Lord and Lady B should be back today sometime so I might get home tonight or maybe in the morning. Lovely weather today with warm sunshine flooding through the windows and the full range of spots to sleep around the lounge is available. More pottering this morning but we will see what the afternoon brings. I will update later.
February 2020
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Thursday 27 February 2020
Not much to report today. It has been snowing most of the time and G has been pottering around the house trying to look busy. We went for a walk down to the village after lunch as higher up it was a bit windy and blizzard prone. I was not allowed off the lead at any point so there was not a lot of joy to be found.
When we got back I had to suffer a 10 minute penalty delay on my food being put down which seemed to be some pathetic additional punishment for skiving off on the previous day. Anyway, after eating I settled in by the fire while G went out to celebrate the birthday of the Saint Bernard. It seemed to go well as he was in a better mood when we got back, but he still wouldn’t allow me to jump on the bed so I had to retire to the dog bed for another ten hours sleep.
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Wednesday 26 February 2020
After a quiet night, I stirred at 9:30, went upstairs and promptly went back to sleep in front of the fire. There was no alternative as it was dumping with snow outside and G was pottering around pretending to be too busy to talk to me. And it stayed like that until after lunch when the whole day went “tits up” as the humans say.
It started when G decided to shift some snow from behind his car. To be fair there was a huge amount of snow and another car was almost completely buried. I decided to roll around in the powder and great fun it was. Then I got a whiff of a food trail and decided to wander off through the fields and adjacent chalets. I could hear G calling and blowing his silly whistle. But I was free of the collar of punishment and decided to follow my nose and ignore the old codger. This is the point where our stories diverge somewhat.
This is the point where I slipped away I found that the road had been cleared and pottered all the way down to check out the sausage and fried chicken shop in the village. When I got there, there were several kids to play with but the kindly lady who ran the shop made it pretty clear she did not want me testing the products. I heard her call the Gendarmerie to report me as “unaccompanied”. I guess they then called the old codger as he pitched up and arranged for Bernie to chauffeur us both back to the kennel. It was once we got back in that I heard the other side of the story as G grassed on me to Lady B on the phone.
His version is that I went AWOL and he tried to follow my tracks through the snow. Some chance but he made it through to the main road. I was nowhere to be seen so he locked up the kennel and walked all the way down to the village. He reports me as missing to the cops and wanders around hoping to find me. Eventually he took the bus back up to the kennel and just as he got there, the cops called to say I was enjoying myself at the sausage shop. So G turns round and promptly gets the same bus back down to find me. Having done that, the silly fool realized that he had lost his keys somewhere along the way, and he had to call the Saint Bernard to come to pick us up and use his spare key to let us in.
Having got back, they had some tea but I got the distinct impression that I was in the doghouse. I heard G dramatizing the whole thing in telephone calls to Lady B and Mrs Blue Rinse. I couldn’t see what the fuss was all about. I had had a good time and eventually we were all reunited.
He needn’t go on about it. He is now saying that because the keys were lost, he will have to go to the shops tomorrow to order new locks. Strikes me he could do with taking a bit more care of his things and not just blame me. But as is normal with humans, the first option is to kick the dog and I fear a day or two of extensive tethering and a few shots from the collar of punishment. Truly a dog’s life today.
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Tuesday 25 February 2020
I am beginning to settle into the new vibe here in the mountain top kennel. For reasons far too complex for a dog to understand, B and G are camping downstairs this year. This has had an impact on my sleeping arrangements as well. In the old days, the chalet was nice and warm from the fire all evening. After having what they laughingly called “food”, I could doze on the carpet in front of the fire (as did B and G but on the settee rather than the carpet). Long after they had gone to bed, and once the lounge had cooled down, I could sneak upstairs and try out the wide range of beds, duvets and carpets which they had failed to protect from me. There I could stay until the chief grump got up and chased me downstairs.
The new arrangement seemed, at first, to be a bit spartan. My new doggy bed was unceremoniously dumped in the middle of the playroom downstairs. The door is open into the bedroom but that room is so bloody cold (at least the floor is hard and chilly) that my bed turns out to be very cosy by comparison. So last night, there being no football on the telly, G crashed out around 10:30 and I dropped into the “nest”. So quiet and dark is that room at night that the next thing I know I am being poked by G because he wants to get to play with his computer and I am in the way. Blow me, it was after nine o’clock and I hadn’t moved or whined all night. I was so surprised that I had to stagger up to the lounge and sleep on in the sunshine glow until 10:30.
Then we went out to see Bernie. There was a bit of DIY involving garage door locks and while they played with their screwdrivers, I looked around to see if there was any food left over on the floor from the party last Saturday. Bloody Bernie had been round with the hoover and not a crumb was to be found. We then all went for a long walk in Taninges followed by them having lunch at a little French restaurant. I made friends with a Frenchman who wanted to take me home, but I was alert to that as I had been told that girls should never go home with a frog on the first date. Maybe next time if things get rough here.
Then back to Les Gets where it was raining. G dished out my grub, and as there is footy tonight, it will be a warm evening by the fire. So that’s it. I have had no time to read the papers but I heard G say that the stock-market is crashing again and that the virus has spread from Italy to Switzerland. Maybe it is only a few days away from here in which case I hope they have got enough dog food in store to cover the self-isolation quarantine period. I would hate it if they died and there was not enough food in the cupboard for me.
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Monday 24 February 2020
Sleeping off the night’s sleep Back again after the break. I must apologise to my readers for such a long absence since my last post, but I have been in mourning over Brexit, life and the coronavirus. Anyway, enough of looking back. I am back at the keyboard in the kennel up the hill. The reason is that Lord and Lady have shoved off to Spain for a few days and I have been abandoned with the Blues and Greys up the hill. Well I say Blues and Greys. In fact, Blue has also bunked off to Brexit to check if her magenta passport still works now that Priti Awful is in charge. So it is just me and Grey which is OK for the moment. I think it is only for a few days as L &L are coming back with the grandkids at the weekend. Incidentally, this year there is an extra grand-kid around and I am clearly relegated to the second division when it comes to attention and the pecking order. So being on my own for a few days is a nice change.
Not much happened today. The sun was out and I slept in it most of the morning and this afternoon we went for a walk up the road. I managed to grovel around in the snow a bit, but spent most of my time in a fruitless search for mice. I can hear and smell them inside their bunkers, but by the time I dig down, they have pushed off. So no kills today, but I will have another go tomorrow.
I heard the news on the radio today and it seems like the coronavirus is scaring the pants off half of the world, including the financial markets. Unfortunately none of the government have caught it but it must be only a matter of time. It may be unhelpful to point out that tens of thousands of humans have perished but so far, not one dog. Long may that continue.
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