Sizzle!

If I told him once, I must have told him a hundred times. Leave the horses alone.
He is fascinated by them. Cyril come away from the horses.
He waited for my back to be turned, then finally he made one last ditched attempt for a closer look and just when he thought he had achieved his mission and stuck his head through the fence.

He caught his big fat nose on the electric wire!

Ah yes nothing like a wet nose to complete a circuit!

Now know at the cottage as Sizzle.

She's a little cracker!

Leah has been good as gold she is a little Christmas Cracker.
Cyril on the other hand has been a bit of a bully. They both love there grub sooo much. I would have loved to carry on fostering but its obviously just asking that bit too much of him. He's come such a long way it was perhaps just a step too far. Never mind you don't know if you don't try and having Leah has been a joy.


She is being very well behaved with The Chunkster and he is enjoying batting her on the nose occasionally, which she is unfazed by. She would chase him given the chance but there is no malice she just wants to play.

She is so gentle she won't be here much longer and I am going to miss playing fetch and my morning cuddles.

Leah the foster dog

Our first foster dog Leah.

Well what a little poppet she has been. We were a little worried about a 10 month old puppy coming into the house especially as its been 17 years since we had a puppy! She has been a little charmer from day one. We needn't have worried.


She was a typical puppy with no real doggy manners but after Cyril decided enough was enough and told her off she has been much better.
She is clean in the house and woke me at 3am the first night to go out to the loo. Clever girl.

She tried out all the beds even the cats.

She likes Cyrils best and he is happy to loan it out.

She happily sleeps in her crate at night although she does make a little fuss in the day when she is left but a kong takes her mind off it. She loves her food which helps with training she responds to some commands and is learning. She does jump up when excited.

On walks she wants to meet everyone if they want to meet her or not, you have to watch this as she jumps up at them too.

She is very good at opening presents and loves tearing paper. She also seems to know that toilet roll is great fun and stole a role out of the bathroom and then went downstairs to shred it all over the kitchen:)

Waiting for her pressie


Getting started


Nearly there


Yey a Turkey !
She loves her turkey and is really quite gentle when she plays.

Under supervision she has met the cat. The Chunkster is sooo inquisitive he couldn't stay away and sat staring at her through the door. Leah found this very disconcerting and kept backing away. When they have met Leah has been very well behaved although I wouldn't leave her to her own devices just yet, as she really wants to play, I do think she would happily live with a cat.

We are positive she has lived in a home before and she has sneaked on the sofa a couple of times to watch the TV! She sneaked onto my lap yesterday when friends were round and pretty much by stealth worked her way up so that her head was on my lap and her bum was on my friends lap. This apparently counts as not being on the sofa:)

Foster Doggy

Might be getting a Foster Doggy for over Christmas. Best behaviour now Cyril

We all decided to go for a walk over the nature reserve this week. Even old Cody came. Cyril had an absolute ball lying in every muddy puddle he came across. He behaved beautifully waiting when I asked him to, not always coming back when I asked him to as is the norm but I never wanted him to be perfect:). He met more dogs than he has ever met before and to my absolute joy loved every minute of it! Off the lead and free to make his own choices ran with Rottweilers to Jack Russell's, one at a time or a few at once, at one time there were about 9 of them in the field all bouncing around. The best of it was when we met the bounciest most playful Border Terrier ever. Cyril, once worried by too much playfulness, almost had to be dragged away the two of them had an absolute ball!
If there were doggy exams I'm sure he'd pass. He wasn't quite so please about the hose down when we got home though.

Every week we go to see our friends with the dogs. Cody 13yr old arthritic lab, Lily bouncy but delicate Collie mix up and sometimes Harley is visiting all legs in no particular order black lab puppy. Every week they go for a walk in the woods at the back of the house and every week Cyril is invited but just sits and watches them go and then lies down and waits for them to appear again. This week he got all brave! He took a quick look at me to see if it was ok and off he went with them! I meanwhile did a Cyril and waited for them to come back.
First Harley came flying back like the disorientated rocket that he is legs and ears flying as he hurtled across the paddock, then Lily shoots out from the woods like a rocket across the paddock towards me closely followed by what appeared to be a chocolate labrador but on closer inspection turned out to be Cyril looking extremely pleased with himself.

Play time

Cyril seems to have finally caught on. Over the last few weeks the penny seems to have dropped and he has worked out how dogs do the play thing!

Lily, who he visits weekly, has never allowed him to play with her. Not since the first time she tried and Cyril told her off. She worries him a bit as does Harley the Labrador puppy but recently he has seemed eager to try this new play thing out with him. That is until Harley goes yampy and then Cyril hides behind me until he goes away. Last week, however he decided he would actually instigate a game with Cody a 13 yr old lab full of arthritis who generally much prefers napping to playing. I'm not sure who was the most surprised us or Cyril when she actually did!

Dillon, his mad Spaniel mate, has been trying to get him to play since they met about a year ago Cyril gave him a good telling off too but Dillon is not easily phased and is very forgiving (if not a little bit daft). Try as he might Cyril would just never join in but today he finally cracked it and they had a whale of a time. That is until Cyril got all tired out and just lay down.