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The online diary
started life as a blog of my strange 'other life' with the dog. I
wanted to record some of the experiences that I had as a first-time dog
owner. To access the archive, click on the appropriate month.
The most recent articles are listed
separately.
You are most
welcome to send comments about any of the articles. Record your
comments via the Contact Me page.
PROBLEMS
Sun 01 Mar 2009
Regular readers may have noticed a distinct lack of
activity lately. This is not because I have been ill, lazy, in bed etc.
etc. The week before last we were in The Lake District for half term and on
my return had a few problems with my hosting company. Basically, I could
not upload any new content to the website. After a few days of frustration,
I changed my hosting company and managed to upload the website on to their
server. I am still having problems with FrontPage Extensions, which don’t
want to work properly. At present, there is no way to contact me from the
website. Hopefully, these problems will be resolved next week! I have been
advised to change my software. I am investigating that avenue at the
moment, but it will require a lot of extra work to get a new website up and
running!
But in the meantime, I will still continue with the
old site and I will hope that these little glitches can be fixed!
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BACK IN BUSINESS
Tue 02 Mar 2009
I am very happy to report that all the issues with
the website have now been resolved by those nice people at
Streamline. All
parts of the site seem to be functioning properly – thank goodness!
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Comment from Tracey Lilly
Glad
you are back on line.
I often check your posts.
Are the Owls going to meet for lunch before Easter?
Can't believe it is 3 months since our meal at the college.
Happy Birthday Derek.
How many years young are you today? I am 60!!
P.S. I have applied for my bus pass!
Comment from
Gary
Hi Derek - glad to
see you back on line. I've been using 'Streamline' as my host for
the last year and always found them very helpful.
Gary ....
ESCAPE!
Mon 03 Mar 2009
Last week we had a new
kitchen installed. It was a busy time and there were periods when
Beattie had to be put in her
crate to keep her out of harm’s way. The busiest day was Friday when the
carpet fitter and electrician were due to apply the finishing touches –
carpet and lights! The carpet fitter was late for very plausible reasons,
but was soon busy with his work. Then we hit the snag. The carpet could
not be fitted up to the kick boards and they would have to be removed. The
carpet was now running under the boards, but they would have to be cut to
fit under the units. More work for the kitchen fitter!
Asking people to work
overtime on Friday evening is rather unsociable and I wouldn’t have been
surprised if JBr had refused,
or given some excuse. I was very grateful when he agreed to drive over
after work and sort out the problem.
Unbeknown to anybody,
Beattie made a bid for freedom whilst JBr was here. He was working outside
with the electric saw plugged in one of the kitchen sockets. Beattie
slipped through the open door on to the drive. Unfortunately, JBr had left
the back gate open quite by accident and Beattie took her chance to escape!
The first I knew
anything about it was when a neighbour from two doors along came to ask if
we had lost our dog.
‘No,’ I said,
confidently.
‘Well, I think she’s
sitting in our lounge,’ he replied. ‘She turned up a little while ago and
started barking outside our front door. My wife opened the door and in she
trotted!’
I was amazed and also
rather shocked that she had escaped. We are usually very careful about
checking the back gate, but on this occasion, did not give it a thought.
I went with him to
collect Beattie and gratefully gathered her up to return her to safety.
What puzzled me was why Beattie would want to run away in the first place?
Was she feeling left out after our hectic week? Did she think her new
adopted owners would give her a better life?
Who knows how the doggy
mind works? I was just relieved she was safe at home!
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Comment from
sablonneuse
If Beattie thinks
in the same way as our cats, anything forbidden is a 'must do' and
closed doors and gates are an irresistible challenge.
Comment from
Gary
Derek - I'm very
glad Beattie turned up safe and sound! When we first got Tim from
the rescue centre he made a couple of bids for freedom. Once I was
putting the milk bottles out before going to bed. He managed to
sneak past me, ran across the main road, jumped over the wall at the
other side and down to the river. I must have looked a sight chasing
him along the riverbank in my dressing gown and slippers!
Gary ....
Wish I had a photo of
that! derek
Comment from Anonymous
What a good job
she didn't get run over.
She is very sociable so probably felt very secure with other people.
Perhaps she wanted to get away from all the noise.
Hope you like your new kitchen - the old one looked ok when we came
last June but I expect you just fancied a change.
Did you recycle your old units by putting on new doors or have to
empty and rebuild?
It was cheaper to have
the old units ripped out and replaced with new! derek
EARS
Wed 11 Mar 2009
On Monday
morning, I had an appointment with the ENT consultant. The trouble had
started last November when A
complained that I was always asking her to turn up the volume control. She
said I must be going deaf and instructed me to visit the nurse to have my
ears syringed. When I presented myself at the surgery I was told that I
would have to use eardrops for two weeks to soften up the wax. Having
purchased the drops, A began to administer them as per the instructions.
Immediately, my hearing deteriorated and worse, the hissing began in my
right ear!
Two weeks
later, the nurse syringed my ears, but I was left with a legacy of
high-pitched hissing in my right ear! Eventually, after two visits to the
doctor, I was referred to the ENT specialist at the hospital.
Having
attended my appointment, I came home to take
Beattie out for a walk as I had
been out for three hours. When I walked into the kitchen, I could see that
Beattie had a problem. A very large dark brown globule was hanging out of
her left ear!
