Puppy Love

It barely seems possible that it was just a week ago today (as I type this) that I collected the girls. So much has happened with them, every day being a new day of discovery for all of us, that I wish in a sense that I had written this in daily sections to accurately capture my feelings at that point as, unavoidably, those generated today are strongest in my mind.  This is going to be a really tough blog to write for another reason as I have shot 22 videos and taken 230 photographs of Thelma and Louise and I have to try and whittle that down to something a bit more manageable for the blog.

 

After one day, they had already done this

This blog actually begins last Sunday after I finished writing the previous update. The girls settled in really quickly, having slept in the car on the way home as described before. My plan for them is to have them in the kitchen during the morning and afternoon while I’m at work and then to have them in the front room with me at other times. At night they will be sleeping the en suite next to my bedroom where I can hear them if they start asking to go out to the toilet; a distant dream at the beginning of the week. The toys I had ordered from online were proving to be a success already and the hand grenade (which my dad told me to never carry in my hand luggage) was their favourite. It was also already starting to fray even by the end of Sunday as their sharp little teeth and claws ripped into it.

And what sharp claws they are; by the end of Sunday I was covered in little scratches from them climbing up and down my arms and just walking on me. In no way are they aggressive towards me though this is just an accidental by product of their affectionate way with me. When I went to look at them before I bought them I was only planning on, as you know, getting one puppy but I couldn’t choose between them. You can see just what a good choice this was here; they play together really well and even by the end of Sunday I was totally smitten, convinced of the correctness of my choice.

 

Fish and chips with peas; a meal fit for a king

One thing I have decided on right from the beginning is that I will eat my dinner and then feed them; this is to establish some kind of order to the household and so they get really used to being part of the pack which I lead. My dinner was fish and chips picked up from the shop opposite where I got the girls and it really hit the spot though the little rotters were bouncing around my feet a lot and I knew I would have to do something about that pretty soon. What, I wasn’t sure at the time.

 

Both of them nomming hard

Once I had finished my food I went to the kitchen and put a handful of the food given by the lady into a bowl each and set them on the floor. At first I was filming this but it was quickly apparent I would need to get a bit more involved than just standing watching like I could with Ralf and Rambo. I shut the video off and sat down with my legs dividing the two bowls and one puppy on each side. This worked out really well and I was able to both keep them focused (there is NOTHING so tempting as the exact same food but sat in your sister’s bowl) and encourage them to finish off every scrap. This they did at this first feeding time.

 

Puppy poo and wee

And so to bed and I took them up about 9ish and settled them down while I read for a bit in bed next door. I was expecting some ructions however they dropped off very quickly and with no problems at all and didn’t disturb me at all in the night. I can’t say the same for me however as I needed the toilet and had to go in and wake them to use the loo. Even after this, and they were super bouncy at me when I did this, they went back to sleep quickly and therefore so did I. I fed them again in the morning using the same technique to separate them and they were about the same though neither of them finished all the pellets I gave them and then I was off to work leaving them alone for the first time in the kitchen. I would be lying to say I wasn’t concerned for them and for the chaos they could have caused when I arrived back at lunch but what a pleasant surprise. Not only was there no ripped up walls and trashed room they had done their poo and wees on the cardboard provided! On the first ever day of being left. How impressive is that!

 

Waiting in bed while I make my butties

I stood to make my sandwiches while in the kitchen with them and they were jumping again around my feet and generally getting in the way as I tried to move around so I took A’s advice and put them in their bed and every time they went to move I told them off. Again demonstrating how clever these two are they got the hang of this very quickly and ever since then they have been confineable to their bed with just a word and a pointed finger. What awesome puppies.

 

Anything can be a toy. ANYTHING!

I moved through to eat in the front room and again was able to control them really well into their bed but once I finished eating it was a free for all. They were sniffing everywhere and exploring as puppies will and found an even better toy than the hand grenade in the green canvas bag which I have used to keep their stuff in. After watching and laughing for a few minutes I took it off them so it didn’t get destroyed like the real toys do.

With that avenue of fun removed they settled down to what has become a theme this week; fighting. Now they don’t seem to do it to hurt each other (often) and mainly they are just bouncing around and chasing each other but I think there is also something serious here in that they are trying to work out their order in the pack. You would have thought that Thelma would be top dog and I think she was when I collected them but by forcing them to eat at the same time I think I have given Louise some more confidence and she is now fighting back.

