I\u2019m starting to think we\u2019re living in a wildlife park. Now the cuckoos have joined in the noise. You can barely hear yourself think with the racket the birds make first thing in a morning. I do have to say it made me realise how authentic the noise of the cuckoo clock is as my first thought was \u2018Why is the clock chiming fifteen at twenty past six in the morning?\u2019 I\u2019m just thankful that it stopped and didn\u2019t disturb my nap times. It\u2019s funny how people say it is quiet living in the country. It really isn\u2019t, it\u2019s just a different set of noises. Oh you don\u2019t hear cars and other traffic and there are rarely horns or sirens, but you do hear sheep baaing and birds singing and of course the obligatory dogs barking, or in Shadow\u2019s case letting out a rousing howl!<\/p>\n
Anyway, Shadow is off on her holidays today and I\u2019m left to look after Aristotle and everyone else. She is going to take part in her first dog show. Neither she nor our Mistress have very high hopes. Of course she\u2019s a beautiful girl, but she\u2019s still limping from her injury in March and hasn\u2019t been able to go for long enough walks to get her fitness back. Add to that the fact that neither she nor our Mistress have ever taken part in a dog show before, if you discount the fun show at the Denbury May Fair years ago when she had a Bearded Collie called Sweep and that didn\u2019t go to plan! Nor has Shadow\u2019s lovely new lead arrived so she is using an old one that was her son Basil\u2019s. She is very grateful to Basil, but it\u2019s not really big enough and she has to watch her ears as she puts it on.<\/p>\n
I know what you really want to know is what happened at the Denbury May Fair. Our Mistress thinks I would have got on very well with Sweep. He was a very gentle dog who had no enemies in the world. Unfortunately, other dogs did not always see it the same way and when they went for him he just assumed they were playing and wagged his tail. When Sweep was in the ring one of the others went for him and it all got a bit out of hand. I\u2019m just hoping that Shadow doesn\u2019t face any similar problems.<\/p>\n
Alfie\u2019s Diary \u2013 the Book as well as our other books are available HERE<\/a><\/p>\n You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"