River's Song: Another Day in Paradise

Yay! Another great day in puppy land. It's amazing how distracting a pup can be. I had intended having a longer sleep last night, but having been up at 7.00 the last few mornings, Riversong decided 7.00 is normal. PING! Who needs an alarm clock? Ah well - I guess I will just have to go to bed earlier.

It's also amazing how your routine suddenly changes. I can no longer abandon the dogs with their food and go and get dressed - I have to keep an eye on River to make sure she doesn't choke herself on her chicken wing, then make sure she doesn't get eaten by the other three as they protect their own food. And then, well, it's playtime. After about an hour and a half in my dressing gown I finally can put some clothes on when she goes for a snooze.

Do they look happy, or what?

Playing at tents with my leggings

Take that!

And that!

And then even when she is sleeping, I can't help but just watch her - a mix of how beautiful she looks, how innocent, how awesome that they grow so quickly from a helpless bundle of newbornness to a growing dog - growing in size and intelligence all the time. I remember when Tussock was a pup - she used to have days where she did nothing but sleep. We called them growing days, and you could imagine that with every stretch, she grew another few millimetres. She probably did - same as River is doing now.

And what do they dream about at this age with their limited experiences? Do their dreams grow in content as their experiences increase? What does she think about when she is awake? Other than eat and play, that is! When she sits and looks at me, there is so much wisdom in those young eyes. I refuse to accept that it is just my imagination - there is a timeless depth to her. What companionship have we shared in another place, another time? Huge questions.

Today saw a breakthrough with Tussock - she joined in with a game with Riversong - well, sort of - but it's a start which I am really pleased about. We managed to shut Talulah out for a while to stop her hijacking the game and I actually played with Tussock whilst pulling the littleun about on her tug string as a by product, but there were no grumps when River jumped up at her ruff.

We had another expedition to the ponies today - through the aftermath of the heavy rain of the last 24 hours. No heat wave sunshine for us - just the kind of humidity you might find in the jungle! And then we went off to meet some new doggy friends - my friend Buffy's terriers, Minnie and Jasper. River is bigger than both of them, but on first meeting she put her tail down and ran away. But bless Minnie, she was very friendly and within minutes they were charging about playing. Even Jasper who is Sisko's boring-old-man-friend was playing with her. And not really surprisingly, Tussock was there to supervise and make sure no-one got hurt.