 

More toys for the girls

Louise loves the new sheep toy

It was really hard to leave them that first lunch time and go back to the office as I had so much fun playing with them and watching them play. I didn’t stay late in the office at the end of the day though and went back, said hello to them (some less successful toilet experiences this time) and then went out to Tesco to get me some food and them some treats and more toys. A thinks I’m spoiling them but I think they deserve every bit of it.

 

They are too small for their harnesses, bless

I had bought a couple of tiny harnesses and some leads for them so I would be able to take them out for walks after their vet trip on Wednesday so I got these out and tried to fit them on. It turned out that small as they were the harnesses were way too big for these girls. Thelma kept getting one leg through and then tripping up while Louise was able to just shrug the whole thing off and leave it behind as an inconvenience. The collars on the extending leads were also way too big so for now I had to leave them collarless and think again about how to solve that.

 

The destructive nature of a puppy

The bed had already started to suffer from puppy-attack and the hole opening up in its front was getting larger. Pleasingly the section of seam which I had fixed before had not come away and it was a different part that was ripped. Maybe I missed my true vocation.

 

A plethora of toys

Anyway they could hardly complain about being hard done by for things to play with; this is their current toy collection and there are a couple of other things at my parents yet to be collected. They play with each and every toy as well as things which aren’t toys so they aren’t being wasteful of my largesse.

 

Having a snooze after a play session

For the rest of the evening I sat on the floor and played with them while they crawled over me and then finally fell asleep on me which I allowed to continue until my bum got completely numb from being sat with no cushion so I had to disturb them and move up to the sofa. Not to be denied after a short while I running around after this they were back and curled up right on my feet; how terribly cute these two are. The evening was a quiet one and I once more took them up to their bed about 9ish and read until I was ready for sleeping. My life style had already completely altered to allow me to fit in around these two.

 

Matching collars for the girls

The next morning went off very similarly to the previous and I was off to work after feeding them and making them stay in their bed while I did the washing up which once again they did very well indeed. On the way back at lunch time I popped in to the pet shop round the corner (I’d actually been in the day before to get some pet food but forgot about that til just now) and got a tiny collar and lead set for each of them. When I got home and after they had jumped all over me in excitement I was able to get these to fit and so they are now proudly sporting matching collars. They were not very pleased at the time and spent most of the lunch break itching and spinning them around.

For those of you who don’t believe that the puppies could possibly be being so obedient as to stay in their beds just with a verbal command please check the video above. I swear this was taken on the Tuesday and they just stay there until they are allowed to leave. In fact sometimes you have to encourage them to get out of the bed once you’re done whatever you are doing which makes you want to limit them.

For sure their favourite toy so far is the hand grenade as you can see in the video there.  They will play with it individually until the other notices and tries to take it away at which point they’ll start doing tug of war. They are also, however, interested in chasing it which is great because that is exactly the reason I had for buying this toy. I want them to become expert ratters and chase things on the floor you see. I don’t know if this will definitely help but I can’t see it hindering.

 

Mauled and mangled hand grenade toy

They are well on their way to destroying it already; this is pretty tough rubberised material and it is becoming shredded very quickly. I have since ordered another few of these to take with so when this one finally goes to the great toy shop in the sky they have replacements lined up.

 

A bit of puppy proofing

About the only thing about the kitchen that concerned me with leaving them alone in there was the fridge; everything else is quite well hidden but the plug for the fridge sits out in the open where any inquisitive puppy could find it and possible chew it with fatal consequences. I put this block of wood in place on Monday evening after realising how risky it was and as of now they haven’t even tried to move it; the only irritation is it falls over when I open the freezer but I can cope with that if it keeps the girls safe.

While I eat, they wait

Dinner was some lovely lamb steaks with chips and really filled the hole nicely. The girls again demonstrated their excellent obedience and stayed pretty much like this right the way through the meal. After I had finished I took them and fed them then played with them until it was time to take them to bed again. It seems the girls have two modes; they are not sat on my lap and fighting, or they persuade me to pick them up and then fall asleep happily. Very cute.

