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. 

rainbow lorikeets, mulch, apples and a dog

Penny and I strolled around the garden the other day to admire the apples. They were nearly ripe.

Penny takes her duty seriously to pop outside each evening to deter the inhabitants of this nest...

...who emerge at dusk to steal our fruit. We sort of scared off FOUR in the apple tree last night. I say 'sort of', because they came right back each time Penny dutifully barked them into retreat, and eventually even a dog has to get some sleep.

But these don't look entirely like possum tooth marks. Who else is stealing our apples?

Aha! A culprit is waiting for us to go inside.

We see you, and Penny is barking at you! Do you care? No.

Okay, so I'll pick up some of these bits of bark on the little path and throw them at you!

Penny thinks this is a great game, and now she knows that bits of mulch are really important, because her human has been playing with them, so she should take some inside the house and taste it and keep it and enjoy it in every way.

So everyone's happy now, with something to eat. Dog, possums, ringtail possums. A happy ending.