midweek

I've finally managed to calm down after the hectic pre christmas rush of October, November and December, or maybe it's just because for the first time in months and months I've had 3 weekday evenings in with nothing to do and nowhere to go (apart from choir on Monday which I skived off of).. so here I am ensconced on the sofa watching the football - well til 9 when the Brits come on. Richard has to go and pick Emily up so I'll be safe to turn over!

Murphy appears to be getting tips off the cat - he's gone to bed in the huf cos we won't feed him any more food - particularly, I think, cos nobody would feed him any pizza! Oh, he's back now, with a heavy sigh. If he's not careful he'll get his teeth brushed and his ears cleaned again... he doesn't mind the teeth (poultry flavoured toothpaste, it's a race as to whether I can get the stuff on his teeth before he licks it all off the brush)

he managed to make off with a chocolate muffin that was accidentally left on the coffee table on sunday night - Richard found the case in the garden the next morning... of course it could have been the cat but somehow I doubt it

normal?

not much happening today.. couldn't top yesterday anyway, he had an hour's run with me, then immediately went out with Richard to take Emily to the yard and got a run with him too.. didn't take him out today although i did mean to. Went to church for Lent instead (for all the good that does Murphy). we did take him round one of the local forests though, which he likes. There are various sculptures throughout the forest one of bison which is actually really spooky, they're a wee bit in from the path and look really real from a distance. They confused Murphy too the first time - it took some persudaing for him to go and sniff them.. then of course he attacked one (I think I told this story), pulling me over and I cracked my head on it - it turned out there was a squirrel nesting in it! Exit squirrel at speed!

he went and had another sniff today but the squirrel's obviously decided that wasn't too safe a home as no sign now.

Gizzy got a mouse again - we knew cos Murphy growled at her and chased her up the stairs - not sure if he wants to rescue the mouse or just take it off her!

neat 'n clean

Murphy is all spruced up and ready to impress! I decided to give him a good brush last night (having run home from work, done my "meditation", thrown down a couple of bits of pizza, gone to Pilates and (on my return) brushed Murphy's teeth. Next?) Having done that I took the opportunity to trim his paws and moved on to his tail - unfortunately he doesn't really recognise the command to stand. He sat and when I tried to get him to come forward (and therefore stand and walk) he just shuffled towards me on his bum! So I had to get him to lie down so I could attack his tail.

Got more done today while he was standing in the kitchen trying to impress on Richard the need to feed him some of our dinner - I was able to retake the scissors to his backside and snip off the shaggy bits and a bit more of his tail.. luckily I had to go out to Guides before I got too carried away! It's still there, just!

Richard tried to move his bed a couple of days ago, to prevent his barking in the middle of the night at things he sees or hears outside - he wasn't too happy about it (his bed was moved to the hall) and padded round upstairs for a while before going downstairs to the lounge and (you've guessed it - barking in the middle of the night!). After he lay in the place his bed used to be in the kitchen and watched Richard with a reproachful look all during breakfast, richard relented and moved it back.

So of course he thanked us by barking at 5.30am this morning and when I went rushing down to tell him to wheesht, there he was lying very comfortably in his bed and just stopped barking long enough to say hello.. how helpful! Grrr!

easy cos it's sunday morning?

I have to apologise to the members of the golf club, and surrounding residents... I took the bold hero for another run along the railway line this morning and all was going well - no sheep in the vicinity, he hadn't scared the 3 little girls in pink anoraks who were out frogspawning (in fact I think they wanted to say hello but he ignored them). All that had happened was he'd out-manoeuvred me and back tracked and hoovered up a stray dog treat that was lying on the ground (I thought he hadn't noticed on the way out - huh!)

but what did he do at the back of the first tee but chase a cat up a tree and announce this, at great length and the top of his voice, to everyone in the vinicinity for at least 3 full minutes! I couldn't get through the barbed wire to get at him. The cat was unmoved and unmoving - "come up here and say that, buster!" and though he tried, luckily dogs are not built for tree climbing. Eventually, as we were starting to gather a crowd, he stopped for breath and noticed me yelling at him and came bouncing over. Excitement over...

that ****in' dog!

He comes back from his holidays, all bouncin' around and pleased to see us .. Nick said he was better but not entirely, so we decided 24 hours starvation to let his tummy settle down. Unfortunately he had other ideas and managed to find the truffles Sue (my sister) gave me for Christmas, which I've been saving in the fridge - not that he got into the fridge, he's not that smart! - eejit me left them on the coffee table ............ need I say more? (we managed to save the last two but who'd eat them after that?)

So much for the 24 hours! Still, it didn't stop him hoovering down the chicken and rice we gave him for dinner (have you noticed this dog eats better when he's sick?)

Roll on tomorrow. Who knows what it will bring?

PS on the cat front Gizzy helped us get out to work on time on Thursday morning - just as I was heading to the door she flashed past me up the stairs with something suspicious in her mouth.. yes, you've guessed it, it was a bird... (RIP bird, by the way)

empty nest syndrome

Oh dear, I don't know how I am going to cope! What will we do? - Murphy has left home! He's gone off with Nick and g-friend & parents for a stay by the seaside. He'll have a wonderful time, he'll be the centre of attention (they're leaving Baxter behind) which is always his idea of a good time, and Nick has been warned to look after him - and he will, Nick's good for that kind of thing.

But we're left without our baby! Nobody to "purr" at us when we've finished eating or having a biscuit (translation - "my turn, give me attention/pizza/biscuit"), nobody to follow us round the house - with his eyes if not actually - and park himself in the most awkward places when we're rushing round the kitchen. Nobody to bounce round the garden barking, or to sleep on our feet in the evenings, or to distribute his shoe collection round the house, or to greet us at the door with a furiously wagging tail... nobody to make us get up and go for a walk, then to have a towel wrestle with, nobody to rest his head on our knee and fix us with those big eyes, to laugh at when he plays or talk to as we go about the place (or is that just me?) ... nobody to hug, to dress up (Emily) or to swear at (Andy).. we are truly bereft.....

... just as well it's only 2 nights and he'll be back on Friday!

a visitor

we have a visitor tonight - Busby is a black lab-cross who has come to see us with Rebecca, Emily's pal. He is quite hyper and does the paw thing same as Murphy (when you stop petting him the paw comes up to rest on your arm, urgently - "I'm still here"). He seems to have developed an amazing trick - he can open the front door and disappear into the night... he's done it twice tonight so we've had to lock the door to be safe. Murphy is not impressed!

Busby also wants desperately to play with Gizzy - it was so funny I've never seen such an obvious double take as he did when he was passing the duvet (Gizzy curled up asleep) and I pointed her out and introduced them - he stuck around, shiveringly keen to play with her but too scared to go near - she stood up, tail all bushy and gave him the eye til his nerve failed and he ran away..

Luckily for us all (as he's exhausting us all with his energy) he's being fetched home now.. Murphy will be very pleased as he's finding it difficult to cope and has gone to his bed!

Mind you poor Murphy has been having a hard time of it - check out what Emily made him wear today!