Do you know what a little dog’s life is like? I realise I’m very lucky to live in a comfortable warm home, but life can get quite exhausting here. Every day I go for one or two walks. They are enjoyable but I don’t like to be held back when I find other possible playmates during the walks. Then there’s the whirling around the back garden. If The Boss or Máire accompany me, they often go into the shed to do some chore or other, and then I can spin, and run, and wheel, and jump, and pick up twigs and stones and toss them in the air, and climb the raised bed at the back of the garden, and sniff around at the back of the various shrubs. But today… well today I was given a bath. A real bath and my coat was shampooed. Máire’s daughter gave me a shower last week, and that was over and done with very quickly. But today I wanted to splash around in the bath water. At one stage the Boss stretched a little too far as he prepared to rinse my coat, and when I nudged him sideways a big jug of water toppled on the floor and at that stage Máire rushed in frantically with towels. I thought she was going to wrap me up in them, but no! She started to wipe the floor furiously, muttering something about water leaking through the ceiling to the room downstairs.
My ordeal still wasn’t over. My coat was rubbed gently till all the wetness had cleared, and then Máire appeared with what I learned was a hair dryer. I loved that, and kept wanting to bite it and taste it, but the Boss held me firmly. Eventually he took over as coiffeur, and brushed my coat until it was smooth again.
So now you can see why I look a bit tired. Between that and learning the difference between “Sit”, and “Stay” and “Down” I have a busy schedule. Some people come to the house and use long sentences to communicate with me, but then I hear Máire telling them I respond better to single word sentences. Yes, that’s true, but I won’t reveal here exactly how well I understand what they’re staying.