guilt

Oh dear, I hate going out to work and leaving them here - they have a way of looking at you so reproachfully as you go out the door...

this morning I thought it wouldn't be so bad as i didn't go into work til about 11.30 - but realised as I headed off that I'd got up, walked them (good), gone out running (without them - bad), come back and gone for a shower (without them, obviously - bad), headed down to the vets for anti-tick medication (without them - bad), came back and applied said medication to Maddie (who anticipated something nasty and hid in her crate) then left for work.

so on the whole the morning came down on the bad scale!... so sorry my dears.

Murphy's new form of attack....

well Maddie's been really busy this week - she was at Agility last night and Obedience training tonight (as was I, followed by Pilates tonight so I've been even busier!) - and did very well. Actually the two are kind of related - Emily took her to Agility last week but couldn't manage this week so I took her - and discovered from another participant that yes she was in the same classes as Maddie and me last year and yes, the classes had moved back to their hall on Wednesdays (hall was damaged by snow in December so classes moved to Thursdays somewhere else but I can't do Thursdays) so we could go again - Maddie was very good, apart from spending most of her resting time trying to make it to the door!

In the meantime she's still scared of Dougal the St Bernard whom we often see in the mornings, and won't go near - standing growling and barking at him. Murphy has therefore taken to harassing poor Dougal (who wouldn't hurt a fly), usually running up to him before deciding that, well, maybe he's bigger than him so he'll not bother. This morning however he went for it and ran up, growling at him. Poor Dougal did a couple of sidesteps but Murphy went and headbutted him! (he had his muzzle on). He did it again the next time we met him (Dougal and owner were walking the other way round the track from us) so I put Murfs on his lead next time we saw Dougal looming out of the mist...wouldn't want him getting traumatised....

interested in gardening then?

Murphy managed to get himself into a situation today - it was a gorgeous day - 21 degrees!!!!! Never before heard of in summer, never mind April! Anyway, I took the dogs out to a local castle for a walk round the woods with Veronica and the girls and stopped in at a garden centre on the way back for an ice cream. So far so good.... but I made the mistake (egged on by a 5 year old!) of letting the dogs off the lead to run around on the grass beside the centre itself and of course while I was concentrating on getting Maddie back on the lead (always a combination of ordering, cajoling and tricking) Murphy decided he was going to go and explore the gift shop. eek! by the time I'd put Maddie on the lead, handed it to Veronica and shot into the building there were a good few people standing around (looking amused, luckily) saying "he went thataway"...

...it's ok standing in a field yelling "Murphy come!" but it doesn't seem to sit so naturally standing in a large gift shop doing it! Luckily he must've decided it was quite boring (he hadn't made it to the checkouts where there was quite a lot of chocolate on display!) and came pretty quickly, so I got a hold of his collar (having put the one lead I was holding onto Maddie) and told him sternly we would go out the "Out" door before scooting him through the place, apologising to all present and emerging into the sunlight again...