Farewell Gigot

The coldest night of the year so far, with temperatures down in the minus 7 and 8 area. A beautiful frost, turns the garden and the Rec trees into a Winter Wonderland.

We meet Gigot's family, whom we first met in Oct 2007 - look back at posts for details. Poor Gigot, a young Bedlington, had not had a very good start in life in an abusive family, and when he was rescued and re-housed by the RSPCA and Police he was in a very sorry state. But for once in his life he got lucky, landing up with a very lovely family, and joining the family dogs, Storm (a long haired chihuahua) and Truffles (a chocolate Lab).

With these people we saw him improve in leaps and bounds, learning to play and be a sociable dog, and lapping up the love of his family, building up trust. Sadly, his bad start and an ongoing genetic problem meant that despite all this, he became really ill and had to be put down in Autumn 2008, so he is no more. We hadn't met the family lately - it's always more difficult on these short evenings, when lack of day-light or poor weather squeezes you off normal walking schedules.

Farewell Gigot - you'll be missed. Welcome aboard Tali. The family were firmly converted to Bedlingtons by Gigot, so have now bought a new Bedlington pup, Tali. She is 13 weeks old now and was out on the frosty Rec today in a very natty red puffa-jacket style coat, with black elasticated "waist" and "cuffs", and a smart pink leather collar. She was dashing about everywhere and we played with her for quite a while.

There is someone in the world now who may be even more of a drama queen than me! She bounced at me one time and I shouted "RAFFF!" at her. She ran away behind Haggis squealing as if I'd hurt her. I never touched her, honest!

Who said "Dear kettle, Thank you for your message... signed Pot"

Deefer
Still the original Drama Queen

Jack Frost nippin'

Several days now of hard frosts, where we wake up to white rime all over, and most of it is still there in the shadows at the end of the day. Certainly the top of the Rec, round the tennis courts is all still white and iron-hard. Both ponds here are frozen over and the water butts are all iced. The 2CV is white all over in the headlight beams as Dad goes to work, and is still white all over when he comes home.

In the autumn, we'd bought a load of "Paperwhite" multi-headed narcissus (daffs), which have been in full flower through December. Mum was half tempted to cut them and bring them in - put them in a vase indoors, because she never gets down that end of the garden in the dark to enjoy them. She should have while she had the chance. Frozen, they go all limp and with their heads sagged to the ground, they look a sorry sight.

With not having gone fully back to work, the humans are feeling that these "school nights" are not really any such thing, and are treating them a bit like weekend nights - celebratory foods (steak and chips tonight) and a little red wine.

Meanwhile, I can now claim to have destroyed all vestiges of doggie Christmas. As you know, I chewed up Meggie's ball within minutes and dis-embowelled Haggis's cuddly toy throwing-rope soon after. Since then I have lost, in the park, both my new rubber throwing ring, and now also a pink luminous stippled sponge ball found just before Christmas. No toys left. When's the next Christmas?

Deefer

In the bleak mid Winter

My but it's cold these mornings. OK, not really by European or any other standards - just compared to what we've been used to. Minus 4 this morning and thick fog. Ponds and butts all frozen over but, as I said, probably no more than a centimetre thick, and the soil probably still dig-able.

We have been living off an ENORMOUS chicken, Mum got from our internet shopping provider. She said "large" but didn't necessarily expect this ostrich to turn up. The humans seem to have eaten meals off it for days - and Mum has created a huge quantity of stock. That means, as any dog will tell you, that there is a goodly pile of skeleton bits (avoiding the hollow, shatter-able long bones of course) - spine, pelvis, rib cage, "hands", Parson's nose etc and the supply of dog treats here actually ran out, so we had to "slum" it with bits of chook!

Life's tough sometimes, isn't it?

:-))
Deefer

Jack Frost

Good frost this morning, ice to scrape off the cars, and white grass on the Rec. We are out there for a nice early run around. We meet Gigot's crowd again, and find out that the brown lab is called Truffles, and the long-haired small dog is actually a Long Haired Chihuahua called "Storm". We already know a Storm - a big dark alsatian living up our street. Bit of a contrast. I get a run-around with mini-Storm - heh heh - I'm MUCH faster!!!

Mum and Dad are action-packed today, just like yesterday. Mum's off swimming, Dad's off to plant 2500 daff bulbs to beautify up one of the entrances to the town, for the "In Bloom" volunteers. Well, not him single handedly, but there are only 5 of them on the job, so I guess he can claim 500!

The 2CV won't play this morning, sulking from lack of use and frost, so Dad has to put it on the charger while he plays In-Bloom games. After that, of course and with the sun on its back it fires up first time, so Dad takes it for a blast to dry it out thoroughly

Then, we're gardening - weeding, pruning all the fruit trees and stuff. This is GREAT for dogs, as it gets us into all sorts of secret places we can't normally get at - behind the green house and all around the chicken run. The big old James Grieves gets a trim, then the 3 ballerina apples and the 2 plums, then the quince and the green gage. There's an enormous pile of prunings now drying for a couple of days before Dad fires up the shredder

Hope you had a good day
Deefer