Dogs cats and Meis

Well here I am playing catch-up again. Sometimes I read through what I’ve written a few months ago and it seems like it’s the same old stuff over and over again. Sometimes I think your lives must be much more interesting than mine, but then I’m the one living mine and it all seems so familiar that I wonder why anybody looks at my blog at all. A couple of the blogs that I follow seem to be written by action heroes, there is so much going on in their lives. Ah well, at least it’s peaceful in my corner of paradise.

You’ll no doubt be aware that I have a new dog to look after now. Wolfie is a big softy, he smells of urine most of the time and occasionally has a crap on my little patio by the porch but his most endearing habit so far is barking like a madman sometime between the hours of 01.30 and 03.30. It’s a strange thing but this barking always interrupts or initiates a dream, I never really remember what the dreams are about, they vary but it usually seems like twenty or thirty minutes has elapsed since his barking starts until I realise that the dream is not real and I should get out of bed and go to quieten him. In reality it is probably only a few seconds but it seems longer. I bought one of those electronic training aids to clip around his neck like a second collar, it has various settings and can deliver an electric shock, a buzzing vibration and a beep that sounds like a little motorbike. He ignores the beep, the electric shock doesn’t appear to have any effect on him whatsoever but the vibration works quite well so now I can just roll over in bed, reach out to the bedside table and press the button to give him a little vibrating surprise which seems to quieten him, at least for a while. Of course there is no point in just doing that without any associated training so we have little sessions during the the day so that he know who is doing it, why and what he should do to avoid getting another dose. I think I must be getting softer as I age because even though I have to go to these lengths to try to keep him quiet all the other dogs in the village are all barking like madmen too. I made him a kennel a few weeks ago, just a rough old thing, wouldn’t want to spoil him too much now would I? Here he is trying it out, I did actually catch him sleeping in it one day too…

wolfie-kennel

… but most of the time he commandeers the settee…

wolfie-settee

The cats have had a fun time for the last couple of weeks too, they often bring small creatures they have killed, or are in the process of killing, usually they bring them first thing in the morning while I am still in bed. I don’t mind too much when a dead mouse is dropped on my bed but it does get annoying when it is still alive, shrieking fit to wake the dead and running around looking to hide under my pillow. Funny but they soon get bored with that game, the cats that is, and it is up to me to dispose of the poor little creature. However they never tire of playing with a cardboard box. I am not privy to the rules of the games, there seem to be three distinct games but they all involve one cat being in the box and the other one trying to usurp the position. One game uses subterfuge to entice the sitting tenant to vacate the box, the second uses surprise and shock to frighten the sitting tenant out and the third is just a violent frontal attack. The winner is the last one in the box when the other cat stalks off in a huff. Funnily thing though, I have three cats but they never gang up two against the sitting tenant, the third one always sits and watches and occasionally takes over the role of attacker.

cats-box

The boxes that Hepsiburada.com deliver shoes in are just right for this game because if you duck down under the top flaps you can repel an attacker by jumping up at just the right moment.

I had yet another trip to Meis a few weeks ago so here are a few more photos.

meis-east-bay