Water, water, water.

Looking around me at 8.30 on a wet Wednesday morning - another wet day! - I see that the house looks as though an 18 wheel articulated lorry has been through.  There are toys, socks, a sheep horn, dog blankets, bits of cardboard, torn up old envelopes from the recycling box on the floor.  Then there are all the things that normally reside at a lower level cluttering up the higher levels.  The fleeces waiting to be spun are stuffed in the bookcase, the candles from the fireplace are up by the telly, and anything she has shown an interest in pulling at, chewing, or running off with are tucked out of reach.  And that's just the living room. 

The kitchen floor has dollops of water all over it - the only tidy drinker in this house is Tussock who never dribbles.  Sisko just moves away from the bowl and forgets to shut his mouth, Talulah is just in too much of a hurry to swallow that last mouthful or is it her version of a takeaway?  And River?  I'm not sure what she does exactly, but I suspect she either paddles in it, or blows bubbles!  Whatever she does, she seems to get water everywhere!

She even likes to sleep by the water bowl

She certainly not averse to water - perhaps River is a good name for her - and is so far unfazed by mud, puddles, the sea, buckets of water, or rain.  I guess she is taking her cue from Talulah.  Tussock wasn't and isn't particularly bothered by the sea or other large bodies of water, and is quite happy going for a swim if she wants to chase something or cool down.  But if it is raining, she will stand in the doorway, look at me, and quite plainly say "You want me to go out in THAT?"  And if I appear with the hose, or the watering can - well, you never saw anything quite so pathetic!  I don't believe she is frightened - more likely she is indignant!  It doesn't help that I laugh at her - she doesn't like that.  Talulah, on the other hand, loves you to laugh at her, and will do ever more silly things to make you laugh more.  More than a few times we have ended up on the floor rolling around, me laughing, and her doing her own version.  And Tussock barking at us telling us to be more sensible.

Yes, it's a mad house.  I think Sisko is perhaps the only sane one - the elder statesman.

River discovered that toads don't taste too good the other evening.  I put her out for her last wee, and just as I was about to go find her she appeared on the doorstep with his head sticking out of her mouth, with a bag leg hanging out either side!  I so wish I had a camera permanently attached for occasions such as this.  When I took it off her, she did the dog equivalent of spitting out the taste.  I doubt it will stop her bringing me another one sometime.

Afternoon

She's had a busy time today.  We went up to find the ponies on the hill, taking them up some tasty morsels.  We want to train them to come to the whistle so that we don't have to spend long hours tramping round hundreds of acres to find them in the wind and rain.  The ponies won't take long to twig that whistle means food!  But in finding them, she plowtered through the mud and wet, ran after Talulah and Tussock, and generally had a whale of a time.

Recent heavy rain has given us plenty of water to paddle in.

Where we going now?!

Oooh - what's in here?

Take off!

Running off with her prize - a lump of sheep wool

Trying to eat it

The joy of being out

Talulah asking Tussock to play

And she got her wish

While River watches on

The ponies enjoying a snack

Just look at those muddy paws

She is always keen to go back in the car as I normally put a tasty morsel into her crate.

After that we went down to see the big horses and she charged around Buffy's house with Minnie.  I eventually put her back in her crate in the car as I could see she wasn't going to stop of her own accord.  In fact, she has this very minutes finally settled down to sleep - in amongst her midden of paper, cardboard and other debris.