Mummy's Not Well, But She's Always Right

Hello everyone,

Sorry I have not written for a week, but my Mummy has been unwell and has been too tired to help me. Her asthma has been causing her problems and making her very tired. She has still gone to work and has given me my walks but she has had to sleep a lot too and has not felt like helping me with my photos and posting, especially since she had to go to Accident and Emergency and have a nebuliser on Thursday when she had a really bad attack.

Mummy’s boss and workplace are not very sympathetic or understanding about her asthma so she still went to work when she really should not have done. Even when she had the attack, no-one called across to see how she was (she works in the hospital!) or came to see her when she was getting treatment and her boss showed her little concern when she did come back – it was made clear that as long as she could work, “That’s all I care about”… No wonder Mummy is unhappy there. They have a meeting tomorrow about the review of staff levels – I think that Mummy would breathe a sigh of relief if they did make her redundant…

I have had a nice week. I got to have a walk with my second girlfriend, Melody. She belongs to my Auntie Geri, who very kindly gave us a great big chair for Auntie to sit in that flips back into a sort of bed and throws Auntie backwards. We might get some more of that furniture later in the year depending on what Geri does in her new home. Melody and I were very pleased to see each other. I like to nibble on her ears but I keep getting told off for it.

I have seen my friends Oscar and Leo the Pointers several times this week, and today I saw their friend Smartie the miniature Schnauzer. He is 12 years old and got cancer in his bum (ouch!) and he has had an operation for this (double ouch!) so he has a sore bum…

Yesterday and Friday, I had to have short walks because Mummy is tired so she took my ball wanger and I chased my ball a lot. I was being naughty on Friday and Mummy got a bit cheesed off with me and then yesterday she was very strict when I was naughty and really made me pay attention and do what she asked of me, which was fair enough as I was ignoring her all because things kept going bang. If Auntie tries to sleep downstairs at night, I torment her to make her go upstairs to bed, but Mummy wasn’t having that last night either and she kept making me lie down and behave. Today, we did lots of obediency things on my walk so I showed her that I get the message by walking beautifully on the lead on the way home.

Now Auntie is hoovering so I have to go off and attack the hoover.

Regards to all,

Bruce xxx

Snow And Sulks

Hello,

We had snow on Thursday. Mummy left for work on time and took ages to get there, only to be greeted with a message saying that however late you were, you had to stay that late after your shift. Mummy refused. She said that she has to get back to me and she would do it in half hour chunks but that's her limit. She left on time that day and got home to me earlier than usual, as the roads had cleared. The next day, she found out that they didn't have to make up the time after all so she was pleased…well, more "should think so too" than pleased, but happier than she was!

We had a nice walk in the snow. Half way through, when we were in the wood, we met Cassie's family – their son Stuart was with them with his dog, a pretty Chocolate Labrador called Bella. We all walked together and Bella told me off when I tried to round her up so she got put on the lead but I didn't mind really, as I did ask for it!

Mummy was really tired on Friday and it was raining and raining. She had worked an extra half an hour and then missed a bus because she was shopping so I was upset with her for being late and I cried and cried into her lap to tell her so. Our walk was not a lot of fun, and we both got very wet and muddy, then we went round Auntie Angie's and she gave me two sausages, which made me feel a lot better.

Yesterday, Mummy and Auntie went out for lunch with Tracy the Tree hugger and her man, Steve. I was really put out that Mummy was leaving me again and I withheld her cuddles to punish her when she came home. This morning though, she woke up almost crying because she had been dreaming that Auntie Judy was going to make her have The Mother live with her again and nobody was supporting her or being on her side (my Auntie was not there in the dream or she would have stood up for Mummy - always) and it got her so upset that she woke up with a muffled sob. I went and kissed her face and then we had a nice long cuddle – I lay down alongside her and put my 'arms' around her and tried to make her feel better. I think I did too good a job of it, though, because she went back to sleep and I had to get her up at 11.30!

Uncle Ricky came round just as we were getting ready to go for my walk and I had waited long enough what with her lie-in, thank you, so I kept going to the door until she got the hint and took me out and left him talking to Auntie – but not before we showed him some of my Doggy Dance moves so that he would know that I am just as good as that dog that was on the telly the other day.

