Posie's Blog. Tales of island life on a hebridean hill farm

Posie's Blog. Tales of island life on a hebridean hill farm

Friday 18 March 2011

The happy farmer has issues...

The happy farmer has issues.

Trouble arrived in the form of a flat coated retriever pup, a quite demanding little bundle; she strutted into the farmhouse on Monday night and instantly began to lay down her ground rules, which seem to differ ever so slightly from our ground rules so battle has begun. After several sleepless nights listening to her demanding company throughout the night, yes none of this whimpering and whining, more of a full on constant yap of a bark, her sleeping quarters have been moved, she now resides in the nearly completed farmhouse extension during the twilight hours. The sitting room rug has become a playground, coal and pieces of wood have been retrieved from the log pile at the fireside, to be chewed and strewn across the floor. Boots, shoes and slippers are no longer safe, and the pile of school bags that habitually get dumped at the front door are now in imminent danger, as are all of the pieces of clothing lying strewn across teenage bedroom floors, just as soon as she can manage to tackle climbing the ever so large  and challenging staircase.

 The cats’ noses are out of joint, they have made it quite clear that in no uncertain terms are they wishing to entertain a small puppy and now glower from high places as the pup wriggles around like a little eel, chomping and chewing at anything that crosses her path. Just when the feline members of the clan thought it couldn’t get any worse, the happy farmer took it upon himself to invest in a large sack of economy cat food. It really is proving economic as the cats hover around their dishes turning their noses up at the happy farmer’s offerings.

Several days on and the pup has made her presence known and she is a very welcome new addition to the family, everyone remembers our last flat coat, who sadly dies a few years back at a very good age. It took a few evenings to come up with a name for the pup, and after much discussion may I introduce Miss Ruby Maisie Milly Molly Irn Bru Cocoa cola Shadow Sparky Black Bottle Josie Marjorie, Jetta, Dusty, Vali Smuts….known for short as Ruby…

Until next time….

18 comments:

Martha said...

Love the economical cat food!! LOL!

What a sweet baby...have fun!

Elizabethd said...

Amazing name, Posie! Di you all have a hand in it?!
I can imagine the cats are fed up not only with a new animal in the house......but also with Economy food!

Tattieweasle said...

Hey Ruby! Ruby! Gorgeous little girl...feeling broody now it's been two months since the pups went to their new homes...

Frances said...

Ruby is a love. Surely, she will have you all trained perfectly within another week!

Aren't puppies wonderful? xo

Maggie Christie said...

All of the chewing and redistributing of belongings explains why our dogs are crate trained!

Ruby is gorgeous.

Poor cats though. I suppose that's what's called a double whammy. I had to laugh at the 'economy' cat 'food'. Our cats won't eat that sort of thing either.

bayou said...

Nice to have a new family member! Hope Ruby does not learn from the shepherd dog how to escape and leave the family in big worries.

Posie said...

Martha - the pup thinks the economical cat food is great too!!
Elizabeth - no one cold agree, you can even guess out which family members contributed which names
Tattie- she is fulfilling all broody needs lol, I keep getting rows for singing every Ruby song I know, badly and out of tune!
Frances- it is so hard not to give in to her every whim she is so adorable.
Mags - How on earth a I going to convince the cats to eat a whole sackful of the stuff, it's not like a small box which I could feed as treats to the ever hungry pup! All tips on crate training gratefully received!
Bayou - I am sure that will come, flatcoats have a mind of their own!!

Milla said...

oh Lord, are you CRAZY!! Someone near here has one and it is mental!
Here's what Edward (husband) wrote in the Guardian this week about dog owning:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/12/dog-for-life-crufts
A possibly jaundiced take!
Enjoy it while it's still at the cute stage. Shudder!

Posie said...

Milla...I am completely bonkers...but I have always had flat coated retrievers, through childhood, I then made them a condition of marriage...and even bred from my last bitch, yes and at that point I had two young children, a baby on the way and 10 flat coat pups....loved your other half's article...Ruby is nine weeks old and already pretty house trained....smug smile...but the chewing is yet to begin....

jane said...

Posie what a gorgeous little bundle - I am sure she has won all your hearts already - I am sure you will have many a tale to tell about her on your blog in the forthcoming months - I am looking forward to them x

Jayne said...

Just love flat coated retrievers lovely elegant dogs. want one!

Molly said...

Posie - life is never going to be the same again!

Anonymous said...

How can anything that cute be so naughty! If you get bored of Ruby, send her over here...

Pondside said...

The Happy Farmer and The Great Dane must have been separated at birth, as we are also subjected to the 'large economy size' of dogfood, cereal - you name it!
Dear friends of ours, just last week, brought home a flat coat pup. They've always had flat coat retrievers and when their old gal died a few months ago they put their name in and were delighted to have another to love.

Posie said...

Jane - I am looking forward to sharing her adventures with you, I am sure there will be loads to blog about...
Jayne - they are lovely dogs, very very sweet natured, but need masses of exercise, are house wreckers and thieves when it comes to food, they are the greediest breed of dog I have met yet.
Molly - I know am already having to do dog feeds at 7am every morning
Lottie -fat chance of me ever getting bored of her, she is soo entertaining, but she might get sent down to you for bad behaviour haha
Pondie - I think the economy cat food is heading for the hens, the cats are still on hunger strike

Molly said...

Another little comment - Posie - love your new header. Herald of Spring. Wonderful!

Fennie said...

Oh, but she looks beautiful, Posie! How old is she? Hope she proves a wonderful and tractable pet, clever and thoughtful and helpful, occasionally, at rounding up sheep and retrieving eggs for you, laid in the thickest bramble bush as hens are wont to do.

Thedarkerside73 said...

Aww what a cute pup! She sounds like a handful of fun!

Love the cats hunger strike over the economical cat food!


MBB x