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Life Is Fun!

A Sad 'Goodbye' To All My Lovely Friends

This is quite a sad diary entry, because tomorrow Amber and I have to go to a new home. It's a very nice home - a tiny farm - and our new owner is really, really nice, but we will miss all our wonderful friends on Dogster, and it's very difficult for us to be brave about saying goodbye to our lovely Guardian.

She has developed a life-threatening allergy to our dog fur. After 20 years of keeping Cavaliers, she's allergic to them, and her face swells, her eyes run and she can't breathe properly. The medication from the doctor hasn't helped enough, and it also makes her ill in a different way from her allergic reaction. Amber and I don't want her to be very ill all the time, or possibly die, so we do understand why we're going but we wish things were different. Our Guardian says that it has broken her heart, but we hope it hasn't because for the moment Emily is staying with her, and she will need all her heart for Emily.

The doctor has said that our Guardian can try and see how she is with just one dog, because Amber and I playfight all the time and make LOTS AND LOTS of dusty mess, with fur balls rolling around the floors! Emily is far more sedate, and also Master Guardian was worried that our mummy wouldn't be able to cope without even one dog, especially as Mr Guardian is so ill. If she doesn't improve with Emily here, then Emily will also come and join us. That would be fun for us, but Emily doesn't want to come because she's a 'Mummy's Girl' and quite shy. Amber and I are not at all shy, we love everyone and like dashing around and wrecking things!

We will always carry the memories of our first home with us, and also the memory of every single one of the wonderful friends we've made here on Dogster. Although our new owner won't be doing Dogster, she will let our Guardian know how we're behaving, and send her some photos, so Emily can post news about us in her diary.

Our Guardian can't do any more typing for me, because she's too upset, so I'll just say a final GOODBYE EVERYONE and hope you all keep an eye out for the news updates as Emily gets them.

The new farm has miniature ponies on it, I wonder if I'll be able to ride one.....?

Emily's lost the plot!

I know Emily is Senior Dog, but she's totally lost the plot these past few days. For some reason she's suddenly decided that Amber, who is NOT tiny any more, is her little puppy. She's only 6 weeks younger than me, but all at once Emily has started protecting Amber. Every time I start having a nice game of play-fighting or chase with her, Emily charges in and growls at me until I leave Amber alone. I wouldn't mind, but Amber is usually knocking eight bells out of me at the time, and I'M the one who needs protecting, not her!

I've stopped chewing Emily's ears now, which is good and I get lots of praise from our Guardian for that, but Amber has started doing it and she won't stop. Even worse, Emily encourages her. She hides under our Guardian's chair, out of sight, and then lets one of her ears flop out so that Amber can lie down on the carpet and chew away without anyone realising for ages. That's pretty smart, but pretty annoying too.

I'm not even allowed to lie down with Emily and Amber all the time. Emily will suddenly start to growl at me, and put a protective paw round Amber to keep her safe. I'd never hurt anyone, let alone my best play pal Amber, and I wish Emily would stop being so silly. Our Guardian says that she thinks Emily must be feeling 'broody', and perhaps she'd better have a litter next year. I hope that doesn't mean a lot of tiny puppies running round our playpen!

The only good thing to come out of all this is that I get to sit on our Guardian's lap a lot, to make up for Emily growling at me. Sometimes Emily is all right, and she and I even have games in the garden during the day, but then she has what our Guardian calls 'a bit of a turn' and of course Amber loves it. She likes cuddling up to Emily and feeling protected. We all cuddle up together at night still, and apparently Emily will soon 'get over it', although it's not like a gate or a fence, so I don't quite know how she'll do that, but I trust our Guardian.

Amber and I ate a blue plastic clothes peg today, one that had blown off a towel on the line in the strong wind. We were just getting down to eating the spring when our Guardian saw what was happening and came running out to 'save us'. She needn't have bothered, the spring was no trouble at all. She says she hopes the rest of the peg 'goes through us all right'. I hope it doesn't come out of our ears. Emily's is having Leo drops in her ears every day at the moment, because they became a little bit hot and inflamed, and she says it feels horrible when they go in, which is why she rolls around on the carpet in our Guardian's study as she tries to get rid of them! If bits of blue peg start coming out of my ears, I expect I'll get those drops too. Eeeeeek!

Our Christmas presents are on their way to us, or so I heard our Guardian say. I suppose Santa Paws has started his long journey already. Master Guardian comes home next Thursday, and my heart is already beating faster than usual. It's love, it really is. It was love at first sight! Our Guardian loves us all exactly the same, and we all love her the same too, but I love Master Guardian more than Emily and Amber do, and perhaps I'll lose the plot when he comes home, and start keeping the other two away from him as I offer him my ears to chew. That would give them all something to think about, wouldn't it!

A narrow escape

Oh dear, I made a big mistake on Monday. I always like to eat things that I shouldn't, because I'm always hungry and always curious. On Monday though, I dug down 12" and found a big, round bulb, which our Guardian told the vet was a 'daffodil' bulb, whatever that may be. I ate a quarter of it before our Guardian saw what was happening, and little Amber - who loves to copy me - ate about half that amount. Then our Guardian came rushing out and took it out of my mouth. Well, wrestled it out really, because I don't like 'dropping' things and try to hang on to them.

This time I could tell that our Guardian was very worried, and she said 'Oh Willow, they're poisonous. You silly, silly dog'. She wasn't sure how much we'd eaten, because some was on the ground, but a few hours later I got a terrible tummy ache and I was extremely ill. I was sick for hours and poor little Amber was very sick too, but not quite as sick as me because she hadn't eaten as much. I lay in the little bed and shivered because I felt cold and ill. Our Guardian wrapped me up in a blanket and tried to help me, but it was really horrible, and I wondered if I'd ever feel well again.

The next day Amber was meant to have her 2nd injection, so that we can all go out for walks, but the vet said she couldn't because she was lucky the bulb hadn't killed her, and I was lucky too. He said we'd had a 'narrow escape'. After that, Mr Guardian - who is always sick, and if he feels like I did I'm very sorry for him! - tried to help Mrs Guardian move all the tubs and pots from our back garden round to the front garden. Now the back garden is almost totally bare - which makes Mrs Guardian sad as she enjoys her gardening - but she says it's the only way to keep us safe until we're older and more sensible. There are a few pots left, but I've had a good dig and there aren't any bulbs in them, and only a couple of plants since I've been digging!

I think everyone here was very worried, and for a couple of days Amber was quite quiet - I bounced back quickly - but of course Emily was fine as she didn't eat any of the bulb. She just stood and watched Amber and me eat it. You'd think she'd have said something wouldn't you?

So, a narrow escape for us two puppies and now we just chase around in the garden as there's nothing left to munch on. Silly me, well silly AND greedy according to our Guardian! She says I nearly broke her heart, so I'll try to be good in future. I don't want to break her heart. I've already broken the speakers on her computer by chewing through the wire. I guess breaking her heart would be even worse than that?