oh the fluffiness!!

[essayel]

We bathed the dog this morning. Paul took him down to the river and he found a particularly succulent cow pat to roll in - the dog not Paul - and came back smelling like - well like shit.

Then he came and put his stinky head in my lap while I was eating breakfast.

We took him out into the garden with buckets of lukewarm water and a bottle of pet shampoo. He takes a lather beautifully. We poured buckets of water over him to get the bubbles off then ran for it. Unfortunately our tabby cat had come to enjoy the show and got caught in the worst of the spatter as he shook. Schadenfreude gone awry. We had to dry both of them.

yakalskovich asked if he sulked but no he didn't. While we tortured him washed him he looked sad and reproachful and betrayed, but as soon as we let go of the lead he grinned, tongue lolling and leaped and bounded. He shook himself and spiked up like a porcupine then tried to rub the water off on our legs.

Now he has been fed and is asleep on the floor, making a damp patch, because Tabi is getting a bbit of payback by sleeping in his bed.

Himself is watching a tv show about 'building a new life in the country'. I'm a bit po-faced about this sort of thing because though I was brought up in the country I can't afford to live there because of all the downsizers selling up in the city and having masses of cash to lavish on pushing up the prices. Good luck to them, because they've probably worked hard for their money etc etc, but it's sad when the local population have to move out to make way for them. It's a kind of financial ethnic cleansing. But honestly the reason I'm bitching about it today is that THIS particular downsizer, an ex-banker, is driving his top of the range Beemer like a fucking maniac along lanes with poor visibility where there could be farm machinery, cattle, sheep, dog walkers, riders anything. Town driving on country lanes doesn't work, guys. Especially YOU Mr ex-banker Jeremy Duckworth. You hit a sheep at that speed and you'll say goodbye to your legs as well as your no claims bonus.

Comments

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on the "building a new life in the country" thang (and the betrayed expression dogs give you when you wash them). I'm from the Outer Hebrides where folk move to "get away from it all". They then complain when they can't get the same facilities you'd expect in a city (like ubiquitous broadband) or when the locals want to change anything (like better street lighting in rural villages). Okay, rant over ;)

[essayel.livejournal.com]

We had an incomer who tried to take her neighbour to court because he kept, and had always kept so they had been there when she had viewed the house, chickens and "the cock crows too early". She had thought the country would be a nice quiet place to live but - horrors - the cock crew while it was still dark, people drove loud slow moving machinery in the road at dawn and stopped and had shouted conversations with their mates over the engine noise, and the sheep baaed a lot at weaning time. Also the village shop, which we were bloody lucky to have, didn't sell taramasalata. Honestly I could have wept for her - sorta.

Outer Hebrides, eh? Makes your icon mightily appropriate.

[yakalskovich]

Moves to the country and then sues about the chickens.

This is so priceless!

[essayel.livejournal.com]

Unbelievable! Imagine going to live in a city and complaining about the traffic noise?

Mad as a fish.

[yakalskovich]

Oh, but they do! Yuppies moving to freshly gentrified areas of the city complain a lot about things being not as they're used to in their suburbs. You know, they move into an area full of pubs (= here) and then complain about people being noisily on pub crawls at night...

[essayel.livejournal.com]

I expect you find the background noise of the city right and proper. I find the seasonal round of the country relaxing - even the stench of muck spreading is a comfort.

[yakalskovich]

I do find the stench of much spreading slightly comforting as well. It reminds me of long drives in the country, looking out at the green scenery, and not thinking of anything...

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

The poor dear, my heart bleeds. Did nobody show her how to switch the cockerel off? ;) In the Hebrides people like that are referred to as "white settlers", not pc I know, but very apt.


Outer Hebrides, eh? Makes your icon mightily appropriate.
Yes indeed :) I'm from Lewis and we used to spend family holidays at the beach were these little guys were found. I also worked on several excavations (mostly brochs and duns) on another beach nearby.

