I'm afraid to say that we decided we had to rehome Jess. There have been quite a few difficulties since we got here (eating our food, trying to eat neighbours chickens, keeping neighbours awake howling) but we thought these were just natural difficulties that you could expect with a puppy and with perseverance things would get better in time.
However there were more frightening problems between her and Oliver. Jess was trying to establish her place in the hierarchy and put Oliver below her, Oliver is too young to know that if a puppy is chewing your toy, you don't kick her and also if said puppy comes racing across the field and bounds up and knocks you over, that is just natural exuberance. The mutual antagonism culminated in Jess nipping Oliver in the face which was when we thought enough was enough.
Another of Jess's problems is that she suffers from separation anxiety and cannot bear to be left alone. She became reconciled to being left alone between the hours of 12 and 6 and would also tolerate being left in the house for perhaps two hours, during the day if we had to go out, but if we wanted to do anything upstairs which meant shutting her in the kitchen she would whine frantically and claw at the door trying to join us.
So I am delighted to say that we have found Jess, a new and probably better home, where there are two other dogs to keep her company at all times. Although it is with a family, all the children are teenagers or older and unlikely to be intimidated and best of all they live in a house with a fantastic three acre garden for Jess to express all her boundless energy in.
I am very grateful to Claire and Andrew for coming to our rescue.
Showing posts with label Dog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dog. Show all posts
Friday, 15 February 2013
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Progress Report
This search of mine for the good life does not always move forward smoothly, recently I seem to have been plagued by a series of annoyances although I suppose one of them could be called a tragedy.
On Friday, when I went to give the chickens their afternoon corn, there were only two birds waiting by the gate. This was unusual, the birds do often wander, particularly to join the other chickens in the next door garden but they are nearly always back for tea and if one is laggardly, the sound of the other two enjoying their nosh, normally brings her running. I was concerned but hoped she'd return in time and took Jess onto the valley for her late afternoon walk. We had not gone far, before I came across a sorry pile of familiar feathers, so I presume that Edna had gone wandering too far from the safety of the garden and met a grisly end at the hands of a fox.
The other annoyances were much more mundane and mainly seem to feature Dog ie Dog ate half a bowl of bread dough left to rise on the kitchen table,with the inevitable follow up: Dog suffered diarrhoea on the kitchen floor. Then there was Dog upset at being left in the kitchen whilst I put Oliver to bed managing to hurl herself at the kitchen door and dislodge the screws from the bottom hinge leaving the door hanging on by a whisker.
Monday's annoyance was to get halfway up the street before realising I had a puncture. Kind neighbours dropped Oliver and I at his nursery, leaving me to walk the two miles home. It could have been quite a nice walk had it not been for the cold, cold wind and my being in such a hurry when I set out, not to keep kind neighbours waiting that I forgot my scarf and gloves.
Today I was expecting to be able to make a much more upbeat report as I went on the first of three courses on setting up your own business but a lot of it was stuff that I was familiar with already, from when I had my chutney business. The first half of the session seemed to be trying to prepare people for long hours and risks and stresses of running a business. There were some interesting points though, including the pros and cons of being a sole trader compared with a limited company and on choosing a business name. I'm expecting next week's talk to be much more practical as there is someone coming in from HMRC to give us the lowdown on what is tax deductible and what we must do if we want to employ somone.
On Friday, when I went to give the chickens their afternoon corn, there were only two birds waiting by the gate. This was unusual, the birds do often wander, particularly to join the other chickens in the next door garden but they are nearly always back for tea and if one is laggardly, the sound of the other two enjoying their nosh, normally brings her running. I was concerned but hoped she'd return in time and took Jess onto the valley for her late afternoon walk. We had not gone far, before I came across a sorry pile of familiar feathers, so I presume that Edna had gone wandering too far from the safety of the garden and met a grisly end at the hands of a fox.
The other annoyances were much more mundane and mainly seem to feature Dog ie Dog ate half a bowl of bread dough left to rise on the kitchen table,with the inevitable follow up: Dog suffered diarrhoea on the kitchen floor. Then there was Dog upset at being left in the kitchen whilst I put Oliver to bed managing to hurl herself at the kitchen door and dislodge the screws from the bottom hinge leaving the door hanging on by a whisker.
