Thursday 19 April 2018

Spring

Spring has finally arrived, although suddenly it is very hot and feels more like summer. Saffi got washed and it occurred to me that the last time I groomed her there was snow here and the grooming room was so cold it was hard to hold the clippers. This time it was too hot and the clippers overheated.


You can never make too many videos of a pup doing loony pup things:


Sunday 15 April 2018

6 poodles

Friday 6 April 2018

Spring

Readers of the blog may recall that last autumn, due to the vagaries of the local planning authority, we resorted to violently deracinating a number of established shrubs by tying them to the Volvo and excavating them with heavy plant. We hang-draw-quartered a lilac tree and spread the dismembered parts of it around the site. Most of the plants seem to have survived the ordeal and are showing signs of new growth.


The jury is still out on the Potentilla fruticosa, and the Viburnum tinus does not look very well.


Lilacs regenerating.

Monday 2 April 2018

Pandora Pictures

Pandora made herself dirty yesterday, so today she got washed.


Sunday 1 April 2018

Pandora is a Meathead

I should really stop making silly blog posts on the 1st of April. Hobsey of course doesn't have a puppy. She last had some in 2016 and will hopefully have some later this year, and I didn't really have sheep farmers and three unwise men turning up on my property. Two real puppies, however, have just escaped and been at large in the house. Pandora and Paris have knocked over the bin and Pandora has apparently put her head in an empty dog food tin, because her head is all greasy and she smells all meaty! It's too dark to take pictures of them now, but Pandora will probably get washed tomorrow and I'll put pictures of her being fluffy in the blog to make up for playing nasty tricks on the people waiting for a Hobsey puppy!
(Paris is really called Balthasar, but Pandora and Balthasar escaped did not sound as funny)

1st April

I mentioned previously that I was intending to breed Hobsey this year. Hobsey this morning did not feel very well, and then completely unexpectedly she gave birth to a puppy. I had no idea she was pregnant and I don't know how this happened, as she was in season a couple of months ago, but was not allowed near Otto or any other dog. I can only speculate that Otto managed somehow to get in with the bitches and mate with her, but will have to DNA test the pup once it is bigger to know for sure.


As people who have a pup from me know, visitors are not allowed until the pups are 4 weeks old, so the new mother can concentrate on looking after them without being disturbed. Shortly after the puppy was born a man came knocking on the door and demanded to see the puppy. I told him he could not see the puppy for this reason. The man was extremely rude, seemed to be inebriated, and claimed to be a member of the Royal Family. He complained that he had come in a taxi and had sent the taxi away, and took umbrage when I made it clear he could not come in the house nor wait on the drive while he phoned for another taxi.

An hour later a car arrived. The driver asked to see the puppy but was apologetic when I explained why he could not. Unfortunately he had parked his car on the grass and the recent rain has made it very soggy, and the car became stuck and I had to get the van out in order to tow the man's car out of the mud.

Half an hour later, yet another man arrived. He did not ring the doorbell, but sat outside on the scooter he had come on and sounded the horn incessantly until I went out to ask what he wanted. He also asked to see the puppy. It seemed English wasn't his first language, either that or the cigar he was smoking contained more than just tobacco, and he kept repeating over and over that he wanted to see the puppy. Eventually he went away.

Unfortunately now I have to stop writing this, as I have just looked out the window and realised that my garden is full of sheep, and now someone else is banging on the door.