Aww, bless her!

Maddie must be knackered today - she's been snoozing for about an hour now despite all the movement going on around her (we are trying lighting the wee stove this evening) and it's right next to where she's curled up.

And that's another thing - look where she's sleeping! In the travelling crate! Yes, the very one I bought at enormous expense (don't tell Richard) for her and which she has been resolutely ignoring for the last two months. 

Truly Christmas is arriving!

Power of the spoken word

Wayhay! Managed to stop Maddie mid-flight there - for some unfathomable reason she suddenly scrambled out her crate and took off towards the back door. I just said her name - "Maddie?" and she screeched to a halt and looked back at me enquiringly.

Once she'd ascertained that I didn't have anything interesting to say (or eat) she turned back and shot out the petflap. But hey, that's progress!

Message for Santa

Maddie has a wee message she'd like to get out there...

(a friend of hers is helping)

cake crisis?

Honestly, I may have bitten off more than I can chew this year. Got carried away with Christmas enthusiasm in September and decided to make not only our Christmas cake, but also wee ones for my parents, brother and sister/bro-in-law. Seemed like a good idea at the time and the cakes were duly made and carefully wrapped up to keep.

Come last week and the juggling of what to do when to get everything done in time kicked in - with baking, cards, shopping and wrapping, house decorating etc. Thus all the cakes were duly marzipanned on Monday night and sat waiting for their coating of royal icing.

Yesterday was a hectic rush round the shops to try to get cake decorations (thought of everything else but not that!) and last night, the kitchen clear, I set to work.

Now I'm not a creative person so despite all the cake decorations was never going to end up with beautiful looking concoctions. But it turned out to be harder than I thought -

First cake - happened to check the date on the glycerin (which helps keep the icing soft) - it was 2 years out of date! oops. Oh well, as it was only our cake, I carried on. Then - oh oh, I need 2 egg white (medium). I only have eggs (large). So it was a bit of guess work trying to use one and a half egg whites. The result - a nicely iced cake but lord knows whether we'll be able to get into it after a few days!

Second cake - oh oh, running out of glycerin. Cue a 45 minute trip round all the local supermarkets to return with - nothing. Naebody has glycerin! Sigh. Oh well, will have to make it with royal icing sugar instead (always a bit hit or miss, I find). However, it seemed to go OK. By which I mean that so far, the icing hasn't rolled off the cake!

Third cake - noooo! Run out of royal icing sugar now! Patched it with the remains of cake 2's icing and finished up the glycerin with a half batch of icing made the traditional way. Looks ok - phew!

Fourth cake - ehhh, no. Not happening. No glycerin, no royal icing sugar = no icing. So cake 4 is currently still sitting in its marzipan, no doubt feeling a little nude beside it's festooned siblings.

The great glycerin hunt is on!

comparisons

Have you read about what was found in the woods in Edinburgh? - a 6 foot boa constrictor! eeeeeek!!! We were reminded, here at work, of the Toronto tragedy a few months ago where two wee boys sleeping above a pet shop (having a sleepover with the owner's son) were killed in the middle of the night by another such beast.

Now say what you like, dogs may eat any baking left carelessly around in the middle of the night, but at least they're not going to sneak into your house and eat you!

Would anyone like a new husband?

Well new to them, anyway. My blasted husband has put all my carefully-marked Christmas catalogues into the bin! (Oh, sorry we're middle class so it was the recycling). Aaaaarrrrgh!!!! "Oh, I thought they were all for the rubbish." Huh! Didn't want piles of things on the coffee table, more like!

How the hell am I supposed to get those difficult-to-source pressies for my friends' wee girls? I could kill him! At least some of his intended gifts were in there, so he'll lose out as well. Hmph!

New week

It's always the sensational stories I put on here, when someone's been misbehaving or showing themselves/us up - which is the exception rather than the rule; maybe this blog gives a false view of  the munters.

So in an effort to redress the balance, I would just like to announce that Maddie was as good as gold all weekend and by Sunday evening had even come back to lie quietly under the table at tea time. It's taken her over a week to recover from the effects of the fireworks, but hopefully normal service is now resumed.

Continuing the good work

To encourage the eating of vegetables rather than sugar - and also the well-mannered use of cutlery as opposed to eating out of plastic bags on the lawn - I was teaching Maddie to eat peas off of a fork tonight.

Things were going well until Murphy took matters into his own paws ( or jaws)!

Improvement...

After a couple of days (well, OK, a day) of being subdued after the peppermint cream debacle, Maddie was bouncing around again this morning, as poor Gizzy can attest! I looked on her fondly, thinking, "Bless her, she's feeling better again" as she tore back & forward round the track at 100 miles an hour. A funny thing I noticed was as I was scooping her poo, it was very orange. "Oh well, must be a side effect from the chocolate."

