I should know better

Well, here I sit,really trying for some optimism about the new year to come.

My roof is leaking dreadfully, having suddenly got much worse under the constant torrential rain we are having, and of course nothing happens in the building trade till next week. Meanwhile the water pours in.

All my girls are looking really well though. I`m beginning to think I was really rash to mate them, though - well, not all of them, of course, but it has been a long time since I did more than one litter at a time.

There have been some bad moments with them. too.

Yesterday, in the pouring rain, all came in but Prudence. No Prudence. The others all crashed into their beds in a hurry.

Out I trailed into the monsoon, calling and calling. How could anything be stupid enough to stay out in this? The soaking fields were empty, even of birds. Nothing moved but the rain.

Back in, ready to summon help to find her. All dogs quiet...except for Camilla, who was restless and growly.

I had a thought. I hauled her out. There, cowering behind her, was Prudence. She shot out, panic all over her. She gave me a look that said "NO, I don`t know why I did that, and I was really scared, and I need my own bed, now!" She rushed in beside her friend, Sonja.

Sonja is another problem. The dear old thing is stone deaf, and this leads to problems.

A short time ago, when I was letting everyone out in the morning, Prudence ran out, but Sonja didn`t stir. Not a move. I gave her a poke....nothng. She is old, and I thought she must have just gone in the night.

I was very sad and went and sat for a bit, thinking over the times we had had. Then I pulled myself together and went to deal with the problem.

Sonja just lay there. I had to get her out, and got hold of a leg and tail and pulled....

and the corpse sat up, very indignant. Why was I pulling her tail? Where was her dinner? Couldn`t an old lady sleep in, just for once?

She sauntered off, leaving me in a state of shock.

Never a dull moment with Papillons

Well, that`s the last time I make jokes about the Winter Vomiting Virus! It hit me a week ago, and I still feel I am crawling out from under. Not at all Christmassy, that, and no, I will not be describing it here. Suffice it to say that the Paps, always very sympathetic to illness, were reduced to giving each other those knowing looks which say "Well, who`s going to feed us when she kicks the bucket?"

Wobbly or not, I some how got Daisy to her proposed husband, braving the horrrors of pre-Christmas trains...this is the time of year when rail timetables slide inexorably into anarchy, and train heating fails, and overcrowding rules. I was lucky and only had two delays of an hour each, and one was in heated premises. The other, alas was in Waverly, reminiscent of January in Novosibirsk, as any Scottish traveller knows. Home, to bed and ill again.

Meanwhile, all the girls have come out of season. Great sigh of relief. But not from Shelby. Somehow he had decided that this was HIS time. And although Ella is no longer receptive, he is courting her desperately with all manner of Chin noises, and being bitten (delicately, as she does everything), and treated to Ella`s Big Growl, which has been described as the sound of a very angry wet wasp.

Somehow I am going to get it all together for Christmas.......stuck together with duct tape and glue at this rate.

Just recovering from the Great Storm here, and hoping there is no damage, although I will need daylight to confirm that. However, the roof is still there, if still leaky, and I don`t seem to have any trees down.

A great public fuss was made about this storm, and all the schools were closed, which was a first, and pissed off a lot of parents.

I had to go out in it for a doctor`s appointment, and struggled against the wind over a flooded road. We had a long chat about the inadequacies of the local hospital, which only seems to be efficient in spreading the Winter Vomiting Virus like a black miasma over the local area several times a year. I had a flu injection.

I then decided, in the face of a rising gale to cut things short and get on home, with a brief call to the local Ladies convenience....where I was called on by the attendant to hurry, as she was locking up. At half past eleven in the morning?

Yes, the council had phoned, and because of the gale they were locking up all the public toilets.

Well, of course. What other response could there be to an extreme weather event?

I relayed all this to the taxi driver. "All I need," he said: "drive in this all day and not even a Jimmy Riddle!"

Neither of us was at all surprised at the council`s reaction. We had both lived with the said council`s warped and possibly alien logic for years. (I have often suspected that at the heart of its policy making procedures is a small green person on loan from Area 51)

Home, and a wait for the usual result of a storm here - the power cut. Looked out the candles, had the emergency light charged, a flask ready....

But amazingly it didn`t happen. Our power comes in on overhead lines, and usually, especially in winter, a robin`s fart is enough to put it off.

So all in all, I have probably been lucky.

The dogs, mostly confined, with occasional forays into the teeth of the gale, did not share this view at all.

And with it comes the usual bad weather. Yet again my birthday outing was spoiled by it, although this time I abandoned the effort before the snow could do anything worse to me.

Angel grows, and is supremely confident. She is exrememly aware of how pretty she is.

I took her to an open show, to let her see what it was like, and she took it all in her stride, and showed off to everyone and anyone. There was a lot of interest. Once she is old enough I hope there will be a lot more. Everyone and everything is greeted by the same arrogant little stare - "Yes, I really am a wonderful little person, about to take the world by storm..... And you?"

Meanwhile Allegra is again visiting a handsome male. I gather she has taken over the household. She is used to a dry food diet. The dogs she is visiting have a made up one. Allegra promptly gobbled hers, and everyone else`s she could steal, then did a very convincing Oliver Twist act beside her empty dish. She then made her selection of the available toys, supremely careless of whom they had belonged to, and demanded to be played with.

Having led the dog a merry dance, she at last agreed to the inevitable - and then, as her husband staggered off for a well-earned rest, loudly demanded a repeat performance. Allegra is accustomed to get what she wants.....and no doubt will.

If the promised storm allows, I will collect her on Friday, leaving behind her some very exhausted dogs and humans ....who will feel that they have weathered a storm already that lasted a week - an Allegra typhoon.