River's Song: Return of the Slipper, Thieving and Escapology

I think the title says it all! Yes the slipper has returned unharmed. I decided to move the furniture about to try to make the living room a bit bigger, and there it was hiding under one of the couches. I guess I didn't look hard enough fot it, but I'll bet the girls put it there to begin with! So now my feet are toasty again which is just as well as it has dropped a bit colder up here, and I'm still waiting for my stove to be put in. Not long to go hopefully, and having peered into my oil tank this morning, I might just be able to put the heating on for a few hours in the evenings.

Slippers reunited but still in play! Note also how River is catching up with Talulah in size!

If you look back to one of the first entries, there is a picture of her laid beside the water bowl - honestly, it's the same bowl!

Now, my hands are not the smallest.....

And the thieving? River is a consumate thief. No, THIEF!!! She has obviously been taking lessons from Talulah in the art of stealing slippers, socks, and such like, but I also think Uncle Sisko has been telling her some tales of his younger day exploits. She is now big enough to reach up the kitchen top and anything that may be lurking up there, so she is certainly teaching me to tidy up a bit quicker. I am trying to teach her not to, but it is slow going - she did get a shock when a spoon fell on top of her, so perhaps I should build on that and arrange something that will make a lot of noise as it falls, but not hurt her.

And don't drop any food on the floor - she is as quick as a cat! I haven't yet found anything she doesn't like to eat - I even found her eating the apple chaff we give to the horses. The mice had eaten through the bottom of the bag, and whilst Talulah was on the hunt for that particular culprit, River was munching away at the spoils. That'll be an interesting poo tomorrow!

Mooi obliges by bringing her head out of the bucket and dropping morsels on the ground for the dogs.
Note the bits on River's back

Talking to River's breeder the other day, it seems the little black pup that I was originally going to bring home doesn't like eating particularly! She struggles to get her to eat enough - quite the opposite to my little tyke who I think would eat until she burst given the chance.

As for the escaping, well, let's just say she can find gaps in and under fences. At work the other day, as I was gardening, I had to keep breaking off from the job to block off the latest route. Anyone would think she was in Colditz - she had all the company she needed in the garden, but the lure of the great outside was too much. She's quite a brave pup! Mind you, there was a shoot going on around us that day, with lots of other dogs coming and going from the Castle grounds. She did get a bit of a fright when two flatties came round the corner! She ran back to the garden in front of me, whilst Talulah was scaling the fence at the other end to go and see "the boys"! Times like that you hope no one saw the chaos and thought "she needs to get control of those dogs"! That day was a great opportunity to see how she reacted to loud bangs - no worries there. For a while, the guns were quite close, and she was neither up nor down about it - the advantage of learning from older dogs I guess.

We went along to see our neighbour-who-is-scared-of-dogs the other afternoon. River was tired from the morning's activities, so I knew she would settle down quickly. At one point we went upstairs so I could look through and borrow some DVD's, and River wandered off. Suddenly we heard barking and we wondered if she has smelled a mouse or something in the eaves. No mouse. She had discovered another hovawart puppy! She would rush up to it barking and it would run towards her. Then she backed off, and it would back off. She went closer, and so did it. She raised a paw to play, and it did likewise. Yes, you guessed - she found a mirror! That was a fun few minutes whilst she got closer and closer and finally licked its nose! Then she went behind the mirror - nope nothing there. She quickly lost interest then and I was left to wipe the dog snot off the mirror.

She is also discovering her voice - and likes to use it. I guess that will be another challenge to add to the list! Mind you, the training is going fairly well. I do try to make a bit of a game of it - and she makes up her own bit of game as she goes along. She is pretty quick with sit, down, roll over (as in to be dried) shake hands, high five. She has decided that to lie down, she first needs to jump on one of the chairs! And roll over means laying on her back with her legs in the air rather than on her side - taking lessons from the horses on that one. And a variation of sit is to sit but give a paw to make sure I can't withdraw the food! I really ought to get the clicker out and play with that. Trouble is, as soon as anyone else hears the clicker, there is an instant pool of drool on the floor, such is the association.

The last couple of days we have been gardening - and although today was a bit cloudy and dull, yesterday was a fantastic autumn day.

Sisko and Tussock working flat out!

Sisko taking a break from working so hard

Even Talulah was tired today.

Tired puppy.

Bored Tussock!

Picture of concentration.

On the horse side of things - well, I do wish they would stop feeling the need to assert their positions in the herd whilst I am in the midst of them. The worst culprits are the Eriskays, Jinty and Cuinneag. Mainly Jinty - Cuinneag is like the school bully's sidekick - normally he wouldn't behave like this, but with Aunty Jinty there, he can get away with it. Ullises seems to have taken top position when it comes to food - he muscles in and everyone else moves. Mooi is at the bottom of the pecking order in that sense, I think, and I do have to stand by her whilst she eats, otherwise someone else will chase her away. Again, Jinty is the worst offender and just will not take no for an answer. From now on I shall take a stick with me to explain that I mean "NO". It's quite hard to put out four buckets between six of them and make sure they get the correct ones without too much carry on. I have to up my game in the assertiveness stakes and lay down some ground rules and ask for a few manners. With my own three, we had the bucket routine off to a tee, but with the other three, it has gone a bit awry....