Tag: maltese

Dogs, Gardens, R & R

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

With all this Biblical stuff going on, fire, floods, pestilence, snow, the garden has been very much neglected.    Ok, ok, I lied about the snow!!!                    The adverse weather conditions, being surrounded by trees  that drop branches and leaves at the slightest cough, and  my being inconveniently ill,  the garden has the appearance of a building site ( actually bomb site would be a better description)  I would love to get out there and get on with things and I will – with some things –  but I am discovering that there are limits to what I can and cannot do at the moment.  I made that mistake in Adelaide last week.  I am sort of trapped between a rock and a hard place – I want to get out there and get on with things, but I know that I am limited in what I can do until such times as we discover just what exactly is happening. Will know more after Tuesday when I undertake some tests.

In the 60’s, people took drugs to make the world weird.

Now the world is weird, and people take antidepressants to make it normal.

The "Young"Man
The “Young”Man
Guard Duty is exhausting
Guard Duty is exhausting

Chienne is much the same and the Man is still with us. He’s slowing down and I  still have to rescue him, but he’s fine. I hand feed him in the morning and I have started to hand feed -sort of – in the evening. What I do is bring him and his dinner over to my chair. I sit on the floor with legs out. I put him over my left thigh – back legs one side front legs the other – with the food bowl on my right thigh and he eats away quite happily without falling or in any pain. I know it might sound a bit awkward but he’s comfortable enough and eats away until his food’s finished, and, more importantly, without any stress. Yes, I was born for this – to be a food trolley to a Maltese Dog.  :o) Oh, and why the left thigh? He does not like  the right thigh – different aspect perhaps. However, something odd has cropped up in recent months. I thought at first it was a “one off” when I watched it, but I see it happen a lot these days and Herself says Chienne has been doing this for a while. She is grooming  The Man. He just sits there and she licks his face and his ears. I  am puzzled – I thought only cats did this.

I did some work out in the garden today. Nothing too much, just some sweeping up leaves and using the leaf blower/vacuum. I did throw some rubbish into the trailer but nothing heavy.  I was also thinking that if the weather remains fine, I might just break out the hammock and stand. We’ll see how things go.  I should be heading off to Adelaide next Friday morning but I will have to wait and see. It’s  only been two months since the last meeting and I guess it’s a bit much to expect the minutes of that meeting to be available this early. – The meeting, it would appear, has been put off until the 14th Feb. so, in essence I have been two and a half months at home without really doing anything much other than catching up with some reading;  a little bit of work outside and going for walks with Chienne and sometimes with The Man. When he is with us we don’t go very

This used to be the end of the road.
This used to be the end of the road.

far and even the little distance we do do, takes ages since he is slow and tends to wander. It makes for an interesting walk. If Chienne wasn’t so freaked out about going in the car, I would take them  to the beach. I could take him on his own but if I strap him into the seat he screams and cries all the way. He wants to come and sit on my lap and whilst I used to do this, it is now illegal  to have an animal on your lap when driving and it carries with it a hefty fine and demerit points. In fact to have an animal in the car not strapped in is illegal.

 

Cutesy Dogs and Autumn Rain.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

It’s amazing how quickly things can change.  The yearly State Conference will finish early , or it hopes to,  (Plan A)  (I have now been sent the business papers) so I should be heading home on Wednesday. The District bi-monthly Conference has been postponed until 15th June and  the visit to the RAH  has been rescheduled until 14th August. So, barring any surprises,  after 15th June, I should not have to go back to Adelaide until August – that has to be a bonus.

The terrorist has never really been a cutesy dog although  Maltese have been associated with “cutesy” people. One of the grooms we took him to years ago had this thing about bows on dogs and she kept puting a small bow or a bandana on him at the end of his bath, clip and groom.  She was such a nice lady that I really didn’t want to tell her not to do this and the bow lasted about three minutes after he was in the car. I did get him home once and managed to get a photograph of him on my computer chair with the pretty blue bow in his hair – well the hair on his head  :o)  I keep it to remind me that  I had a “cutesy” dog for all of two minutes.

The thought occurs to me that I sometimes use words and phrases that I am familiar with but other people might not be. One of these is referring to my wife as ‘ Herself”. In old Scots and Irish, a woman of importance – the head of a household or the head of a family – was referred to as “Herself”. The same was also true for males – “Himself”.   In parts of country Ireland (or so I believe)  but still today in the Scottish  Highlands,  the terminology continues in common use – wives referring to husbands, husbands referring to wives.

You will, I know, be delighted to learn that our “Indian Summer” has broken and it has been raining for the best part of twelve hours. It has not been the ” bounce off the roadway” rain but a steady and constant rain. This could well be all we will get for some time and it is very welcome up here. In Adelaide and the South East of the State it is forecast to be raining for most of this week. At least we got a little bit – enough to give the ground a good soak.

All about dogs – past and present.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
This is my Main Man – the MalteseTerrorist!

