Still daundering on

Murphy's birthday is 2 weeks today - he'll be 13. A good age. We obviously hope he'll have another couple of years with us but you never know. I make an effort to treasure all my interactions with him now.

He's certainly slowed down, and is starting to become a bit "feil" (as they say in Aberdeen). It kind of means otherworldly and on occasion he does seem that way. He's more easily confused, forgets what he's doing etc. He's also getting very deaf and will happily trot on ahead, not hearing your yells to alert him to the fact you're going another way. Eventually you get his attention and he turns to look and instantly speeds up back. Mind you, he's always had a touch of selective deafness! As the dog walker says, you have to keep him close!

He is more needy, comes for bosies when he never used to and gets upset sometimes when Richard leaves the house. He's even started barging into the bathroom on me, or barking outside the door! That's just in the mornings before their walk.

He eats a LOT slower; I'm considering not using the "Go Slow" food bowl any more as he goes slow enough anyway! On occasions he doesn't finish and of course Maddie is waiting to polish off any leftovers! It's a lesson on how to eat properly watching him - where before he (and still Maddie) would inhale the food as fast as possible, now he eats a bit, looks around, eats another bit, looks around some more... you get the picture.

However he still loves his walks and is not averse to a bit of growling at other dogs (if they start it) - particularly where there's a fence in the way! He'll still want a ball thrown into the sea to fetch a few times, before wandering off and refusing to give it back. He keeps a watch over the house and if we've been out, is always found, upon our return, standing at the doorway into the conservatory, barking madly! (the sound of the car obviously comes clearer through the conservatory windows and he thinks that's where we're coming from).

He has Jake and Duke to contend with - young whippersnappers, bouncy and desperate to play. As he's always done, including with Maddie, he ignores them as much as possible and they've got the message now and leave him pretty much alone. I think I've described here before how he would get up and walk over to them and growl at them if they were mucking about together and making too much noise!

So all in all our Murphy is in the twilight of a long and (hopefully happy) life and is aging fairly gracefully. He has some skin tags and a couple of fatty lumps, is very white around the muzzle and head and spends a lot of time snoozing in the living room (more often on the floor than before - does he find it harder to get on the sofa?).

But we love him dearly and he's daundering on...

The perils of a reputation

This, of course, is about Maddie. Both dogs have coped well with our move to Inverness. We've got our morning walk sorted and although Maddie has rediscovered the delights of chasing Gizzy round the garden, the cat has in her turn discovered the various safe spots where Maddie can't get her.

Anyway, apart from the swiping of half a sandwich Richard had left at the edge of the kitchen counter, Maddie has been good (other than a propensity for humping Murphy's head - don't ask!) I should mention that she's been on a diet and has lost half a kilo in the past couple of weeks so is more than usually predatory in the kitchen department.

I was cooking something requiring grated parmesan cheese the other night, and suddenly noticed that the pile of cheese was somewhat depleted - and where was the grater? Surely she hadn't gone off with it?! I sent Richard out into the garden to look for it, torch in hand. It was raining a bit too, so he wasn't best pleased. It was lucky I found the grater in the dishwasher shortly thereafter or he'd have been really unhappy! - and no, Maddie hasn't mastered the art of cleaning up after herself, I'm just getting a bit forgetful (she had eaten most of the parmesan, though).

Yesterday I came across her in the living room, chomping at something and looking unimpressed. I then noticed a roll of toilet paper in front of her she'd been absent-mindedly chewing on (still in one piece but with toothmarks). I think it was too dry for her, she didn't object to my removing it and she hasn't been back into the bathroom to re-retrieve it!

The more of the tale is that she hadn't been as bad as I immediately assumed - her reputation precedes her!

Grumpy Auld Man

Murphy has another young pupster to ignore now - Duke, currently 4 months old, is a bearded Collie/Retriever cross. he's going to be BIG! He's already almost the size of Maddie and just wants to play. He belongs to Nick, my stepson, and his wife Elle. When he comes round, Duke tries to play with Murphy (who ignores him as best he can with Duke licking his face all the time) and then maddie (who growls at him and eventually retreats to her crate for some peace - she's really very anti-social!). he's pretty much given up with her now.

He would then turn to the cat - would she play with him? - eeh, no.

However, Jake is another matter entirely! Now 18 months old, he is totally up for a rumble! The two of them tumble over each other, growling away with gay abandon! Until, that is, Murphy decides there's too much noise, at which point he'll get up, stretch, wander over to where they are and growl at them - not too scary but obviously telling them to "keep the noise down, kids!"

And that works - they separate and you can see them almost bowing as they back off - "sorry granda!" (before they start again elsewhere) - it is so funny to see it! Murphy comes back and lies down again - job done. Pesky kids!

