Oh no, Brandy’s failed !

Well, I suppose it was always likely that one pup would pass the blood test and one fail, but when we got the call from the vets today we were really upset to think Brandy has to have another rabies injection and another blood test. As you can see, he looked totally fed up when we told him.

Green is Good!

Well, we’ve followed mum round all week and watched her sticking coloured dots on things. We’ve noticed that all the green dots are on things that she likes, I saw her put one on a picture of her with Ben, her last Cavi, our Brandy said she’s put one on the golf clubs, and we both saw the one on her laptop whereas we’ve seen a white one on the exercise bike and we know she doesn’t like that. There are some things with green stickers which we didn’t think she liked, but not many. So now we are sure that something good is going to happen to us, we need to find out what.

Today there was a telephone call from the vets. Now, we don’t like going there so we were worried, but by mum’s reaction it was something good. Well, it turns out I’ve done well in some sort of test. Apparently I’ve passed and I get a Pet Passport. Our Brandy’s results aren’t back yet so we don’t know about him yet. We know a passport allows us to travel a long way and we’ve seen maps of Spain and plans of houses so we are beginning to think we’re going to Spain. Now that would be brilliant ‘cos this morning when we had to go out it was cold and raining and not nice, but on the tv this morning they said in Spain it’s warm and sunny and we want some of that.

So, the conclusion to our investigation in to the mystery of the green dots is this, everything with a green dot is being taken to live in Spain, and if we’ve got this wrong, boy, are we going to be disappointed.

We’ve got a green sticker on us ‘eads, wots that all about then?

You know when you look in a mirror you see a reflection of yourself? Well, it’s a bit like that when I look at our Brandy, ok, I know he isn’t as cute and he’s got that funny little black mark on his lip that makes him look as if he’s always cross, but when I woke up this morning he had this green dot on his head. I started to laugh at him because he looked really daft, ‘course I didn’t tell him what I was laughing at and that made him really cross (and it’s not always easy to tell ‘cos like I said, he looks cross when he’s not). And then he said, ‘well I don’t know what you’re laughing at ‘cos it can’t be anything as daft as that green dot on your head!'

I’VE GOT ONE AS WELL!

So, we decided to turn detectives and formed the B&B PI agency – then we can see what it’s all about, Brandy thinks the first B is for him, the Brandy and Brinkley Private Investigating Agency – he’s soooo wrong! First thing to check, mum & dad – no green dots. Next, our beds, no green dots – mmmm’ not a lot of clues going on in this room. Have to wait until we go down stairs and see if that tells us anything. Well, that room where they eat and we have to wait quietly until they’re finished has got dots of every colour, everywhere. Not only green ones, but red ones, yellow ones and white ones (huh, and they say dogs are colour blind – you just have to use your imagination – see red, well that’s the colour I was all down my front last time I went to the vets! Green, that’s the colour of the park, yellow – yellow is our favourite colour ‘cos that’s the colour of that big warm round thing we sometimes see in the sky, we like that ‘cos it makes us all warm AND it’s also the colour of our cheesy scrambly egg we have for supper every night. White is the colour we are (as well as brown, but we can’t find any brown spots on anything).

The big comfy settee we cuddle up with mum & dad on has a green spot, as does the TV where we watch programmes about other animals, but the big unit has a white one. None of it makes any sense. We can’t find any dots outside, so it’s an indoors problem and it’s getting worse 'cos things that didn’t have dots on when we started, now have them.

I think we need to have some brain food to mull this over – I’ll go and see if I can get mum to give us a milky bone.

Well, milky bones certainly helped, I knew they would – while we were getting our milky bones from mum we noticed it was her, she had lots & lots of these dots and she was putting them on things.

So, we know the who.......

...... but not the why!

Our pups are now small dogs!

Within the last week Brandy & Brinkley seemed to have changed from being puppies to being small dogs. Their coats have lost the softness of puppy fur and are now properly dog fur, although Brandy’s head is still puppy soft. They have both started to bark at things they don’t understand such as odd noises on the TV, reflections in the glass doors and knocks at the door in the middle of the night – yes, Brandy & Brinkley have become guard dogs. We had the misfortune to have the police knock on the door earlier this week close to midnight, as with out our knowing, our car had been stolen from the drive and the police were here to tell us it had been found, burnt out! Without the pups waking us when the police knocked at the door it is unlikely either Neil or myself would have woken, shame they didn’t hear the car being stolen in the first place.

They are both quite happy running around the garden together for ages and they love going for walks, particularly if the sun is out. I think they are going to love Spain and fortunately there is not too long for them to wait now. Our original plan was to drive down to the south of Spain, going through the channel tunnel, France and Spain so that we could keep them both with us as much as possible. Unfortunately, having our car stolen has made us change our plans as we were supposed to be taking that car. So now, we are taking the ferry from Plymouth to Santander on the north coast of Spain and taking an old wreck (sorry dad, it’s his old car) as we cannot take the dogs onto the ferry unless we take them in a car.

The travelling facilities for Brandy & Brinkley have been paramount in our choice of ferry and Brittany Ferries have kennels for the dogs which we can access at any time and they also have an exercise area. The ferry journey is 19 hours long sailing at noon and arriving at 9.00am the following morning, so for a large part of the journey the pups should be asleep. Hopefully, as they travel well in the car, we won’t have any problems at sea. I’m not sure whether dogs can get sea-sick – I feel another Google coming on.