 

Thelma and the canal

Louise likes beer, apparently

Wednesday followed pretty much the same pattern and lunch time was a pleasure of tasty butties and fun romping with the both of them. After work I left very promptly as they were booked in for their first vets appointment at 4.30. I had time on getting home to try them out with leads as I had arranged to go to the pub afterwards with my boss and was thinking of taking them down. I went past the post office on the way down to collect my birthday present from A which had missed delivery the other day and made it to the vets in plenty of time. I wasn’t in there long and only had to endure a lecture on cleaning their teeth (what?!) and watch them both submit to an injection which they took with no complaints at all and then I was out the door and decided to go straight to the pub rather than going home and walking round. I left the girls in the car while I got my beer and then took a seat down by the canal where the sun was on me and I could let them run around a bit.

 

The little boy wanted to feed the puppies

I became something of an instant celebrity sat there with the girls. The landlord and lady and family came over to see them, random walkers went past and stopped and one little boy down to feed the ducks came back after he had almost run out of bread with a small amount each wanting to “feed the puppies”. Fortunately these girls are really friendly and they were very happy to be fussed by all comers. The little girl from the pub wasn’t very impressed when she was called in by her parents and tried to steal a whole bag of crisps which were on our table; she cried as I told her “no!” and I didn’t even feel slightly bad about that at all.

 

A super tasty curry that we both enjoyed very much

After we finished our pints it was agreed that, as the pub were not serving, we would go to a local village for a curry. We got back to mine so I could feed the puppies before we went out and I realised I’d left without paying. There was no problem when we got back and then Gerd kindly drove onwards to food. It was a really good indian that he had talked about for a while and I was very glad to finally get to appreciate it. The food was good, the service excellent and much fun was had.

 

Snoozing now I am home

When he dropped me off afterwards I found the girls of course very happy to see me. I was happy that they had proven able to be left in the evening as well. Now I don’t have lots planned for going out but there are a few things coming up and now I know that so long as I get them fed and have early evening with them, letting them alone for the rest of the evening isn’t a terrible thing. They both were tired and I ended up having Louise sleeping on me and Thelma sleeping in the bed and peace reigned again.

 

Exploring the garden for the first time

And so dawned my birthday but forgive me if I do not admit to an age. I was up early, fed the girls, opened the pressie from A (an outstanding bottle of whisky that I knew I would like and so did she; thank you darling) and then went into work where I managed to keep the day quiet for the most part which is just how I like it. The vet hadn't been sure of some timings around jabs and travel, and also wanted me to check if they had been treated for worms yet, so I made the required phone calls and found that timings were OK and they hadn't been treated. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and when I got home after work I decided to take them out in the back garden and try them out on the leads. I used the extending leads and they were pretty good though of course I wasn’t trying to take them anywhere, just letting them run around while on the lead.

Sunbathing together

This was the first time I had taken them outside in the garden and they absolutely loved it, as did I. I am a sun person and being able to sunbathe in the back garden on my birthday was a brilliant thing. After playing with the girls for a bit I decided to get the benefit of the sun and so lay on my back. They immediately jumped on me and sat on my neck which was not very comfortable so I went onto my front and they jumped on my back which was less annoying so I left them there. We lay like this for a fair while in the end.

 

I ate all of this because I am greedy

Eventually the shadow came across so I had to get up and go inside as while the sun was warm it was a bit chilly in the shade. Seeing as I was feeding myself on this birthday day I decided to go for my favourite dish I cook (not my favourite ever dish but then A isn’t here to cook me bangers, mash and gravy) so I got the stuff together and made myself an epic spicy pork pasta.

 

A very happy birthday to me

After eating this and feeding the girls it was back onto the sofa with a dram of my birthday whisky. I poured a very small shot as I was feeling tired and then settled back with the girls cuddled on my lap. Within short order, and after only a tiny sip of the spirit, we all fell asleep and I woke up feeling very groggy about half an hour later. I got my senses together, finished the whisky which was just gorgeous and then headed to bed properly. I do love my quiet evenings and the presence of these two hasn’t disrupted them at all so much as enhanced them.

