She's worth it

Yesterday at just after 11 a.m. Odi (short for Odina) entered my life.

My day started at 5.45 when I had to get up to take Mountain Man to Berwick-upon-Tweed station to get a train south for the start of The One Show's Children In Need fundraising event. The event is a rickshaw challenge where riders will pedal round the clock for 700 miles supported by loads and loads of 'backroom boys' one of whom is MM.

Then it was back home for the long wait. She was supposed to arrive at 10, but the Puppy Supervisor is always late so I wasn't expecting her then which was just as well.

Odina is 8 weeks old today. She's a golden retriever/labrador cross (her dad being the retriever and mum being the lab) and is absolutely gorgeous. She's also very naughty. She only showed this side of herself once the Puppy Supervisor had left (after a mammoth almost 3 hour stint of paperwork and instructions) and until then was as good as gold. I did feel sorry for her as she had diarrhoea the moment she got here, which she hadn't had before and I was advised to take her to the vet asap as during the PS visit she had same twice.

Odi decided, the moment the PS left, to show me her other side. She ran around manically trying to bite everything in sight, jumping up and trying to grab my watch, my glasses (when I was sitting down of course!), my jumper, my trousers, the kitchen table, benches in fact anything that was just out of her reach seemed fair game to her. Then, just as quickly as she'd turned into devil dog she flopped down and went to sleep.

Last night was a bit of a trial as I put her in her cage and she wailed and wailed (the baby alarm works - oh dear!). I went down to let her out, but no, she didn't need anything, so I put her back and she wailed some more. I went down again to find she'd had a dose of diarrhoea all over her cage (she had a pad to soak it up, but it had got over her bedding) and just to make things even better, the teddy that we'd bought her to settle her got dragged into it too. At just coming up to midnight I wasn't amused, but shoved everything (minus the teddy who got a handwash) into the washing machine (thank goodness for 15 minute washes) and because I had no other option I put her in her travel box and (the PS had said I could do this if necessary) took her upstairs with me. She squeaked for a moment, but in a moment of enlightenment I told her to settle down (in quite a strict voice) and blow me, but she did! I left her for about 10 minutes and then took her in the travel box back downstairs and left her in the utility room, where she slept for 2.5 hours.

When she woke (the baby alarm works - yeah!) I went down and took her out and she was very good as she actually wee'd in the designated place (this is a Guide Dog requirement, but this was only the first time she'd managed it since her arrival), so I put her back in her box and she wailed again. I went out. She still wailed. I sat on the stairs and told her to settle in my quite strict voice... and she did! She went back to sleep until 6.30 a.m. Sadly, I didn't.

I am exhausted today, but she seems reasonably settled. She's now got her collar on and her id tag without any fuss. She's eating voraciously (but it has to be very little and often because of her yesterday's tummy problem (which I'm pleased to report is settling), which I don't think suits her at all. She's a proper greedy guts and will do anything for food and her idea of little and often I suspect is a lot different to that of the PS and the vet!

Meanwhile I've spent my morning filling out paperwork to be sent off today - yes, we're going to be brave and head out to the local post box in a while - and, apart from a shower, getting dressed and getting something to eat, I've done pretty much absolutely nothing else but clean up puppy pee!

Still, I think she's worth it, or maybe that's just 'famous last words'!