Monday 30 April 2018

Way behind....

What with being away, adjusting to life with Ruby, my seed ordering and sowing is way, way behind. No home sown tomatoes or chilli peppers this year, instead I shall buy those in.

My half bag of compost is now in the conservatory warming up and the electric propagator has come down from the attic. Seeds have arrived and pots will come in. Adjusted growing for this year will be lettuces, beetroot, carrots, dwarf french and dwarf runner beans, tomatillos (a month late in sowing so who knows). Plus the bought in and grown on tomatoes and chilli plants.

Horrendous weather forecast, hoping we don’t flood! Keep safe those of you in the south west and us in the east.

Friday 27 April 2018

Out by ourselves....

Last Friday, Ruby was asleep when we went out to do the weekly shop, and still asleep when we returned.

Today, as part of our start to leaving her whilst awake, we waited until she was tired, put her in her crate with a kong and left. She was asleep when we returned. She heard us come in and we checked her through the window, she was going back to sleep.

Shopping for the week came to £36, not bad at all considering quite a bit of it was to make soup this coming week, forecast to be cool!

Have a great weekend folks.

Thursday 26 April 2018

Last good day?

Weather wise that is! A final line of washing for this week is currently billowing in the breeze. Tomorrow, the weather looks horrendous and I think hail is due Saturday. Hopefully not, or all the fruit blossom will get knocked off:(

Ruby has already been out in her bag for a ‘walk’. We will take her out in the car again this afternoon. She is slowly settling into the car crate which is good.

She was dry for 4 mornings in a row but we reckon just couldn’t hold on and had a wee on the paper just before we went in today, so progress there as well.

I think we are all training each other at the moment!

We need to buy an extra wide gate for the archway into the kitchen as we don’t want her in there at all. This is both for safety with us and also visiting DS and DDiL, as their dogs are not allowed in the kitchen except to go out the back door.

I went to the vets for the first ‘parent’ puppy socialisation classes. The final 4 are with her. It will cover quite a lot of things so should be good. Only a total of 5 puppies will be present and they need to be wearing proper collars and on a lead, that should be interesting!

Tuesday 24 April 2018

A blur...

It is a current fact that our days are merging into a blur. Thank goodness we can manage to keep the calendar up to date!

A nice side effect of having Ruby is my insomnia has disappeared and DB is also sleeping like a log. I think we are both very tired mentally and physically by about 9pm and as soon as she goes down (around 10pm), we go to bed. Each day though is getting better as we learn her routines and she ours.

She has been dry for the past 3 mornings so that side of things is going in the right direction and as soon as she is let out of her crate, dashes outside for a wee and poo!

She is trying our patience at the moment by constantly trying to climb up when we sit down for a much needed cup of tea. We keeping standing up and walking away and mostly, she follows us.

It seems so hard to constantly be saying no, especially when she has a mad few minutes of wanting to bite. We end up standing up (hard work from floor level) and say her name and no in a loud firm manner. If she fails to stop after 3 no's, she gets held down on the floor and told no again (similar to what her mother would do). That usually works.

She seems to have mostly mastered the 'sit' command and we are working on the 'down' and come.

Every day we fit in outdoor chores when she is sleeping in her crate, go in the car (yesterday 13 miles with a bit of whinging) and a walk in her bag everyday (around 1 mile).

Had my much needed massage today.

Monday 23 April 2018

Out for a 'walk'

After two attempts, I finally managed to make a bag to take Ruby out, so we can get out for some walks and not go too stir crazy whilst waiting for her to be fully vaccinated:
She wasn't fazed at all. Mind you, when we got home and she was out of it, one end of the strap peeled away when I tried to adjust it. I shall reinforce both ends tomorrow to make sure. Made from a hand towel and the strap of a bag!

We are putting her in the car cage every day and going for short drives to get her used to it. So far, after an initial whinge she gets quieter. We hope to drive further each day.

Friday 20 April 2018

Another glorious day today

Not quite as hot as yesterday thank goodness but hot enough! Mind you, the weather forecast states thunderstorms overnight on Saturday, hope they don't wake Ruby!

Managed to go food shopping today so one thing back on the agenda, normality slowly resuming.

Normally I would grown my own peppers and tomatoes but have decided this year to buy them in from a local nursery. Other than weeding the raised beds, nothing else has been done. Ruby sleeps anywhere from 1 - 2 hours during the day, so just like a human baby, we tend to store up our tasks to do until then.

She had a bath in plain water today as she was beginning to smell a bit ripe. She wasn't too fazed by it but was happier when DB held her whilst she stood on her back legs up the inside of the bath. It also made it easier for me to pour some water over her without alarming her too much. Didn't do her head this time.

Dried her thoroughly with a towel then when almost dry, she went to sleep outside in the sun for a short while. She smells a lot better now and is very soft!

Had her first wee on the patio, a different surface, so that is also good. Have begun training her to 'sit' which for the most part she understands as she already does that for her food. Going to do 'down' next. We are still trying to get her used to going in her car safety crate which we think might be a longish process. We stopped off to buy her a 'treats' snake thing which can have her dried food put into it. We pushed 7 pellets into it, put her in the crate and got almost home before she started getting agitated.

Her vet nurse visit went well and she weighed 4.125kg which she said was a good weight, neither too light nor too heavy. Booked her in for socialisation classes which for her, begins a week on Tuesday for 4 weeks. As 'parents', we have to go the first week by ourselves so they can let us know what they will be doing. If she won't be left alone by then, DB will look after her whilst I attend.

Onwards and upwards. Have a great weekend folks.

