Not drunk, just falling down

We've had visitors and they've gone and we're just having a breather till the next lot arrive for the New Year. The Man with the Cat arrived for breakfast on Christmas morning. The Litter were here. The Lady from Next Door came to see us. A proper Woo Hoo.

I know all about Woo Hoo Christmas and New Year and the in-between time. I got parcels to open and so did Humbug. I got 2 new dinner plates and we went out throwing them on Christmas afternoon.

My MBNAD woman was really busy in the kitchen. She made lots of nice food and that included cooking the big dead bird that was in the wall-string-cold-cupboard. Giblets. That's what the really tasty bits are called. Giblets.

So now it's just me and and the Cat and my MBNAD woman. Lovely. We can all enjoy sitting in the warm.



All going too well, eh? All the Woo Hoo just like she'd planned and none of it bothered me this time. Didn't even mind when she went off to the the place with dead people in the garden. Well, not too much. Only shouted a bit.

So when we were out walking in the morning I had a little mishap. Cold and crisp just right for a morning walk. I admit that my nose and paws were not pointing in the same direction and I didn't expect the gravestone to be there under me. So I fell over and when I got up, one of my front paws really hurt and there was red stuff dripping all over the place. She carried me for a bit but I'm a bit big for her and it's not just the heavyweight winter coat. When we got home she bathed my paw but it still hurt. So we went to see the Vet. Apparently, they have them Here too. I gave him a hard stare hoping to discourage any unwanted gonad related activity. Turns out he only wanted to look at at my poorly paw. Looking was alright, but touching was not. So I gave him a little warning growl. He still didn't get the message. It hurts so just leave it alone. "Now come on boy, don't do that." So he carried on and that led me to one conclusion. I just had to bite him. Well, not really bite but just to get the message across that I would bite if he didn't desist. He didn't desist but I didn't expect what happened next. Before I could take affirmative action, a strap was put over my jaws so I could only make grumbly noises and not show them my teeth. Then he stuck a needle in my paw and the pain went away. If he'd just done that to start, I wouldn't have tried to exercise the teeth. Then he took away the broken claw and bandaged me up. Walking is a bit difficult and I have to be careful standing on three legs for a pee. It's a bit embarrassing when you fall over in mid flow.



But I am getting a lot of hugs. And we went visiting and I was called a "poor little dog". Evidently, poor little dogs get sausages. Hugs and sausages are making it all bearable.

In the bleak midwinter

First of all we loaded the car up with lots of stuff, then me, then the Cat. In her suitcase and with her Opinions. I had Opinions in my earhole from halfway across England and all over the Throw-Money-at-it-Bridge.

"Wales, Mossie, Humbug. Powys. We're Home".

For seventeen days worth of Home. We've turned There to Here for a whole seventeen days.

She's been busy adding more Woo-Hooery to the house. It's beginning to look like the control room of the Large Hadron Collider. We've even got some trees outside the front door with attached Woo Hoo. A ring of kindling stuck on the front door. Lights all over the place. And some sparkly attached to me. I feel a right Woo Hoo.

We went over the border to England to see Brucie's family. They're only just over the border so we can sneak through. Also when we go to that bit of England, we don't have to pay to get back. They've got lots of Woo Hoo too, including a big falling-over-so-don't-sit-too-close-to-it-tree. There were lots of people and dogs visiting them. Pretty golden bitch called Abby with a military background. Bit shy and didn't like her toes making click clack noises on hard floors. I gave her an encouraging nose to nose sniff to show her it was alright. And an old boy called Freddie. An Attack Spaniel. Turns out not to be so old and not much of an attack either. I gave him a serious, Don't-Forget-I'm-Top-Dog-Sonny sniff and stare. You know, shoulders back, slightly stiffened hackles, superior kind of look. Well, we ain't none of us got any bollocks so Top-Dog is an open question and it might as well be me. Then I sat down next to my MBNAD woman and let him sit the other side of her. Then there was Brucie. Being, you know, Brucie. Bouncing off the walls Brucie. If you remember last year, I had an ignominious moment when I got so scared of him that I had to hide behind his Man.

