F R E E D O M !

Star date Wednesday 4th Feb 2008 – I am released into the outside world. Hurrah!

Having spent all of my life so far confined in fairly restricted spaces I was absolutely champing at the bit to explore further afield, and on Wednesday my dream came true. I was taken out for my first walk. I must say it was ever so slightly scary at first and I had to keep checking mum and dad were still to hand, but I soon got the hang of it and must say it was all very interesting (and tasty in parts – like rabbit poo!). A photographic record of my first tentative footsteps was commissioned and is attached.

As if that wasn’t enough, the next day I had my first friend round to lunch. I had heard all about Lily but had never met her, so I have to say I was a bit shy at first. Mind you, it did not take long before we were both tearing round the garden flat out, bowling each other over in the process, and generally having a great time. After more than two hours of this, whilst the adults had lunch and loads of wine, I was decidedly knackered (as was Lily) and as soon as they left I was straight into my bed where I stayed for most of the evening.

I must say I am quite enjoying this new, fuller life style, and it continues tomorrow with a visit to Aunty Mary and Uncle Tim. Will report on this visit later.

Forgive me but I must now crawl back to bed as I am still a bit shattered.

You will be pleased to know that I am fully back to normal after my little session at the vets last week. In fact, I was so back to normal that my mum said I was a “right little sod” the next day. Well, I had slept for most of the day previous and all of that night too, so I had plenty of spare energy, so a dog’s got to do what a dog’s got to do!

Other than that, the main news of the week is that this place seems to be turning into a mini Stalag Luft 3. Firstly, a fence was erected between our nice neighbour and us. Then this gate thing appeared in the hall (see pic) blocking my access to the bedrooms and all that lovely clothing that I love grabbing and running off with. To crown it all, whenever I go out in the garden now I get this long bit of string thing attached to my collar which somewhat hampers my escape and evasion tactics. Next it will be watchtowers, floodlights and machine gun posts!

Had I mentioned that I have now more than doubled in weight since I arrived here? The trouble is that now being much bigger I have loads more energy but as yet cannot go outside the house and garden. However, all that apparently changes this Wednesday when I am free to meet the outside world, and I have quite a hectic programme lined up to take full advantage of this. On Wednesday I have got two walks planned to explore the local area. Then on Thursday my soon to be new friend, Lily the miniature dachshound, is coming over for lunch and a bit of a chase around the garden. On Saturday it’s off to see Aunty Mary and Uncle Tim so that will be an exciting trip in the car and a new place to terrorise. Sunday is a trip to the market in Esperaza for a bit of socialising, and to meet Boudie. After all that I may just crash out on Sunday afternoon to recover.

I am now the proud possessor of a lovely green ball from Uncle Trevor and have discovered the delights of chasing this around the garden and retrieving it for my mum. Mind you, she was not too impressed when I threw it outside the gate!

All this journalism fair takes it out of you. I’m off for a kip. Speak to you all again soon.

Today is my "12 week birthday" but happy birthday it was not! As previously mentioned, I was due at the vets today for more humiliation and torture. Well, first of all there was this poor old german shepherd there as an emergency - he did look very poorly - and that set everything back half an hour. Then it was my turn and low and behold it was not my nice vet lady but another female vet. From the silly grin on my dad's face I am assuming she is quite fit but she does not appeal to me. Anyway, I am injected, poked, have a microchip inserted in my shoulder, and pronounced as also having an ear infection. How humiliating was all that, not to mention the pain. Mind you, it cost them a small fortune. Not only that but I now have two tags dangling round my neck allowing anyone to return me home without delay if I stray off limits.

Whilst I was in there I met my soon to be good mate, Boudie, and whilst we were not allowed to make contact, I managed to convey to him that I was looking forward to a good chase around with him soon.

Back home now and feeling like poo! I ache all over and feel decidedly several degrees under, but at least that is giving me lots of lap time. I have attached a photo of me feeling sorry for myself so just send treats and biscuits if you sympathise. Apparently this state is quite normal after what I have been through but if I had known that I might have put up more of a struggle. Still, it only lasts a short while so they say so should be back to my mischievious self tomorrow.

Had I mentioned that I am now quite into watching TV? Documentaries and anything with bright colours, lots of action, or dogs barking gets my full attention. Can't stand Emmerdale though.

Will report back soon on my recovery to "normal service".

I've just discovered the Joy of Sticks! (I think my mum and dad have got a book about this). Up until now it has been messing about with twigs and long bits of grass, but today I found a real stick - what fun. Other than that the really interesting news of the week is that I have put on another kilo in weight - that is two kilos in two weeks. Not bad eh? Another couple of weeks of weight gain like that and I will soon be less likely to be picked up and dragged off to places I really don't want to go - like the garden in the middle of the night.

