Good morning to you all on a cold and fairly miserable looking day in beautiful downtown Byfield. I have to confess, we did see the sun once or twice this week but otherwise gray has been the colour of the week.
Some of you will know (actually, now that I think of it, all of you should know as you were all recipients of our Christmas newsletter) that our Pippa has been gradually going downhill since she started having fits in the summer. She still enjoys trotting around the reservoir and particularly still enjoys her evening meal (and just about everything else she can scrounge or discover at other times of the day) – whether it’s the effect of the barbiturates she’s on or simply the senility of old age, she gives the impression of being positively ravenous 110% of the time – but she has become increasingly frail.
Not surprisingly, Pen is anxious to keep an eye on her more or less twenty-four hours a day so, for the past month or so, she has been sleeping by our bed at night. We even purchased, at some considerable expense, a very comfortable and luxurious dog bed for her which occupies the prime territory just beside Penny’s side of the bed. Naturally, however, Pippa wouldn’t be caught dead in the bed and so stretches out on a very thin rug but more often than not ends up sleeping on the bare floorboards. Our best efforts to entice her into this soft, foam bed have so far come to nought and even when we physically drag her (not quite kicking and screaming but certainly not willingly) into the bed, she is out of it within a few moments. Still, she seems perfectly content to sleep on the hard floor and certainly it doesn’t seem to have any kind of negative impact on her ability to sleep.
Or, to snore.
Which, given someone else’s propensity to snore from time to time, can make for some interesting and occasionally amusing incidents in the night. Indeed, the other night I was sleeping the slumber of the innocent when I was awakened by a veritable symphony of snoring from the pair of them. Not only that, but they were snoring in perfect synchronisation and harmony. I wish I could describe the noise to you but I am afraid that words are insufficient. As one inhaled with a resounding resonance, the other would exhale with considerable reverberation. Then, they would exchange positions and the first would exhale with a deep-throated guttural clatter while the other would inhale with a delightfully amusing whistle. I did have to chuckle (before kicking the pair of them to stop their moonlight serenade).
And finally (as they say), while I am on the vague theme of dogs, I spotted the following article on the BBC web site along with the attached photo. Clearly we should be taking Pippa on holiday to Paris.
Patisserie pampers Paris pooches By Caroline Wyatt BBC correspondent in Paris
Paris is well known as a canine form of paradise, with the city’s 200,000 dogs welcome in department stores and even allowed to eat at the table in the best restaurants.
Now though one entrepreneur has ingeniously combined Parisians’ two real passions – for their pets and gourmet food – to produce the perfect Parisian patisserie: a bakery devoted to dogs.
It sells bacon biscuits in the shape of a cat, or garlic and cheese flavour, and even bone-shaped cookies made of real foie gras.
All are on offer here, sugar and salt-free for the sensitive pet.
Love to you all,
Greg