Instantly, I
was on to the vet and making an appointment for twenty minutes time. What
on earth was wrong with her? Arriving at the vet, Beattie was treated by a
young lady that was new to me. But she had diagnosed the problem in about
ten seconds. It was not a tick as it was the wrong colour. It must be
earwax that had become matted in her hair. She cut off the wax and then
massaged her ear with a few drops of white liquid squeezed from a bottle.
Then with a ball of cotton wool, she cleaned out her ear and the job was
done! She gave me a bottle of the eardrops and told me to clean out her ear
twice a day.
The panic was
over, but how strange that we should both have ear problems on the same
day? Perhaps she was coming out in sympathy! Back
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Comment from Tracey Lilly
Let's hope Beattie
hasn't been left with high pitched whistling in her ears too - not
that she would be able to tell you.
I wonder if doggie ear wax is any different to that used in humans?
Well, it looks a darker
colour, Tracey. If Beattie does have whistling in her ears, I
don't expect I would hear it as it would probably be too high
pitched for humans! derek
PROPERTY LAWS
Fri 13 Mar
2009
Recently,
AJB sent this to me:
PROPERTY LAWS
FOR A BEDLINGTON TERRIER
If I like it,
it’s mine
If it’s in my
mouth it’s mine
If I had it a
while ago, it’s mine
If it looks
like mine, it’s mine
If it’s mine,
it must never be yours
If I saw it
first, it’s mine
If you have
something and you put it down, it’s mine
If I chew
something, then all the pieces are mine
If it used to
be yours get over it
If it smells
good, it’s mine
If it is
broken, it’s yours!!!
All this runs
contrary to the advice that AT
gave me when Beattie was a
puppy; that is, THE DOG OWNS NOTHING; ANYTHING THE DOG IS GIVEN BELONGS TO
THE OWNER!
This Mantra
could most eloquently be demonstrated at mealtime. I was instructed to put
down Beattie’s bowl of food, and whilst she was still tucking into it, I was
to remove the bowl with the encouraging word, ‘Mine!’ Then ten seconds
later, she was to be given her food bowl so she could finish her meal. AT
said that this sent the powerful message to the dog that she only ate with
the owner’s permission; that the owner was the source of everything the dog
needed; therefore, it was a good idea to accept that the owner was the pack
leader!
Well, that
seems pretty clear, and, for a while, I obeyed these instructions.
Fast-forward
two years …
…
A bought Beattie a folding
cylindrical basket for her toys. I think it was supposed to be a laundry
basket, but A thought it would make an admiral a toy box for Beattie. She
soon learnt where her toys were kept and she began to stand by the basket
when she wanted to play!
One day, when
nobody was taking any notice of her, Beattie took matters into her own paws
(or teeth) and bit a hole through the cloth and dragged out her Christmas
cracker!! It took a little time to register that Beattie had a toy and upon
investigation, the hole in the base of the basket was discovered.
As far as
Beattie was concerned, she was only retrieving what was rightfully hers!
Obviously, she had been reading the Property Laws and had decided to take
Direct Action!! Back
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JARVIS COCKER
Sun 29 Mar
2009
This weekend,
Beattie met
Jarvis for the first time.
Jarvis is a four-month old cocker spaniel, and is the apple of his master’s
eye! Strange to write this, as up until a very short while ago,
S was very wary of dogs,
especially Beattie.
We were away
for a family weekend and S had kindly offered his house as base camp! I was
rather unsure what Beattie would make of Jarvis as her usual reaction is to
bark at all dogs, except those at Dog Club and also
AT’s dogs. I wonder if this is
because she is used to them all? But Beattie would not be on her own turf,
so I thought this might unsettle her and make her more wary of a negative
reaction.
Nobody could
dislike Jarvis. He is an adorable little bundle of energy, into everything,
especially with his teeth! Well, that was my reaction, but not Beattie’s!
At first, she was polite and there was the ritual circling and sniffing. So
far, so good. But Jarvis was a youngster and Beattie, the older bitch and
he wanted to play. Clearly Beattie was not going to put up with Jarvis
gently head butting her for long and she soon let him know that she was
tired of his antics with a short, sharp bark!
Unfortunately,
Jarvis was not good at reading doggy signals and continued to follow Beattie
around everywhere. Beattie tried ignoring him and walking away, but Jarvis
was a persistent little beggar and, finally, Beattie let rip with a series
of ear-splitting barks. S judiciously removed Jarvis from the scene and
gave him a time-out in his crate.
So the general
pattern of the weekend was set as far as Jarvis and Beattie were concerned.
Whether we were out walking, in the house or visiting relations, Jarvis
stuck like glue to Beattie who bore it as stoically as she could before she
lost patience. She had partial success on the beach as she could easily
outrun Jarvis with those long legs of hers, but he never gave up and when
Beattie stopped to catch her breath, Jarvis would surely catch up with her
and so she was forced to run off again!
Arriving home
again, Beattie was glad to be out of her travelling crate and glad, also, to
be back in her own home, with her own toys, her own place on the sofa and
with no annoying little shadow following her around. Peace, at last!
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Photographs taken with a Fuji MX-2900
Zoom or a Canon EOS 20D
Copyright © 2009 Derek Cockell All Rights
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