{"id":22185,"date":"2021-03-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alfiedog.me.uk\/?p=22185"},"modified":"2021-03-19T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T06:00:00","slug":"a-year-on-friday-19th-march-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/2021\/03\/19\/a-year-on-friday-19th-march-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"A Year On – Friday 19th March 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Year On<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re now a year on from losing Alfie and we\u2019ve been thinking about him a lot this week. The 17th<\/sup> was the anniversary of losing him and Mum was very sad. I thought I\u2019d cheer her up by looking back on today\u2019s flashback to some of his funny quirky ways. In 2008 Alfie\u2019s fear of water was central to his thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2008 Preparing for holiday<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If it wasn\u2019t bad enough having to walk past a large group of swans who clearly had issues with me, I then discover there is a bit about going on a boat that no one has mentioned to me. I\u2019d picked up that it might rock a bit. I\u2019d understood the deck can get slippery when wet. I know I may have to wear a life jacket. However, the bit I had not understood was what I had to do to get onto the boat. Why do they make the planks you walk along to get onto the boat out of wood that has gaps between it? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do they let you look down and see the water lapping below?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He wasn’t happy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Well I wasn\u2019t happy. My first comment was \u2018It\u2019s ok but I\u2019ll pass.\u2019 Then it turned out that I wasn\u2019t going to be allowed to stay on the shore on my own, besides which the swans were looking pretty menacing. I had to really pull myself together to walk across it. T<\/em>here I was expecting the water to come splashing up at any moment to try and wet my paws, or worse, to wash me into the murky depths of Lake Windermere. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now need to have a discussion with my mistress to understand exactly what is going to be expected of me in the summer. This really can\u2019t be the only way to get me on and off the boat. I think they should, at the very least, obtain a gangway with no gaps between the planks. The trip itself was very easy in comparison. I had to stand on my back legs with my body on my mistress\u2019s lap so that I could see over the rail. Then the wind kept blowing my ears inside out, but none of that was really a problem compared to the gangway.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009 Alfie was being his usual thoughtful self and planning for Shadow\u2019s arrival. He did take care of her as best he could for his whole life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2009 Waiting for Shadow<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m almost at the point of counting the days off until Shadow arrives. I wonder if she\u2019s as excited as I am. I suppose thinking back, it is quite a scary time for a young puppy, leaving their mum and litter mates for the first time and everything being so new. It\u2019s a daunting time for a new puppy. I\u2019m ready to be a surrogate dad if she needs a shoulder to cry on or a helping paw. I\u2019m making some little notices to put round the house to help her find her feet. I\u2019ve done \u2018Biscuit cupboard\u2019 and \u2018best place to lie in the sunshine\u2019, I\u2019m onto \u2018comfiest chair\u2019 and a schedule of meal times next.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 Aristotle had in his head he\u2019d like to be top dog. Alfie\u2019s view on the subject made me laugh. Good old Alfie would give up everything he had except for one thing \u2013 he\u2019d have fought to the end to preserve his spot close to Mum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2014 Who is top dog?<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I am not and never will be challenging for top dog. I just want to stand up for myself when I need to and I am working on it. It\u2019s Aristotle. He\u2019s realised he is an adult and has got it into his head that he would like to be top dog. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment he is throwing his weight around and being a little more insistent than he needs to be. Shadow is continuing in her usual approach and I\u2019ve got news for Ari, because it will be a few years yet before he really has the upper hand. He doesn\u2019t understand the nature of a pyrrhic victory. So he stole the cow horn chew from under Shadow\u2019s nose, but it was his in the first place and she isn\u2019t that fussed about it. He \u2018stole\u2019 the end of the long chew that Shadow had, but that was after Shadow had put it down saying she\u2019d had enough and couldn\u2019t be bothered to spend all day chewing pointlessly. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does want my spot on the settee, but he isn\u2019t getting that and he does want to sleep in my Mistress\u2019s bedroom and he isn\u2019t getting that either.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well that\u2019s quite enough from me for today. We still think about him every day and miss him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Love Wilma<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wilma is looking back a year on from losing Alfie and remembering some of his funny ways. He is still a big part of the family and very much missed. He was a special dog.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[109,156],"class_list":["post-22185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashback","tag-alfie","tag-flashback","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfiesdiary.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}