Mad playing dogs

It's complete madness here.

Since the arrival of Wee Pup Molly has decided to become really seriously playful. Not with Wee Pup but just on her own. Henry plays on his own as well as with us and Wee Pup is currently enjoying almost constant attention from Other Half (he is meant to be his dog so he's taking full responsibility for everything which is really good).

So, the house is something like 'Doggy Daycare' at the moment. There isn't a moment when there isn't something doggy going on - it's not good when you are used to a peaceful life and right now I think it's just me that had a peaceful life.

On the up side, Henry has been a superstar with Wee Pup, he is tolerating him, looking out for him and running after him when he wanders off in the garden. It's brilliant although we aren't letting Wee Pup get too amourous with Henry as several times Henry has got a bit too rough with his big paddy paws and also Wee Pup has decided he needs to test his teeth on everything and we'd rather not have nasty recriminations.

Molly has been brilliant with him too, taking very little interest in him until he is scared or gets a Henry paw on top of him. She seems very caring about him which is so lovely.

On the Leaphound front, Henry has been making full use of the fence that I've had put accross in front of the grass in the garden. I put the fence up last winter as Henry kept bombing around the grass and started to wreck it. We are really exposed to the elements here and a bonfire on the grass takes two years to mend so a Leaphound tearing it up is almost terminal.

The unexpected advantage of fencing the grass off was that the dogs stayed nice and clean during the winter so I didn't have to clean the mud off their feet every time they went out for a pee so I decided to put the fence up again this winter.

The trouble is Henry has decided that this winter the fence is not for sectioning off the garden, its a hurdle for him to practice his Leaphounding with. He takes four steps out of the back door and takes off while accelerating at an incredible rate of knots before landing half way accross the other side of the garden.

This is instantly and fluidly turned into a rapid bomb around the garden, sometimes hurdling back over the fence and sometimes running so fast towards the wall or fence that it seems impossible for him to stop or turn in time before hitting it but with total skill he seems to angle his skids so that he never hits either of them.

Of course this all leads to major muddy paws which then have to be cleaned before Henry can come back in otherwise the carpet and sofa get all dirty. I wonder if the fence is going to be any use at all this year!

On a sadder note, it is exactly a year since I lost my dear old Fergus. I guess leaving me on the 5th November certainly meant he won't be forgotten and I had been anticipating today with more than a little sadness but now the day is here it has been fine, mostly I think due to Henry. He is so much like Fergus when he was young that it's sometimes easy to forget which dog is making me laugh, and today Henry and Molly have both made me laugh allot which has made me forget to be so sad.

Strangley though we ended up back in the vet where we were a year ago as while driving along the road we came accross a buzzard that seemed in a bit of difficulty. It didn't appear to have broken a wing or anything but was rather dazed so Other Half wrapped one of the dog blankets around it and we whisked it to the vets, only to end up in the same room as a year ago which was slightly bizzare. The bird was incredibly scary when the vet unwrapped him and I decided it might be a good idea to hide behind Other Half as he looked rather angry with me (the bird not Other Half). Anyway the bird has gone off to the wildlife hospital so I'll post if I hear anything about him.

As for Bonfire Night, well we are far to away from anywhere to be bothered by fireworks but we may be having some at the weekend, further up the track well away from the house. I think I may well stay in the house though, just to be sure the dogs are ok, although I'm pretty confident they will be fine but it's best to be safe than sorry.