Since my last post Daisy has done a lot of growing. She’s bigger and heavier obviously, but she’s also more confident and gaining new abilities on a daily basis; only this morning she worked out how to get into Biggles’ old hammock-style chair. She’s become a much more satisfying chase partner for Monkey, going after him and using the occasional bit of strategic thinking to compensate for her lack of raw speed. Often when I’m watching them I can’t tell from one second to the next what the rules of the chase are or who’s leading, and I suspect that sometimes neither of them really know what’s going on either, but they always enjoy themselves and that’s the important bit.

A little while ago we moved Daisy out of her soft travel crate into a much roomier metal crate and installed a proper comfy bed in there instead of a practical & convenient but far from luxurious piece of “vetbed”. This was both an acknowledgement of, and a reward for, her much-improved bladder control, which she celebrated by sprinting into Monkey’s crate and doing a big pee right in the middle of his bed. I’m constantly comparing Daisy with Beanie and Poppy, and this was definitely from Beanie’s playbook. In general though, I think Monkey is gently training Daisy towards more Poppy-like behavior; he keeps inviting her for cuddles and little by little she’s responding.

I hope Daisy realises how lucky she is to have Monkey as a brother; he’s incredibly kind and generous towards her. When they’re both thirsty after a chase or wrestling match he usually gets to the water bowl first, but as soon as it’s clear she nees a drink too, he withdraws to let her go first.

He could easily win tug games but he doesn’t, prefering to keep the game going by constraining his strength to match hers. I might be tempted to call him the perfect gentleman, but there are some loopholes in his version of the gentleman’s code of conduct. For example, Susan soaked and froze an old tea-towel, making a soothing chew toy to help Daisy through her bad teething days, but Daisy has yet to experience it because tea-towels are definitely a Monkey thing. So, apparently, are girly pink puppy Kongs that have been chilled in the freezer.

I know I probably shouldn’t take this, but er…

I tell you what, I’ll just try it out for two minutes and then you can have it, OK?

What do you mean the two minutes are up already?

Fortunately I’d also prepared an adult Kong for Monkey and Daisy was happy enough with that one.

Just as Monkey is teaching Daisy some of his skills (like pickpocketing), she’s re-awakening the little 16 week old pup that still lives within him. Sometimes on evening walks he’s the one jumping up to grab his lead and chew it, and while they’re both very keen to perform their own re-enactments of the Andrex puppy adverts, he can unravel the whole roll in the time it takes Daisy to get just 30 sheets on the floor. As Susan noted, there must be a reason someone chose to call it “toy-let paper”.

I’ve dumped a ton of shots onto Flickr over the last couple of weeks, so I’ll finish by putting some of them up here, in no particular order: