"Me and my shadow........."

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Yellow.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 2.
Tears: A few for beloved Minty Mutt.
Overall day: Tiring!

Another "floor-night" for Baggy last night. Pepper was particularly clingy with Furry Mama, but that's hardly surprising as he has both separation anxiety and abandonment issues and one pack member left on Sunday (Baggy's sister), and another one left at 5.00am this morning (number one furry), so he was perfectly entitled to make sure that Furry Mama didn't disappear as well. Furry Mama has a new theme tune as a result! "Me and my shadow". Where Furry Mama goes a sweet black mongrel follows! Truth be told of course, Hormonal Hannah's abandonment issues and separation anxiety are probably just as bad as Pepper's! The very fast and very dramatic downward spiral that she went in to when Mint "left" her two weeks ago, was testament to that fact. Her house no longer felt like her safe place, to the point where she didn't want to be in it, and she couldn't handle the thought of Calum having to leave to go to work. If Pepper hadn't chosen them a couple of days later, Clever Bird dreads to think how Hannah would have made Baggy feel by now.

Clever Bird is aware that Baggy needs to tread with caution though, as she needs to be loved just as much as Pepper does, and it would be extremely easy for Furry Mama to just spoil him rotten, let him on the sofas and beds, give him human food, never give him any guidelines, but she knows that that would be a total disaster for both of them! So instead, she is training him almost constantly, walking and playing with him lots, setting him rules and trying to enforce them and not smothering him with human cuddles because Baggy can't get a cuddle quota when Cal is away all week!

He does go everywhere with Furry Mama (but she's working on it). Today's tasks were a challenge for him and Baggy; the first one being to go and pick up Minty Mutt's ashes from the vets. But Furry Mama took Pepper and introduced him. She also made an appointment for a health check for him tomorrow morning. Then into the scary, noisy town to go to the pet shop and the hardware shops. The lad coped well, even if he was rather nervous. Then the fun bit! To the yard for Grotty Groom to see her Boys and take Pepper for a play and training session in the safe space of the massive indoor school. This is a win-win in every way, especially for making sure that Hormonal Hannah doesn't get a hold on Baggy again.

The school has been "watered" though! It was a tad messy! But very good fun.

Just as well that on the trip to the pet shop Furry Mama bought a waterproof throw for Billy Bob Jalopy.

But after half-an-hour of hurtling around after the ball, alternated with some serious training, the lad was worn out! Time for a snooze on the way home.

And even more of a snooze after Furry Mama spent twenty minutes (with a stark naked Baggy - try not to visualise that ghastly sight baggees), trying to persuade Pepper to get in the shower and realising that he is scared of the water. It's a work in progress. But it's once again confirmed something that Furry Mama has been thinking in the last few days. Pepper has not had the life that the rescue centre were told he'd had! Clever Bird is pretty sure that he's never lived in a house, never been walked out on a lead, never been in a town or to the beach! It would explain a lot! If he's been left in a kennel for hours while his owner went to work, then been "exercised" by being allowed to charge about a large garden or field and coming back if he felt like it. Then been over "loved" and fussed in the house (causing chaos in the process); maybe having a little accident as he hadn't been able to wee other than in his kennel, getting called back to his owner and being told off when he got there - possibly even hit! Being sent outside and then not daring to go back in again. The rescue centre were told he was stubborn and impossible to train - absolute nonsense!

It would explain why he doesn't recognise sounds. He is scared of car engines, reversing-bleeps, shop-till noises, lorries - he doesn't seem to have encountered any of them before. In the house he's scared of the heating switching on, the loo flushing, the fridge whining, the washing machine and as for the vacuum cleaner, it's the most terrifying thing in the universe! He even freaked out at the television when he first arrived at Baggy and Calum's house. Being kennelled for hours would explain why he hangs on to his wee-wee until he can't hang on any longer, but will only go in the garden (although much to Furry Mama's delight he went in the indoor school today!). Being told off (and Calum suspects hit), would explain why he doesn't want to come near Furry Mama or Calum, or even back into the house, when he's had an "accident". So although he hasn't been mistreated as such (Furry Mama hopes), he certainly hasn't been well treated.

When they got home Pepper was happy to fall asleep on his furry rug. As Creative Clara has been blogging he seems to have gone into shadow stealth-mode and somehow snooked onto the sofa where he is currently sparko! Even Hormonal Hannah doesn't have the heart to wake him up and make him get off..................