Right from early on both Brinkley & Brandy have realised that a lot goes on in the kitchen that smells good but they can’t get close to, no matter how they try, however, yesterday they tried really hard to help Neil cook the sausages for breakfast, maybe if they are really good helpers, he might cook an extra one for them. Oh, OK, so we put an extra one in the pan for them.

Straight for the jugular? Mum, what are you doing to us?

Since the pups first had their rabies injections 5 weeks ago, I have been wondering where they would take blood from, after all, it can be difficult enough finding a vein in a person, have you seen how skinny a puppies legs are? I know there are veins in there somewhere, but hey, lets be serious about this.

Well, last night we found out, much to the displeasure of Brandy & Brinkley – the vet shaved a patch on the underside of their neck, below the chin and went into the jugular!

Now bearing in mind that my 2 are not going to make anything easy Brinkley went first, managed to squirm in the nurses arm so that when the needle came out, so did a large amount of blood all down his little white furry front – and it actually looked like a scene from ‘a chainsaw massacre’ and you would have thought his throat had been cut – trust me as a loving owner this is seriously stressful, and I can’t tell you how traumatised Brinkley was, but enough to refuse to be pacified by one of his favourite treats. He just clung to me while they used wads of wet cotton wool to first stem the bleeding and then clean the blood off him BEFORE I took him back into the waiting room.

Still, Brandy is much better at needles than Brinkley, so hopefully the worst was over.

No, Brandy, not to be outdone, decided he was hanging on to his blood – a neck full – not likely!

He let the vet shave his neck, no real problem, he let the vet put the needle in, no real problem, he let the vet start to draw blood and then he moved and some how cut off the supply so the vet couldn’t get any more blood out, couldn’t take the needle out without getting a full sample – stale mate. Eventually, Brandy was moved to a position where the blood flowed again and his ordeal was over. I wouldn’t say he was happy, but he wasn’t as bad as Brinkley.

We now have to wait for the results to see whether they can have the certificate from DEFRA that says the rabies injection has worked and created enough antibodies for them to get their pet passports. If not, they have to go through the whole procedure again and apparently in puppies it can take them longer to create the antibodies. I’m not sure I can go through the process again, let alone the pups.

However, a trip to the shop for a new toy, a plate full of fresh roast chicken and an evening on mum & dad’s knee watching TV, and our pups seem to have forgotten their ordeal and are back to the usual selves. I just can’t imagine next time I need to take them to the vets, somehow I don’t think they’ll be going in with their tails wagging!

Sorry boys, but it had to be done!

Competition for the cleverest puppy, and the winner is…………………

Well, it’s a toughie. They have both worked out that if they go out of the dining room door to the garden and it’s closed behind them, then they can run around the back of the conservatory and come in through the lounge door. They can both run ahead of you to the kitchen and sit perfectly next to the cupboard where their treats are and they both understand the words upstairs, downstairs, garden and scrambley egg but, they both managed to excel themselves yesterday!

One of the first things I do when I wake in the morning I to put the small bedside lamp on, so I can check whether the pups have had any accidents during the night that I would prefer not to walk through. Yesterday morning, the pups were awake before us and Brinkley was jumping up at the side of the bed, his little tail battering the side of the wardrobe door as it wagged at rapid speed, when suddenly the little lamp went on, if I wasn’t going to put it on, then he would. I think he may have touched it with his nose, but it was certainly a big surprise to us and it seemed as if he was putting the light on so we could get up.

Not to be outdone, last night Brandy wanted to go out into the garden and we have the curtains closed in the evening so he is used to us pulling back one of the curtains so we can open the door. Last night, in order to show us he wanted to go out, he took the corner of the curtain that needs opening and started to pull on it as if he was trying to pull it back – so we have one puppy who can turn the light on and another that tries to open the curtain so he can go out – who do you think should get the award for cleverest puppy because I can’t decide – so they both get a treat.

What little stars they are!

Walkies?

I thought dogs dived for the front door whenever the word ‘walkies’ was even whispered!

As Brandy (above) has said, he enjoys his walks, despite Brinkley’s bossiness – however, what he didn’t tell you was the performance we have getting his harness on in order that we can go for a walk.

As soon as I pick the harnesses up and ask if they both would like to go for a walk, (we talk in full sentences to them, we don’t just shout ‘WALKIES’ at the top of our voice) Brinkley will go into the hallway to wait for me to put his harness on, he gets his front legs in the wrong place more often than not, but at least I don’t have any difficulties getting him ready.

Brandy – oh, no! He either runs and goes to bed or more often than not, if the door to the hallway is open he runs through it and goes straight upstairs and lays down on the top step peering over. He stays there while I go and get him, allows me to put his harness on and then just sits there. I go back downstairs and he continues to sit there UNTIL he hears the keys go into the door and then he comes down to have the lead attached and both he and Brinkley queue at the door to get out.

Why we have to go through this routine everytime we are going out is beyond me. Maybe one day he’ll realise that harness = walk, and not harness = runaway.