Doggies
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♥Sep. 2nd, 2013 // 08:43 pm♥
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So, today I finally managed to speak to someone at the local animal sanctuary and said "Hello, we'd like a pair of dogs." Half an hour later, we were round there waiting for the mad animal lady to finish talking to the mad dog lady and show us what they had.
On their website, they had three pairs of dogs listed:
- a 4 year old Dogue de Bordeaux and a 6 year old Shih Tzu/Patterdale, the former "quite strong on the lead and will guard her home against strangers"
- a Bernese Mountain and a Belgian Shepherd, "both strong and boisterous"
- a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a Malamute/German Shepherd, "only here because their owner is terminally ill"
It was the third of those that I was fancying, as 'strong' and 'boisterous' sounded a bit worrying but "terminally ill owner" sounded much more reassuring.
As it turned out, they brought out an enormous reddish thing that was fugly and on her back legs straining at the lead, along with a small ball of fluff: that would be couple number one. "The others have already gone," they said. "We think she's a little too strong," we replied, as she hauled the volunteer around the yard in an attempt to get at a nearby cat.
"Would you like to see some puppies?" the mad animal lady asked, when we'd heartlessly sent them back to their lonely kennels. "Umm, ok?" we replied, not particularly wanting puppies. "Or do you think you might like a Burmese Mountain Dog? We could find you something to go with her...." "That sounds big," we said, (and, Burma? Do they have dogs there?). "Well, yes."
And we kept going around the corner to see the puppies, and we passed a dog in a pen, and "Gosh, she's beautiful!" we said.
And that was indeed the Bernese Mountain Dog: they'd managed to rehome the other half of the pair, but she was still there. The mad animal lady picked up a lead, and up she started jumping, practically doing back-flips at the idea of getting an extra walk around.
And she really is lovely, and we walked past one of the horses and she didn't blink, and after five minutes of dashing around like a loon she lay down on the floor and said "belly tickle, please, if you're not too busy talking about human things?", so we agreed that the mad animal lady could come and check the house out on Sunday, after she's done a fundraiser at the local open garden while we went away and thought about it.
And we came home and looked at Wikipedia, and we went 'ulp' at the cancer rates, and the prospect of a dog that big with mobility issues, and the relatively-short lifespan, and then we said "Shall we phone them in the morning and tell them we'll take her?"
And I hope that creating a new tag doesn't jinx things. |
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Other things
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♥Sep. 2nd, 2013 // 09:12 pm♥
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We did do other things as well, today. Some of them were horse-related.
This morning, Mike feeling a bit stiff from a long hack yesterday, I took both of the boys in the school. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) vgrumpybastard obviously agreed with Mike about yesterday's hack, because he was very blerg, particularly in the canter, so I didn't keep him out there for long. However, we did manage some lovely leg yields: Mike and I had a try-out lesson with a possible new instructor on Friday; we didn't particularly like her (Mike in general, me for the fact that she encouraged Mike to neck-rein and is of the 'make your stirrups longer! Longer!' school of thought), and almost certainly won't carry on with her, but she did give me a couple of really good tips for my leg yield, so much so that GB is now barely travelling forwards when we do it.
After I'd given up on getting much out of GB, I went and got the baby, much to GB's annoyance: I didn't want to risk turning him out in reduced space (see below), so I left him in his box, where he spent the time we were away sweating and yelling. In retrospect, I probably should have turned him out so that he could at least see us, but he does have to learn. Anyway, the baby did very well: he's developed a nasty habit of rebalancing himself in trot by doing annoying little bunny hops, but he barely did any today and we got some fairly creditable circles, too, with much concentration-grunting to accompany them. I *was* going to finish up after he did a couple of nice, slower than usual canters, but then he stopped dead by the gate and said "finished now", so instead I walked him up and down past the gate for five minutes, then through it and back into the school, until he stopped anticipating.
GB's nose, incidentally, is much better looking: the swelling's all gone, and it's now all nicely scabbed over and black again. I'm due a phone call with the vet tomorrow, but I think we're going to call it fixed. If she's still worried, I'll get a cheap visit on Thursday, but it's not worth a full callout fee, I think. I'll check with the vet tomorrow but I think I might even be able to take off the silly hat that he's been wearing all week. Or maybe I'll leave it a few more days to make sure he can't scratch it back open again.....
The reason that I couldn't let GB go out in the field to come and stand by the arena is that we're finally getting out fencing done (did I say that already? I forget!): we've had a crack team of eastern europeans in at 7am every day since Saturday, and they're certainly getting through it. The boys are having to be confined with electric tape into a small bit in the middle of the old bottom field, but hopefully soon we'll be able to extend the area: there are a couple of the removed old fence posts that need a touch more removal, annoyingly right in the middle of the field, and then we can do a very careful check for bits of wire and such and then let them roam around. |
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Other other things
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♥Sep. 2nd, 2013 // 09:27 pm♥
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Some of them, on the other hand, weren't horse related.
We went for a walk in the woods, and scoffed blackberries by the side of the road. It was quite nice, other than the bit after we left the woods and I was in the sun, which was surprisingly warm.
Mike made naan bread stuffed with chickpeas and stuff. They were lovely but pretty much took all morning to make. Fortunately, the recipe made enough to freeze for two future lunches, but I suspect they won't make it onto the regular lunch rotation. We need tasty much things that aren't bread-and-cheese-and-meat, but none of my favourite quick-and-easy things (scrambled egg on toast, fishcakes, tinned fish mixed with 2-minute-microwave-rice) are Mike-friendly. Any suggestions? Bonus points if it can be frozen in batches and quickly heated up, possibly with the afore-mentioned microwave rice. When the Aga's turned on, I'm totally going for cheese toasties and quesadillas.
(I gave the cucumbers to Next Door, in the end. I think they appreciated them.)
And, to accompany dinner (left-over-roast chicken and end-of-veg-box risotto, nom. We are eating *so* *many* vegetables!), I made FIRE for the first time in years, in the firepit. I shall gloss over Mike's unsuccessful attempts to make fire in the fire pit and the stove, other than to note that we inherited a fair bit of kindling and lots of enormous logs but very little in between, so it was a little tricky to get through the middling stages of lighting it. I think this may be a Project for the next walk in the woods: I'm sure we'll be fine as long as we're sneaky about it. Anyway, my fire was mighty and warm and only moderately inconvenient when the wind changed direction. Fire is good. The table wreath that I made for the party made a very good fire-re-lighter when it nearly went out! |
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