Got back from our early morning walk (bounce) and fed them. Then noticed a(n empty) plastic bag on the lawn - which upon closer investigation turned out to once have held carrots. Carrots?!!

For over ten years I have kept the vegetable basket in the utility room and nobody has paid any attention to the contents! Obviously I am aware that Maddie (and therefore Murphy, in case he's missing out) is very fond of raw carrots and can hear one being chopped at two miles, but she's never before made that link to the vegetable basket.

Ooooh dear.

Still, on the positive side, carrots are definitely better than peppermint creams!

I haven't made this clear enough...

.. in the past, so I'll get it out there now -

I - HATE - THAT - DOG!!!

The peppermint creams I spent all last night dunking in chocolate went down a treat, by the way - with Maddie!

3am - hearing a muffled bark and alert as always to the possibility of trouble, I shot out of bed and went to see if Maddie and the cat were facing off. I found Maddie sitting up in her crate, holding - yes, you've guessed it - a neatly-tied plastic Pudsey bag in her mouth, with Mars Bar Crispies in. She growled in a half-hearted manner as I took it off her - she knew she'd done wrong! Just how wrong was about to be laid bare...

Beside her in the crate were the remains of about four or five - now empty - Pudsey bags. NOOOOO!

I shot through to the dining room (I'd left the results of the last three nights' work neatly tied up in those bags, ready for sale at the Guides' Children in Need coffee evening tonight) and the devastation was clear even without my glasses. One of the chairs had been left pulled back from the table - leaving her an easy stepping stone onto the table - and there were several more empty, ripped bags on the floor.

I've never actually felt like crying over her shenanigans before, but last night was the night! I can just imagine her walking the length of the table, picking one, carrying it all the way back to her crate, devouring the contents and back for another one. Lord knows how long this had been going on - all night, probably. I don't know why she picked out the bags of peppermint creams first but they are ALL gone - 50 peppermint creams dipped in chocolate. If I hadn't come down the Tiffin and the Mars Bar Crispie would undoubtedly have gone the same way.

And by this morning (although she was bouncing off the walls as a result of eating about a pound of icing sugar), she hadn't even had the decency to be sick!

Ungrateful cat

And here she is - resolutely ignoring the custom-made, cosy radiator bed we spent good money on!

From there to here

Have a look at the first picture of Murphy on here - and here he is now, 9 years later. Not much has changed except he only inhabits the kitchen now when he's waiting for food (his or anyone else's, he's not fussy!)

Gosh, this is boring!

I've just been rereading a few of the original posts about Murphy's doings - they're much funnier than my posts now - either I've got really boring or the munsters have become paragons of virtue.

Answers on a postcard, please!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the lovely, cuddly new radiator cat-bed/tunnel I ordered for Gizzy has arrived and (with much swearing) been assembled and attached to a radiator.

And has she used it? Of course not! She's looked closely at it and I've even put her in it (she continued through and jumped out the other end) and put her on top of it (she jumped down).

Nae luck. I don't know why I bother!

Fireworks!

Poor Maddie - it's amazing how my view of fireworks has changed - I love them but poor Maddie is terrified of them.

The neighbours had some on Friday night and we weren't expecting it. Luckily none of the three of them were outside so we got the door closed to stop anyone inadvertently exiting though the cat flap.

Maddie disappeared and it was a while before we found her - she'd not gone to her crate, she'd gone into the vestibule and hid at the back of all the coats. Poor wee thing.

After that she lay under the side table (her usual spot) and shook, refusing a bit of pizza (perhaps there's a diet tip in there somewhere?) until the noises abated.

We knew she was better when she came back out and demanded the pizza. All better!

A merry dance

Well here we are again, and I've been meaning to tell a few stories -

Last week Richard went to bed before I did, and (alhough she NEVER does this for me) Maddie went and snoozed on the bed. I decided not to force her downstairs since she would undoubtedly growl at me and fight attempts to remove her, waking Richard.

To be honest, I thought she'd get bored and go off to sleep downstairs anyway.

So, Richard wakes up and decides to shift Maddie downstairs. She duly grumbles but goes downstairs with him. On the way back up he stops off at the bathroom; meanwhile Maddie has discovered that the other door is open and has delightedly trotted back upstairs and onto the bed to wait for him, tail thumping!

I couldn't help but lie there, waiting for him to come back, pretending to be asleep - but it was really hard not to give myself away by laughing out loud! I just lay there, giggling & shaking silently, while Richard got back into bed and discovered his faithful hound was re-awaiting him!

