It's a Dog's Life

Poor Cinnamon and Cookie have had a raw deal.  While the LSH was still with us on Le Big Trek, they spent their days pretending to be his secretaries, while in reality they were asleep in the car the whole time.

They were given occasional toilet and water breaks, but their days were pretty boring really.  When the LSH left, their life became even more boring. In order to protect innocent B&B rooms, we had to leave them locked in the car while we were riding.  We were incredibly lucky to end up in Camping du Lac at this stage, as Moira and Andrew let them out regularly, made sure they had water and moved the car when necessary, so they stayed in the shade the whole time.

Despite all of this confinement, they've both become much more sociable.  They've had plenty of time in cafes, restaurants and dining halls with us in the evenings, meeting lots of new people and plenty of other dogs too.  Cinnamon in particular has gone from being quite a shy, timid little dog to being a brazen and artful mendicant, begging shamelessly from anyone within range and making friends wherever she goes.

These quad-bikers at the Chateau de St Agnan were particularly taken with her… the big burly guy on the left was looking for baissus (kissies) from her at breakfast the next morning!

She has learned to communicate with fish

And read maps.

She loves the idea of swimming, but not the reality, so she’s really good at paddling and savagely killing any pieces of vegetation she finds near the waters edge.

She has taught Cookie how to paddle too, although Cookie is not absolutely convinced it’s a great idea.

She has also taught Cookie how to make sure that Every Single Hole and Crevice gets investigated properly…. You never know, there might be a mouse or a rat hiding in one of them!

Together, they saw off the threat of the deadly Root Ball.

 They bit and gnawed

 and dug and shook

until that evil Root Ball was no more.

Since Monday, we’ve been able to spend much more time with them, so they’ve had a couple of nice walks each day.  Even when we were in Dijon, which is a big city, we were right beside a park, so they got to experience the life of town doggies, trotting through the park with lots of people and children around, and visiting the little Petting Zoo at the far end.

After a long drive, which included a visit to the Normandy beaches, we were on the ferry, and the dogs were confined to the kennels.  Back in December, they were not happy at all, and barked and yipped every time they heard us coming to visit them.  Toiletting was also an issue, Cinnamon refused point blank to pee while on the boat and Cookie held on grimly for about twelve hours, before eventually giving in.

They accepted it much better second time around, and have both gotten the idea of using the sand box - what a relief!

Anyone remember the Little Old Ladies post?  Well, Jeepy, being a Toyota Landcruiser (remember that Top Gear show?) is still going strong and has done us proud.  Molly, my very elderly Bearded Collie, is just about hanging in there, having been cared for very well by Granny while we were away.

She's very wobbly and it looks like she's slowly heading for liver failure, but we're so very grateful for the opportunity to be with her for her final days/weeks/months.

Finally, this is what met us when we arrived in my house on Friday evening!  Thanks, Daughters, and the LSH for putting them up to it, and thanks Friends for being at the surprise party to welcome us home!  Unfortunately, the biggest surprise was that we were an hour early.... sorry folks, blame Irish Ferries!