Dogs and Knitting

Life cannot always be about exciting day trips to European cities. Most of the time I just stay home where it can be quiet. But not when the dogs come for, as I have mentioned before, Nellybert provides complimentary dog-sitting services to friends and family and for the past seven days, we have been busy.

The first to arrive was Elvis, a beautiful whippet/collie cross, just under a year old. This was his first-ever sleepover. He met a lot of new dogs and was sweet and good-tempered with them all. I hope his people go on more trips as we would be delighted to have him back again. The only crime he committed was getting hold of a ball of purple wool and tangling it into juggins. And because Bert is a stranger to socials, and had not the wit to take a picture of Elvis all bound up in the purple wool, instead making haste to free the little dog and lessen its distress. Silly Bert. Imagine thinking that helping a pup is more important than getting a cool photo for my blog.

Ozzie

Tuesday evening brought Rex and Ozzie. Rex has stayed here many times but Ozzie was a first-timer. Rex did no bad things except be terribly jealous of all the attention Ozzie was getting. It would have been difficult not to be fond of poor one-eyed Ozzie, a rescue dog from Ukraine who nowadays spends his time between London and Portballintrae. Ozzie’s only bad action was starting a fight with Phoenix, a long-time visitor to this yard.

Lulu from Leitrim was the next dog along. Her people are off to Portugal for a long weekend, which is about a month in dog years. We see quite a bit of Lulu and she is generally a very good girl. However, she blotted her copybook this afternoon. I was sitting right here and was aware that she was playing some scrabbling game under my feet. Maybe a piece of pizza crust? So engrossed was I in my knitting that I did not look down. When I did glance at the floor there was my ball of crimson wool in rallops. Brand new the previous day and the band only off it. At least she didn’t do such a thorough job as Elvis did with the purple. Probably because Bert got involved in that siege. The crimson was untangled in fifteen minutes while the purple took me two and a bit episodes of Fortunes of War to save.

Wasn't me.

Doggy Day Care

 

Lulu - 7 night stay, full board. Fee - one bottle of Dingle gin.

Nellybert has been doing Doggy Day Care for the last few days. Lulu (above) is still with us and settling into a nice routine. Up bright and early, toilette, breakfast. Back to bed with Bert for two-hour lie-in. Up again around 10, breakfast again, run around yard, follow Nelly everywhere, light lunch, run around yard, hang out with Ziggy, schmooze with every caller, run around yard, stand in front of every vehicle that enters or leaves yard, including farm vehicles, and the bigger the better. Supper, rat patrol, put hens in, bark for 30 minutes, beat Nellybert into submission, sit on laps for an hour or more, evening pee, rat patrol, treat, bed with Nelly, under quilt, of course. Nighty-night. Big sleep, wake up and repeat.

Rex - 2 night stay, full board. Fee - one very good Prosecco which I did not share with Bert.

Rex is back with Swisser. His stay was a short one. Most callers thought him the handsomest collie X in the world. He got on well with Lulu although the two nights they were both here were very hard on Jess who became bad with her nerves. Rex, her litter mate, is naturally dominant which his sister resents. Jess dislikes all her litter mates apart from Dora. Ziggy was not impressed with Rex at all but at least Zigs can escape to his own apartments. Judy? She ignores the whole lot of them.

Judy

Jess Dora

Ziggy

Visitors

 

This pheasant visits us every day. I don't always see him but I'm sure the spot under the seed feeder is part of his daily round. I call him Herbie. He is difficult to photograph as the slightest movement spooks him and even though he mostly walks, he is pretty nippy on his feet.

There were other visitors these past few days which is why I've not been blogging. Mick and Linda (co-grandparents) from Norwich were staying. There were some doubts if they'd be coming because of Covid but as we're all double-vaxxed and boosted and tests were taken prior to flying it all went ahead. I'm glad they came as Martha and Evie would have been very disappointed not to see them.

Anyway, all went well, the girls stayed too so we watched a lot of movies, Peter Rabbit 2 and another one called The Croods which I'd never heard of. Then, as if that wasn't enough screentime, Mick and Linda took them to the cinema yesterday to see the latest Ghostbusters.

The co-grandparents headed back to England this morning and overlapped with yet another visitor. Swisser had dropped Rex off as she's working in Bradford for a couple of days. I'd forgotten this arrangement and didn't see her. I came downstairs to find Rex in the sunroom and Mick fresh out of the shower. He said, 

There's another dog. I don't know where it came from.

Every Picture: Jess

Yippee! Last day and last post of the month and tonight's main topic will be Jess the Sprollie who everyone (except for Rod) thinks weird. I expect it is because she was the one that no one wanted. There were six pups in that litter, one male and five bitches and they were all going to be drowned. Until our friend heard of it. He said he'd take two and when he told us we said we'd take the remaining four and find homes for them. Swisser said she'd take the boy.

Handsome Rex, who lives between Bradford and Portballintrae

Howard chose Tegan and Pip who had to share their living quarters in rural Magherafelt with a couple of cats.

Of the four that came to us the Banjos chose Dora. She lives in Antrim and only rarely sleeps in Marty's banjo case.

Some people we didn't know came to look at the remaining two and they didn't choose Jess. They chose Darcy.

Darcy is the one at the front. Dora is in the middle and Jess is at the back. She was very lonely when Darcy and Dora left.

But she still had Judy. 

And Bonnie for a little while.

Now Hannah has informed me that I must pay more attention to Jess before she becomes irredeemably weird as there is no one special in her life. Well, she has Rod, who loves her dearly. He loves all the dogs but Jess is his favourite and she knows it. She used to see him very often but these days, not so much. For Rod is a musician and spends a lot of time on the road.

Rod and Tracey on stage. When Rod has to sing sad songs he thinks of Jess and how much he misses her. 

Jess and Tracey

When Tracey has to sing 'Jolene' she thinks of Jess.