Snow at Barkingham Palace...

I hope all readers had a good Christmas. Aside from the routine infections and germs that tend to go around at this time of year, we had a good Christmas period. It was, of course, the first since the passing of Mavis, and so we had Jan's dad over for a few days. The dynamics change after someone passes away and that can take quite some getting used to. I've never known Jan's dad to be at our home without Jan's mum and it's amazing how different that makes things. But onto brighter things....

On the 29th January, my latest boarder came to stay. Maddie, is a Golden Labrador and was scheduled to stay with us until today. However, due to the snow, the owners flight has been cancelled. Ergo, I have Maddie until they can get back to the UK, whenever that might be. Maddie is a lovely dog. She's quite timid, though she's not afraid to stick up for herself when the need arises. Ellie disturbed her as she slept once and so Maddie was quick to tell her. It's been great having her during all the snow and she seems to love running across the snowy fields, playing the part of the sheep, so that Ellie can round her up. She is very much a people dog who just thrives on attention. She is one of those dogs that you just don't know you have. She rests during the day, rarely barks, and is just a pleasure to have around. I think, of all the dogs we have had stay with us, Maddie has become Jan's favourite. What I can happily say without any fear of doubt is that Maddie is a dog who is welcome back at Barkingham Palace any time. I really can't give any higher praise than that about a boarder dog.

Towards the end of January, I have Hoolie coming to stay. I can't wait. I just adore Hoolie. He's a great mix of being well trained, but with just enough cheek and daring to appeal to my sense of adventure. I just love having him stay!

I also learnt that Monty (the Pug), our most frequent guest, now has a playmate - Cooper! I believe he is a Boston Terrier but I've yet to meet him. I'm sure that I will soon enough. :)

As the picture to the left should suggest, we've had quite a bit of snowfall here at Barkingham Palace. Ellie just seems to thrive in snow. She loves it. Though, with all this cold weather, it means I seem to have been ill since the last week of November, all tolled. I have a terrible sore throat and cough to the point where I struggle to breathe. I perhaps should have gone to see a GP before today, but I really don't like troubling them for what I consider to be a cold. However, due to the longevity of this one, I think it best. Aside from that, I'm not overly keen on not being able to breathe! :) So doctor's tomorrow for me. Maybe antibiotics, who knows...

So what about Ellie? Well, she's well and truly over her recent spaying and dew-claw removal. Though, to be honest with you, she was over it the day after it happened. I always suspected she might be one of those dogs who just didn't care and she turned out to be just that. The scar along her belly has all but gone now, with just a thin trace of it remaining. I believe it will be just about invisible in a couple more weeks. I think both Ellie and I are eagerly awaiting the warmer weather and the longer daylight hours now. My clicker finger is really itching and Ellie is much braver now than she was last summer. I want to see just how much braver she is. I also want to take a video of her taking the wheelie-bin out with me. That's her latest trick.

I was also interested to watch Horizon on BBC2 last night, which showed a dog recognising 340 different objects by name. (As well as being able to recognise and retrieve objects just by seeing a photo of each one). It's got me wondering just how many different ones I could teach Ellie to recognise. Hmmm, I wonder.... More to the point, how much would it cost to amass 340+ dog-friendly objects! :)

All is Well at Barkingham Palace

It's now been ten days since Ellie went to the vet to be spayed and have her dew claw removed. This morning she had the single stitch removed from where her dew claw once precariously dangled. She has also been given the all-clear by the vet. Ellie can now return to doing all that she was doing before the operations. Go Ellie!

We went for our maiden walk on Tuesday evening with my good friend, Sue, and of course, Ellie's best friend, Teal'c the Rottweiler. As I was unsure how well Ellie's healing was doing we just took a leisurely stroll around the local playing field. I am sure that Ellie failed to get the memo telling her that she has had an operation. All she wanted was for me to throw the ball for her. Of course, I refused, much to her disdain.

I must say, she really has done remarkably well. She hasn't once been seen licking either wound. In fact, she really does seem completely oblivious to the fact that she's been operated upon.

In other news, the home-boarding is continuing to grow and I was delighted to receive an email this morning asking if I was free to board Hoolie again! If you have forgotten already, Hoolie is the black labrador that stole my heart on his first stay with me, and is competing with 'The Doodles' for the place of my favourite boarder dogs.

We will shortly be starting a dog trick challenge with my friend, Lucy, and her far-too-smart dogs, where we will both start teaching our dogs a new trick. I've been planning this particular trick for ages but it's always more fun if you're doing it with someone else, and Lucy is as competitive as I am. We just need to purchase the right props first! Watch this space for videos! Talking of which, dogs, websites, and videos is a damned good hint at my next big project for 2010, and that is all I shall say on that for now.

On a final note, I am amused at how easily my chance 'Barkingham Palace' tag has taken off. When people email me these days, they so often refer to it. I'm even thinking of having a house sign made with it on! :)

The Operations

There's a sniff of anxiety in the air here at Barkingham Palace. Today is the day that Ellie has been taken to the vet for her spaying and for the dew claw that has loosely dangled from her leg since she was a puppy.

I'm told that both operations went well and she is, as I write this, currently trying to stand up after the anaesthetic. We can collect her at about 15:00hrs. She has a single stitch on the dew-claw wound, and will need to wear some sort of sock to stop her nibbling at it for a few days.

Although I felt sure that the vet would do a good job, and despite knowing that both operations are, in the grand scheme of things, quite routine operations, I hated leaving Ellie at the vet this morning. Ellie and I are very much a team and we have been since day one. I work from home and she is with me all day. When I go out, she comes with me. When I do things, I involve her too. That's how it's always been and anything else is really quite alien to both her and to me. I felt that I was letting the team down a little this morning. If I could have stayed there with her, I would happily have done so but alas, that's not how it works. But anyway, it's done now, all but the healing. Something tells me that Ellie isn't going to be one of those dogs to want to sit and heal for long. That should be fun!

This morning before the operation, I swear, we watched as she went to fetch the phone. Jan joked that perhaps she was urging us to cancel the operation! No chance of that. There's only so many phantom pregnancies that anyone can handle!

In other news, Monty has been to stay with us again, this time for a week. He left us again on Saturday night. I managed to snap the above photo of the three - Monty, Ellie, and Teal'c the Rottweiler - all together in the living room. Now that is a blend of breeds that you don't get to see together every day!

It will be a quite time here at Barkingham Palace for a few weeks now as we give Ellie time to recover from her operations. However, I do have a couple of new dog-related projects that I am working on which I hope to be able to reveal to you guys shortly. Stay tuned...