There really are two sides to these two lovely puppies. I just commented now to A that they are either falling asleep lovingly in each others’ arms on my lap or trying to kill each other. You can see from the video above (hugely amusing to me as well with them chasing each other around the house) and the picture the two sides. You wouldn’t think there was an aggressive bone in their bodies to look at them one minute and then the next they are growling and snarling and dragging each other around by various body parts. I do act as a referee when it seems to me the fighting is getting too rough but ultimately so long as they do not hurt each other they have to find their own level and also this will only serve them in good stead for when they are attacking rats which, let’s face it, won’t exactly back down.

 

Very obediently waiting for me to finish eating

PLEASE PICK US UP! PLEASEEE

Often a fight will develop just after a scene like this one. They will be looking up at me while I’m typing (like just now, for example, as I’m getting this blog done) and then if I ignore them they will start tearing the room apart fighting each other. Louse, while much smaller, seems to make quite a good account of herself. It does make me laugh when Louise continually riles at Thelma who doesn’t seem interested and then slowly gets worked up until Louise has a hard time keeping her feet. They are very affectionate though even when fighting and if there is a squeal or a squeak from either the other will back off immediately.

 

Trailer with shiny new sides

And so Friday rolled round and saw me up early feeding the girls and then getting in Thomas to take the trailer over to the shop it originally came from to have new sides put on it, and also to have some work done to the towing equipment on Thomas. I found it really easily and they saw immediately what I meant about the height of the tow bar. I settled myself in the shop on a sofa, was given a brew, and before I knew it they were ready for me to leave and everything had been done. It towed much better on the way back than it had there and I’m really pleased with the sides. Now I just need to get the tarpaulin and I am all set for the return journey.

 

They love sleeping on my lap

I spent the rest of the day typing away on my laptop and being distracted by the girls as they took great pleasure in me being there during the day and not leaving them alone. I think the next Friday I work from home I will have to leave them in the kitchen and go and work in the office upstairs so I can get a little less disrupted work. No matter, it worked out ok as my jobs for the day were more about thinking than typing anyway. I also treated the girls with the worms and flea stuff which was fun as it had to be droppered onto their shoulder blades and then they had to be kept apart to stop them grooming each other. I was very good and first made Thelma sit in the bed while I held Louise and about half way through the drying process I swapped them over. No favourites here. Honest.

 

Now the girls can't steal the bird bread

Saturday dawned bright and I was up early again because of the girls; no lie ins for me for the foreseeable future I think. I was ready to start the next stage of toilet training of the girls by getting them to go outside regularly and hopefully encouraging them to only do their toilet outside. After the first attempt which took some time for them to realise what I was expecting this went well through the day and I was able to get quite good at catching them before their urges got too much. I also had some fun with them stealing the bread that I put out for the birds and so I took A’s advice again and made a temporary bird table.

 

A real washing line is now strung up

I rigged up a new washing line and then hung out some stuff on it which was great. The girls did me a favour here as well as they needed the toilet so I went out and was able to pull the washing in just as it started spitting with rain, and both items were fully dry. After this I was to Tesco and it absolutely pissed it down while I was there, but I got everything I needed included food for the next week and my leather hat kept me perfectly dry.

 

This stick is actually a growing sapling

It stayed that way, rain storms and then lovely sunshine, for the rest of the day and I was in and out all day with the girls. By now I was letting them run around without a lead and just watching and laughing as they chased each other and chewed up sticks and then chased each other again. Louise seems to be the one who will find the sticks but then once she has them, Thelma will always want to take it off her and then a fight ensues or maybe the stick snaps and they both go away happy for a while.

 

And back to sleep

Inevitably after playing hard outside we’d come back in and they would insist on jumping on my lap and then dozing off. This was fine but it does make it hard to play my computer game which is what I was trying to do. I ended up playing it only with my left hand as they were lying on my right and I couldn’t move it at all. My heart was aching, though, as they are so adorable and I can’t even imagine life without them already.

 

Playing with the ball

It wasn’t all pissing, shitting and sleeping however. The balls that I had bought from Tesco for them had up til now largely been ignored in the panoply of toys however during the afternoon they suddenly found them and started playing football and batting them around chasing them across the carpet. Thelma is big enough to actually pick one up but Louise has to just kick and nudge it to get it to move. Suffice to say as per usual the one only wanted the other’s ball and there were a few disagreements – it really is pointless buying two of anything isn’t it.