Brucie's Woman was specially nice. Was wearing a bright red dress and legs. The kind of legs that I just had to lean my head against for a hug. Cor-Lummee legs, in fact.

Off to the car-on-rails place to collect the Little Dark One. Grand.

Yet but three? Come one more;
Two of both kinds make up four.


Another trip to the car-on-rails place to collect the Tall One. She's really happy now. We're all here.

And there's a large dead bird in the wall-string-cold-cupboard.

The Collie in Winter

It's been a bit cold and sometimes I need a bit more warmth, especially when I've had a bad day. Had an embarrassing moment when I was out walking with my DB. Cool, sauntering along. Fell off the bridge into the stream. Except the stream was more like cold mud. Had to stand there till my DB came and hauled me out. Then I was a bit cold all day, even after being towelled dry.

When we sit down in the evening, I have a special blanket to sit by my MBNAD woman and I make sure that she notices that I like the fire by pointing at it with my nose. Still don't know how she makes it work since she never brings in coal or logs. It's not even a wall-string thing. Probably a bit of magic again since she kneels in front of it and says some incantations before the flames start. Anyway, once it's away, we can sit in front of it all evening without worrying about coal buckets. Grand.

But on the really cold evenings, I need a bit more warming up again with another blanket.



Of course, if the Little Dark One is here, then she sits on the floor and hugs me and I don't need no blankets then. The MBNAD woman brought a spare Little Dark One home last weekend. We were having a Here weekend and she was tidying and stuff like she usually does and the Little Dark One was out. But when she came back, there was another Girlie with her. They said that this Girlie came from the other side of the world where everyone is Upside Down. She looked the normal way up to me. They don't half talk some rubbish. Chatted the Upside Down Girlie up a bit. Tried the blarney. Said I had sad eyes. Heh heh

She's done some stuff for the Woo Hoo Christmas which includes a wall-string-tree and a ring of twigs stuck to the front door. Have no idea why she's stuck kindling on the front door. The wall-string-tree ain't like the one There which has just got little lights all over it. When she ties the wall-string-tree to the wall, it all lights up and changes colour. Very dubious taste.

I had a strange indoor dog moment the other morning. For sleeping arrangements, I have a rug on her floor by the bed. It's convenient for her to hang over the side of the bed and stroke my ears first thing in the morning. Well, ear stroking was so nice and then she stroked under my chin and the next thing I knew, I had stretched out on my back for a belly stroke. That's right, I let her put her paw on my chest. It's not as if I haven't known that she's the Boss in this house all along but I'm just not used to submitting to anyone. In later days on the farm, I was forced to submit when the young dogs bullied me. And I didn't like it one little bit. But you know, this was really rather nice. She just laid her hand very gently on my chest and stroked. And I lay there, feeling really loved and very safe.

Oliver Postgate 1925-2008

The man who, with Peter Firmin, created Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog, Pogles Wood, Pingwings and the Clangers



and made so many children happy, especially one little girl with chicken pox in 1959.

Hiraeth - a problem of Here and There

So we've been There two weekends in a row mainly sorting out the Peeing and Washing [with Peeing] Rooms. Cold, bright, crisp weather and when we haven't been decorating, we've been out walking looking at Views. It's the Views that make her sad when we have leave There.



I don't mind going back from There to Here but I know she really wants to be There all the time, especially now we're getting ready for a Woo Hoo Christmas.

Craft Market on Saturday. She can't resist it - comes back with bits of recycled glass and all sorts. Eddie Stickmaker was there with his Litter and his Woman. She stayed chatting for ages and I could see that she was tempted by the sticks.

Now we have a tree in the house covered in lights and baubles. Although it is clearly quite mad, I know what to expect now.



All ready to Woo Hoo.

But when we got back the Little One had come back from the Fens and we had cheese in the Jam Room and I did some hugging.

"Night night Mossie, night night Humbug, night night, Little One."