One year on and… He is back…

Last year we had a lovely puppy with us for a few weeks and this year… he is back!

Welcome back Barnie!

One year older, a bit bigger, not much smarter, still full of beans Barnie is turning our household upside down 😉

Not sure what has happened but during the last year he has developed a slight fear of cats. He is not running away, there is no barking or chasing… he just stays away… and when one of the cats is guarding the upper landing at the top of the stairs Barnie is not going to come upstairs, instead he will “cry” on a lower step… it is heart breaking… such a wuss.

We are trying to build back his cat confidence. I hope that after few weeks with us they will be good friends again.

As for Barnie and the dogs… they are brilliant together. Bunk stays a bit behind while playing on the field… I blame the weather as it is a bit too hot for running around for my liking, and his… even this morning past 6am it was hot already 😦

It is amazing that they can remember so far back. As soon as they pulled up in front of the house, Barnie was ready to leg it out of the car… he run straight into our front door and just stood waiting there with big disappointment in his eyes that the welcoming party was missing and that the front door was still closed…

Once inside the madness began… hours of running around, chasing each other, licking and cuddling… so funny to watch…

Now we are on day three and things are starting to calm down a bit. My dogs are settling into their everyday routine and Barnie is slowly trying to fit in.

We have 15 days of fun left ahead of us, so let’s see what fun and excitement the future will bring.

For now I can share with you a few snaps from our first walk together… same as last year Barnie is picking Lilly as his walking partner and they run around and around sharing / fighting over the toys… looks like we are going to need a new ball…

Puppy Sitting

Every now and then one of our friends is in need of a puppy / dog sitting service. As we already have a small zoo, one more doesn’t make so much difference… most of the time.

Normally we get girls, but this time we were asked to look after a 6 month old Labrador male puppy called Barnie. His parents were off for their honeymoon and he needed a place to stay.

As Bunk is already 3 years old we were a little nervous about bringing a second male into the house. We arranged for the “audition” just to be sure that Bunk would accept a little one, as they had never met each other.  So a week before their big trip we spent all Sunday together in our house so the dogs could met one another. The “first date” went fine, so we were confident that we can look after sweet Barnie until his parents returned home.

The day had come and Barnie was dropped off with all his toys, bed, food, treats etc… We so forgot how it is to have a pup in the house. At first Barnie was so scared. Poor little fellow didn’t know what hit him until it was too late… he was left in this strange house, with new dogs and cats and lots of new Big humans. It took him a whole day to get used to us. After 24h there was no more peeing in the house, no more accidents and no more crying.

Yes, of course he is a puppy so we had to hide all the shoes, as a few minutes of distraction and you had to collect them from the garden, we had to close up greenhouse as Barnie was very keen on helping with gardening by getting all the tools out; he even tried to sweep our decking with a huge broom 🙂

During Barnie’s stay with us he learnt how to:

• walk up and down the stairs
• get in and out of the car
• chase and fetch a ball
• play with other dogs

It was a fun 10 days. He is such a lovely boy. It wasn’t easy letting him go back home.

I would like to show you some highlights from Barnie’s stay with us.

I reckon they can still see us…

See… I is innocent…

Hair gel… you sure…

Mine…Mine…Mine…Mine…

AND THE WINNER IS…..