Monday's annoyance was to get halfway up the street before realising I had a puncture. Kind neighbours dropped Oliver and I at his nursery, leaving me to walk the two miles home. It could have been quite a nice walk had it not been for the cold, cold wind and my being in such a hurry when I set out, not to keep kind neighbours waiting that I forgot my scarf and gloves.
Today I was expecting to be able to make a much more upbeat report as I went on the first of three courses on setting up your own business but a lot of it was stuff that I was familiar with already, from when I had my chutney business. The first half of the session seemed to be trying to prepare people for long hours and risks and stresses of running a business. There were some interesting points though, including the pros and cons of being a sole trader compared with a limited company and on choosing a business name. I'm expecting next week's talk to be much more practical as there is someone coming in from HMRC to give us the lowdown on what is tax deductible and what we must do if we want to employ somone.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Frugal Food
I went for a walk this afternoon with the friend I got Jess from and Jess's sibling Inca. Like most siblings they started bickering as soon as the saw each other and kept up the jockeying for superiority most of the afternoon. They were literally fighting to be top dog.
As is normal at this time of year, the conversation turned to money and the need to economise on food and I was able to boast a bit here, by telling my friend that I had only spent £40 so far this month on food. She immediately wanted to know how I'd done it and what I had bought. The answer is that we had made sure there was nothing thrown away from Christmas ( in fact the last of the turkey is being brought out of the freezer and cooked in the slow cooker overnight ready for tomorrow's dinner as turkey casserole), we have eaten out of the freezer and store cupboard and I have baked a lot of biscuits, cakes and bread.
My friend asked me to recommend recipes and I have actually referred her to two websites, the first is http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/ which is a great website for families who are really up against it as it provides a meal plan that will feed a family of four for £100 a month. I met the person who set it up on the Money Saving Expert forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/ and did a bit of testing of recipes for her and can vouch for the immense amount of selfless work she put in, making sure that the recipes were not only cheap and tasty but also met nutritional needs. I still use her recipe for carrot cake and also the risi e bisi recipe.
The second website I recommended http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/ is more than just food (although it has a fabulous recipe for oatcakes on it), it is more inspirational than that. Please don't let that put you off looking at it though, in the belief that it is run by some dreadful self help guru. Elaine Colliar who runs the site seems to be a whirlwind of determination, making much out of nothing and bringing not spending to a fine art. As the title said, she has pledged to pay off her mortgage of £125,000 in three years. I don't know how she will do it, as she is a single parent of two boys, currently on an income of around £10,000 but I have faith that she will.
As is normal at this time of year, the conversation turned to money and the need to economise on food and I was able to boast a bit here, by telling my friend that I had only spent £40 so far this month on food. She immediately wanted to know how I'd done it and what I had bought. The answer is that we had made sure there was nothing thrown away from Christmas ( in fact the last of the turkey is being brought out of the freezer and cooked in the slow cooker overnight ready for tomorrow's dinner as turkey casserole), we have eaten out of the freezer and store cupboard and I have baked a lot of biscuits, cakes and bread.
My friend asked me to recommend recipes and I have actually referred her to two websites, the first is http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/ which is a great website for families who are really up against it as it provides a meal plan that will feed a family of four for £100 a month. I met the person who set it up on the Money Saving Expert forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/ and did a bit of testing of recipes for her and can vouch for the immense amount of selfless work she put in, making sure that the recipes were not only cheap and tasty but also met nutritional needs. I still use her recipe for carrot cake and also the risi e bisi recipe.
The second website I recommended http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/ is more than just food (although it has a fabulous recipe for oatcakes on it), it is more inspirational than that. Please don't let that put you off looking at it though, in the belief that it is run by some dreadful self help guru. Elaine Colliar who runs the site seems to be a whirlwind of determination, making much out of nothing and bringing not spending to a fine art. As the title said, she has pledged to pay off her mortgage of £125,000 in three years. I don't know how she will do it, as she is a single parent of two boys, currently on an income of around £10,000 but I have faith that she will.
