As it turned out, there was a serious downside of my grandparents not coming to visit. It gave my Master and Mistress the opportunity to take us shopping for a new fireplace and some carpets. Sadly, we only got as far as being in the car as due to the dogist society in which we live we were not allowed into the shops to actually make the choices. All we got were the endless discussions on the pros and cons and the ridiculous prices when they came back to the car. Now in fairness, it is more fun to go out with them than to sit at home wondering where they are and the beauty of this time of year is that we can quite safely sit in the car. However, the whole thing would be a lot more enjoyable if they could only visit non-dogist showrooms and enable us to have an active part in the decision making process. You have to remember that from a dog’s point of view, these are two of the most important decisions to be made for the house. Are we not the ones who spend the most time sitting in front of the fire? Come to that, we actually sit on the carpet, rather than just walk on it. We want something that feels soft between our paws and that doesn’t smell too hideous when we put our heads down for a nap. Wool carpets are obviously best as we can dream we are herding sheep and of course counting sheep is just as relevant to us if we’re having difficulty sleeping and this is all so much easier when we are surrounded by a sheep smell. I have in particular been appealing for no hard floors as I tend to find they start my eczema. My Mistress has promised to put extra blankets down for me in the areas that have hard flooring.