right thing... but I'm having flashbacks still that reduce me to tears..... :((((((((((((((

charlie & co

this is quite funny - Emily (who, let's face it, is the only one charlie really knows) has just gone off back to the stables and I'm waiting around for the C boy to be picked up - he's a bit nervous at being left "on his own" so to speak - Andy has just come downstairs and charlie is really not happy about it! he's scared of him but keeps half barking at him - a proper bark if Andy's too near - but if Andy makes a move towards him he runs away! It's really quite funny but I have to tell him off for barking at him (can't let him behave like that to someone who lives here) and he's getting confused.

Andy's away back upstairs and Charlie's settled down at my foot, keeping a close eye on the stairs.

Murphy meanwhile is still dozing...nothin' to do wit him

visitor

last night Murphy had a visitor - 1 year old Charlie, a chocolate lab. Now Charlie is a lot less bouncy than he was when Murphy first met him, but he's still pretty hyper, compared to Murfs - after a "calm" night (not too much barking) they headed out at 6.30am (not with me for a change) with Emily to the stables - a good run for them, she went on my bike and poor old Murphy had no time to sniff around his usual haunts on the railway line cos Emily and Charlie were going so fast he would get left behind!

Now Charlie's off exploring the house again and Murphy's zonked on the floor - he's not used to all this excitement! oh - no, now Charlie's also zonked, on the sofa (he's allowed at home).

And the best bit? He's coming back for another sleepover next Friday!!!

here again

well here we are again, it's been a while but Murphy is still as hail and hearty as ever - getting a bit thinner because I'm running him for 40-45 minutes every morning as well as his normal walk - and Islay the boxer puppy has teamed up with Charlie, the 2 year old boxer and they gang up on Murphy (there's a wee bit of growling and sitting on dogs but he loves it really!). (mind you I haven't lost any weight, how did that happen? maybe cos the more exercise I do the more chocolate biscuits I eat!) I even got him a harness so I wasn't yanking on his neck - that lasted 2 weeks and he chewed through it this morning! sigh...