Back to normal
Well, it’s all depressingly back to normal here. Hubby’s back to work, and I’m still burrowing through the enormous washing mountain that erupted after our holiday. The mouse traps have been eerily quiet, so I’m assuming the mice all go and stay with relatives in the New Year.
The only thing that has changed dramatically is B. From a rather laid-back couch potato, she has morphed into an adrenalin-charged torpedo, charging up and down the hall, attacking – and, bizarrely, rearranging – cushions and barking constantly. The house echoes to the sound of us all yelling ‘SHUT UP!’ every five minutes. She’s also taken to having strange ten minute fits of running around at full pelt, ricocheting off the furniture (whether it’s occupied or not) making strange noises. Dr J has prescribed a lower-protein food, but I have to say I preferred the old, mostly comatose B to this new furry monster.
Recall training, however, is much improved. Once I’ve stopped her bouncing about long enough to get her lead on, I take her far down to the bottom field (I’ll try and take a picture today), and let her off, where she does a rather good spindly pinball impression pinging from one side of the field to the other like a woman possessed. Once this dies down to a more genteel snuffling, I walk round the field with her to make sure she’s completely knackered, before turning smartly towards the house, calling out ‘BYE!’ in my cheeriest voice, and striding back up the field, making sure I don’t look back. So far, this has worked wonders. More often than not I’ve heard the thunder of approaching greyhound and she’s whizzed back up behind me again. I say more often than not, because the one time Hubby, #2 and I all took her out, she was having such a lovely snuffle in one of the far fields that she ignored all our shouts. Mind you, that was before I adopted my ‘fast march towards the house’ technique, so I may have cracked it. Watch this space.
The boys are back to school shortly and the place will once again seem big and echoey without them, but I’m due to start my journalism course, and the endless, ongoing search for a house of our own here in Ireland will have to continue. Oh, and I guess the mice will be ending their Christmas cease-fire shortly too, so that will keep me occupied.
