Hot weather

 The hot  weather has finally arrived, after a lovely cool spring and early summer. When Penny came to live with us - all those years ago - it was high summer, so we adapted to living with heat. Now that Peppa is here, we're having to think about how a lhasa apso might cope with heat. 

 Here is a lhasa apso site we've looked at: Lhasa Life

It's going to be a cool enough night, but it's predicted to be hot tomorrow. This article about dogs and hot weather has given us something to think about. It suggests one of the best way to cool down a hot dog is with tap water. We think we might deploy the paddling pool we bought for Penny in 2016, and see if Peppa will feel happy to paddle around. 

 

Here is Penny having fun in 2016.

Peppa, on the other hand, has conniptions when we bath her, so maybe she has a  general hatred of water. But she does love to feel a spray of water from a tap or hose and prefers to drink running water rather than still water in a bowl.

It's going to be fun trying out the pool. So nice to be able to get it out of the shed and remember happy times with Penny.

Lhasa apsos maybe don't have an interest in guarding fruit trees

 Peppa was sitting at the top of the steps on our back porch the other night, staring at something. I went over to see what it was, and she wandered away.

It was a giant rat, eating our pears on the  tree, so big I thought at first it might be a possum. But the skinny tail gave its identity away. It ran off into some of the bigger trees and along the fence, after I came close. 

Some guard dog. 

And today she sat in the same spot gazing at rainbow lorikeets as they nibbled more of the fruit. 

 

The tree is only a couple of metres high, and right alongside the railing. She could practically have snapped up the rat or the birds without even stretching! (Well, given that the rat was nearly as big as she is, I wouldn't actually want her to try, to be quite honest.)

When I came closer, the birds flew up into another tree and chitterted at me in annoyance until Peppa and I went inside and the cheeky birds could resume eating our pears. 

Puppy play during Covid lockdown

 Peppa is probably having an unusual puppyhood, given that the first months of her life are taking place in one of the longest lockdowns in the world. No puppy school for her. But since we're allowed to exercise outdoors (albeit of course wearing our masks), she's doing well.

We walk with her mini dachshund friend Bosun when we can, but it has taken a while for Peppa to grow up enough to visit parks without trying to strangle herself on her lead, and without jumping all over any dogs she meets. However, we're getting there.

She has at last walked with us off-lead, when we can find places that are not crammed with people and dogs taking that afore-mentioned opportunity to get out of the house. One new place we've found is a local school where the public is allowed to walk, seeing the students are doing home schooling. It's a terrific place, because it's completely fenced and has lots of different surfaces for her to walk on - grassed areas, asphalt, stony paths and soft mulch. I guess this is one positive aspect of the present troubles.

And today, for the first time, she met our nephew's puppy. We've been waiting for this opportunity - it was not possible when we were only allowed to travel five kilometres from home. But now, with the more relaxed travel rules, we finally did  it.

 The other pup is a mix, probably Border Collie and kelpie. A sweet-natured pup. By all accounts he's usually the submissive one in puppy play, but he's so much bigger than little Peppa that he could for once be on top in the roughhousing.

I would have felt a bit worried as the rough play went on and on and on, but it was obvious that Peppa and he were happy. Somewhere I've read that puppy play is okay if the two dogs are taking turns to be the one on top, and that was what was happening.

 

First bath in the hydrobath

 Peppa had a big adventure yesterday when we tried out the hydrobath for the first time in her life.

Not a great success, as the loud machine that powered the spray hose was rather scary. 

 Even the offer of lots of treats didn't work, because she was so nervous she couldn't eat. 

But we did discover, as we suspected 😉 that under all those masses of lhasa apso fur there was a skinny puppy.

So we turned off the machine and just used a baby bath and jugs of warm water to complete the bath. 

Afterwards, she had a wonderful time when we wrapped her in a towel to dry. She adores the game of disappearing and reappearing in a big comfy towel.

Peppa is her own person

 We have to resist the temptation to compare Peppa's progress with that of our beloved Penny, because we need to remember Peppa is a separate individual, with her own life story to experience. 

Here are a few shots of her first two months with us:

 

Learning to be comfortable in her new bed.

Welcoming next door's cat who came visiting.

Chilling out.

Conquering the doggy door.

 

Baby Steps in Peppa's new life

 Peppa is making progress.

House training... well, the books say how to do that, but I think she hasn't read the books.

She's conquered the doggy door, and that's probably because she may have had one at the home where she was born.

A few days ago was first walk in the street. I had forgotten that cars would be quite scary for her. We were so used to Penny being relaxed around all the noises of city life.

 

Yesterday was first walk on a long, loose lead, exploring in Heide kitchen garden. We have never seen other dogs there, so it seemed a safe place for a first outing.

 

Of course, like all Melbourne citizens, she knows to collect a mask when preparing to leave the house.

 

Today was her first encounter with friendly stranger dogs in another park and that went well.

Peppa has joined our family

 It was a long trip home in heavy traffic, last Thursday...

and the driver was taking great care, because there was a very special new family member on someone's lap.

Peppa! 

Her name was meant to be 'Pepper', but the breeder spelled it this way, so that's what we will call her.

It feels sad to be writing on Penny's blog without Penny lying asleep in the house, but we've finally made the decision to try to find a new little soul to live with us. It's been more than fifteen months since Penny died, and though we have more grieving to do, Peppa is bringing us joy.

And she's brining us visitors. The cat next door came into our house for the first time in his life on Friday, when his human visited to meet Peppa. He was nervous of Peppa, but he's a cat used to dogs, so we thought we'd try to get off on a friendly footing with him. Peppa was most interested to see him, but he didn't want to be friends. Yet. 

She has turned out to be a calm, confident little girl. Here's hoping we can give her the wonderful life she deserves.

Dogs all around

 I went for a walk today and it seemed there were  dogs everywhere. 

But were there dogs all around me? Or is it that I'm starting to attend to every dog I see, because we're almost ready to bring another dog into our lives? I think that is the truth.

So we've started looking online for puppies. 

Or maybe a dog will somehow enter our lives from left field. Who knows? We're open to that new family member now. 

I wanted to post today to keep this blog alive, and in writing I realised the truth of our readiness to meet another dog.

 

Penny's anniversary of death

 One year of life without Penny and people ask, 'Do you think you'll get another dog?' 

Well, maybe. But it will not be a substitute for lovely Penny. 

We toasted her memory at dinner tonight and remembered how lucky we were that she entered our lives. Her calm personality enriched our household and her love of fun so often made us laugh. 

Thanks, Penny.

Life goes on without Penny

 I've been feeling low the last few days, and it's taken me until today to realise it's probably because yesterday was  the tenth of what we call the 'Monthiversaries' of her death on 11th March 2020. 

So I'm posting this, mainly for myself, to remember her:

best of dogs

beauty queen

agility dog

doggy dancer

lure courser

beach goer

lounge lizard towards the end of her life

friend

lazy bones at times

ball chaser par excellence until her cruciate ligaments let her down

eater of anything - meat, vegetable, you name it

companion

best of dogs.

 

Her 'tennis ball' tree is in full fruit, but with no Penny to protect the crop from the birds, we've been reduced to covering the fruit with bags. 

 

 But every walk is a reminder of how in her long lifetime she introduced us to the beauties of nature all around us. 

Thank you, Beautiful Girl.