Dad returned home the other day with a great big roll of wire mesh and a load of wooden posts. You don't think that this could be anything to do with the fact that I can now stand with my front paws on the top of the wall, do you? Not at all sure what they are worried about if that is the case as it is only a 2 or 3 metre drop and I am sure I could manage that.

I have discovered this great game - if I stand at the patio doors and make out I am dying for a pee they let me out. It happens every time, so if I fancy a play in the garden I just do the act! Then when I am out there and they come to get me back in, I find going the other side of a tree or large bush makes life very difficult for them.

It's getting late and I am supposed to be going to sleep so I will say good night now and go off and have a good ten minute howl just to make sure they are all awake.

Sorry I have not been in touch recently but my social life has been rather hectic over the last few days. I have had a succession of visitors all keen to meet me and at the weekend my godparents, Tim and Mary, came over to stay. That was great ‘cause I had someone else to terrorise and they bought me a present.

One of our visitors has now even secretly approached me to try and sweet talk my dad into doing a favour for him! He said to try the soft and cuddly approach but if that failed I was to resort to the tough approach. The things you get asked to do. I also had a lovely email from a Rhodesian Ridgeback called Nelson who lives with some friends of my mum and Dad, but I can’t be proper friends with him cause he lives in Florida, lucky devil!

When I last left you I was hoping for some more snow, and sure enough it arrived the next day. That did give me a great opportunity for another photo shoot and I have attached some of the better ones for you to see.

Good news of the week is that my next appointment with that nice woman, the vet, has been put back a week so I don’t have to worry about that for a while. Will tell you all about that experience later.

Today I was taken out for a little tour of the area in the car. I think they are a bit worried that I might be phased by the car but I am so not – in fact I quite enjoy looking out of the window and trying to chew seat belts. No gold stars for that bit!

Hello again. God it’s been a busy few days since we last spoke. There I am, day 3, and just beginning to figure out where everything is and what is expected of me, when I get slung in the car and hauled of to the vets for what they laughingly call an adoption visit. Adoption indeed! I’m not some waif or stray picked up at a rescue centre. I am a true, class, top of the range, pedigree hound with champion for a dad. You don’t adopt me, you are chosen and then you pay expensively for the privilege of having me with you.

Anyway, she is quite sweet this vet, but it is a bit degrading to be poked, prodded, turned upside down, and generally messed with in the name of veterinary medicine. From what I gleaned listening to the conversation there is worse to come in a couple of weeks when I am due to have all sorts of needles, vaccines, and microchips inserted into me. Can’t say I am looking forward to that. Still, for now I seem to have a clean bill of health, which I could have told them anyway and saved them the vet’s fee.

Since then we have been busy trying to understand each other as to when I need food, pees, poos etc and when they need sleep or peace and quiet. Must say I cannot quite get this need for them to sleep right through the night as I never do, so I am just carrying on as normal much to their dismay.

Hurrah! It snowed today! Great fun. I particularly like eating it. Hopefully there will be loads more tomorrow so I can run around in it. Will tell you all about that later.

So there I was happily looking forward to a good New Year’s Eve howl with all my mates and relishing the thought of a couple more days of relaxing before I was whipped off into the great unknown. Then, at just before midday, they turned up TWO DAYS EARLY! I had not got my bags packed, I had not had a shower, and I certainly was not mentally prepared for the start of my “New Life” as a Barnes family member. But, after they had all had a bit of a chat about me and money had changed hands, I was hauled off out into the snowy exterior, put in a car and wrapped up in someone’s old nightie!, and then driven off to some place called Montazels.

Talk about culture shock! There was not another dog in sight – just these two humans who seemed very pleased to see me and got all lovey dovey. YUK! Never mind. The place was warm and a lot bigger than I am used to and I was actually allowed to run around a bit. Mind you, for some strange reason I was dragged off outside at regular intervals and dumped in some place called a garden. Being pretty smart I very soon sussed that if I had a quick pee I was scooped up and promptly returned to the warm interior.

I’ve now met the neighbours who seem quite nice, and also some lanky bloke from up the road called Steve, who bought me a toy, and his mate Claudio.

Dinner was the usual stuff so that was OK but I spied in the corner of the room a big cage just like the one we had at the other place. Rats! I thought I had got away from prison. However, I managed to avoid being incarcerated until bedtime and even then I set up one of my most irritating howling sessions to see if I could appeal to their better nature. It was all to no avail, but I must say they were very responsive when I needed a call of nature around 4am. I tried another howling session after that but gave up after ten minutes as it got no response.

Next day I turned on the full puppy charm and did all the usual things, good and bad! Still, they didn’t seem to mind and I must say that so far I rate them as quite reasonable hosts. Pooping on their bedroom floor did not gain me a lot of gold stars but a bit of licking and snuggling soon smoothed over that.

So that is about it so far. Will keep you posted as to how things are going over the next few days. In the meantime I have managed to download some of their pictures of me and have attached these.