Mid-November Catch Up!

Ooops! I really must get on here more often. The boy is growing so quickly and this time is never going to be gotten back.

Ok then. 1st November was the last update. So what were the next things that happened?

Monday 3rd November: In the evening the dogs had a trip with my mum and I all the way to Frankley Services where we collected the children and Jacob's best friend Tom. Nina and Stew (Tom's parents and my great friends) had brought them all down from Cheshire to the handover point and they were thrilled to see Bran. They'd been at our house the day that Bran arrived so the last time they'd seen him he looked like a teeny little puppy. They've seen photos of how he's grown, but I think they were still surprised to see him in the flesh!! Flora was absolutely beside herself with excitement at seeing so many of her favourite people in one place, but was also scared because there were fireworks going off nearby :o( Fairly appropriate really as *bang* went our peace and quiet!

Tuesday 4th November: Sophie and I visited Cardiff with Wendy, Loobie and Fi to go to a fantastic place called Batleys. It's a cash and carry that has a wonderful pet section. Amongst all of the ridiculously girly giggling, we managed to bag some fantastic bargains and - sssssssshhh, don't tell them! - I got lots of Christmas presents for my spoiled puppies. Jacob and Tom had stayed at home and looked after the dogs and so upon our return I was regaled with the horrendous tale of just how norty Bran had been in my absence!! He had destroyed 2 pieces of post, suspectedly eaten a keyring (which he hadn't), chewed the back off of the remote control, chomped on a battery, hidden the remaining battery and the rest of the remote control!! Within 2 minutes, Sophie and I had managed to find all the missing bits and Bran was fine but he'd never been so norty in such a short space of time!! Little monkey had a lucky escape.

Wednesday 5th November: The dreaded Bonfire Night. Fortunately, Bran couldn't care less about fireworks - the noise or the sight of them. Flora is transformed into a quivering wreck and I ended up having to give her a diazepam to calm her down. Bran didn't quite know what to do with himself as his playmate snoozed her way through the evening. The kids did a great job of entertaining him though ;o)

Thursday 6th November: Ah the much awaited day arrived!! My temporary fencing and fencing pins arrived in the post. Despite the fact that we were due to be going out, I couldn't wait to put it up so got the kids to help me poo pick the main lawn for the last time until Spring and then we put the fencing up. I am absolutely thrilled that my poor lawn has been granted a reprieve for a few months, grass seed needs to be scattered to give it a chance to grass properly again, the floors won't be covered in mud and poo picking will be sooooooooo much easier! The dogs are less than happy, but they still have the patio, the concrete area at the end of the garden and a small grassed area to play/toilet in.

Friday 7th November: Bran got to meet a new friend and Flora reacquainted herself with a summer holiday friend. The children's friend Kyle came to visit for the weekend.

Saturday 8th November: My mum's birthday. My mum and dad came to visit for the evening but, unfortunately, there were HUGE amounts of fireworks going off and Flora was absolutely terrified :o( She had another diazepam but I also covered the crate with a heavy blanket and let her settle in there for the evening with various chews and bones. This meant that Bran got alllllllll the attention, dropped bits of food and extra treats for being such a good boy. The covered crate settling Flora gave us the brilliant idea of leaving the crate covered through the night whilst Bran is in it to see if it encourages him to sleep in a bit longer.

Sunday 9th November: I woke up at 9 o'clock and came downstairs to wake Bran up!!! Astonishing result for the covered crate!! Flora was very poorly all day as I think she'd got herself so stressed throughout Saturday evening, so again Bran had to entertain himself for the day - fortunately, he opted to not fill his time with more nortiness!!

Tuesday 11th November: The dogs thoroughly enjoyed themselves today! We had an official Lazy Day (which started with me not getting up until 10 o'clock!! Woohoo for the covered crate!!), so they had lots and lots of cuddles and people on hand to play with them for the whole day.

Wednesday 12th November: Another norty Bran day. However, he did have huge amounts of temptation put in his path so I can hardly blame him. We sorted the 3 outside sheds out so emptied the contents of all of them onto the patio before cleaning them out and putting things away again, so Bran spent the whole afternoon racing around with something that he shouldn't have in his mouth and, inevitably, with somebody on his tail yelling for him to drop whatever it was he had! He had a wonderful time and we were all absolutely shattered! Hahahahaha...

Saturday 15th November: Another new friend for Bran. Auntie Fi came for a visit. Initially, she arrived just for a couple of hours with our old friend Twister and a new friend - a very beautiful, gentle GSD girl called Nouska. Nouska was going to be adopted by Fi's friends who live in Portugal but were visiting Bristol for the weekend, so Fi was due to take Nouska to meet her new family. We were utterly smitten by the stunning girl, although Flora wasn't quite so impressed with having another big girl in *her* house. Bran thought she was fab xx Fi then took Nouska off to her family and returned to stop over for the night.

Sunday 16th November: What a busy day!! Bran and Flo were very excited to see Auntie Fi coming down the stairs in the morning and she got well and truly dozered!!! Flora has been educating Bran sufficiently that we have now decided that he isn't "just" a labrador but is a labradozer. They leapt all over poor Fi and covered her in kisses before getting excited enough that they just had to start wrestling!

Wendy then arrived with Wiggle and Sir H and we headed off to the park for a while. Flora was very noisy but Bran was a star, although I'm not sure that Twister would agree! Bran has taking an immense liking to Twister and has made it his mission to get her to play with him one day. In the house, this means that he has to bounce in front of her and bark whilst she is snoozing on the sofa. In the park, this means that he has to run right next to her and try to grab her if she stands still for long enough. Needless to say that, at 12, Twister is far from impressed with this behaviour and has completely blanked him so far. The Pickle isn't one to admit defeat though!! We were a bit shocked to realise that Bran is nearly as tall as Wiggle now!!

Big Boy

(doesn't look so bad until you realise that the bed he's in (or almost in!) is 3 feet across!)

And then.......Nina and Stew arrived with their cavalier boys - Ricky and Charlie. Wendy and the labby boys left and Bran focussed his attention on annoying Ricky as much as possible by employing the same tactics as had been wasted on Twister!!

And finally... Monday 17th November: Thankfully for me, the manic weekend has meant that after an inital manic hour or so of mad wrestling this morning, both dogs have been snoozing soundly!! Bliss. Absolute bliss!!