Tuesday 29 March 2011

Paddy - happy....and sad

Paddy and Guinness really miss Lisa as she only comes home once a month, so they go a bit OTT when she arrives! Paddy's joy soon disappeared when he tried to play with a bumble bee. The bee did not appreciate the attention and stung him on the lip. This is not a very good photo but you can see the very swollen lips. Guinness is far more sensible: he chases butterflies!

More stories. . . .


It has been many months since I wrote about Paddy and Guinness, primarily due to the guest house being so busy. However the dogs have continued to create mess and destroy anything they can get their teeth into, but they have also provided a great deal of laughter and love. So for those of you who have been waiting patiently for news, I shall endeavour to bring you up to date.

During the Spring bank holiday Lisa decided to take Paddy to London. Paddy is Lisa's dog but as she lives in a tiny flat in London he is residing at The Greenwood for now. Lisa sent me an account of his trip to the city.



We wanted to see how well the boys fared being split up for a few days so I took Paddy to London to stay with me and Jamie to stay in our little flat in North London. We packed up his bed and popped him in the back of the car and both Jamie and I were very nervous at having the responsibility of looking after a five month old puppy who had never been away from his brother .


Nether of the puppies had been in the car for longer than half an hour so we were unsure as to how well Paddy would fare in the back of the car. After just over half an hour on the motorway a very nasty smell filled the car so we came off at the next motorway services to see what had happened. We opened the boot to find Paddy had been quite sick on his bed, but his little tail was still wagging and he seemed very bright and happy. We took him out of the car to stretch his legs a little and gave him a drink. We decided we would rather throw the bed away than travel the rest of the way with the smell.


We got to London and took Paddy straight to the park for a toilet break; luckily the park is virtually outside our front door. His tail was still wagging and we had a little run around together. He didn’t seem to be missing his brother at all. As soon as we got him into the flat he seemed to be looking for Guinness. He ran through the rooms and then looked at us with quite a puzzled expression. Then he ran around some more and went to crouch in the middle of the floor for a number two so we quickly rushed back out to the park again. When we came back we gave him a cuddly toy of Mickey Mouse which he seemed to instantly adore and gave him some dinner that he wolfed down. We then all snuggled up on the sofa and Paddy had a little snooze.


We decided to let Paddy sleep on the bed with us as it was his first night away from home. Paddy didn’t really settle and every five minutes he would wriggle and move. We tried shutting him in the hall but he just whined and then started barking when someone walked past the front door. I thought I would stay up with him and sleep on the sofa because he seemed to relax more there. Paddy woke me up about 4:30am to go to the toilet so we off out to the park again. I went off to work at 8am and left my two favourite boys at home with Jamie giving me hourly updates. Luckily I didn’t have a busy day; I nearly fell asleep at my desk. Having a puppy is hard work!


Jamie said that Paddy was well behaved and everytime Jamie wasn’t giving him enough attention or using the computer instead of playing, Paddy would try and lie on Jamie’s hands!


That evening we all sat on the sofa together and Paddy had a good sleep. We took him out to that park for a toilet break and then got ready for bed. We tried putting Paddy’s bed just outside our bedroom door but he whinged until we gave in and let him on the bed. Again he wouldn’t settle so I let him out of the bedroom. He went out and jumped on the sofa. He gave me a little look as if to say “I’ll be ok here” and put his head down to go to sleep. I was a little concerned I would wake up to a sofa completely chewed and mess everywhere but when he woke up at 5:30am the place was spotless. He was obviously desperate for the loo so we went out to the park. He seemed to have bags of energy this morning and it was a really fresh dewy morning so we had a great run around together. When we got back to the flat Jamie told me to go to bed for a few hours, he would stay with Paddy and make sure he was happy.


Later on in the day a friend of mine, Catherine was coming to meet our puppy. We walked Paddy down to the tube to meet her but she was running late. Paddy has an inability to stand still for any length of time (something he hasn’t grown out of) so while I waited for Catherine, Jamie took Paddy back to the flat.


Catherine and I spent the afternoon playing with Paddy keeping him happy and then took him for a final walk in the park before heading back to Somerset. On this walk Paddy managed to eat the largest pile of dog poop I think I have ever seen! I made Catherine promise not to tell Jamie because I knew he wouldn’t want to drive Paddy back after that from fear of him regurgitating his snack!


I made sure that this time Paddy was on the back seat with Jamie, rather than in the boot but Jamie wasn’t taking any chances, he had a duvet, covered in a newspaper across his lap and we drove back with the windows down. I was terrified Paddy would be ill again but he seemed to almost enjoy his journey back to Somerset. We didn’t need to stop once and Paddy wasn’t ill. It was a good experience although a very tiring one, but I don’t think we will be repeating ir again anytime soon!!!