when idiots come a running

What do you do when a highly illogical, nonsensical person comes and assumes the worst about your life and blasts away?

If it was any other person at the street, I would probably just tell them to bugger off and walk away.

But when it's family. You don't.

You reply, you explain, you try to make them understand that it is not right, not right to keep attacking and making completely baseless, idiotic accusations.

...

But how much? How much of these do I tolerate?

We are both happy. Happy with each other, happy with our lives. We don't need to hear otherwise.

We don't need her assumptions that we are torturing our pets, that we're making them do things against their will just because we're attached to them.

WHAT AN IDIOT.

My patience is running low. Very very low. When it runs OUT, that's when you have to be very careful.

The perfect tree

What makes the perfect christmas tree?

The perfect christmas tree is not only beautiful and well proportioned.

It represents the joy and excitement we felt when we found it tree hunting a forthnight (on Sunday evening mind!) before Christmas when all the other nice trees were already gone.

It represents the gratitute we received when we paid £30 to the keen, helpful and friendly old man sat out in the cold who sold us the tree.

It represents the smile on a little boy's face when he spotted the perfect tree. His first perfect christmas tree.

It represents friendship, as Michael attempts to decorate and light up the tree.

Most importantly, it represents a young family snug and happy in their very first home celebrating Christmas in it for the very first time.

Tube drivers can be so much fun

In another run-and-gun post, here's what I heard on my train this morning:

"It would be nice ladies and gentlemen if we could mind the closing does. Contrary to popular belief, beep-beep-beep does not mean 'Quick, get on the train it's about to leave'; beep-beep-beep in fact means 'You've missed it'"

and, on the same train 10 minutes later

"Ladies and gents, I'm afraid the train has developed a slight fault, I'm going to have to turn it off and on again much like you would a computer. Back on the move again in a minute or two"

Bunny Three Quarters

We drove up to Darlington last Friday to collect the newest addition to our family. Yes, there was snow in Darlington, 3 inches thick to be exact, but we made it there and back safely.

We named her Bunny Three Quarters and if you have a look at her picture, you'll understand why

Bunny (previously Hannah) was found as a stray and brought into a kennel. They later found her previous owners but they refused to pay the kennel fee to get her back. I'm guessing they weren't too keen on having her home or perhaps they really couldn't afford the fee.

She was then handed into Dogs Trust where we adopted her.

She is not a very big dog, just slightly larger than Bronx and unfortunately that intimidates him a little bit. They are not enemies and they do like each other, but are still sorting out hierarchical issues..

We have no idea how she lost her leg but the vet's notes from Dogs Trust said that she is an amputee.. considering she has a tendency to run out into traffic when we take her out, I'm guessing she must have had an accident with a vehicle.

My parents are officially baffled as to why we keep bringing old, disabled pets home. They figured after Jake passed on that we would probably go and adopt a proper, blemish free puppy.

The thing is.. we don't see Bronx, Bunny or Wibble as imperfect. Sure, they have a disability. In Bronx's case, he's just old. But that doesn't make him any less of a good dog.

Bunny hops around when she walks but when she runs in the fields she's as normal as any other German Sheppard.

Wibble is 3/4 blind, but he's as naughty as his brother. He goes places he's not supposed to. He reaches for things he isn't supposed to be able to reach. He eats the door, the door frame, boxes, books, cables.. anything he isn't supposed to eat. The only difference is that he's a lot more paranoid but he finds comfort in long sessions of chin rubbing.

We take them in because we know we are willing to deal with these issues. We are willing to sit with Wibble for hours to give him a chin massage to reassure him that everything is okay and Chicken Pie was just being bossy boots. We took the dogs home to be part of our family, not to have them as guard dogs.

It is miles away from the Malaysian mentality where German Sheppards and other bigger dogs are prized and encouraged to be aggresive to ward off potential thieves or robbers.

Our pets are part of the family, they are loved, cared for and they give back, not by guarding our house, but by loving us the same.