by the way,

another reason I haven't been on here much is I've been on Twitter more regularly. It's quite fun really, and less chance of being boring given you're restricted to your 140 characters..

I'll try to get a video of Murphy's latest trick - getting Maddie by the collar and pulling her round in circles - to put up.

If you ever feel the urge to lurk on Twitter, I'm @cultsianweegie - the restricted ravings of suburban survival!

Well, here we all still are! OK I've missed a month or so but it's been busy. Murphy lost more weight but the vet came him a clean bill of health and we've upped his food (apparently it was stopping those dog teeth-chews that did it, they're very oily. Maddie hadn't lost so much weight (if any) cos she supplements her own diet, as we all know). Gizzy is her usual self, very brave when I'm around and usually keeps out the dogs' way when I'm not.

they've been behaving themselves pretty much recently. We've added another two or three layers of brieze blocks to the wall so Maddie's slightly restricted from escaping so easily (still can if she puts her mind to it but I like to think of it as more of a disincentive)

Yesterday I threw the ball for her in the garden when I was home for lunch - then as I was putting my jacket on to head off to work again there was a sodden "splotch" noise and I saw a very soggy-looking tennis ball trailing water (& mud) across the kitchen floor. She'd obviously taken the ball to the water fountain, dropped it in while she had a drink, then picked it back out and brought it with her - as you do. That ball ain't going to go far in the near future - got as much bounce as a stale pancake!

didn't expect that!

Maddie got her cum-uppance this morning. She ran at another wee spaniel the same size as her, barking. Don't know if she wanted to play or was trying to scare him but he ran back at her and she turned tail and fled - but her back legs started running before her front legs had finished turning and her nose dug a groove in the grass!

Hee hee

seeing him off

I tried, I really did - to the point of irritating him by going through a litany of "Have you got your passport?" "Have you packed underwear this time?" (don't ask) "What about your toilet bag?" etc. Eventually, duly satisfied, I headed off to work. Within twenty minutes there was a call - "Where's the key to the padlock on the suitcase?" Eh? I'm at work, I can't find it from here! - so I suggested hacksawing it off (we had to do that in a B & B in Ireland once) and after then having to identify the location of the hacksaw, I rang off.

Twenty minutes later - "I can't get this padlock to work, is there another one?" "Yes", says I (unfazed), "there's a pink one on one of the other suitcases." "OK, where's the key?" Ah... I fished around in my handbag and pulled out a keyring with a rich array of keys and yes - there was a wee pink key dangling from it. "Well, one of them's here but the other one will be somewhere there.."

Clearly his patience with my distance locating abilities was running out and I got a grumpy "Never mind, I'll get one at the airport" - like it was MY fault I hadn't foreseen this eventuality!

Note to self - must do better!

Caught in the Act (almost)

Safely tucked up in bed last night (cat stretched out on top of me) when there was a sudden crash and thud from the kitchen. By the time the cat had removed herself in great disgust and I'd made it downstairs, Maddie was curled up angelically in her crate, apparently delighted to see me (I do like it when their tail thuds on the floor when they see you)

The mystery (suspicion, more like) was clarified when I got round the counter and there were some baking tins on the floor. I should explain that the baking tins are stacked up on their sides next to the bread bin, which had moved nearer the counter front and the bread in it had a suspicious-looking "nipped" bit in its bag. Clearly my ever-starving darling had decided to repeat last week's coup and tried to grab the bread out the breadbin.

tch tch! Who would have thought it?!

Much of a muchness

They've all been up to their tricks today - Murfs managed to find another deer leg (I suspected he had when he ignored my telling him to "Come!" in my strict voice - never happens if he's only got a stick) and we had another tussle on the doorstep til Richard came out and tempted him in (sans deerleg) in with his breakfast - Murphy's, not Richard's!

Then, as I sat in then garden throwing the ball for Mads after work (I'm not going to go into the problems I had cycling up the hill with my skirt caught in the brakes), I noticed something blue in the infamous bush - and she was nice enough to bring it over. And there it was - the remainder of the wrapping of a loaf of bread which I KNOW I had only taken two slices out of for yesterday's "Tian de Courgettes" (Richard's favourite, he assured me)

So fresh from the pain we all had after she ate the entire banana loaf on Saturday night, she goes and eats an entire loaf of bread on Monday night! No wonder she wasn't entirely willing to finish every morsel of her and Murphy's breakfast this morning.

And of course, not to be outdone, Gizzy managed to throw up in her bowl after we finally gave in and fed her something she liked (and therefore stuffed down her neck far too fast).

And finally, Richard has pulled a muscle in his leg going running. Am I the only sane/healthy person here? And how worrying is that?

oh yeah, nearly forgot

a proper reason for not blogging, we were away for a week - trying the Pina Coladas round Tenerife. And pretty good they were too! Managed only to burn a couple of bits, including my eyelids (sigh). Och well, got an impressive watch mark - although it'll go pretty fast I guess.

Murphy apparently not happy to go into kennels and is still getting thinner. 5 weeks ago he was 29.1 kg - the lightest ever - today he is 27.25kg. OK, it's usual for dogs to lose weight while in kennels but I think he's too thin and the only change has been that we stopped giving them Dentastix (I brush their teeth most days now), so have made the momentous decision to feed him more. Mads of course isn't losing any weight due to her thieving habits - she got the treat bag today which R thinks was pretty full - needless to say it was entirely empty by the time we noticed she was hiding in her crate with it!

I'm a bit worried he's stressing out with being left at home again, having got used to having me around over the last two years. They're not being left more than 3-3 and a half hours at a time but still, they're starved of company most of the day. Not good, and I'm torn about whether it was a good idea to take the permanent job.