Although in the end I had to get up and help, since she was having such good fun giving him the runaround!

a new puppy

Went to visit Jill & family yesterday - they've got a Golden Retriever puppy called Tully - at 11 weeks old he's SOOOOO cute! Curled up in exact,y the same position as Murphy used to when he was tat age, except Tully's that almost white colour whereas obis. Murphy's a mid-dark colour.

Murphy pretty much ignored him (except when Tully showed an interest in his stick, when he semi-growled at him) other than helping himself to Tully's rawhide bone chews within the first 2 minutes of arriving in the house!

We had Sally and Haggis with us too, and Haggis (a 2 year-old Westie for those of you not paying attention) and is about the same size as Tully! So they had a few runs around.

Once I find the photos I'll upload them.

- and here they are!

In the first picture the wee-est is Haggis. In the other one, Tully is fast asleep with the soft toy he thinks is his mum - aww, cute!

latest

Hello world, once more! So -

what's been happening? Well, we had to go to a funeral on Wednesday. It was very strange - not like a Scottish funeral at all. Probably because it wasn't! Although I suppose I haven't been to a non-religious funeral, well, ever… so who knows? An old family friend of Richard's. He was the same age as Richard. We arranged for care for the dogs and flew down to London.

It turned out to be a long day with not much breaks. We got to the crematorium about 15 minutes early to join the queue for Rory's "Barbecue" (as he called it, apparently) - and that was a measure of his attitude and sense of humour. As his brother said - always irreverent but never malicious. His coffin had a police strip round it, an L sticker on the back ands several other signs attached - "Marinated in beer, sherry and red wine", "Toxic Waste" and "Sponsored by SAGA".

It all took and hour and half (I guess that's why they had the last slot at the Crem.) and I've never seen so many men in business suits cry. It's a reflection of the affection Rory was universally held in that there were way too many people for the crem "room" (is that what you all them?) and about 30 people had to crowd outside - unfortunately that meant they couldn't really hear much of the service and it included us! We're really glad we made the effort to go, but given that we had to heard back to the airport immediately after, it does seem a hell of a long way to go to stand for an hour and a half and listen to some vague murmerings!

Luckily for everyone the one hymn they sang was "Jerusalem" - which I don't know.

Isn't it always the people who are larger than life that go too soon? Is that one of the ironies of life?Maybe one we could do without.

Sigh

The truth is coming out, literally.

Richard says it's clear that Maddie WAS the sweetie culprit after all (no further details needed, thank you!)

I still don't understand how she got them out my handbag on the table, without knocking the bag over. I have a picture in my mind - the Tom Cruise-style lowering of her in a harness from the ceiling, "left a bit, right a bit..." Who was the accomplice on the other end - Murphy? Surely he'd have taken the loot. Gizzy? She'd probably have dropped Maddie half way down just to annoy her. Guess we'll never know...

Whodunnit?

Well it's a complete mystery - I have no idea what happened to those chocolates.

We had some chocolates left over from Guides so I took them home for Richard to eat. The remainder - ones he doesn't like - I dumped in my handbag and left on the dining room table to take to work. This morning I bethought myself to put em in a wee bag so they didn't get mushed at the bottom on the way in, but lo and behold - there was no sign of them!

The handbag was still upright on the table, there were no wrappers anywhere (and yes I checked Maddie's bed and her bush). But no chocolates. They have disappeared into thin air!

Surely even Maddie couldn't delicately remove all the sweeties without knocking over the handbag and leaving chewed wrappers scattered about the place?

Perhaps the mystery will solve itself over the next day or so. Until then...

Holiday Summary

In summary, it was a good holiday and went very quickly. Part of that was maybe cos we had to leave a day early and went down to visit Bev & Ruth on the south coast, then headed up to the Lake District on the Saturday then home on the Sunday. Some good memories - the train from Exeter (and them attempting to not take my money!), Murphy & the wasp in Clovelly, Maddie and the grouse, the sunglasses in the river, recognition of my accent in Tescos in Barnstaple, Maddie in the pub in the Lake District (see below about seats) - and Richard's shock that petrol in Devon is dearer than petrol in Scotland!

I think Maddie needs to have a travelling crate with lowerable curtain as she has on about half a dozen occasions this trip, either had to be put back in the car since she was determined to go back there (scared by something obviously), crawled under chairs in pubs, trains, the B & B room (!) etc - and never the chair WE'RE sitting on! - or snuck into the car and ended up sitting in the driver's seat, waiting for us.

