A quandary

I had a really hard decision to make the other day. She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed was in the hall, coat on, poo bags pocketed, getting my lead out of the drawer, all the signs of my morning walk! But Aunty G was in the kitchen, cooking porridge. I love porridge.

So I was running between the kitchen and the hall. Every time I decided to opt for the walk, I was drawn by the smell of porridge. What a quandary!

In the end, SWMBO more or less forced me to go for a walk, by going out into the front garden and brandishing the lead. "Walk trumps porridge", she said. I don't really know what that means but I went anyway. I reckoned that maybe, just maybe, the porridge would be around when we got back. (It wasn't, but my own breakfast was).

Happy new year!

Well, there goes another year, they seem to fly back quicker than ever, as She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed always says.

As a dog of mature years, approaching his 10th birthday, I didn't think there were many things that I hadn't yet experienced. But I was wrong. Over Christmas, I stayed in a hotel for the first time! It was very exciting, me and SWMBO in our very own room! I gave her a bit of trouble though about having food in the room - I kept trying to get into the cupboard where our breakfasts were kept, and then into the bathroom when SWMBO tried putting them in there.

In the end, she was forced to put them in the boot of the car, where I couldn't get to them. What a disappointment!

It was a nice place to stay - lots of room to run around in the adjoining playing fields. I soon got used to the fact that people were coming and going along the corridor where our room was, and didn't bark too much.

Christmas itself was lovely and I had lots of gifts!

Silly person

I met the stupidest person in the world yesterday. She was a young woman, and she looked at me and said to She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed, "Why is your dog so big?" Well, what a thing to say! OK, I'm on the tall side for a Tibetan Terrier, but I weigh under 20 kg and I'm not what you'd call a big dog.

So SWMBO said, "Well, he isn't really, he's more medium sized".

Then idiot woman said, "Why don't you cut his fur?" What a cheek. I look very handsome with my full coat, and SWMBO will take me to be trimmed at some point quite soon, I expect.

SWMBO admitted later that she wanted to say to moron girl, "Why are you so stupid?". But she's just too polite.

Doggie heaven!

I have had a very good morning. After an unpromising start, when it seemed that I wasn't going to get my walk, things perked up a lot. I had my breakfast, which is always good, then She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed and Aunty G decided to take me to the park. First stop was the cafe, where SWMBO had a breakfast baguette and I managed to scrounge some of it. (And I got a dog biscuit too).

Then, we set off down the path by the river and saw a man carrying another breakfast baguette! Of course, I was very interested and trotted alongside him, looking hopeful. He had a little chat to the humans (about me, I think), and as he set off again, the best thing happened. The fried egg and half a sausage fell off the baguette! What luck that humans don't eat food off the ground!

But Tibetan Terriers do. I wolfed down the sausage, and SWMBO had to help me with the egg as I couldn't manage to get it off the ground on my own. Yummy!

Then, I met Keela, my Wheaten Terrier girlfriend, and we had a bit of a cwtch, which was nice. And then I met Baguette Man's Labrador and we had a lot of fun together. Of course, I had to lord it over him, as I had got his dad's food which I suppose by rights belonged to him. But he wasn't around to take advantage, and I was!

There were some good puddles to splash around in too.

All in all, a perfect start to the weekend!

My secret is out!

She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed is always puzzled by why I have to stop and lift my leg in so many places, but now the reason is revealed!

It has been so cold lately, and of course you can now easily see why I choose to *go* where I do - the telltale yellow snow! So SWMBO can tell that I'm lifting my leg for good reason - to cover the scent made by other dogs, which is usually invisible to humans except when the snow shows it up!

I've quite enjoyed the snow so far. It kind of puts me in touch with my roots.

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a waggy Christmas and a new year full of treats!

Fireworks aren't so bad after all

It's been a busy time for people who like to make loud bangs and flashing lights lately, and there will be more of it on New Year's Eve as well.

But I'm not actually frightened of fireworks. Sometimes I even go outside to see what's going on. But I do bark at them. A lot.

She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed tells me to shut up as usually I start barking during a particularly important moment on the TV. Sometimes I do shut up, sometimes I don't. Depends on my mood.

My favourite place in the house

I really like to lie on the little landing before the turn in the stairs. It's right in the centre of the house, and I can keep an eye on what's going on both upstairs and downstairs. Also, I can see what's happening outside through the fanlight above the front door, as it's at the same level, so I can bark if necessary.

It's exactly the right length for me to spread out, so I think it must have been made for me.

It's still a bit funny without Coco and I do feel a bit lonely when the humans are out. But the upside is that I get more attention just for me!

Farewell Coco

My family member, Coco, went to the vet on Saturday morning and hasn't come back. Everyone is very sad so I'm sure I won't see her again.

She wasn't well for a long time, and lost a lot of weight and didn't come on proper walks any more. It meant though that I got an extra walk each day, as She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed would take us both out so that Coco could get a bit of exercise, though most of the time she'd only walk to the end of the road and refused to go any further.

Her last couple of days were awful, as she got weaker and weaker, so I hope that she's at peace now.

We didn't always get on as she would quite often get in my way, but I was fond of her and it's a bit lonely without a doggy friend in the house. I don't know how I'd feel about someone new coming in though, they might try to be Top Dog and I won't have that.

Maybe I should just enjoy getting all the attention from the humans for now!

I did something new today!

Coco has talked about our little train adventure in her diary so I've only got a couple of things to add to that.

I'd like to point out that She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed did not have to pick me up and plonk me on the train! To be fair, I was no keener than Coco to jump across the big gap between the platform and the train - what if I'd missed and slipped down into the darkness below? Ugh! However, once SWMBO had subjected Coco to the shame of human intervention, I decided to jump onto the train before she tried the same with me!

It was interesting, going to Lisvane - we've never been there before. It was quite a nice walk from the station, up a hill (we don't normally do many hills) and there were some good new smells around.

Then we saw Uncle R and he showed us his new Italianate garden. It isn't quite finished yet, which is a shame as I could have had a drink out of the water feature if it had been working.

Anyway, SWMBO bundled us quickly into the car to go home - and just in time, as at that moment it started to pour with rain!

Drink problem

I know, it looks dramatic, eh? No, I haven't been secretly raiding the drinks cabinet, but I have been drinking quite a lot and She Who Mustn't Be Obeyed decided to mention it to the vet. He did some tests, and it seems that my urine is very dilute. This means that the part of my kidneys that deals with liquids isn't working properly, so it just goes straight through without being filtered.

So, I was put on a special, expensive diet. I really liked it for a few months, then got tired of the dried breakfast version. Eventually I also got sick of the tinned food, which SWMBO added hot water to so it wasn't so claggy. In the end, I wouldn't look at it, so now we're given proper food - chicken, fish and vegetables! Yummy. Now and again, SWMBO sneaks some of the renal diet stuff in, but I can live with that occasionally.

A good wheeze, eh? The only thing is that Coco gets it too, and she really doesn't need it for her kind of illness. But SWMBO has decreed that we must have the same, or we'd fight. I expect she's right.