Ellie Has More Company

Ellie just can't seem to stop having her friends around to stay at the moment.

Monty, or 'Mr Burns' as I came to call him, was a Jack Russell terrier that we home-boarded from 27 August to 04 September. As you'll be able to see in some of these photos, they actually became quite close.

They most certainly enjoyed chasing each other around the freshly cut wheat fields on our daily walks. Monty may have been smaller and slower, but he could match Ellie's stamina any day of the week.

Ellie, of course, knew that she was faster in the games of chase, and so it was fun to watch her deliberately slow down as really she wanted to be caught, or at least keep Monty motivated enough to continue the game. Monty seemed perfectly happy to oblige.

Ellie has now found the joy of splashing in the local stream each day, regardless of weather. Of course, it's not enough that she plays in it. Oh no, I have to as well. I have to jump in with her and scoop the sometimes freezing cold water with my hand and throw it at her, so that she can catch the droplets. I'm now fully accustomed to walking home with my feet squelching in my walking boots. :)

And then, if Ellie played this game, Monty wanted in too. Only he was too small to jump in and out of the stream by himself, so I had to lift him in and out, which meant me getting soaked on the top half too. Lovely! Luckily for me, the weather was warm and sunny for most of the week.

In other news, Ellie goes for her Gold Good Citizen exam on September 20th. The jury is still out on whether she's really at Gold level or not, but she's certainly ready to try. If she doesn't pass, we'll at least know where the weaknesses are. We now have her Bronze certificate signed and delivered and are waiting for the Silver to arrive shortly.

Once she's achieved Gold (I'm optimistic as always you see) then we can return to focusing on training some new tricks! Especially as the weather is now getting worse and the daylight hours becoming fewer, as we step into Autumn.