Last weekend saw me taking a run up to the parents place for the birthdays.
It wasn’t just my birthday last week, it’s the sister’s too. Our birthdays are 2 days apart (and a classified* number of years)
*(If I told you, you’d be ok but she’d hunt me down and kill me. Slowly.)
They’re ok up there. The Family is full of people with active brains. We have to be doing Stuff all the time. Mum and Dad have been struggling a bit there since they retired but they’re still finding things to keep them busy. (It’s a big house with a bigger veggie garden than most people’s allotments). Mum’s doing better recently too, she’s injured her arm quite badly and it’s a difficult fix (bad muscles, bad tendons and both ganging up on the other).
Enter the Puppy.
The Family’s always had dogs. We had a cat for a while too. Not sure what happened to Patch, it’s been a few decades. The latest family pooch is Ben, who’s been with us for a few years now. He’s a Staffy with as good a temperament as you’d ever want in a dog. Possibly too chill because he won’t do what Scruff did once – bark so loudly (think there was some foaming in there too) at the doorstoppers that “Go away or my dog will eat you” would have been very believable. Ben is a lot more placid than that.
I don’t have a dog, there’s not enough room here and I’d need to dog proof the back yard. Besides, the poor fella would be on his own all day and that’s no way for a muttley to live.
New Puppy ? He’s called Murph (short for Murphy 2) and he’ll be a massive labrador when he grows up. He’s only 21 weeks at the moment. Here he is :
That’s a really sweet face isn’t it ? There happened to be meat scraps involved …
He’s got massive paws, you can see how long that tail is and the legs are pretty long too. His body hasn’t caught up yet, so he seems scrawny. When he gets his adult size, he’ll be able to pull carts. Fast too. I’m wondering if his nickname should be Little Monster (for the size he’ll grow to) or Missile.
Lovely dog, although Ben was having issues. Didn’t know how to deal with the puppy. Hopefully when Murph comes next time, Ben will assert himself a bit more as Alpha Dog. Pooches need to do that, they need to establish their pecking order or the younger dogs will take too many liberties with the older dogs.
But yeah, I reckon he’ll turn into a very sweet affectionate dog who keeps an eye on his people.
Weekends like that wipe me out though. I’m just about regaining enough energy to count as “Very Tired”, so I’m looking forward to Xmas when I’ll get a good chance to have a rest. Not just that, I’ve twisted my knee and I’m also nursing a minor ankle sprain. Add to that the usual stuff where my body dislikes the cold (fine when I’m moving, warming up is the issue !) and I’m looking for quiet time.
Not that long to go until Xmas.
Nothing’s been mentioned yet but there will be another Crazie meet up where we can chill out in company. I’ll head back to the parents for a few days too (likely to have a few visitors too). Wonder if something extraordinary will happen and I get to treat someone ? No likelihood of that at the moment sadly.
It’s a chill out evening tonight too. Plan A was to head off to the Mall but traffic was bad (there will be other nights and I can pick and choose when I face that traffic).
There’s a Bright Yellow See Me From Space Hat that’s calling me. I need it.