Poor wee thing. I don't think she copes well with change. On the plus side there were no sheep incidents and only one grouse incident, no chickens encountered and a couple of wasps tangled with, so here's to next year! Cornwall, anyone?

Lately

We've had a few interesting times on our holiday this year - like on Tuesday when I dropped my sunglasses down a riverbank while picking up a stick to throw for Maddie who was in the water waiting for it. 

We were on the point of going over a footbridge by a railway line over the stream and the bank was about 3 feet high (& pretty sheer). After some debate as to how forgettable (& expensive) the sunglasses were we decided I would go wading for em - so off with my shoes and socks and having given Richard my phone to look after in case I fell in the river, down I went - it actually wasn't too deep and as I shuffled along calf deep in the (cold!) water I found the sunnies - they had caught on a plant so hadn't even hit the water, result!

Grabbed them and got Richard to pull me back up. Then had to rescue my phone which had fallen out his pocket and nearly into the river (!!) and a few agonising minutes tiptoeing over the chuckies lining the path over the bridge with me in bare feet and then we were over, there was a nice field with grass and I could dry my feet and put my shoes back on. We won!

Then there was today, where Murphy caused consternation in the pub when he ate a wasp, whacking his head off the table as he snapped at it and barging over to press against my legs under the table - we guessed it had stung him and the landlady went off to get him a tub of water to drink, just in case. The rest of the pub was attracted when he cracked his head off the table but he seems to have no ill-effects from it. And nobody arrested us for taking him into wasp-bearing environments. Phew!

Holidays

How am I enjoying this year's dog walking holiday so far? Well, we're in the hills of North Devon so all those awful wee narrow roads with 10 foot high hedges on either side, but traffic's been light so far so I haven't met much coming the other way.

And at about 4am this morning I believe I heard the words "This is shit, I want to go home" emerge from me as I groggily got up to let the dogs out AGAIN to see if they needed to relieve themselves. This because Murphy had barked - we'd have ignored it if it was Maddie (who'd already been shouted at for trying to break down our bedroom door). Of course the dogs didn't need to go out, they just fancied a midnight (ish) perambulation round the back lawn while I stood in me PJ's trying not to get too cold and awake.

Then we left it til after today's walk to do the big supermarket shop - forgetting England has weird opening hours and everything shut at 4pm. So we ended up at KFC's for a carry out for dinner - a first for me and probably a last, too. I liked the popcorn chicken, just nothing else particularly!

On the plus side we had lovely weather today and the house is quite the nicest we've stayed in so it's mostly good. And will be better once we get a long piece of rope to attach Maddie to so she can be left in the back garden without fear of her leaping the fence and going off to find the sheep which are two fields away!

Under the bush...

The latest discoveries under Maddie's bush this morning - an empty cat food tin and a (full) bottle of sun-tan lotion. ???!!!

A walk and a half

As anyone who happened to catch my FB status update will know, we had an interesting walk yesterday. Took the hounds up to a nearby wood and all went well to begin with - although the dogs were confused as we set off away from the usual carpark owing to road closures.

Thereafter things went a little downhill - Murphy, who a couple of weeks ago disappeared off on two separate occasions and arrived back with a deer-leg clutched proudly in his mouth, decided to check out the leg possibilities this time too. Off he went, over a wall and under some barbed wire into a neighbouring meadow and disappeared from view. We carried on round on the path with Maddie (who at least hasn't got the nerve to go that far away from us no matter what the leader of the pack is doing). We sat and waited once we got to the end of that path and after 15 minutes decided to retrace our steps in case Mr Murphy had forgotten what direction we were going in, in all the excitement.

Sure enough, having heard a suspiciously-familiar bark(ish) and headed over wall and barbed wire, round trees and through thigh-length grass we finally reached the other wall where we reckoned he'd been. I found the remains of more deer-parts (not many, I have to say, and all not worth the attention) but no Murphy. Calling again, he eventually turned up from the direction of the path, just delighted to see us!

As we turned, having greeted and scolded him, and headed back towards the path, he retrieved (from God knows where) ...-  you got it - another deer leg! Complete with skin and hoof. Sigh. As usual he was immensely proud of his souvenir and wouldn't give it up for anything. So back to the carpark, where Richard managed to get it away from him with some muscle power, a poo-bag and a treat, and deposited it in the poo-bin.

Meanwhile I had ripped my trousers (luckily not my leg) on the aforementioned barbed wire and, in a moment of inattention by me (I was off taking things to the poo-bin) Richard offered Maddie a treat (as she'd been good compared to some people!) and she mistook his finger for a gravy-bone. Result? A bleeding finger and a VERY grumpy husband. Though how it was my fault I fail to understand.

