Round puppy

[brightncheerful]

Good afternoon.

A break with tradition, I haven't written a 'round robin' this year for family and friends so cannot post an edited version. Instead, please accept this trivial spur-of-the moment offering.

Not having much family (a sister and a cousin, neither of whom i've met up with for years, our only contact by occasional email and greeting cards) and very few friends apart from my badminton club friends, most of whom i've not seen since just before lockdown 1, the only social life to speak of has been a combination of Mrs Bnc, our puppy, chatting in the street with neighbours and acquaintances Saturday mornings between 0715 and 0800 at a local Waitrose. The earliest I've arrived at the W car park has been 0524 where until the first of my weekly conversant arrives I write up my weekly journal which is mostly about puppy.

At our respective ages, to bring up, train and care for a high-energy puppy (F1 miniature Labradoodle, chocolate colour) is challenging. (Miniature is between toy (very small) and full size, F1 is a breed classification but in puppy's case could be Formula 1.). A consequence of mostly my mistakes during puppy's early months, Mrs BnC is now the trainer, me the maintainer, she (puppy) the selective listener. The training principles are excellent: Mrs BnC guided by one of the top gun-dog trainers in the UK, to begin with has advised us to forget everything any other trainer had told us and start over. Mrs Bnc has set her sights on having a dog that walks to heel alongside Mrs Bnc. Trainer advised no more walks until puppy has been trained how to walk. This is gradually working well: for about a month walking confined to indoors. it then progressed to 6 days a week from about 0815 after a 4 mile each-way drive in a nearby stately home parkland of some 5000 acres where apart from a few other dog walkers we have the paths to ourselves. Despite blue skies, peace and quiet of sheep-laden fields, I found it a strain and too much interruption to my working day to drive and a walk every morning so the walks are now Sundays only. And the routine would have continued beyond the first couple of weeks had it not been for the discovery of a lump on puppy's back which the vet has removed and pending removal of the stitches means puppy convalescing out of action for a fortnight overlapping Christmas and Boxing Day.

As if to get her into a habit of convalescing, earlier in the year we noticed puppy had a slight limp which following the vet's diagnosis meant that puppy went on a course of injections to strengthen: in the short-term term every two weeks and now every 3 months. Fleas, worms, etc are routine tablets: a puppy on pain-killing drugs every so often has been a mixed blessing: to begin with puppy tends to be sleepy and more co-operative for longer, when the medication wears off we are reminded of how much she loves to run around late evening when we would prefer her to relax and settle. During the limping convalescence, Mrs Bnc took it upon herself to sleep on the living room sofa alongside the puppy-in-crate but after a week or so the discomfort became unbearable for Mrs Bnc so yours truly in a fit of generosity offered to take over. Some six months later I am continuing to sleep on the sofa. Ex-crate puppy also on the sofa. From about 9pm when Mrs Bnc retires to our bedroom until around 0730 next day, puppy and i alternate until about 11:30pm between puppy sitting by the kitchen back door gazing out at the garden for several minutes whilst I stand by, bottling up the shivering depending upon the outside temperature, and puppy restless and bored wandering around the living room, kitchen, hallway. Finally she settles to sleep on the sofa which continues until morning, interspersed with at least two random ambles to the back-door to gaze at the garden.

A snag with modern houses, or rather modern methods of building construction, is thin walls. Puppy's hearing is discerning: fireworks do not faze her, helicopter hovering, other dogs nearby no bother - unless she interprets her role as a messenger - but at the slightest unusual sound, or hint of a cat or rodent or whatever and she barks. An anonymous neighbour kindly reported the nighttime barking to the council so amongst our achievements for the year is a warning letter of nuisance. Assuming it is the neighbour we suspect, i have resisted the temptation to report them to the council for the nuisance of flashing lights from their house illuminations for Christmas which penetrate our front door and contribute to puppy's restlessness and make it impossible for me to sleep in the hallway. Instead we shall be getting our own back in mid-2022 when the neighbours, one permanently works from home, will be able to enjoy all-day for 2 to 3 days the noise of workmen installing new windows.

