Cheese
Blimey, what a day. First thing we had to say goodbye to Hubby. This was tough as we’re really going to miss him, and the kids especially were upset and sombre all morning. Still, we’re trying to stay positive and we’ve got loads of visits planned, either with him flitting home or us popping over to see him so I’m sure the weeks will fly by before he’s back with us again.
Later on we drove up to the stadium to see J for some well earned tea, and laughter-as-therapy and to pick up our new foster boy. He’s coming to stay for a few weeks, not only to keep us company and act as ‘token man’ while Hubby’s away, but also to give him some proper house training before he goes to a new Italian family.
The biggest bone (no pun intended) of contention was the fact that the kids wanted to call him ‘Cheese’. Now, I’m all for a silly name, but I actually felt quite sorry for the big man, having to be named after a dairy product and all. Anyway, when they finally got to meet him and discovered what a great big cuddly fawn bear of a dog he is, suddenly ‘Cheese’ didn’t sound right at all. J suggested ‘Wensleydale’, or ‘Wes’ for short, but this was rejected too, along with ‘Gouda’, ‘Edam’ ‘Cheddar’ and a host of others. Finally, me Mum suggested ‘Bertie’, after J’s favourite, fragrant politician, and seeing as he’s very much ‘a la mode’ today, looking increasingly likely to step into a third term, we all agreed and set off home with our new and very un-fragrant Bertie in the back. An hour later, after rushing around checking out every room in the house, he was treated to his first bath. It took me, me Mum and #1 to heave him into the bath, where he stood very patiently as we scrubbed about a ton of dirt and fluffy sludge off him. He then proceeded to have a jolly good shake, covering us all in more wet fluff, which stuck like glue. Now the whole family looked like furry golden teddy bears his work was done and after submitting patiently to a blow-dry which puffed him up even more, he finally deigned to sit in his bed for two seconds.
Every time anyone gets up, however, or even shifts position a bit, he leaps up to check out what’s going on. He found tea making fascinating: all that moving from the fridge to the kettle to the bin and back to the cups kept him occupied for ages. Then he tried to sit on me Mum’s lap, which alarmed her a bit, but he’s finally settled down and sat still long enough to pose for a photo. Happy days.
Oh, and I forgot to say, he’s a blue fawn, which is very pretty. He’s mostly fawn but he’s got a bluish head and some rather fetching blue ears. Gorgeous.
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