We finally all got home in (almost) one piece and without any additional limbs. No mean feat!

(P.S. I should say at this point that Murphy, despite what the other walkers we encountered on the way as he carried his treasure high clearly thought, was not involved in whatever took the deer down. We think it was probably poachers but who knows.)

Who's feeding Gizzy?

I'm convinced someone is feeding Gizzy - she's always so picky about her food. Normally she gets one pouch morning and night, with dry food left out for her to munch on if she's hungry.

The last couple of weeks she's been eating us out of house and home, and completely unpicky! One evening she polished off THREE pouches of food!! And she's not a big cat, in size or weight, if anything she's on the thinner side.

As of yesterday, however, she's gone back to turning her nose up at our offerings and not climbing all over us to demand food at every opportunity. So whoever it is that must also feed her is clearly back from on holiday.

I wish people wouldn't do that. She's got a collar and tag on, why would you feed a cat that CLEARLY belongs to someone else?

Cat Patrol

Murphy handed over the baton of cat protection to his eager beaver lieutenant tonight, who showed herself more than capable.

We were watching TV when I heard a cat howl outside, some hissing and something hitting off the French windows. I shot into the kitchen and Maddie was already there at the door, waiting to be released. Door open, spaniel shotgun cannoned out and the garden was immediately a still and peaceful, empty place (other than Maddie cris-crossing it in a frantic attempt to locate something with four legs she could bark at).

She did very well - unlike Murphy, who on such occasions in the past has adopted the technique of haring to the four corners of the garden and barking defiance and warning to the neighbourhood and all in it, Maddie only barked once (in frustration I think) as she ran back and forward across the garden between  the usual points of feline entry (and exit).

Meanwhile we heard a thud upstairs and that was Gizzy in the skylight in our bathroom - safe and sound. Maddie went and did a couple more patrols round the garden as we settled back after the excitement but there was nothing to be found. Job done! 

Meanwhile where was Murphy? Snoozing on the sofa!

Konsiderate Kat

Gizzy has a habit of throwing up when she eats her food too fast - and so it was a couple of nights ago. She was sitting on me (lying in bed) purring away - then, suddenly those noises only a cat-owner knows, signifying imminent disaster!

Ever polite, she jumped down off the bed and threw up on the floor, before wandering off to let me clean up the mess (at midnight) - how considerate!

hot hot hot!

The gruesome twosome have survived the hot weather relatively unscathed. Maddie spends a lot of her time sitting around panting - though why she should be hotter than Murphy beats me! I found the old paddling pool and set it up again. Murphy was confused, and once again treated it like a giant drinking bowl, lapping out of it in an uninterested kind of way.

Maddie ignored it so I lifted her up and stepping in, put her down in the water. I don't think she even noticed it, really - she put her head between my knees for a bosy then sat down in it. Then jumped out and tried to run back into the house, dripping water everywhere. Noooo!

So that was a failed experiment, I really don't uinderstand how they can be desperate to jump into any muddle sinkhole out on a walk but fail to recognise a lovely cool paddling pool with clean water, sitting in the middle of their own back garden!

It is quite wee, maye I need to get a bigger one...

Healthy eating

poor old Murphy - he got a nasty surprise last night. Since we came back from Sicily I've been totally into salads and have finally developed a liking (more like an obsession!) for olives. Combined with the hot weather, that translates into lots of barbecues - which usually involve sausages! The dogs know they'll get one so take up BBQ-watch as soon as it's lit, not moving from the spot until the sausages have been cooked and removed.

Last night we didn't have a BBQ, I made a pasta dish involving sausage pieces (with salad, of course) and we ate that outside. Murphy thought he was getting sausage from Richard, so he snapped at the piece of food and made to gulp it down with every every sign of enjoyment. Too bad for him it was actually a bit of lettuce! He chewed, gulped, chewed some more (the most delicious look of disgust on his face) and then spat it out. You could almost see the word bubble over his head - "I'm a boy, Daddy - I'm not eating lettuce!"

hee hee!

Sometimes I just despair.

Yesterday I wasn't talking to any of them - two or four footed! (Not sure I've really changed my mind, actually, but that's a different story.)

Why? Well! Let me tell you. Having had to shut the back door to keep Maddie in (she was keen to do her noisy rounds again), I was woken at 4.30am by an insistent (and slightly higher-pitched than Murphy's "ahem, I'm terribly sorry but I really do need out" middle-of-the-night alarm) "woof!"