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Winter Picnic
So what do you do when the temperature outside is minus two and you have a boy and a dog to entertain? You go on a picnic of course.
Today we walked up to the woods at Temple Newsam, the remains of Monday's snow crunching underfoot. In my best primary school teacher manner, I pointed out to Oliver, that the ground which had been so muddy on Sunday was now hard as iron and all the puddles were now frozen. This was a mistake as he then took it as his mission to stamp on every puddle to break the ice.
Some puddles were less frozen than others, some of the mud was still quite soft. The inevitable happened:
Today we walked up to the woods at Temple Newsam, the remains of Monday's snow crunching underfoot. In my best primary school teacher manner, I pointed out to Oliver, that the ground which had been so muddy on Sunday was now hard as iron and all the puddles were now frozen. This was a mistake as he then took it as his mission to stamp on every puddle to break the ice.
Some puddles were less frozen than others, some of the mud was still quite soft. The inevitable happened:
Oliver had become separated from his welly which was firmly stuck in the mud. Time for distractions:
So it wasn't exactly a picnic , just hot chocolate and home made flapjack and the hot chocolate had been made with water and was neither very hot nor to be honest very nice, but it was eaten outdoors which is the important thing, We walked back through the golf course. As Oliver was still destroying every puddle, slowly and thoroughly, and Jess was off investigating every bush and tree, I had plenty of time to appreciate the beauty of the day. For all the coldness and greyness , there was a peace and stillness to the world, the frost had coated every twig on every branch throwing them into sharp definition against the pallor of the sky.
Monday, 14 January 2013
A Black Dog in a White World
Jess disturbed a pair of foxes who bounded off into the undergrowth. Lovely to watch but disturbingly close to my chickens. On my return I checked on the beehives but there was very little snow on them.
A cold winter is actually better for bees, than a mild one. Mild weather at the wrong time can entice them out of the hive when there is no pollen to collect.The chickens are now benefiting from the roofing panels I put up over the chicken run, which has given them a dry snow free corner to get at their food. I may put up another panel though, as the entrance board to the house was covered with snow, which they wouldn't like.That can wait for better weather. This afternoon I will be indoors, on the sofa, wrapped in my knitted blanket. I would like to say that I will be on the laptop, working on the cash-flow forecast for the soap business, but it is more likely that I will be gazing mesmerised out of the window, watching the hundreds of tiny white flakes dancing dizzily down to earth.
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Jess
Sunday mornings used to be a pleasant time, I'd go downstairs put the kettle on, let the chickens out, potter around the kitchen, maybe hang the washing out before returning to bed with much tea, to catch up on the news. In summer this might be at 6 am or earlier whereas in winter it needn't be until 7.30 or 8. All that has changed now, there is a tyrant in the kitchen who demands I am up by 7.30 and once up there is no possibility of sneaking back to bed, it is dressed and outside for a bracing walk.
Jess is a 14 week old doberman/collie puppy that we misguidedly brought into our home on Christmas Eve. This was a huge mistake, all the adults were already tired out with Christmas preparations, only to be kept awake all night by the puppy whining and scratching, terrified at being left on her own for the first time. She has gradually got better though, last Thursday was her first entirely fuss free night.
I know this is a very blurry picture but that is Jess, perpetual motion,
Her full name is Jessica Fletcher, named by a student daughter after Angela Lansbury's character in Murder She Wrote (don't ask me why), but I refuse to stand in the park shouting for Jessica Fletcher so she is just Jess to me.
.
Jess is a 14 week old doberman/collie puppy that we misguidedly brought into our home on Christmas Eve. This was a huge mistake, all the adults were already tired out with Christmas preparations, only to be kept awake all night by the puppy whining and scratching, terrified at being left on her own for the first time. She has gradually got better though, last Thursday was her first entirely fuss free night.
Her full name is Jessica Fletcher, named by a student daughter after Angela Lansbury's character in Murder She Wrote (don't ask me why), but I refuse to stand in the park shouting for Jessica Fletcher so she is just Jess to me.
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)