[essayel.livejournal.com]

Ooh we visited Lewis on our honeymoon. We'll never forget it - John Noakes was on the boat across from Skye and Shep was sick on his boot.

Its' a lovely place.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

My goodness! I remember that! (John Noakes, not your honeymoon ;) Mid seventies wasn't it? And you're right, Lewis is a very lovely place indeed :)

[essayel.livejournal.com]

"Go with Noakes" was the tv show. We were amused to spot ourselves in the background and convulsed to see they didn't show the bit with poor Shep blurping up his Winalot.

1978 - dear God that was a long time ago!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Go with Noakes! That's the one!

Should I tell you I was ten at the time? ;)

[beckyblack]

The cat being caught in the spray of water makes me LMAO, I admit. :D I can imagine the total outrage in the little catty face.

[essayel.livejournal.com]

She was HORRIFIED. :D Wet that smelled of dog! What could be worse?

They've made their peace now though and she's eating his dinner.

[mcgonagalls-cat.livejournal.com]

Its probably no comfort, but the same sorts of City People move into the - (MY) - mountains here.

I quit a job (that I couldn't really afford to quit) last year because some idiots bought a house (big enough for twenty people, but only for two) with ridiculously wasteful ceilings - three stories at the peak, and nothing but the floor level accessible, so heating/cooling a whole house-worth of space with no usable reason. Anyhow, I tolerated their paving the driveway that was too steep and had a crook in the end, and quite a bit of other foolishness - until they decided to cut down trees for some defend-able space and a yard. If they wanted that sort of "look" then they should live where:
A.) the trees are already gone,
B.) it actually rains more than 18 inches per year and will support a lawn,
C.) where a "fire break" might matter (since there was only ONE road into their place and that fed into ONE other road, thus if an actual forest fire was burning the fire department wouldn't even bother to come that way because they'd get trapped and die),
D.) the neighbors can't see status attempts - and most think less of them than I do anyway,
E.) If you wanted to live in town, do so, don't import town to this place where I live to be away from you....

And they do all drive like they are mentally impaired. Since we get interesting winter weather they all think they need 4-wheel drive monster-sized SUVs, and have no concept that being able to stop is far more important than being able to go. (It is quite entertaining to watch their expensive vehicles spin and tip over, though I know too many Mountain people who have been killed or seriously hurt because of some yuppie scum from Evergreen crashing into them.)
And your point about out-pricing the Locals is so true! We had one politician (one out of hundreds) who understood and got a law slipped in while the money-grubbers weren't looking that said if there was a single bee hive on the property the taxation rate would "agricultural" (much lower) rather than the residential and other higher rates, so that the widows and old guys wouldn't be taxed off their properties. [Of course, the rest of the money-grubbers have been trying to get that undone ever since they discovered it... but....]

So, yes, not OK for rude people who need keepers to move into the rural regions and mess 'em up for the rest of us.

Why, no - this isn't a sore spot... Why do you ask?

.

[metallumai.livejournal.com]

We tried bathing Crash ourselves when we first got him, but not only does he do the "I'm so HURT" routine, he actively tries to escape! I think Huskies regard unfrozen ice as a mortal danger. For the past 5 years, we've spent the money to have him bathed by actual dog groomers, maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Usually just before summer, and in late autumn. (or before houseguests show up.) Apparently he behaves like a lamb for THEM-- they all tell me what a love he is, and argue over who gets to 'do' Crash.

[essayel.livejournal.com]

It's that unconditional love thing, isn't it? He knows he can get away with making you feel miserable and guilty for being so CRUEL but the nice ladies in the dog grooming shop have to be impressed in another way. Sneaky thing.

Sizz has 'bed hair' today, especially on his bottom.

[jrtomlin.livejournal.com]

"...he found a particularly succulent cow pat to roll in - the dog not Paul..."

Gave me a much needed chuckle.

I'm sure someone will find an off switch for that cockerel if the 'lady' just complains loudly enough.

[essayel.livejournal.com]

She moved to a more refined area where they shampoo the sheep - the difference between a tourist trap and a working village - silly wench.