Damn! I dragged myself out of bed (and why is it always me? Cos Richard can't hear anything over his snoring!!) and went downstairs. Sure enough, young Madame had thrown up and wanted out. So she had a quick scoot out (on a lead - I learn fast!) and I had to clear up. guess what she'd eaten this time that made her throw up? An ENTIRE crisp packet! Not shredded or chewed in any way, still in one piece. It could've killed her. Of course it was from Mr Careful himself; when I asked if he'd left it lying around all he could say was that he's left it while he was eating his sandwich. So we're going to work on him putting things like that in the bin BEFORE he eats his sandwich in future. I hope.

Next up, I took them both to the woods for their after-work walk. Maddie's been really good at hopping into the car without running all over the road first so I neglected to put her lead on. Naturally that was the evening a "yoof" was wondering past the gate in a hoodie, so Maddie took off after him and barked at his knees. Harmless enough but not good.

Now Murphy's turn. Duly on our usual walk through the woods and he disappears off to the side to investigate something, returning with the remains of some poor dead animal clenched in his mouth. By the one ear I reckon it must have been a fox. I did my best to wrench his jaw open and we even had a wee screaming match but all that happened was he ran away, munching and gulping as he went. Urgh!

So I didn't speak to him for the rest of the walk. At least he doesn't appear to have had any ill effects. God knows how!

Then last night I had to shut the cat out again as no sign of her. Came down this morning to see if she has found somewhere to settle in the utility room (I'd had the forethought to take all the clean washing upstairs). Of course she had! Look -

Disasters anonymous

Things keep going just slightly wrong. Like how Gizzy got shut in the vestibule last night all night (she made a comfy bed out of the dogs's fleecy towels) and nearly got shut out tonight. She did get shut out on Sunday night & had to spend the night in the utility room (probably on the clean washing).

Yesterday Richard decided to cut the hedge & fell off the top of the ladder, landing on the shears and hitting his head. Lucky he didn't kill himself!

And all this after his having to cancel his trip last week and me a) cycling into the side of our own house on the way to work on Monday and b) forgetting to take my underwear for after swimming on Tuesday last week!

I hope to recapture routine & organisation soon ...

To Spain, or not to Spain?

That was the question, and here is the answer - not. Poor Richard is gutted. They said he had to make a decision by Friday lunchtime and at that point the antibiotics hadn't kicked in yet, so he had no choice but to pull out of the trip. Of course by the evening they'd started working and the swelling was going down - so he could have gone after all, only it was too late.

Meanwhile tonight Maddie slipped through a loophole (now closed) and over the wall in her never-ending quest to protect us all from these new cats (I presume) and I could just hear her scampering around the neighbourhood with the occasional bark. Sigh. Thank God it was a Sunday night and there were no cars about - cos that's the last thing she was thinking about!

Needless to say, just as I'm standing there contemplating putting some shoes on and heading out to see where she is (a fruitless task if ever I saw one), she shoots back inside the back door and into her crate.

"Job done" she says. Hmm. So the back door is now firmly closed!

He's still got it!

So Murphy's still got it, Maddie's looking for it and Gizzy's giving it out.

At the vet yesterday with Murphy for his boosters. He loves the receptionist and always runs in and puts his front paws up on the counter (which is quite high) to say hello. She wasn't there when we arrived - in the back getting medicines etc - so when she came back as there was nobody else in I let go the lead to let him say hi. (I was sitting down at this point).

Well! He didn't just go and say hi, he took off and leapt up, landing ON THE TOP OF THE COUNTER!! Gave the receptionist the fright of her life! Not bad for a 9 year old golden retriever from a standing start, though.

Maddie of course is still attempting to patrol the garden in a raucous manner but we're getting wise to her.

Finally, Gizzy's doing her bit to keep the mayhem going. She bit Richard on the hand when he was in bed yesterday morning (looking for her breakfast) and his hand has completely swollen up! Very hot and angry looking (worse than mine went a few months ago). A trip to the pharmacist yesterday and the doctor today had resulted in a tetanus jag, TCP washes and a course of penicillin :(.

The worse news is that he's supposed to be going to Spain on a team-building field trip on Saturday and if his hand hasn't started recovering he'll be going on a trip to hospital instead!

Bad cat!

Interlopers!

Well! The mystery behind Maddie's recent mania for going outside at all hours of the night and barking has now been revealed. I let her it for one last shot into the garden before I went to bed just there and s I stepped out after her a huge cacophony arose from the shed corner of the garden. Dear lord, I thought she was having a fight with another dog! (Such is the way of the excited spaniel)

I yelled at her and got to the spot just in time to see - a foreign cat making a speedy exit over the top of the shed and off. topping just to nip in and assure myself it wasn't Gizzy (whom I found perched half way up the stairs with her paws curled neatly under her), I went back out to see if I could persuade the noisy heroine to forego her triumphant spurts around the garden and come inside.