On my walk today, the best thing ever happened – I saw my Emily! She used to be my regular girlfriend and I used to walk with her and Auntie Raye a lot but when Raye got Troy the puppy, we (me and Troy) decided we didn't like each other and we growl at each other. Each time we meet, I try to get him to play and he still snaps at me (all because I pushed him over into a ditch when he was little!), but today Emily told him to play and I really tried to be polite to him because it would be nice if we could get on so that I can be with my Emily and we managed our biggest distance ever without things getting too rowdy. I can't be on the lead round him yet as I don't trust him – he has tried to bite my back end several times and there are a couple of things back there that are precious to me! It was lovely to be with my Emily though – I have other girlfriends (platonic only, Mummy insists) but Emily is my One True Love…

I hope you are all well,

Regards,

Bruce xxx

Sunset Shenanigans

Hello again,

On Monday night, my Auntie went to Singing group with Auntie Claire for the first time in ages. I was so put out about her going out that I tried to open the window by bashing the handle with my nose and Mummy told me to stop that straight away.

We have some very cold weather at the moment and the fields are nice and dry. Yesterday, I kept jumping into all the ponds and puddles and Mummy said that I must be completely mad!

Today, we saw Mr C and Leo – Leo kept jumping up at me but I was good and hardly growled at all, I just went and stood with Mummy when he got too much for me. We saw Bella and Baby Dylan the Bassets as well – Dylan keeps baby woofing at me, he is very funny. Up the wood, we saw the man who owns the wood – he was wielding a chainsaw so we stood still until he realised we were there as it wasn’t wise to startle him! He spent ages talking to Mummy – he said how handsome I am (of course) and also it was funny because he was telling Mummy how much he doesn’t like to talk to people and yet he was still talking and we wanted to move on!

All walk long, Mummy kept trying to take pictures of me and every time she got the camera out I either pulled my fed up face, turned my head away or yawned. She says I am a tormenty dog, and I do it on purpose…and she’s right! Tee hee…

There was a beautiful sunset tonight too so we stopped and watched it for a while.

When we got home, Auntie Angie brought round some chicken for me and Mummy gave me a little but said I had to wait until supper for the rest as it was too warm. I kept trying to get into the kitchen to steal it and even put my paws up on the counter (I got shouted at for that and called bad boy) but I didn’t get any – I will wait for supper, it will be worth it…

regards to all,

Bruce xxx

Sad News For Auntie's Friends

Hello everyone,

I heard some sad news today. All my life, I have known a pretty Rough Collie called Cassie. Today, I heard that she died. Apparently, her liver failed. Her People seemed very sad. Their daughter is an old friend of Auntie’s – she even stayed in our house and looked after uncles Benjamin and Barney (the dogs before me) while My People went on holiday (they won’t go on holiday without me because of my fits, but they used to like going to a place called Greece because uncles B and B could cope with it). The weird thing is that we heard earlier in the week that the dog belonging to Auntie’s Best Friend, Auntie Claire, also died – he was a Springer spaniel called Dylan and he was alright…

So Auntie has two sad friends right now…

Mummy had a run of horrible days at work. She had to do extra work while one of her team was off, and then the third team member went off and did some training elsewhere so she was pretty mad about that (she said the training should have got shifted to another time). All of her clients, she said, were mad, grumpy, or crying (she works in a hospital), and her boss was getting snippy so Mummy got fed up. Then, on Friday, when she got back to her own area, the first person she went to got very sick indeed so that was pretty horrible to have to deal with. She had to work an extra day this week too and now she is very tired because I have had an upset stomach for the last two days and I keep waking her up so I can go out. Auntie stayed home with me and took me for a walk (Mummy did an extra long shift and was home later than usual) and we had lots of fun together. I cuddled Mummy for a long time when she finally came home and sat down.

Today, when we climbed through a ditch, a branch pinged back at Mummy and hit her in the eye but I think she is ok. It made her eye run a lot and she was afraid she would get a black eye and all of her patients would make fun of her and crack jokes about needing their beds etc.

Regards to all,

Bruce xxx