To cater for puppy's travelling requirements, we exchanged our two Audi A1s. Fitting a dog crate into an A1 is ok, except that because the back seats do not fold flat the crate is on a slope which meant that when the car was moving puppy couldn't stand or sit without sliding around. My replacement is a Skoda Octavia Estate hybrid in which the crate rests on the flat of the boot and suits puppy admirably. With its tinted rear windows she can bark at passers-by and motorcyclists without them knowing where she is. The plan was to share a car and save on costs etc but after 24 hours without and Mrs BnC bitterly regretting giving up her A1 (5000 miles in 6 years) she got a Mini Clubman JCW 4-wheel drive, automatic. Never having driven an automatic before, let alone 4 wheel-drive, sentiment for the A1 has faded. So much for cost-saving: the insurance and servicing plan for the Mini exceeds those of the Skoda. It is not as though she drives it that often: as I say, Mrs Bnc's car is the one with the cobwebs on the wing-mirrors.

In what little spare time I have now - apart from going to the gym once a week for something comfortable to sleep on - cleaning the cars is all that remains. Since neither car will fit in our garages we have joined the real world of parking on the driveway. I find cleaning the Skoda easier than the Audi. I rejected the dealer's offer of a permanent shine for the princely sum of £399 because after reading the small print I reckoned i could do a better job myself. Having polished and waxed the car twice in the 8 months since I got it, maintaining with a simple wash and blow-dry and it looks like the new second-hand car it was. On the purchase contract the dealer put 2500 miles but actually it was about 4500 miles which for a car first registered some 2 months before I bought raised an eyebrow. I have a personalised number plate which apparently I cherish. I fell out with the dealership manager by wanting him to replace the lipped registration plates. A lipped plate enables motor traders to get around the legislation concerning advertising on a motor vehicle. In the end, i got a new set of plates from a local garage; metal too, not laminated.

Having worked from home for decades, the lockdown restrictions of little consequence, thanks to google streetview. i am sometimes told my reputation precedes me but hadn't realised I might be held in such esteem as to be wanted for a parent co directorship in a new venture to be launched in 2022. So now that my name can be found in two places on Companies House which, together with my book in the Bodleian Library, Oxford and a dusty certificate signed by a Duke of Westminster on top of my bookshelf, to actually be wanted is amongst the upper echelons of my achievements.

Thankfully, Mrs Bnc and I are well. Probably because we rarely mix and mingle with strangers, also I tend to avoid conversation about health problems, we have not encountered anyone suffering particularly adverse. The usual but declining number of Christmas cards received this year do not indicate anything amiss with our long-distance friends. Closer to home, I am told a friend with Alzheimer's is physically deteriorating; and the first and only time I played badminton since lockdown 1 few of the regulars were present. I miss my twice weekly badminton playing, a few hours of stretching to counter-act an otherwise mostly sedentary life-style. Until the most recent convalescence, a perk of puppy has been once or twice a day walks which meant that I shed about a stone in weight. But I have let myself down: feeling I'd put on weight, to my disappointment the pounds have piled back on - and it's not quite Christmas yet.

I must go now. This morning I was at Waitrose at 0820 to top up on the fresh food that one shops for at the last minute. The vegetarian wellington from Fortnum's has arrived: the cardboard packaging awaits the dustman's collection. I shall be putting up the artificial Christmas tree (which a few years ago was a real tree and an artificial Christmas), add the flickering lights and other decoration, and rejoice. until Puppy beckons and the conveyor-belt that is my every day resumes.

Here's wishing you a merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Bnc

ps - Puppy's tip: the best time to bark is 3am, no competition.

[Rhyd6]

Thanks BnC for giving me a really good laugh. Sorry to inform you, but puppy has already trained you, there's not really a cat in hells chance unless it's banished to its crate each night and is left downstairs and you head back to bed/ I speak as someone who was brought up with dogs and is about to embark on a search for another as we lost our very much loved parson Russell not very long ago.
Anyway to a more festive note, have a very happy Christmas and all the very best with training puppy, I shall keep my fingers crossed that all goes well.
Take care

R6

[Rhyd6]

Hi BnC, we've been and gone and done it! We acquired a rough coated Jack Russell pup on Wednesday. She is well on the way to being puppy mat trained, she's realised what is expected of her but a couple of times she has had an accident when she has her front paws on mat but not her rear end. My friend who also lost her dog about 6 months ago and had been told by her family that under no circumstances was she to consider having abother dog at her age was so enchanted by her that we took her to the breeder today and she snapped up the last remaining pup. So pleased for her because she'll now have a loving companion to chat to.
May I wish you, Mrs. BnC and your lovely dog all the very besy for 2022.

R6