Suddenly I spied movement behind a fence on the other side of the garden (on top of a wall) and - wait! ANOTHER cat! This time a black one with white dabs, not the same as the white mottled one Maddie had come across. It took the hint of the hiss I sent its way and retired to the front of the neighbour's house then sat down. Clearly a local, but obviously these two are new to town.

Hopefully they might be a bit re wary of Gizzy's garden from now on, but who knows? Was Maddie's guerrilla pounce enough? I sure hope so, I don't like spending my nights running round e garden in my PJs, trying to persuade her to come inside.

Maddie the woose

Maddie did it again - she must have knocked over the pool cues which are stacked against the wall next to her bowl and the resultant clatter was too much. By the time I got there the bird had flown.

I eventually ran her to ground upstairs on Nick's bed, being comforted by Elle!

Better late than never

It really works! I stamped my little feet and (almost) shouted - and I got my own way! Once I got over the guilt and upset I was cool with it, too.

Note to self - don't leave it 4 hours next time or you come across a bit crazy.

Multiplying!

Last week I went out to get something on Saturday morning and when I came back and opened the front door, a big shaggy dog ran out, terribly pleased to see me, and cavorted round me in the hall. Poor Murphy could barely reach me and Maddie was keeping a very low profile!

Who was this dog? Had I missed something? We weren't looking after anyone's dog, were we? The back door was open and it flashed across my mind that it was some random dog in the neighbourhood who had found his way in; but no, he couldn't have got over the wall, surely?

Turns out it was Baxter, belonging to Elle's sister-in-law and her was only there briefly as a stopping point, to be picked up by said relative. I have met Baxter before but I remember him as a shaggy cream dog, not (as it turns out he is) a shaggy grey and white dog. The memory plays tricks, I must be getting old!

Pets

Dunno if I've said this here before, but one of the things I love is to hear a dog's tail banging on the floor just cos I've walked into the room. It's just so amazing that my very presence can have that effect - heartwarming and humbling.

And now Gizzy has taken to waiting for me too. She usually spends her evenings curled up somewhere upstairs, but tonight when I came home from a meeting she was curled up in the corner of the stairs, snoozing. She woke up when I came in and is now stretched out on top of me (I'm in bed). I think she was waiting for me, isn't that sweet? Or annoying, I suppose if you're allergic to cats. And no, I'm not.

Sally came round to visit on Sunday. Murphy was very pleased - lots of extra love and attention! As you can see, he twisted himself round about 270 degrees to have his nose rubbed!

The Big Bang Theory

I love this programme. It's in its sixth series now so clearly I'm not the only one. The goings-on of the four brainy geeks and their trials and tribulations living in the normal world, mainly represented by Penny, the pretty blonde waitress who lives across the landing. Richard says he hates it but I was watching a couple of episodes last night and he actually laughed all the way through it!

Worryingly, I actually could see myself behaving the way Sheldon did at one point. I totally understood where he was coming from. So my suspicions about being a wee bit on the scale may actually be correct. That's good - I thought I was a social inept, now I know there's probably a reason!

Snow spaniel

Speaking of last week's snow...

Fit's been happening?

Well, we've been on holiday and the dogs were put into kennels. Murphy was getting on the thin side when he went in, and is now definitely thin. not worryingly, but I wouldn't want him losing any more weight. We've been upping his feed but he hasn't put any weight on. Of course, he'll be 9 on Wednesday so he's getting older and it may be something to do with that. Now that Richard's not working Mondays he's supposed to be making an appointment at the vet for Murfs to get a general medical to make sure there's nothing sinister in this weight thing. So once I've reminded him several times...

Maddie is her usual ebuliant self. Howls of rage on Saturday morning from Nick's room alerted me to the fact that she had stolen his (giant sized) Toblerone off his desk this week. Oh dear. Other than that she's been pretty good.

Winter still remains with us and last week's snow has gone but this week's is threatening. It's just generally wet, windy and freezing - a superb combination which obviously encourages us all to get out on our bikes and cycle to work, as well as lay off the chocolate... saying which, I was supposed to give up chocolate for Lent. I did, for three days. So I'm contemplating eating it for Lent instead. You never know, it might work!

We went down Glasgow way for a family meetup for Mother's day/birthday. Weather pretty hairy on way down but we got to the edge of it and it was worth it for the views and the company!

PS

The good news is Richard loved the rice pudding! Wa-hay, result!

