The Longest Day????

OK I realise that it is not actually midsummer's day yet, but it feels as though I have been up for ages. Looking back on it I have. Some of it is my own fault, but I was quite engrossed in a book. Maybe some of you can sympathise when I say that I didn't want to put it down. So I wasn't going to let up until I had finished it. The only trouble with that was that my new book also sound quite good, so I read quite a chunk of that as well.

Fenric and Sirrius

Now that in itself is nothing unusual, and I was still able to do the usual nightly routine. The dogs went out for their final patrols, the cats were in and out like yoyos. Finally the dogs were in and settled, two cats were in and the other two cats were out, so I was able to lock up and make sure that everything was switched off. Apart from the animal side of things it is a bit like when I had to do duty keys on one of the many units I worked on.

Polly

I have also got into the habit of reading for about half an hour before I settle down myself. So when I put my light out at about midnight all was silent, apart from the odd cricket and nightingale outside.
Then just after 4 Polly decides to start whimpering and snuffling round outside our bedroom door. At first I wondered if she was chasing rabbits as she dreamt, so I gave it a couple of minutes. She still wasn't happy so I let her out so she could have an early sniff round the perimeter. Once she had been sorted out, and settled back down, everything went back to being quiet again.

Half past bloody four and what the blue blazes was that???? It sounded like puppies, rather loud puppies. The dogs were not overly keen on this either, as it sounded louder than if they were out in the street. So clothes on and off to investigate, I didn't need a torch as the first fingers of dawn were starting to lighten the sky. Sure enough some sod had dumped two puppies over our wall. Now our wall goes all the way round our house and it is about five foot high, so unless these puppies have landed by parachute someone had deliberately dumped them there. I had a quick look out of the gate and there was no  one about so whoever it was must have scarpered. Once I had caught sight of these pups I had a pretty shrewd idea who was responsible, as he did the same last year, and not far off the year before that. It's a bloke that I call the one arm bandit. As far as I can tell he hasn't got a good track record with animals, his missing arm bears testament to that as a horse supposedly had enough of being beaten by him. It bit his arm and then threw him, because he didn't get it treated soon enough he ended up losing most of it.

Fenric

So I rounded up these two puppies from under the rhubarb, and put them outside the gate for him to take back. Whilst doing so I checked the name on the gate, and we hadn't mysteriously become Battersea Dog's Home overnight. So Mr Grumpy Bum has been up and about since round about 4 this morning. To say that I am unimpressed is putting things lightly.

I kept on checking on the two pups throughout the day, as I am not convinced that they are old enough to be away from their mother yet. Every time they came near the gate our three dogs were going ballistic. So I would have to move them away from the gate muttering and mumbling as I did so. Eventually this afternoon I spotted the one arm bandit and said that he could take his puppies away with him. Even though he shrugged his shoulders it's funny how he knew what I was on about. I was working out earlier if we had kept all of the dogs that have been dummped over the wall or outside the gate we would have over a dozen by now. We did try keeping one a couple of years back but that bloody thing bit me a couple of times. There is definitely something to be said for the saying, "You can take a dog out of the street, but you can't take the street out of the dog". So now that he has hopefully taken them back home with him, I might get a good night's sleep. However looking at the weather forecast there is meant to be plenty of banging and crashing going on tonight and tomorrow. Oh deep joy !!!!!

I'll Get The Bad Man With My Laser Eyes

On a much more pleasant note I have been fascinated with just how widely read this blog has become. It has been accessed almost 14000 times, by people from 49 different countries. Some of the countries have been really surprising. It is being officially followed by 37 different people. So once again a very big thank you to you all. You are the ones who make this blog possible, and thank you to those who choose to share it with family and friends.
As a closing note, if any of you want a puppy I can put you in touch with a man who could help you out.