Thursday 19 April 2018

Spring - yeah!

Welcome to Lauren Turner via Bloglovin.

A lovely warm day yesterday, washing dried, raised beds weeded at last (whilst Ruby was asleep), several chores done etc. We sat out on chairs whilst Ruby had a play down the drive, which is part of our front garden, but safely fenced off.

She won't be allowed in the front garden at all unless on a lead, tied to somewhere as it is only partially fenced off. The rest of it has Leylandii trees which she would easily slip through. Also, all my nice but 'nasty to dog' plants have been transferred in there!

We are off to the vets today for a 'meet and greet' with the nurses. This is so when she does have to go back for her next round of jabs, she hopefully will have good memories of it.

Today also sees the first mini rounds of basic training begin. We shall do a couple of minutes of 'sit' before her midday meal, then again before one of the others meals (or both if we can) but think she will be overtired from the vet visit. She has learnt by herself to sit when we bring her food in but aren't sure she actually knows she is sitting if you see what I mean.


Wednesday 18 April 2018

Lost in time....

Even if we hadn’t brought Ruby home, we think we would still be a bit disconknockerated after a fortnight away!

Walking buddy E., came for lunch and a play with Ruby. She commented on how settled she was. That is a nice comment to receive but we feel we are saying ‘no’ a lot, which apparently is quite a normal thing to feel.

By Tuesday she was doing most toileting outside which is a bonus. Although she knew where the door was to go out, it will be a while we think before she connects the door with the urge to go.

She continues to sleep through the night until about 06:20 or so. As we are woken by the day chorus around 05:30, we are usually just drifting off again. She sleeps for now in the lounge with us in the back of the house, so unless she is howling/screaming, we don’t really hear her too much and for the most part, get up between 06:30 and 07:00.

She waits quietly when we enter the room for us to let her out of her crate. DB calls her outside whilst I clean up her toilet pen attached to the crate. Most mornings there is usually only one or two wee’s on the paper.


Tuesday 17 April 2018

Getting there...

The final pile of washing from our 2 weeks away is blowing well on the washing line outdoors. Although we are supposed to have a temperature (plus sun) of 20C, it is currently only 15C, grey leaden skies and a howling cold wind - again. Sandwiches for lunch although to be honest, I think a bowl of hearty soup would be more appropriate.

What other news have we got to impart, oh yes....

Introducing Ruby!
Ain't she beautiful, but of course, we are biased. Here she is travelling for 4 hours from DS and DDiL's new home:

She was a bit unsettled for the first hour after that, but she then slept for the last 3 hours, no wee or sick thank goodness. As we had spent the last two weeks with her, we think that helped enormously. When we got home, I put her on the gravel drive and she had a wee! She slept the whole of the first night through to 6am.

The next night she slept until 6:30 ish then began wailing to say the least. We left her for a short time, went in and she was nowhere to be seen:(

She sleeps in a cage with an 80cm x 80cm pen attached with newspaper for toileting. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of movement and she was sitting on DB's chair, cuddled into his cushion. Inspecting the cage, we noticed a soldering fault, just where she had broken out. Also her cage door had shut behind her, locking her out of there.

She had managed to climb up the chair and on seeing us promptly jumped off, both things not much good for her joints - oops!

She whooped with delight when she saw us. To be continued...



Monday 16 April 2018

What's been going on then ....

First of all, welcome to Jan via Bloglovin.

DS and DDiL have bought a house and moved into it from rental accommodation. The house fell through once then all came good and exchange of contracts and moving happened in a very short time!

On top of all that happening, Miss M. had a planned litter of puppies. Her first mating wasn't successful, this one was but coincided with the move!

We went up to help and after 2 days moved into the new house with the puppies to look after them. They were by then, 6 weeks old and not only growing rapidly, but exercising a lot. They were contained for the most part in a large indoor pen in the kitchen but let out several times, into the kitchen to build up strength, speed and agility in their legs. Also for us to change their very wet and soiled newspaper.

The puppies we met at 6 weeks old were totally different to those at 8 weeks old when we left. We are not as young as we once were and this move, their 4th, proved quite tiring. DS and DDiL though, were just as tired, and we were all glad to get into bed at night. All the puppies slept through every night until they heard us coming down the stairs, which was a boost.

We returned to the old house to help clean it up and tidy the garden, then went back to the new house (inbetween the puppies feeding times) to help unpack boxes, up and down to the attic with empty boxes, look after puppies (feed, clean, entertain) and DB was also kept busy sorting out household problems that required his DIY skills.

So phew!

More tomorrow...

Sunday 15 April 2018

Transmission Resumed ....

Sorry for the absence but we have been very busy for the past two weeks. We had no internet/phone connection except for DB whose connection was very limited. When we tried to use his computer to get onto my blog we got locked out and had to wait until home again to sort it out.

I shall hopefully start posting tomorrow to let you know what we have been up to!

Monday 2 April 2018

Aching...

The best part of yesterday afternoon was spent gardening and emptying raised beds, doing other heavy duty tasks to help out. We were both shattered by about 8pm and aching like mad. Methinks we are getting just a tad too old to do such tasks for long!

Our meal times have gone a bit off piste as well and my digestive system is not too happy. Hopefully in a few days, things will turn the corner and some tasks completed which may lighten the aches. A few more days after that, most things will be finished and the ‘to do’ list thrown away.

Mind you, the weather today is awful, heavy rain rather than snow which is better, but now the outdoor jobs are on hold and will be harder to complete with the ground being so soggy.

Onwards and upwards!