Surf's Up !....

... though you may have to enlarge the picture to see the surfers .

Today we take delivery of a cute hamster and a box of business cards ( free from http://www.vistaprin.co.uk/) and some CatCalls post it notes . I don't know which to be more excited about , being confined to the house in the post Immigran aftermath . Apart from two pick -up -the -keys- CatCalls that is , one first thing and another later today . The hamster is our latest house guest and will be staying for three weeks whilst Steph is in Italy . Although she is resident in N's room as safe haven from cats , I resolve to bring her downstairs later when close supervision is possible and she is awake and wanting to exercise . Her size surprises me though N says she is smaller than our Daisy was , and watching her reminds me of Daisy's acrobatics . Kitty is already starting to hang about outside the door . It was her long term ambition to have a closer encounter with Daisy . Time for me to start panicking again about how wise it is to have a hamster in the same house as four cats .....

Last night

A new resolution to revive the habit of walking to the sea each night , and since I was dropping a video at Deb's , this took us past the church . As we returned , and before I went out to water the tomatoes and beans and peppers in the back , I picked up an enigmatic message on the answering machine . A robotic voice ( a text message left in error on a landline rather than N's mobile ) : Tell A Bee that her grand maw is keeping ( pause ) The Dorg . X

I tranlsate this to mean that Nat is to let her friend Abbi know that her grandmother is keeping the dog , but it means nothing to me and later , N explains that the ongoing saga of the dog continues and that Abbi was upset all day as their dog was to be sent to live in Darlington as her hairs were causing a health problem to a member of the family . Finally Grandma had come up trumps and said she couldnt let the dog go .

Sitting watching tv later , I must confess I wasn't seeing a thing on the screen but was thinking " there 's a dog there that needs a home and we need ( want ?) a dog .... isnt there a match here ? " , but not wanting to say anything until this thought has been properly mulled over . I'm trying to learn to be less imulsive here , and look its working . I also know there would be difficulties . The dog would only need a temporary home as there is a plan afoot for Abbi 's mum to move house so that they can keep the dog ( the dog was with dad) . How would it be to have her for a while then to let her go ? I'm not sure this would work . But , the thought was there . And the cats ? Whilst they would boss a small puppy round whilst it was new , a big grown up dog arriving would be a different matter . In the final analysis I don't think it's any kind of answer . Also if Abbi and Nat were walking the dog together , whose dog would it be ? Blah blah .

But , and this is the point here , I go off to bed with a headache , and having taken Immigran at 5 am , have an amazing dream that we get a wonderful dog , a bearded collie . There are two of them in the frame and there is a debate about us having both , but finally this doesnt happen , and this great soft pillow of a dog is lying on a day bed ( another aspiration of mine ) with my head resting on her as she is so chunky .

But we don't want a big dog . We've always had little dogs and the shar pei , though delightfully wrinkled is too big and has been rejected for that reason . Even when crossed with a pug and called an oreo pei or some such ( I may have that slightly wrong ) it's still a substantial dog .

But I remain even more convinced that we don't have to go looking for the dog . the dog is going to come to us .