Tag Archives: Patterdale terrier

Trigger Happy

I am a great believer that sleep is when your body does its best healing so when Pepper finally switched off this afternoon, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

But mostly she is awake, trigger happy and desperate to be off. Anywhere.

And then at about 3.30 p.m., the trigger arrived in the form of Monster who was looking for someone to give him his tea (tea-time is 4 o’clock and not a minute sooner – he knows this). I opened the shed door to his pathetic scratchings and Ted rushed off into the house. Pepper was now awake and rather wishing she had gone off with Ted because she could go hunting, which I am trying to discourage what with her poorly paw.

Anyway, I tried to ignore Monster but the paw was out, the prodding adding to the pathetic mewing.

Shouting in case I hadn’t got the message. The very loud message.

Wanting just a few more moments of peace, I picked up Monster and dumped him on the chaise-longue (read dog bed).

I can so no to Monster very easily but not that enchanting little Pepper face with the pink bandage (pink really suits her).

I went into the house and gave everyone their tea. Phew. Monster will live to see another day. I think we are all thrilled there.

Out again, I fed the ducks/hens and gave the ponies their hay but this time in piles so they could enjoy it rather than spend hours fighting it out strand by strand from their very small haynets.

I just thought they might like to have an afternoon treat.

As you can see, they’re not exactly fading away either. All I do is give out food, I think. That’s my job.

Day Changes

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My usual Saturday has had to shift to Sunday, if that makes sense.

Packing vegetables for Transition Turrifield (that I used to do on a Thursday afternoon) is now weekly and on a Saturday morning. My Saturday afternoons used to be set aside for flute duets but I never knew when I would get home after Turriefield, so we changed it to Sunday instead.

It doesn’t really matter when I play the flute as long as it is convenient for the First Flute (I am Second because my top notes are a bit suss and I am too lazy to ever practice!)

Anyway, as today is Sunday, we got the silver flutes out to murder Mozart. We had our usual audience. Obviously Pepper was grounded because of her poorly paw so I gave her “Lamb Chop” to keep her company.

Monster just slouched about and left when it all got a bit much. He just gets in the way anyway.

And that is why my Saturday has become Sunday (and in my head it all makes perfect sense, even if you are left scratching your’s).

Sick Dog Day (again)

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I have a headache, so I will keep this short.

Monster “helped” me to fail to complete my morning quiz (NY Times Connections). In my defence, they were very weird words today – I hadn’t a clue and neither had Monster. He was absolutely no use.

Pepper was also having an off-day. She woke me up at 4 a.m. being sick and I immediately took her outside. I then spent the remainder of the night hugging her in bed, while she shook and her tummy made alarming noises. Poor little soul was very unhappy but she managed to sleep a bit while I was now wide awake, which probably explains my headache.

I have just about finished my daily chores, which are kept to the bare minimum because it is summer. The Shetland ponies who live on the track, however, do have two haynets in the afternoon.

They approve of this routine and come racing up.

It is not easy, though. The haynets are small-holed, double nets so the ponies have to work very hard for every piece of hay they can prise out.

Today Newt said he couldn’t be bothered with the hay and he is fat so there must be something on the track. I refuse to worry.

And then suddenly Pepper felt better, raced inside the house for her tea and everything was back to normal. OH says there are many rabbit corpses lying around (thank you Monster), so I have a feeling they might be the problem.

More sighing *** oh, Pepper ***. Early night for us both, I think, to get rid of my headache.

Farrier Today

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We had Jay, our farrier, coming today so, after their breakfast, I put everyone where they could be easily caught. The old horses and ponies were grazing the green grass around the outside of the house while the little Shetland ponies were in their paddock with a haynet to stave off the boredom from waiting.

First up was Haakon and Pepper duly got in the way.

Then clutching my same cob-size headcollar, I caught Fivla….

And lastly Vitamoobag. Again, note Pepper. I did ask Jay if he wanted me to put her in the house but he said he didn’t mind. Honest.

The old ones all done (those that needed), and we headed to the Shetland pony paddock avec le petit chien who dutifully got in the way. It was a full time job for her.

At least I managed to find a smaller headcollar – one that actually fitted.

Pepper “helped”. She also recruited a friend – Newt.

Looking at this photo of Albie, I have to ask myself how is Pepper still alive?

I mean, seriously?

But no one kicked her, she didn’t get her nose cut off and she remained unscathed. A ruddy miracle if you ask me.

And once finished with the horses and ponies, Pepper was ready to annoy another victim! Poor Monster – he was chased into the house but don’t worry he will get his revenge. He always does.

Grubby Little Boys

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Last year I took down part of the Shetland ponies’ track and put all the plastic fence posts into a big tonne bag in case I needed them again. The bag was left securely tied to the fence post. Since then, every time I walked past the bag, I thought to myself that those fence posts would be better off in the shed.

It was a big task so I split it up into doable bite-size chunks and every day (if I remembered) I would go down the hill and take up a few fence posts to put in the shed until it was empty. And then today, I went down with a knife and a pair of strong scissors to cut the tonne bag off the fence post, dragging it up the hill to put in the shed.

The ponies spent their morning staring at the vacated spot from the tonne bag.