Greetings from the cottage in autumnal Torridon, where I've spent the past few days entertaining (yes I did mean to write 'entertaining' and not 'terrier-ising') Gail's lovely relatives, cousin Richard and his wife Kate.
Have you ever felt, as a young pup, that there is far too much discussion of your behaviour and wished, every now and then, to turn the tables and report on the humans?
So that is what I am going to do today, as I am now clearly top dog in these parts.
Well I have to tell you there was an awful lot of talking going on in the cottage. These three folk scarcely ever stopped! Imagine the complaints if I had been barking for even a fraction of that time... Who knew there could be so much family news to exchange? And so much to say about bicycles (well, that was just Gail and Richard).
Much food and drink was consumed too. Almost none of it found its way to my dog bowl. Humph.
For a quarter of a hour period on Saturday evening I was unable to observe what the humans were up to as I was rudely interrupted in my determined and energetic attempts to excavate a hole in one of the sofa cushions, and banished to the hallway.
I can at least tell you that Kate and Richard were well-behaved when we went for a short walk, allowing me plenty of time to sniff around to my heart's content and to explore thoroughly the ditches beside the footpath.
So all in all we had a fun time, and because I'm feeling generous I'm awarding the humans a Good Conduct badge. I do hope Richard and Kate come again to Torridon, although Gail says they live a long way away in Somerset, and that maybe next time it will our turn to visit them.
But only if I promise to be a GOOD DOG!!
One final sad bit of news. We had to say goodbye this week to one of this blog's favourite commenters, Inca (aka Coppa's Girl), faithful and much loved Labrador companion to Carol in sunny Spain. Inca, we will so miss your always entertaining observations, but we know you had a good long life, and your human did not want you to suffer so took the kindest decision. Rest in peace, dear Inca.
PS from Gail: We are still in Torridon, where the broadband service seems to be even more flakey than usual at the moment, so apologies if communication is intermittent.
