And Then They Were Chums ...

The snapping and snarling is, hopefully, over. The two hounds are playing together often, and this was the scene after walks, play and breakfast ...

We're having to change Buddy's name to Billy. Our next door neighbour has a dog called Buddy, and our other next door neighbour's son has a dog called Buddy which often comes to stay. Our Buddy wouldn't know where to go with everyone on either side calling his name all day long, so he's now Billy. It sounds similar-ish, and it suits him.

New Dog Dramas

Things are a tad stressful here at the moment. As I mentioned in my previous post, we fostered another dog on Saturday, a cross breed called Buddy who’s had a pretty rotten life so far and is the loveliest little chap you could hope to meet. We brought him home to Pippa, our existing dog, and things seemed to go pretty well at first. We introduced them on neutral ground and went for a walk with them. We let him off the lead and they played together, and then we brought them home. There was a bit of growling from Pippa now and again, but overall the first day was a winner.

However, on the second day, she started going for him quite aggressively. There’s this thing called “resource guarding” where the existing dog protects their things, toys, bowl, bed, whatever, against the encroachments of the new dog. Well, it turns out that Pauline and I are the resources that Pippa guards. She doesn’t like Buddy getting any attention from us. Most of the time, if we balance it so she gets more than he does (he gets one stroke, she gets three) it’s okay, but sometimes she just takes umbrage with him for no apparent reason. Like yesterday when I went to brush her with a new hair shredding tool. He wasn’t even doing anything, yet she attacked him. Why? my guess is because the new tool had had only one previous use, and that was brushing some of the funk out of Buddy’s coat on the day we were bringing him home. She smelled him on it, she smelled me on it, but she didn’t smell herself on it. Conclusion: I had been off somewhere giving Buddy attention in private, like some husband who comes home from a "late night at the office” smelling of a perfume other than his wife’s.

Another time was when they were both wet. I towelled her down, then started to do the same to him, and she was on him like a demon. And then last night she had to go to the vet (more on this in a moment) so I took him for an evening walk while she was gone. We came back and she was home. She saw me come in with the lead, then him following after me. Conclusion: we had been alone together again. She attacked him. It’s now getting so he’s afraid to come into the same room as her.

Buddy and Pippa.

So all that is apparently pretty normal for when you adopt a new dog. It settles down after about a month (a month?? God help us). At the end of that time the existing dog has come to accept the new pack arrangements and hopefully everything will be jolly. But to go back to that trip to the vet’s that Pippa had. A while ago she was in heat and was being plagued 24-7 by the local four-legged free-ranging Romeo, and I was worried that maybe he might have had a private moment with her while my back was turned. I did catch them at it once, but I chased him off before he got his rhythm going. Well, we noticed she was getting a bit tubby lately, sort of, filling out. We put it down to her not running around so much because it’s hot lately. However, yesterday, it her teats were noticeably enlarged. Uh-oh. 

After cursing the place we adopted her from for telling us she was spayed when in fact she wasn’t, Pauline took her to the vet’s to see what was going on. The vet squeezed one of her teats and milk came out. Uh-oh!

Then they did an ultrasound and … there’s nothing in there. It’s a “phantom pregnancy”. Basically all the ingredients of pregnancy, including in some cases labour, but without the puppies. Other symptoms include possessiveness, moodiness, resource guarding, and possibly aggression. So, while we’re relieved that she’s not pregnant, that also goes to explain the heightened sensitivity she must be feeling to Buddy’s arrival in her home.

Now some of you will be saying, you should get her spayed. Yeah, well obviously we should, but we can’t do that till all symptoms of the phantom pregnancy have passed. So we’ll do that in a few weeks … actually, no, we won’t. We don’t want to have her recovering from surgery in the middle of her month of adjusting to Buddy’s presence, so it’ll have to wait till mid August. And then, fingers crossed, we can all settle down to a nice normal routine. Whatever that might be 😊

New Dog ... Maybe

It's been a busy and somewhat stressful weekend for us here. We fostered another dog, Buddy. We met him on Thursday, and by Saturday afternoon he was riding home with us from the kennels, smelling badly and wrestling with me in the back seat all the way. We stopped at a pet supplies store on the way home and bought some essentials, including a grooming glove with which we immediately brushed all that old funky hair out of his coat. Then we brought him back to Pippa, arranging for them to meet on neutral territory and go for a walk together. They got on well enough, so, nervously, we brought him back to the house.

There have been some ... er ... "scenes" since then. A scrap - just a warning scrap with her telling him to back off when he was overstepping a line that, in fairness, he didn't know existed. He's also pee'd in the house a few times, once straight into his food bowl, but following a bit of research, I now know that this is just territory marking: a sign of his having had been bullied over food in the past (which rings true with what we know of his background). But the trickiest thing for me is (and I know this'll sound weird) the two dogs warming to each other and playing happily in the garden. Why's that? You cry. Because they rough-and-tumble all over the place, including into my flowerbeds! Arg!!



However, we're already very fond of him, and we think Pippa is too. So ... probably ... we're going to keep him. You can see him (and her) in the video above. A very mysterious cross breed if ever there was one. I personally think he's a cross between a German Shepherd, a Jack Russell, a greyhound, and Anubis, god of the dead. 

Underground Turns 50

Underwood and Flinch: Underground has reached the fiftieth episode over at Patreon. That's fifty episodes of U&F that could be in your ears for just $3. 

A quick Google search tells me that the average cup of coffee costs $2.75 in the USA. So for just 25c more you could be re-entering the U&F universe and getting all that audio straight to your phone with your own personal Patreon RSS code. 

Click this link to visit my Patreon page, and sign up today!

Frisbee Adventure

I nearly lost Pippa's frisbee this morning. We were on the cliff top and I was throwing it for her inland into the fields, but then (inevitably, I suppose, it had to happen sooner of later) the frisbee snagged my gloved fingertip and went spinning out over the cliff top. We watched in horror as it went sailing down to the high tide-washed beach below.

Nooooooooooooooo!

I looked for a way down, but there wasn't one. There were other dog walkers on the beach but none of them were going that far because of the incoming waves. However I was too cross at the thought of losing a brand new frisbee to just shrug and forget about it. So we walked on until I found a way down. It's a clay cliff, all wet mud and tufts of grass, and I had to tread carefully to avoid slipping and tumbling down on my arse.

Once down, we went back through the incoming waves to where I guessed the frisbee should have come down. Every other wave sloshed into the tops of my wellies, slowly filling them until we got to the spot. I scanned the hillside up and down, but there was no sign of the frisbee anywhere. But then, at my feet, a flash of red! Washed up right to the cliff line was the jolly red disc, half submerged and smothered in sand. Huzzah!!

I plucked it from the water and sloshed back to dry land, where we resumed the endless cycle of throw, fetch, and stubbornly refuse to give it up no matter what, all the way home.

Pippa

I forgot to tell you - we got a dog. Pippa is a rescue dog that we adopted from the great people up at ASH Animal Rescue Centre in Co. Wicklow. She's a three-year old mixed breed (border collie and Labrador). She's ridiculously adorable, and is proving much better than a Fitbit at getting me out of the house and reaching 10,000 steps a day.

Glitterballs 3 - Pants 5°

Episode 3 of my written for TV sitcom set in a 1990s music venue, Glitterballs is now available in my public podcast feed. This time gig promoter Tom gets an unusual request on a bands rider (that's the list of food, drinks, and other items the band's agent requires the gig promoter to provide for the band). Meanwhile Max and Doreen plan a swinging evening of their own.

This podcast contains adult language and themes ... you'll be delighted to hear.