Stormy Weather
Posted: Wed 5 July, 2006 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Thoughts Leave a comment »This morning, weather-wise, has been bloody marvellous. After a week of sweating like a perv in a playground, this morning the threatened storms broke at about half six, the full thunder/lightning works, and you could actually feel the temperature dropping. It was lovely.
Of course, Hound hates thunder, so she came and laid under the bed – one of her “safe places” – but other than that handled it all pretty well, I’m pleased to say.
So all told, yeah, a pretty good morning. Just a pity it’s been ruined by having to go into work…
Lug’oles
Posted: Wed 21 June, 2006 Filed under: Animals, General, Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »When I was walking Hound this morning, something occurred to me. I know, it’s a bit of a rare occurrence, but what the hell, it was 7am, and my brain was still hovering somewhere between sleep and conscious. Like the man said, the lights were on, but no-one was home. Autopilot all the way, baby.
Anyway, watching Hound, I suddenly started thinking – How cool is it to have independently controllable ears?
As we’d walked round, Hounds ears had constantly been pointing in different directions – well, unless she heard something particularly interesting, in which case both focussed in the same direction. I wonder what it’s like to be able to focus on two completely different sounds, and hear each one properly with only one ear…
Of course, it can make you look really stupid too, when one ear is facing forwards, and the other’s facing backwards, but still, it must be pretty cool…
Somerset
Posted: Mon 24 April, 2006 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Photography, Travel Leave a comment »The weekend in Somerset was actually really pleasant – it does make a change for us to just go somewhere and pretty much collapse and die for a couple of days. Of course, we still have an Idiot Hound to knacker, but it’s just good to be doing less than we normally do for a weekend.
The drive down was a pig – the M4 was rigid all the way, and the start of the M5 section involved ten miles of 40mph traffic (well, it would’ve been 40mph maximum, but as it was hardly moving at all for most of that, it was more like 10mph. *sigh*) which slowed us down considerably.
Anyway, once we got down to St Audries Bay, all was well. Hound perked up (she knows the place well, and loves the beach) and so once we’d unloaded the car off we went down to the beach where Hound ran round like a loon for about an hour. Some things never change.
Saturday was a day for knackering Hound, but also for us to mooch around a bit, see some of North Somerset, and just generally have a relaxing day. So it started with another hour on the beach for Hound (from just after 7.15. It’s like having an excitable four-year-old sometimes, I swear), then off up North Hill in Minehead, and another hour-ish of Hound running round the woods while we walked around in a less-manic fashion. Then drove to Tarr Steps, stopping off for lunch in a village called Winsford. Another hour of Hound diving in and out of the river, chasing sticks, while we walked up along the side of the river. Then back to the caravan, with an utterly wiped-out Hound. We’d planned to go back to the beach again in the evening, but she didn’t even stir at the word “Walk”.
So, a quiet evening along with some website fixing, and all was well with the world.
Sunday just involved driving home, and being domestic.
But all in all it was a good weekend, and much needed. Pictures will probably follow, mainly on Flickr again…
Grouchy
Posted: Thu 30 March, 2006 Filed under: Animals, Domestic Leave a comment »Don’t expect much out of me today. My brain is currently only responding to commands with “Urgh! Fuggoff!”, having had one of the shittiest nights in a while.
Herself was away last night, staying at her sisters before going to a course/ meeting thing today. All well and good. Except, of course, it meant that Hound was utterly disoriented and didn’t know what the shit was going on, with someone missing from the house. (Talk about autistic animals, I tell you) As a result, Hound was hyperactive all night, continually bouncing on the bed, wanting to know where Herself was, waking me up, barking uselessly, waking me up, scratching the floors and carpets, waking me up, being a pain, waking me up – I’m sure you’re spotting the pattern now.
So I had a shit night, and Hound will now sleep her way through the day, as normality has been restored. (i.e. we’re both out of the house all day) I’m half tempted to just keep ringing the house phone every hour – she hates it – and waking her up, so she can see how I feel. Bastard.
Aviation
Posted: Mon 20 March, 2006 Filed under: Animals, D4D™ Leave a comment »Last night was the closest I’ve been to murder in quite a while. And it all comes down to bloody animals. (Again)
As it was, I was completely knackered, and for once just wanted to sleep. So, of course, Psycho Cat decided to sleep on the bed too, right against my legs. First of all, he was using his special “heavier than lead” talent to make sure I couldn’t move the little shit, let alone try to get my legs back under the covers once they got chilly during the night. And then when I tried moving him again, the fucker stuck all his claws into my calf – just a warning, to say “Oi, I’m here” , like I didn’t know already.
Anyway, when that happens, the cat gets a flying lesson. Nothing hard, but he still comes off the bed at speed. Thing is, he doesn’t learn.
Overall, the little bastard had four flying lessons last night before sodding off and sleeping in the chair. And my calf muscle looks like it’s been attacked by a cactus…
Altering Attitudes
Posted: Fri 17 March, 2006 Filed under: Animals, Domestic 2 Comments »This morning something quite special happened. Absolutely irrelevant to anyone else, but still, sod it, I’m going to write a little bit about it.
I’ve been with Herself now for heading towards 2 years, (about 21 months currently, if anyone cares about accuracy) and living with her now for just over a year (about 14 months, ditto). In all that time, Hound has been getting used to me, and allowing me to do more stuff with her – it started with walks, following commands, feeding her, playing with her (well, being the primary ball-thrower etc.) and that kind of thing.
Again I should point out, feeding her is actually quite a big issue – she suffers from a throat condition called Megaoesophagus, which means we have to feed her dry food by hand. The Megaoesophagus means she can’t swallow properly, all the nerves in her throat are knackered, so she chokes on normal food, has to have a water bottle (like the one on a hamster cage, only bigger), and so on.
All this time, though, she’s always gone back to Herself for affection. I don’t mind – because of the throat condition and a bundle of other things, trust is a big issue for Hound, and she’s also so routine-driven she might as well be autistic. So of course a “new” person was always going to be a bit of a shock to the system/routine, and these things take time to figure out. Particularly for dogs.
Anyway, and to get back to the point of this post, this morning – for the first time ever – Hound actually came over to me for a stroke, and a scratch behind the ears. She even rolled over and let me scratch her belly. And all this got witnessed by herself too.
So yes, I’m actually pretty chuffed. No good reason really, but all the same, I’m happy about it.