Loon

Having written about how good  Queenie is, she suddenly turned into a complete loon – otherwise known as a puppy. She went from walking round the house nicely to going everywhere full speed and full bounce – in a straight line regardless of who and what she has to climb over. She still does very deep sleep, so she basically has two modes – on and off. She enjoys playing and Rosie and Sam are preferred playmates, as would be Pixie, however she is less keen on being played with. Ian reminded me that we’ll have two years of this – great!

She has also forgetten her house training and has a nasty habit of leaving great piles by the gate at the front of the house when I am in class. A couple of times I’ve had to call Ian to clear it away while I’ve herded children back into the classroom, diverting their attention – seeking to avoid them going home to their parents full of the news that we let our dogs poo in the house.

Queenie has put on weight and has a round tummy, but – against our instructions to the contrary, she still seems to be putting her effort into growing her ears. I don’t think her head has changed size. She could carry Pixie and Milly around in her ears.

Milly has continued to settle in well. She is a little sweetie. I don’t think I would have taken her to the vet if I had seen her like she is now this time  last week, however I am saying that from the position of knowing that there’s nothing to worry about with her leg. She  gets about well and does a little run, but it is rather ungainly as she has this back leg that won’t bend.

The only problem is that we can’t get her to eat regularly. We don’t know if she is fussy or if she just eats very little. She’ll eat frankfurters but turns her nose up at most other things. I certainly don’t think that she would have been given anything special in her last house. She gets excited about cat food, so I  wonder if she was given this – I asked the people what she was fed and they just said that it was dried food for small dogs. We’re keeping an eye on her weight and giving her a mix of dog food and frankfurter with the aim of weaning  her off the frankfurter. She is so tiny that she will eat very little. We even bought a tin of super-expensive Cesar for her, but she wouldn’t eat that.

It is lovely to see Milly finding her way around the house. She gets in and out of the back door – quite a feat given that the step is bigger than her. She has to climb over, pulling her back part onto the step as she can’t bunny hop onto it because of her leg. She knows where the water is, but at the moment can’t get up the step. I don’t think it will take her long though.

We have noticed that none of our Spanish dogs are particularly greedy. I wonder if that is to do with how they are typically fed. Instead of putting food down once or twice a day, many Spanish people just put down food and top it up when necessary. Some people with a lot of dogs or in refuges they put down a big bag of food and let the dogs help themselves. This means that the dogs have a more relaxed view on food – as they eat when they are hungry – and I wonder if this filters through the genes somehow. Bob would have regarded it as his duty to eat his way through a big bag of food – at the risk of bursting! This gives us a problem when we bring in new dogs as they are often not used to eating at set meal times. And this is part of the problem we are facing with Milly at the moment.

It’s Easter week and so far no rain!!!