In Christchurch, at my brother and sister in law’s house, everything is going along just peachy (I’ve always just talked about my brother because “brother and sister in law” is so clunky, but finally I’m just too embarrassed to leave her out anymore. Even worse, they aren’t married, so she’s my common-law sister in law, yikes! Sorry to leave you out for so long, Nicola.)
It’s a wee video of their three new pets getting along like a house on fire, with much mutual love and affection. If it breaks this post then I’ll replace it with a still screen shot, but that would be a shame because it’s heart warming. My brother was trying to imply that there was something unnatural going on here, which might be a sad reflection on the lack of demonstrative affection in our immediate family. Sad. Anyway clearly he hasn’t seen any videos of Goofy trying to hump her fluffy pet bed. I can post those too if there’s enough interest.
In the meantime, back here, Ratdog has become a late in life escapologist. My son tells me the breeder warned me of this tendency when we chose her but I have no memory of that at all. The gardener is coming next week to upgrade the fence out onto the lagoon to discourage Ratdog’s tendency to jump over and accost passers-bye. Typically for us, this doesn’t just mean nailing on a wee bit of trellis at the top, but rather extensive earthworks involving diggers because it’s a retaining wall.
In the meantime, I’ve draped an old sheet over the bannisters to bloke the view.
We’ve had to curtail entirely her access to the front of the house as she can jump over any part of the fence at will, much to the dismay of elderly dog walkers.
I don’t think this hole in the ground is an escape attempt but you can never discount anything where this pooch is concerned. (Remember when we were kids, any deep hole was meant to reach China if you dug far enough?)
Seeing this hole under the fence to the pious elderly neighbours on that side was a blow. If she keeps changing her tactics this could be an arms race that goes on for some time. At this stage I’ve just plugged it with an old empty plant pot that Simon uses as a sneaky ash tray. He hasn’t missed it yet. Something more permanent may be required.
