Followers

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Signs o' the times

Danger . . . men at work
Another new hazard to add stress to Monkey's daily perambulations - temporary road signs.
Maybe it's the red border or maybe it's the triangular shape.
Whatever it is it is to be avoided at all costs - to the extent of getting wrapped round lampposts and street name signs.

Danger avoided . . . I don't think anyone saw us tangled up

Monday 29 July 2013

Sunday lunch surprise

It's not often we have anything leftover after Sunday lunch but this weekend the Girl Of The House (GOTH) and her boyfriend managed to find time to come round for a proper roast dinner cooked by the Lady Of The House (LOTH).
The Boy Of The House (BOTH) helped with the preparations (podding peas, peeling potatoes and making the stuffing). The Man Of The House (MOTH) managed to stir himself to carve the joint at the appointed time.
Monkey the Greyhound played his part by venturing into the kitchen and staying there while the LOTH and BOTH were preparing the repast.
This was new and something he had never done before as he likes to remain on his day bed in the front room away from anything as common as work.
We thought it was only fair that as Monkey had made the effort to watch the preparations Monkey got to join in by finishing off the leftovers.
It didn't take him long to get through the garlic and rosemary lamb, roast potatoes, stuffing, peas and carrots. He seemed a bit miffed that there wasn't a Yorkshire pudding going spare but that didn't stop him devouring the lot in a trice.



Sunday lunch . . .

don't mind if I do.
 
Is that it?
 
PS. He stayed in the front room while I cleaned the cooker and got today's dinner ready.
Maybe the LOTH is right when she says Monkey is a fan of The Archers!

Thursday 25 July 2013

Bone strikes back

The bone is now persona non grata with Monkey the Greyhound as it caused an 'incident'.
I'd scrapped some of the filling loose so he didn't have to work too hard at enjoying himself and placed it by his paw. Said paw flicked it just out of reach as he went for it.
There followed 10 minutes of looking bored and disinterested as he tried really hard to get to it by stretching without moving off his bed.
Suddenly he overbalanced - can you do that while lying down - his tail or his back leg caught the papier mache cat on the hearth and it made a noise banging into the decorative coal scuttle. Cue leap in the air with reverse to face the source of the noise. I don't think it helped the bone's cause when I started laughing.
Monkey is now studiously ignoring the bone - presumably in case it makes that noise again.
The cat and the coal scuttle can be seen on the top left of this picture taken a few weeks ago.

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Thunderbolt and lightning - not very frightening

Happy to report that our first thunderstorm passed without too much incident. It would appear that our nervous Monkey only has one reaction to things - a startled head turn towards the sound. Whether it is bang by the BOTH upstairs or an almighty crash of thunder both are treated with the same behaviour.
Out walking when the thunder was occurring the noise passed unremarked - but when a car driving past went over a smooth patch of wet tarmac we had a jump.
I've given up trying to figure out what causes the various reactions in this greyhound.
Approach a bush, bin, bag (insert whatever the problem is here) from one direction and nothing happens. However, from the opposite direction it results in paws digging in and not moving.
Luckily now we are beginning to spot what causes problems and can cross the road or stop and have our ears scratched until the nuisance has passed.
 I'm not sure just who is training who anymore.

Now what do I do?
We finally found something that Monkey will interact with.
A filled bone.


 I can see something in there
This is a bit too much like hard work
 
He finds it so tiring having to poke his tongue into it that he needs a nap after a few minutes. But if I loosen some more of the filling he will attack it again the next day.