There’s only one problem with my Mistress listening to talking books in the car and that is when she gets home and is so involved in what’s happening that she doesn’t want to get out of the car. It’s like when you’re reading and can’t put a book down, but even more antisocial as she’s actually sitting outside. She could at least take us out to sit in the car with her, but she says that Shadow fidgets too much and makes it hard to listen.
Dates are at last being fixed for moving into our new house. Instructions are being issued to (and ignored by) the rest of the family on what needs to happen with the packing. Arrangements are being made for Shadow and me to be out of the way, so we don’t find it too confusing. In fact as far as my Mistress is concerned everything is under control. I did suggest that she could set up organising other people’s house moves for a living, but she said she’d had quite enough of her own. This one, she says, will be the last one. That is, of course, until the next one!
I’ve been sitting down with Shadow having a little discussion. It will be her first birthday tomorrow. I have tried to explain to her that it is time to stop behaving like a puppy and realise that she is growing up. There is to be no more eating of the door mat in the kitchen (a habit she has only recently acquired). No more digging in the garden or eating socks. We can still play together. I like a game of tug as much as the next dog, but there is a time and place for everything and she should be standing on her own four paws when it comes to those decisions. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and asked if she could be a puppy just a little while longer. Of course I weakened in my resolve. She smiled at me and went off to find some socks to chew on.