Sister Bliss the Dandie Dinmont is in temporary crisis!

Dear Sister Bliss - you can see how miserable she is. She has scratched her face and, now it is healing, it is itchy poor lass. So a couple of days in this 'modern' Elizabethan Collar will give her wound time to heal.

Every dog knows that, if one is wearing a collar like this, that one cannot walk, cannot puddle (let alone pooh) and that one must immediately descend into great depths of depression.

Boy has tried to talk to her; to reassure her that it isn't an implement of torture and now she does realise that she can shut her eyes and have a snooze without a near death experience.

This is the ultimate 'be cruel to be kind' sort of thingie for an owner to do. But all will be well when she begins to smell the chicken that will shortly be roasting and she gets a 'special meal' in compensation. I don't think it will be many seconds before she learns another skill - eating whilst wearing a collar!

Boy Digs Too!

Was it the fuss I was making of the Dandie Dinmont Terrier 'girls' when they were digging? Was it some primeaval stirring in the old chap? Whatever the reason, it was wonderful to see. Boy, sensibly, decided to renew his acquaintance with the art of hole making. Not in the hard, flint-filled bank that the girls were tackling, but in a nice, soft, black, peaty part of the garden that was easily manipulated with his older, more delicate paws.

He did it without drama, without seeking attention and the first I knew was when he came up to me, looking up at me, showing me that he too could have a dirty face just like the females. There was no ambiguity in his look - he wanted to be part of the gang and be photographed too!