Still here

Maddie continues to get her own way - she's on a diet after everyone started commenting on how chubby she was getting (nothing to do with us, unless you count the fact that it's us who leave the food out vaguely within her reach, which she steals)

I realised after she stole all my big fluffy American pancakes (I had eaten one and a half so she got 4 and a half!!) that we had got complacent as she hasn't stolen any food for quite a while (shoes are another thing entirely but at last she doesn't eat those).

So last week I realised the wee bowl which had been holding a handful of Hershey's Kisses was on the floor - empty. I'm assuming it was her nibs, but I've no proof, it could have been Murphy setting her up. I never found any wrappers and none seemed to pass through either of them so it's a bit of a mystery. As it's "summer" and has been so wet her bush in the garden has grown again so I can't even see under there. Maybe she took them in there, carefully unwrapped them and discarded the wrappers in there.

Who knows?

Since then she has got the bread (half a loaf was discovered later) and when Richard dropped his wee pouch filled with dog treats on a walk, Maddie was the one to find it on the way back. She'd run ahead and when he got it back she'd been trying her best to get into it - it was all covered in slobbers - but to no avail.

Lord knows what will be next, but at least she is looking a bit trimmer so the diet is working despite her best efforts!

still here

It's been quite a while since I was on here. This doesn't mean the dogs (and Gizzy) haven't been up to all sorts of mischief; it just means I haven't thought, or had the time (or the inclination?) to record it.

Of course, as they get older they do calm down. Emily has a springer spaniel now - Jake, he's 1 year and 4 months old - and the difference between him and Maddie is HUGE! He's longer and taller than her and just skin and bones - they feed him tons but he just burns it off. Like Maddie used to, when I think about it. Compared to him she's a wee tub, and yet she's not really fat. She's smaller and sturdier and has filled out. She's 6 and a half now, and comparing her to Jake really shows that she has calmed down a lot! You forget what they're like when they're young.

Murphy is 12 now. he never really tried to jump up into the car any more - he put his two front paws up and waits for someone to lift the back end up as well! When we were going away recently, he did his usual of getting quite upset that we were going to go away without him and wanting to sit in the car as we were loading it. He snuck out the front door and next time I came out, there he was - two front paws up in the boot, waiting for someone to come and boost him up. Lord knows how long he'd been there for! he can still run around a bit with Maddie in the back garden, though. Life in the old dog yet!

When we came back from that particular trip, Gizzy was waiting for us. Next morning, she sat on the top stair and maddie was too scared to come up (she's got both dogs suitably feart in the house). maddie was sitting on the turn of the stairs, whining and growling to come up. When I went out our bedroom door to see what the matter was, Maddie took advantage of my presence and decided to slink up the other side of the stairs to where Gizzy was sitting. She made it too, but when she reached the top step and went into our room, Gizzy turned and swiped at her disappearing backside with a paw. The squeal Maddie gave! You'd have thought she was being murdered! It was very funny. "I'm still the boss, and don't you forget it", Gizzy was saying.

Cornwall positives

Before the whole Maddie episode on the first night, I had been vey proud of myself. We accidentally locked ourselves out (Yale locks - so not used to them!) but I'd left the French windows open which had a railing in front of them. They were on the other side of the building (technically the front, I guess)and a floor up when you stood at ground level, but luckily I was in jeans and trainers and there were ornamental barrows littering the place. So up I hopped and after doing some Tom Cruise Mission Impossible-style edging up the window below (sunk in so I was able to use the stone window frame to get up, bracing my legs against it on either side) I was able to get up and over the railing and in - success!
Shame Richard didn't take any photos. although maybe an action shot of my backside isn't really what you want.

Previously, in Cornwall...

It has taken me a while to think about writing about this. It was extremely traumatic at the time and is a real black mark on both Maddie and us.
We went to a dog-friendly place in Cornwall which, it turned out, was in the middle of a small farm, with sheep LITERALLY over the fence. We discovered this the first night, when (Richard as usual urging me to let them off the lead, although to be fair we had scouted the place out and asked about and been assured there were no sheep in the vicinity) we realised that Maddie had disappeared and I heard the sound of paws scraping over corrugated iron.
To cut a long story short, after ripping my jeans (and me inner thigh) on barbed wire and wading through yet another patch of nettles (my ankle was numb for about 4 days), I found her trying to attach a sheep. She had attached another one already.
So that holiday consisted of me NOT letting her off the lead ever (except for twice when yes, she ran off after sheep that were so miles away even she gave up before she got there, thank god) (and no, we had no idea they were anywhere near). On the plus side there were several occasions when I refused to let her off and this was proved the right decision when we turned a corner or whatever, and found sheep there.
The sheep/old lamb (Larrina - I thought it was a boy originally and named it Larry the lamb) survived and the farmer was gracious about it once everyone had calmed down and R had given him money for the vet costs.
So now it is essential we manage this and don't let her ANYWHERE near sheep. Next time she'll be shot.