I have had both of my dogs for over ten years now. Chienna we bought when she was seven weeks old, Mannie we rescued from the Pound and, according to the Vet. at the time, he was about 18 months to two years. Over the years they have been great associates and I  miss them when I have to go away – even just for a couple of days. Thankfully that does not happen too often these days and the last two meetings have been cancelled.  When I come home after being away for a couple of days I get out the car and into the house and the dogs are going nuts and even my wife tells me “Go out and see your associates before they go crazy” so I do. Once I have settled the dogs down again I can then talk about the trip and the meetings to my wife . Generally, when I am not working, I take the dogs out twice a day – first thing in the morning , sometimes when it’s still dark, and later in the evening after we have all been fed, wife, me and dogs. The little one – the Maltese – is, I think, starting to show his age. Either that or he is a very good little conman because I have to carry him for a little while until he gets his second wind. He starts off well, but halfway through the walk, he starts to slow down and I have to carry him for a little while. It’s ok – he’s not heavy –  Ohhh a song title I believe.. If I am working, it’s only once –  in the evening. In the summer when it’s hot I carry a pack with me which contains two bottles of water and a dish – one bottle for me. In the last 34 years I have had five dogs including the present two. The previous dogs were Misty, a West Highland Terrier  Cross that we rescued, Buster an Australian Cattle Dog that attacked my son, and Scruffy, a bitsa that was given to me. She was a doll and everyone adored her. Unfortunately  I do not have any photographs of Scruffy on line. I must attend to that sometime. I am also Secretary of the local branch of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, fundraising group but , hopefully, that’s about to end soon. I have decided not to stand for re-election but knowing how this group is with no one willing to take a position, I expect I will be secretary again, although I would like to think not.

Do you have to point that thing at me?

Freedom is a noble word!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
The Maltese Terrorist

Tuesday the bark was removed and it was my intention to go out and start the tidy up and levelling off. However, in the morning it was blowing a gale and in danger of creating a dust storm so I decided not to add to the problems by stirring my stuff up . I had to go out for a little while and when I came back I was horrified to see that the wind had blown open the gate. Chienna was still there but the little man, my Maltese,  was gone. I secured the gate and took off in the car to drive around the area looking for him.  Couldn’t find him so I came home, only to see him walking, unconcerned, up the driveway. I stopped the car on the roadway and went over and lifted him up. I was just so relieved to see him.   I picked up herself from her meeting and took her to lunch – then the heavens opened up and we had a real good thunderstorm. Got back to the house and Chienna was going gaga. I had to medicate her to calm her down. The thunder terrifies her and the medication from the Vet is to  relief the stress and calm her down. We find half a tablet is enough – poor thing. The thunder lasted well into the late evening.

The storm cleared and headed off to wreck havoc in Adelaide – or so the news tells us. Tomorrow is forecast to rain so I don’t know when I will get back into the garden and get things cleared up. A less than good summer and now an Autumn that seems to be headed in the same direction – cool and wet. I’m a simple person and I really don’t understand such things, but the weather institute tells us that the last two years are the coldest Australia has been in ten years – they also been the wettest, but overall we’re getting warmer. All very confusing. Interesting though that Wednesday lived up to its name ‘Wet Wednesday”Now for the cleanup and redoing.

If  it stays dry I should get the trailer filled this afternoon and  get it ready to get off to the dump tomorrow morning – early – like opening at 8:30. I try to get in as early as possible when I am on my own because I am not really good at backing trailers. I’ll do the final measure for the edging shortly and order that for tomorrow after I clean the trailer. Should be another busy day.

Rocks in the head

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Rock but no Roll!

The previous owner had a thing about rocks – big rocks. Not the teeny weeny things you  casually  flip from the ground into the trailer. No, this is the kind of rock that  takes really serious effort to move.  To continue with the upgrade of the front garden I need to have these rocks moved – preferable to the dump because I cannot think I would want to use them anywhere. Perhaps when the bark was new and blonde and the world was young the rocks looked good in their current positions, now they are just  pointless. I spoke to some landscaping people today and they told me that the black bark, apart from being unsightly, is pretty evil stuff that is loved  by  a multitude of creepy crawlies, so it’s probably just as well that I am getting rid of it. However, I think things might start to slow down because I have a feeling that my R & R won’t last all that much longer.

Last post I told you about the dogs and decided to put in a photograph of “My Back Yard” rather than a photograph of the Terrorist. The Terrorists is a rescue dog. I had been looking for a Maltese and a friend at the RSPCA telephoned me to let me know that they had a Maltese in the cage. I went down to look at him and although he was in a bit of a mess, there was just something about him that I really liked and when I approached him, he licked me. I took him home for a “trial” period of ten days, extended that, then bought him. Of course, by that time we had cleaned him up and had him groomed.. My good lady went over to Spotlight and bought material as well as a pattern and made him a coat. It was cold and we had to have most of his  own coat removed.  After paying the RSPCA I had him at the vet to be desexed and microchipped. Chienna sits  under the pergola and very rarely moves too far away from the door. The Terrorist has a dog-house out in the garage and as soon as he has his smachako in the morning, he takes off to his den. Once I moved the doghouse out into the sun. He looked at it then went into the garage and lay down on the ground where the doghouse used to be. I got the hint and move  his house back into the garage.

This is my Main Man - the MalteseTerrorist!