Let sleeping dogs lie

Can you hear that? No?

Exactly.

That is the sound of two dogs who wore themselves out in the sunshine while I tackled one of my mystery projects.

I don't particularly mind the snow and the cold. I've certainly grown more used to it over the past few years. The hardest part is that the amount of effort I have to put in to wearing out Billy increases exponentially as the temperature drops. Today while I hacked merrily away with a handsaw the dogs just pootled around, lay in the sunshine and played a little with the downstairs neighbor's wee Italian Greyhound.

All of this, aside from a little oversight when they were playing and some brief spurts of obedience training, required no effort on my part. Yet they are both entirely comatose. It's fabulous.

I almost completed mystery project phase one, and both dogs gave it a whirl, although it's missing some parts still (hose clamps turned out NOT to be effective, plus I need some more piping).

It will be performing double-duty as brain-challenge/ exercise for Billy and a tool to help Buster's rehab.

Either he thinks it's a great idea or he's just excited to get some chicken...

On a more sombre note, I promised not to add a bleak running commentary about dogs in need of rescue so just click here to learn more about this overwhelmingly beautiful dog in urgent need of foster.

On the plus side, my landlord agreed at the weekend to let me start fostering dogs occasionally. Unfortunately, there's a size limit and all the dogs on the One Tail waiting list are just a wee bit too big right now.

Someday I will win the lottery (first step, I need to actually start buying tickets I guess) and I will have an urban doggy-mansion where I can foster any dog I have the time to take care of.