 

Super tasty dinner of minted lamb steaks

Dinner was a couple of minted lamb steaks with potatoes and peas and it was super tasty. Feeding time went well again and then it was snoozing on me while I played my game a bit before bed time. This time I was up a couple of times with them in the night when I heard movement, once at midnight and again at about 3am, and I took them out for wees and poos and this meant that this morning there was no accident at all. What a success and as they settle so quickly I was able to go back to sleep pretty much straight away both times. This also meant I got to have a lie in this morning and wasn’t up until 8am!

 

Cutting my hair off

And so to today.  I had a pretty fixed idea of things which I wanted to achieve today and as I sit here waiting for my dinner to cook at the end of the day I can look back and realise I’ve achieved them all. First of all I had cutting my hair and cleaning the house and I started off with the first. The girls sat in their bed obediently (for the most part) while I piled up a substantial quantity of shorn hair at my feet. I had let it grow ever since returning from Bulgaria so that is what a couple of months of growth looks like. With that done I put the girls in the cage in Thomas and set to tidying which wasn’t just a mop around and spraying the carpet cleaner like I’d already done once this week but involved wiping down all the sides in the kitchen, cleaning the cooker and even washing the draining rack. By the time I got out to the girls I found that they had had an accident which was entirely my fault for both leaving them for too long and not letting them have a toilet break before being locked up.

 

Enjoying their time in the sun with a non-attached stick

This mean that I had to run the washing machine which I hadn’t been planning on doing but with the weather so gorgeous at least I would be able to hang things outside which prompted me to add my towels and other things to the load. While this was running I spent a bit of time online and then took a chair out into the back garden to enjoy the gorgeous weather, and let the girls run around a lot as they love to do. The washing finished so I pegged it out and then it was nearly lunch time so I waited until I could eat without appearing greedy (I’d had a very nice yoghurt for breakfast but I think next time I’ll have two as I was hank marvin after a couple of hours) and then sat outside with my cheese and tomato butties again laughing as the girls fought gently over a stick.

 

What's this "walkies" business anyway

With myself fortified for the next challenge I put the leads on the girls and locked and tried to take them on their first ever walk. Dogs are supposed to love walkies but puppies are always a bit nervous and these two were no exception. It took me about ten minutes to encourage them to get in front of the neighbour’s house and that involved some dragging as they refused to walk. After a while I took to carrying them a bit and then putting them down and encouraging them and this worked at least for Louise who ended up trotting along quite nicely however Thelma was having none of it and by the time I reached the main road I just picked them both up and carried them to the pub.

Dozing again, this time at the pub

They made their usual stir when in there and the barmaid even brought my beer out to my table outside purely so she could get to fuss the girls and after she had gone other people came over as they parked up; a dog is public property here. I drank my pint, walked them a little bit around the beer garden, and then headed back feeling a little nervous as to how they would do. I was very pleased as Louise carried on leading the way and eventually even Thelma got the hang of it and was walking beside and a little behind me without needing dragging. I think I will try and walk them around the block every day for the next week and see what happens; they need to be good at this “being walked” thing by Islay.

And back home in the sun

When we got back it was so gorgeous that I got the recliner out into the back garden and lay in the sun. For a while the girls ran around playing but then the inevitable happened and they came to sit down. Louise demanded onto my lap but Thelma curled up underneath the chair for a bit. After a while she also wanted to come up and so I lifted her and soon they were both totally unconscious; it looks like Louise is falling off here but she really isn’t. I was reading my book and loving the heat but eventually I had to come inside as the breeze was really cold.

The snooze had obviously done them good as they were very excited when they got back inside and played with their toys, beat each other up (I think they look like ninja’s at the beginning of this video) and generally tore the place up. I was chatting to A and making a start on typing this epic update by this time.

Making it difficult for me to type

This was made a little more difficult than normal by the fact that both girls demanded to jump on my lap to sleep and then Thelma would only doze off if her head was on my arm. I managed for quite a long time but eventually had to put them in their bed so I could type uninhibited.

And there it is. Only a short update for you. I will sign off now and go and let the girls cuddle again as they are watching me from their  bed waiting. Well, Louise is, Thelma is snoring her head off.