A weekend away

Ok, well not actually a weekend, but it felt like it.

I took a trip down to see Denise, who lives not far from Dumfries to have a couple of days of chatting, hot-tubbing and being loved by her gorgeous dogs.

Amber and Rolf

Denise and Chico

It was real r&r time for me, though not sure about for Denise!

As well as dogs, Denise has horses, who're stabled nearby and not at home, but she does have some adorable chickens out back. They are absolutely fascinating to watch and the 2 cockerels, which Denise bred from eggs with the help of the now deceased Evie, are amazing. Here's a couple of pics. Tweetie Pie is definitely the leader, and Gonk his second-in-command. They are gorgeous.

Tweetie Pie struts his stuff

Gonk in the middle of the girls

And now I'm home for my last few Odi days. She's with us til Monday, along with Cinders, who will also be leaving us on Monday and then our new pup (who'll be called Vasco, Vespa, Vernie or Van, not sure which as the Puppy Supervisor's phone died), will be with us sometime on Tuesday I think... but then, knowing Guide Dog stuff, it may well be Wednesday before the puppy actually arrives with us... all will unfold in time.
 
I will be very sad to see Odi go. She's so lovely and such a positive presence to have around. I just hope the next one has the same outlook on life, but with rather less energy! When I said to another puppy walker that I'd like one who slept like Cinders does (which is a lot) she said I'd probably be bored... but you know what? It might be nice to be a bored in that kind of way for a while!

Odi and Cinders doing a very good sit

It seems to be working

Apart from the first day of peppermint spraying the parts of the house that I thought giant spiders might be using as an entrance, when there was one small one and a largish one but both were far from the usual places, we haven't had a spider (that we've seen) since then.

I've been hypervigilant I can assure you, but still none have appeared.

I actually think the peppermint spray might well be working!

For the record, if any of you want to try it: I got a large spray bottle (one of the cheap ones from a garden centre) and filled it 3/4 full of water and then (contrary to the recipe on the internet, which seemed too weak and was, I thought, the non-deterrant of the first night) put in about 30 drops of peppermint oil (the pure oil kind not the kind in the baking section of a supermarket). I spray every night. The smell isn't too overwhelming and doesn't seem to affect the dogs at all.

Of course it might just be that your prayers were the thing that really warded them off, but I'm still sticking to my peppermint oil!

Regrets?

A quiet moment!

Today the lovely Cinders came to stay. She's a 4 month old lab/retriever cross and is quite a chunky girl, who's more on the retriever side of things.

Odi's in seventh heaven. Her only disappointment is that Cinders seems to sleep a lot (far more, in fact, than Odi ever did at that age). I had to laugh a bit this morning when her Puppy Walker brought her over telling us that Cinders is quite rough and quite energetic... I think she needs Odi for a day to see what a rough, energetic dog is really like! Poor Cinders took herself off to her cage to get away from the hooligan on several occasions, but essentially they get on great and seem to have lots of fun together. Mountain Man and I even managed to take both dogs to Sainsbury's for a quick shop, where 20 minutes felt like a lifetime.

I think MM may well be regretting saying ok to my going to a workshop on Saturday and staying over in Edinburgh that night followed by a 2 day visit with Denise near Dumfries next week!

The 'grand plan' goes awry

When I started doing the Guide Dog puppy walking I heard great stories of how those that went on to train in Forfar (better known as Big School) had visits from their puppy walkers and the pw's were kept in touch with them and got letters about their pup's activities and pictures of them. So I thought we'd be no different.

I was also told that doing a 'cross-over' i.e. getting another puppy before the big one went off, would be a good thing to do so that the new puppy can learn from the older puppy and have another dog to play with/fight with/dig its sharp teeth into. I decided to absolutely go for this option.

Today I got a phone call from the Puppy Supervisor to tell me that Odi had passed all her x-rays and was now wanted at the Guide Dog Centre in Leamington Spa as soon as possible, bypassing Forfar altogether. And, even if she doesn't make it as a brood bitch during the next round of tests, she'll undoubtedly be doing her proper Guide Dog training down there and not at Forfar, so the likelihood of us ever seeing her again is nil.

Arrangements have been made and Odi is going off on October 20th. Our new puppy arrives on 21st. So much for cross-over. So much for visiting my lovely Odi in Forfar.

I feel quite tearful.

Almost perfection

Today Odi and I had to go and do our bit for Guide Dogs as the Scottish Law Society was holding it's annual conference in the very high class Sheraton Grand in Edinburgh and Guide Dogs is it's charity of the year.

It also coincided with the coldest, rainiest day we've had in quite a while, so with a heavy heart I decided on driving all the way there and parking in their extremely expensive car park (£6 for two hours) instead of parking at No. 2 Son's and getting the bus, as the the thought of wet dog smell amongst all those lawyers might well have been a turn-off rather than helping raise funds.

When we arrived Guide Dog Oona was in residence at the Guide Dog stand and Odi went a bit nuts to try and play. She ended up going on her back and trying to crawl underneath Oona! After a minute or two of frantic bad behaviour she then settled down and, from that moment on, was the most perfectly behaved dog I could've wished for.

Whilst I got my lunch (those lawyers certainly know how to treat their own!) Odi lay on the floor sleeping and then, when all the legal eagles came out for their's Odi lay there allowing loads of people to troop on by her oohing and aahing while she just batted her eyelids. The only time she got a little excited was when she saw herself in a mirror, but she calmed down pretty quickly when she realised she couldn't play with that darn illusive dog.

We talked to loads of people and Odi was great. Not getting too excited when petted and was a real hit with all and sundry.

It's going to be a real wrench when she goes as having a dog who's almost perfect is such a joy. Still at least she'll (hopefully) be perfect for the next people she's with.

Old Lady badminton strikes

I went back to Old Lady badminton yesterday in spite of still having the virus hanging around. You'll remember that Old Lady badminton is the one where we stop half way through for a coffee break and sometimes involves cake too. I decided I couldn't hold off any longer as the virus might well be with me for at least another couple of months (from what others who've had it have reported) and really I feel alright apart from still needing to cough quite a bit at times.

The cough wasn't the only thing activated by playing though. Also activated was my competitive spirit and muscles that haven't been used in simply ages.

I'm pleased to say that I won all my games and although tired by the end of 2 hours, came away feeling quite up and positive.

However, by this morning it was a different story. Talk about feeling tired and sore!

Puppy news

I had a phone call from the Puppy Supervisor yesterday to give me a choice of dates and puppies. We've gone for 21st October as I've got a few things on until then and I don't want to be away and leave Mountain Man with Odi and a teeny pup to deal with all on his own. And we've put ourselves down for a black male threequarters lab/quarter retriever cross who's name begins with V, but no inkling what ridiculous name it actually might have.

But anyway, none of this may come to pass as the PS also said that there are quite a few 10 - 12 week old pups without homes at present and who are stuck in Forfar or in temporary homes, so we might well get one of those instead. It depends on her boss.

Then we also got the news of when Odi might be going. The answer is no-one knows. If she passed her scan test from last week then she could go as quickly as next week or fairly soon after, but we won't know til next week. If she hasn't passed then she'll have to be spayed and will be leaving us in November.

The only thing that we do know for sure - apart from the actual date of a new puppy of some kind arriving - is that next week we are playing host to Cinders, a 4 month old black lab/retriever cross, who'll be with us til 20th October as her puppy walkers are on holiday.

Odi will be thrilled to have her own live playmate here for so long. Mountain Man and I aren't quite so sure!