Fated to be late

Man! You know what? I'm cursed. It's official. No matter what I'm making, no matter how long it's supposed to take, it always ends up taking me about 3 hours. Take tonight. I have made rice pudding - the first time, I've never tried it before although Mum used to make it. I saw what looked like a nice recipe on the TV yesterday morning (see what happens when people put the TV on during the day?) and thought Richard was making dinner. When he came through to ask why time dinner was ( I was by this time deep in a movie on TV) I realised he wasn't!

A brief discussion ensued, we decided I would make a dish I'd found which takes 25 minutes (Richard was gnawing his arm off by now). - unfortunately it turned out the dish requires cooked potatoes - and cold ones, at that! At least another 40 minutes!

After another consultation I defrosted a coupla helpings of stuff I'd made last week - lasagne and shepherds pie. That took another forever to defrost in the microwave so by the time we actually ate it must've been about 2 hours.

For a mere defrosting or a 25 minute dish? See? It's fate.

Clear morning

We unexpectedly had snow yesterday morning when we woke up. I say unexpected because it wasn't heralded by a week's "SNOWMAGEDDON!!!" hysteria from the "national" press. Why was that, I wonder? Perhaps because it wasn't going to affect the south of England?

Anyway, it's going now but still up at the track. With a lovely light sky this morning too.

Gizzy's Revenge

That cat! She haunts you when she wants fed, sitting on your laptop or on the counter and giving you that look "Feed me!"

Then she hangs out with Richard in bed, waiting for me to come to bed so she can lie on me half the night.

I'm quite strict, not giving into her demands for food when she already has some etc. So last night she got her own back. I lay on the bed to play with her and she took an eppy and attacked my hand. Told her off and never thought any more about it. Until this morning when I woke to find my wrist had swollen up and was quite painful.

She tried to poison me! There are a couple of scratches which is what has caused the infection. Luckily I applied Savlon (Dad would be proud!) and it's going down now. The good news is it meant Richard had to ride my bike home from work instead of me. Silver linings...

The best laid plans

So tomorrow is Richard's 60th birthday and yesterday I was thinking about his 50th - I threw a party for him and I remember me and Emily picking up the balloons from the gift shop. Lightbulb! I headed off to Blooms & Balloons, who're taking one of my students on placement shortly, and duly snuck into the house with two sets of helium filled Happy Birthday balloons which I stashed upstairs.

And, along with the birthday banners (same place), the cake (in the garage) and the candles (in the baking drawer) I was confident all was safely hidden.

Once he sat down after dinner I snuck off and moved the presents, balloons etc to the sunroom - he'd never find them in there - and duly collected them after he headed off to bed.

The slip twixt cup and lip? Nick had gone through there to watch American football and Richard went in to talk to him. I didn't realise til I got them and Nick was like, "er, I think he saw the balloons" - NNNOOOOOO!

How careful do you have to be?! It's so unfair. On him as well as me, cos he'll not get the surprise and I won't get to see him getting the surprise. Etc etc. Oh well, now he's immortalised in a blog post instead.

Happy Birthday Richard!

Dismantling Christmas

I HATE taking down all the Christmas decorations and the tree. I guess everyone does, although for some reason Richard is going at it with gusto this year. However I'm trying a new way to make it easier - blasting out Michael Buble's Christmas album (well I did the same while decorating the house so it's a karmic circle, right?) and doing it in stages. Took the cards down on Thursday, the tree down today and will put the ornaments away tomorrow.

Sigh.

Back to the dreichness of everyday winter life.

Oh yes, I forgot - there's still Richard's birthday to get through.

Mac isn't the answer to all my problems

At least, while trying to order a gift card for Richard's birthday, I found the usual problem - can't upload the photo I want to be on the card as it's not recognising the photos in the Photo Library! Is this a mac problem or a me problem?

At least I have the ability to go and get a free training session at the Apple Store. Thank goodness!

Life post Haggis

Well, Haggis left last week and left a wee hole in our lives. Despite his more irritating habits like barking at people when they had the temerity to go upstairs and leave him at the bottom, or watching TV and barking at bits he didn't like (I had to rewind Dr Who three times!) we had got accustomed to him and were sad to see him go.

All except Andy, of course, who isn't a dog person anyway, and got annoyed at him for barking at him every time he went out for a smoke in the middle of the night. So he would get annoyed and speak sharply to him if Haggis barked at him. That, of course, only resulted in Haggis barking at him! No love lost there..

So life has settled back down, Maddie's back to running round after Murphy on walks and the car only has her usual two nuisances to keep an eye on - Haggs was FASCINATED by Gizzy - tried to follow her everywhere, even attempting to climb the radiator to reach her on the windowsill. After three swipes he was getting less fascinated but probably still more of a nuisance than our two.

So long, wee man!