DECEMBER

Hi there.  Hope you had a good Christmas and welcome to 2019.  My treat for the festive season was an impromptu visit to the sea side.  Here I am on the beach sizing up all the pebbles.  There are so many of them I am not sure which ones to choose to play with.  Neither is the Mrs by the looks of it as she keeps picking up different ones while I patiently dance around waiting for one to be thrown which I can collect.  My patience is wearing a little thin as the choice seems to be taking rather a long time. . . . .

While the Mrs is choosing her stone I ran after the boss who was also tired of waiting for her to examine every pebble on the beach.  I found a nice lump of sea weed which had some delicious smells attached to it but when I tried to carry it with me, intending to take it home for closer examination, the Boss said no with his usual ‘leave it’ which translates into spoilsport as far as I am concerned. 

Failing to be entertained by the Boss or the Mrs I turned my attention to the large amount of water nearby. A paddle was all I was intending when a sequence of splashes occurred further out and that was my prompt for further immersion.  This initially proved to be a bit of a disaster as when I eventually emerged from the water after failing to distinguish the cause of the splash plus many shouts to return, it transpired that the Mrs, having finally finished her pebble search, was showing the Boss her finds when he suddenly selected a satisfyingly flat one from her hand and skimmed it out over the water and I, being bored stiff by now, instantly and unthinkingly went to investigate the splash without waiting for any command – whoops…

After the jettisoning of all pebbles, the Mrs’s short heated exchange with the Boss and the inevitable lecture on obedience, (me, not the Boss) impatience and being a silly dog, my unscheduled swim eventually worked in my favour.  Neither of them had remembered to bring a towel to rid my fur coat of water so we had to go on a much extended fast walk to give me chance to run around and get air dried – now who’s the silly dog?????

NOVEMBER

Trying them on for size.    How the Boss walks round in these is beyond me.  Added to the fact that he has to remove them each time he goes indoors (the Mrs will not let him in with them on) seems to be a seriously good reason for going barefoot but apparently that’s only for dogs!  He grumbles about removal, especially when I am welcomed in front of the fire with just my bare paws.  Muddy paws make for much easier washing – just walk through a few puddles give them a quick lick and they are clean.  Mind you there have been occasions when even I have been refused entry by the Mrs until certain ablutions have been carried out but at least I don’t have to stumble about trying to get these rubber feet off!

Talking about ablutions I had to succumb to a three person wash as I had received a personal invitation to attend a session of the 60+ Coffee Morning, apparently my fans wanted to meet me.  The Mrs insisted I had a bath before the event and The Miniatures helped in the bathroom which made it rather crowded but the extra hands doing the lathering made it very enjoyable despite the squealing when I divested myself of unwanted water from my fur.  The towels were meant for me but ended up covering the Miniatures to protect them from my shaking – but I managed to get them when their guards were down and covered them with a fine spray of essence of shampooed dog.  Then the towels were transferred to me and much rubbing and drying took place along with a certain amount of giggling.  After the towelling came the brushing and by the end I was almost unrecognisable and transformed into a sweet smelling canine fit to meet my fans. 

After a brisk walk around the village I was warmly welcomed to the coffee morning by Shelley, and although failing to find any shells on her person I discovered she did have biscuit treats in her hand for me which was very thoughtful and much appreciated.  After walking around in my bare paws and meeting all the coffee drinkers present I was patted and petted, succumbed to some tummy tickling and had a photo with one of my fans.  The Mrs showed some of my ‘stay’ commands and I showed them how I can carry my own lead.  I was not allowed under the tables to check if they were barefoot but they seemed very happy so I can only assume they did not have rubber feet…