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Pets / Vets
The Spaniel Diaries
M
um and dad have been under our feet a lot over Christmas and New Year. Such a pain as I keep being turfed off my favourite sleeping spots and relegated to the dog bed. Life is far more peaceful when they are in their normal work routines and only one of them is home! Still it does have its bonuses and we had some fabulous walks on the farm with not a soul in sight. It was very muddy, though, and we had to suffer the indignity of having a hose-off and then having our coats put on and finally we have to stay out of the lounge when we get home! The cheek! Mav, though, being an idiot quite enjoys having a bath and even jumps in ready, I prefer to hide under the bed at the mention of the word “bath”! We have also eaten like kings as Mum was given a 6kg turkey! With just her and dad this Christmas to eat it there was plenty left for us boys and unlike the humans we never get sick of it. Mind you, mum never gets sick of chocolate or some stuff called ‘Bailey’s’ which us dogs aren’t allowed near so it must be nice! I like Christmas I must say and there’s still turkey in the freezer too! Mum has been getting a bit fed up with the dark mornings and muttering about January needing to get lost, I don’t mind as I can sneak off and find bunnies in the hedge without getting told off as she can’t really see me! I do quite like our morning walk up to visit the horses as we get a biscuit or two when the horses get their carrots. We have been kept on our leads for a bit too as the woollies are back in the top field and we mustn’t frighten them as they are carrying their precious cargo of baby woollies! I’ve been told I’m the world’s most useless ratter! What on earth do they expect? I find the rats and push them out from under the straw in the big barn,
but what on earth else do they expect me to do with them? Eat them? YUK! No way, that’s what cats are for – now, they are lazy and useless – all I see is them lounging about on bales of hay! The big grassmunchers came in for a haircut over the Christmas break. Mum said they had to have one so they don’t sweat and get a chill when they are ridden. I really, really hope she doesn’t get ideas about chopping my fur off, I need it to get warm. I may suggest that she cuts Mav’s fur off though, he looks ridiculous anyway so it would probably be an improvement. Just to be sure I propped myself up nice and high on a comfy hay bale to sit and watch the proceedings while out of harm’s way. I can’t say the horses were terribly impressed as once they had their coats put back on and were let into the field they had a really good roll in the mud! Mum just sighed and walked off. I looked for some handy fox poo as there’s normally some near the horse field. I thought I was in luck but mum caught wind of what I was up to and chased me off; I’ll get lucky next time and do a really good job! I really must find a way of scuppering the schooling arena lights as mum has commandeered it in the evenings as no one really uses it. She has us retrieving boring smelly old dummies – well, to me they are – Mav, being such an idiot, absolutely relishes going after the things and bringing them back, this delights mum and she’s so happy with him. I ought to be sick in her shoes and blame him really, but no, I go off and get the dummy and get it over with quickly. Honestly, I think I preferred the rain and gales – she just lets us do our business and then heads for the sofa – which is perfectly fine by me! Stay safe until next time! Jeannette Douglas
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