Welcome home

We were so looking forward to getting home and seeing the doggos and catto. Apparently Murphy didn't seem to miss us much - just lay around "doin' his thang" but Maddie did go around looking for us - awww.

More of a shock was the state of the house when we got back - bear in mind we were away for a week and there were (on and off) up to 5 people, none under the age of 22, in the house. well -

- there was no cat food left
- not an iota of toilet paper in the house!
- bags of wet towels lying around (which had clearly been there for a couple of days)
- food literally rotting in the vegetable basket and the fridge
- the bins hadn't been put out
- all the towels out the cupboard and tossed over the banisters (used once)

And these people are looking to set up in their own places?!!

Oh yeah - and PS

Got home from Guides and while humouring Maddie (standing freezing in the garden while she sniffed her way around it) saw a flash of something red by her bush.

Behold - an empty digestive biscuit packet! Well well - no surprises there. However it turns out she'd been even sneakier than normal - Richard had had the packet on the table at his elbow, so she must have nicked it LITERALLY from under his nose!

You gotta admire her cheek!

(PS there were apparently only five left so it could be worse)

Everything in the garden is NOT rosy!

Poor Gizzy! Now Emily's back Gizzy's lost one of her snoozing locations (on Emily's bed)

As you can see, she's not happy - looks like she's manning a one-cat picket line at the door.

Not even posed!

Murphy is such a Daddy's boy! Here they are having a serious discussion about Richard's golf swing.

The wanderer returns

Emily is Maddie's favourite person in the whole wide world. Murphy is also keen on her, but he's a Daddy's boy at heart. I was keen to see how they reacted to her arriving home after a year and nine months away.

After we picked her up from the airport she ran into the house. Murphy was doing his usuall barking trick and ran out into the hall (as he always does). When he saw Emily he was very excited and ran straight to her, whining. Maddie, on the other hand, didn't recognise Emily at first and her run into the hall ended with an abrupt halt and immediate backing-off: you could almost hear her "whoooooa, who's this?!" She panicked and started baying.

Luckily after a couple of seconds she worked who it was and it changed to "IT'S YOU!!!!!!" and she was all over her.

Later when all the excitement had died down, she came and sat on Emily on the sofa, looking very pleased. (This from a dog who never stays on the sofa for longer than about a minute if there's anyone else on it)

The next morning as we left for work, she was sitting outside Emily's room, looking expectant. Awwwww.... Puppy love!

Missing - Maddie in Action

Well, pictures of Maddie in action anyway. A friend's wee girl has apparently got a project on at school about pets and have to write about pets they have or know. Needless to say, Poppy wrote about Maddie and my friend phoned there to apologise and say she basically needs a picture of Maddie up to mischief.

Well, I've searched through the photos on my camera, those on FB and those on here and while I have several (many!) showing the evidence or aftermath of her "mischievousness" I seem to have almost none of her actually in action. Clearly I'm missing a trick here!

Maddie channels Murphy?

Or "Maddie versus the swan"

Video to follow

 except I can never upload videos to this thing, unfortunately. It was a wee video I took of Maddie's first encounter with a swan up close - she was suitably scared and barked and growled and ran away for quite some time - most amusing. At least until she refused to move along and when the swan got in the water to swim away she followed it, getting right up to it and barking at it. 

If that swan had had any young, it would have killed her. I know that, everyone knows that except Maddie. As it was it beat its wings over her head as she swam round it, battering her head and pushing her underwater. Eventually she came away (pursued by the now irate swan who continued to batter her with its wings) and so far from being affected by it, showed distinct signs of repeating the performance with another swan in another park the next morning!!! (I got her away pronto and put her firmly on the lead that time)

Apart from that (and it only affected me - see my only available jeans and the resultant wear for church they necessitated - borrowed skirt and several safety pins from my mother) she was pretty much the perfect guest at my folks at the weekend. 

Oh yes, apart from her tracking down and nicking half an Easter Egg from Mum's wardrobe (no doubt hidden there with the gin in case of emergencies) - oops!