![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
WHOOO! I'm finally home!
Mum didn't want me to leave. She even bought me supper (Chickenland Chef's Special kebab, a huge pile of assorted grilled meat with garlic sauce - best fast food EVER, even if they did put chilli sauce on as well by accident tonight) and she asked if I wanted to stay... I felt like a heel, but every nerve and synapse in my body screamed NOOOOOO!!!!!
I did stay till ten though, and waited till she was almost asleep. She was very, very tired, and kept muttering that she was never going away again. I'm going back on Saturday to finish off the kitchen... let's hope it doesn't finish me off first.
Had a great time with the dogs in the park. Spike and I went out first with his new football. I say new - I bought it months ago, but they sold it to me deflated... it was such a performance pumping the damn thing up that it got put on hold for a long time. But today I got it out and finished pumping, and the grin on his face as I kept shoving him away till I'd got it done made me regret waiting so long. When we got to the park we played and danced by ourselves for a while, then Emma and her horde of sproggen turned up - Emma has four boys of her own, all under six, but for some reason she's always trailing at least three or four more neighbourhood rugrats as well. Rather her than me, but Spike has always adored the little yard apes, so he was in his element - today's collection ranged from barely walking to tennish, and he played with each and every one before I finally took him home.
Swapped dogs and headed straight back out with Squish and three tennis balls (I wasn't about to let Destructo-Dog loose on Spike's new football... Spike can make a football last six months despite only having carnivore teeth to carry it round with - Squish usually bursts them in two walks or less).
I love walking with Squish on the lead. He has such a happy bounce, he doesn't do Spike's sudden arm-wrenching Great Leaps Forward, and he walks like a show champion... he's breathtaking to watch with his long springy strides and his head held high - he shows himself off much better than Spike's characteristic head-and-tail-down slink-and-dart Border Collie Secret Agent walk. I was having a great time until we turned a corner and discovered that somebody had left a stuffed toy snowman sitting at the foot of a hedge.
This isn't it, but it's similar:
Now, does that look scary to you? A little creepy, admittedly, but would you have screaming hysterics at the sight of it? Squish did. This is the dog that will happily come outside and watch fireworks with me... but the Snowman of DOOOOOM had him completely unstrung - barking at the top of his voice, every hair on his back standing on end. And when I tried what would have worked with Spike - going up to it and touching it myself to prove it wasn't dangerous - he lost it to the point where he managed to wrench his head out of his collar trying to back away. Now we were both scared, because we were on a main road at the busiest time of day and there was Squish in a frenzy with no collar and lead. His life was flashing before me.
Luckily, he was too scared to do anything but try and hide between my knees. I slipped his collar back on (with some difficulty - I tried to see if I could tighten it a hole, but I can't without choking him) and we retreated to the park, where he was very good and didn't bugger off at all.
We crossed the road before we got to the snowman on the way back.
Mum didn't want me to leave. She even bought me supper (Chickenland Chef's Special kebab, a huge pile of assorted grilled meat with garlic sauce - best fast food EVER, even if they did put chilli sauce on as well by accident tonight) and she asked if I wanted to stay... I felt like a heel, but every nerve and synapse in my body screamed NOOOOOO!!!!!
I did stay till ten though, and waited till she was almost asleep. She was very, very tired, and kept muttering that she was never going away again. I'm going back on Saturday to finish off the kitchen... let's hope it doesn't finish me off first.
Had a great time with the dogs in the park. Spike and I went out first with his new football. I say new - I bought it months ago, but they sold it to me deflated... it was such a performance pumping the damn thing up that it got put on hold for a long time. But today I got it out and finished pumping, and the grin on his face as I kept shoving him away till I'd got it done made me regret waiting so long. When we got to the park we played and danced by ourselves for a while, then Emma and her horde of sproggen turned up - Emma has four boys of her own, all under six, but for some reason she's always trailing at least three or four more neighbourhood rugrats as well. Rather her than me, but Spike has always adored the little yard apes, so he was in his element - today's collection ranged from barely walking to tennish, and he played with each and every one before I finally took him home.
Swapped dogs and headed straight back out with Squish and three tennis balls (I wasn't about to let Destructo-Dog loose on Spike's new football... Spike can make a football last six months despite only having carnivore teeth to carry it round with - Squish usually bursts them in two walks or less).
I love walking with Squish on the lead. He has such a happy bounce, he doesn't do Spike's sudden arm-wrenching Great Leaps Forward, and he walks like a show champion... he's breathtaking to watch with his long springy strides and his head held high - he shows himself off much better than Spike's characteristic head-and-tail-down slink-and-dart Border Collie Secret Agent walk. I was having a great time until we turned a corner and discovered that somebody had left a stuffed toy snowman sitting at the foot of a hedge.
This isn't it, but it's similar:
Now, does that look scary to you? A little creepy, admittedly, but would you have screaming hysterics at the sight of it? Squish did. This is the dog that will happily come outside and watch fireworks with me... but the Snowman of DOOOOOM had him completely unstrung - barking at the top of his voice, every hair on his back standing on end. And when I tried what would have worked with Spike - going up to it and touching it myself to prove it wasn't dangerous - he lost it to the point where he managed to wrench his head out of his collar trying to back away. Now we were both scared, because we were on a main road at the busiest time of day and there was Squish in a frenzy with no collar and lead. His life was flashing before me.
Luckily, he was too scared to do anything but try and hide between my knees. I slipped his collar back on (with some difficulty - I tried to see if I could tighten it a hole, but I can't without choking him) and we retreated to the park, where he was very good and didn't bugger off at all.
We crossed the road before we got to the snowman on the way back.
Tags: