Was today a mistake?

Note to readers (my lovely Baggetts): 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): 9.
Tears: No.
Overall day: Weird.

When Furry Mama and Calum rescued Pepper Pooch, they promised that they'd take him back and let the rescue centre know how he was getting on. Clever Bird decided that today would be that day. She wrote out a Christmas card to take. Regular baggetts will know that she did try to go back a little while ago, but Hormonal Hannah got Baggy totally lost and she failed completely to find the place. Today she went via Bungay not Beccles; she knows that route! Much to Freda Fretter's surprise, the pooch dragged Furry Mama in to the centre. Freda was really concerned that Pepper might think that he was being dumped there once again; clearly he didn't. They were there for 10.30, only to be told the centre doesn't open until 11.00. Furry Mama decided to take the pooch for a walk. He promptly dragged Furry Mama back out to Billy Bob Jalopy campervan. Ball thrower collected, they set off.

It was a tad soggy, to say the least. But Baggy had waterproof boots on and the pooch didn't care.

He hurtled about having a lovely time.

Of course he found the need to lay down in every puddle as usual.

Then he vanished. Yes baggetts he'd smelt a little pond.

He came out looking decidedly soggy and pleased with himself. They headed back to the rescue centre, still ball throwing and chasing.

They were almost back, when the pooch disappeared again. This time he'd found a large pond.

Well at least he hadn't drowned. By the time they got to the rescue centre, he was a soaked, smelly, sorry-looking mongrel. Baggy went via Billy Bob to put the ball in and get the Christmas card. The card was nowhere to be seen. Hormonal Hannah couldn't remember whether she'd put it in Billy Bob or left it in Baggy's pocket and it had fallen out. Stupid woman. The owner was very happy to see Pepper nonetheless. In fact she gave him a couple of presents: a bandana for rescue dogs and a rope ball. As thay chatted, an old couple arrived to view the dogs. Pepper started to frantically wag his tail. It occurred to Freda Fretter that maybe he thought he was going back to his old owners. Hormonal Hannah got rather upset. Especially as she'd had a horrible dream a few nights earlier, that the rescue centre had taken him back and given him to someone else. Furry Mama gave him a big cuddle and tried not to blub. The pooch wagged his tail and licked her face. "Let's get out of here Pepps. Time to get home. You know I'd never leave you don't you?"
"Not sure Mum, I hope you won't".
"I really won't".
"Let me in Billy Bob please".
"In you hop".
"Phew! We really are going home then?"

Back at home the pooch started to wag his tail and rub himself on all the furniture, throwing himself on his back and woofing. Then he charged upstairs to see the cats. He licked each of them as they rubbed their little furry heads on him. Two things occurred to Clever Bird. Firstly he does seem to love his new home and secondly, maybe all the scratching, licking and grooming himself is not an allergy after all; maybe he thinks he's a cat..............

Good plan.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggetts): 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): 3.
Tears: No.
Overall day: Lovely.

Clever Bird decided that making number one furry do the food shopping (which is what The Domestic Goddess normally does, as she hates doing it!), would be a little unreasonable on Christmas weekend. So she got Baggy up at seven and they were at the supermarket when it opened at eight! Pepper Pooch waited patiently in Billy Bob for an hour while The Goddess tried to stop Hormonal Hannah from making her forget what she was meant to be getting. By nine-fifteen Furry Mama was throwing the pooch his ball in the outdoor school at the yard! Grotty Groom gave the Boys a cuddle, a ton of mints, a few herbal treats and a couple of carrots. Of course Wessles has missed Grotty, so every time she moved too far away from his stable door, he kicked it, freaking the pooch out in the process. Sadly Grotty couldn't do much with the Boys, as even Freda Fretter was correct in worrying that leaving the pooch in the campervan with all the Christmas food, would probably not end well!

The rest of the day has been a mix of Baggy lolling around on the sofa with the pooch and The Hinge cat; Creative Clara wrapping Christmas pressies; The Goddess cleaning up after the doggy shredding machine; Furry Mama chasing the aforementioned shredding machine around the house to retrieve from him: the "Bags for life", Baggy's bra, the novel she's reading (what's left of it), a potato, the bag full of previously picked up shredded bits, a Christmas present, half Baggy's crab paste sandwich, his own grooming glove, a roll of wrapping paper and Baggy's reading glasses (so far); vacuuming; blogging; throwing the ball for the pooch and looking forward to Christmas. Furry Mama is enjoying a brief moment of peace,

it won't last....................

Love is a wonderful thing.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggetts): 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): 7 - no idea why.
Tears: No.
Overall day: Great.

Clever Bird is a little put out that all the Banks seem to be closing their branches in rural communities. Baggy's Bank's nearest branch is already ten miles away! Now they are closing it! She can't even think where the nearest branch will now be. Freda Fretter had a bit of a meltdown over it, until she received a letter saying that she could pay her cheques in at the Post Office. Just as well as Creative Clara receives quite a few one way and another. Clever Bird does use t'internet banking, so she'll be fine, but what about elderly folk who don't use computers? Or people in areas with no, or poor internet? Baggy's Dad wouldn't even use a "hole-in-the-wall" machine, as he didn't trust them. He wouldn't even have known how to switch on a computer! But Clever Bird supposes that this is "progress". Baggy is turning into a grumpy old lady. Anyway, she decided to go into town to test the theory, as she had two cheques to pay in.

Furry Mama took the pooch (obviously), and pootled into the shop that the Post Office is in. Because of Creative Clara's Etsy shop, she's in there regularly to post her Realuv parcels. She used to take Minty Mutt, now she takes Pepper Pooch, so the staff know her quite well. The lady that took her cheques, is rather a fan of the pooch and got into a long chat about how he was getting on. She then started talking about her own six-month old puppy. Now normally this would be lovely, but Hormonal Hannah was getting rather embarrassed! It's nearly Christmas - the queue was getting longer by the second and the lady's multi-tasking was rather poor, talking and doing didn't happen at the same time. Baggy kind of "slunk" past the queue, but then Furry Mama realised that most people were grinning at the cute pooch!

Furry Mama took him to the park. The Domestic Goddess is seriously beginning to despair of Furry Mama! It's bad enough that she lets the pooch be a one-doggy-shredding machine in the house, but she also lets him get filthy, and then bring it back in the house. Take today. They walked and ran and had a lovely time, until Baggy totally miss-threw the ball. It landed in a massive bramble patch. Pepper was frantic. As they cost nearly £3 each, Furry Mama was determined to find it. Five minutes, and fingers full of bramble thistles later, Baggy managed to find and retrieve it. After much charging about, totally focussed on the ball, being the model dog, Pepper then vanished. Freda Fretter was pretty sure she knew where he'd gone. She was correct!

Freda thanked goodness that the stream was a mere trickle compared to how it was last time she had seen it.

Furry Mama thought about getting Baggy to go into the stream to find the ball, but Clever Bird talked her out of it. Ah well, yet another ball lost. Yet another smelly, dirty dog to get home, so The Goddess now needs to clean Billy Bob as well as the house. Psychic Ploppo is even more convinced that Minty Mutt is constantly whispering in the pooch's ear........

Feeling great.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggetts): 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): 1.
Tears: No.
Overall day: Productive.

The pooch has some miraculous kind of internal body clock! He wakes Baggy up at 8.45am every morning. Yesterday Baggy set her alarm for 7.45am to get him to the vet. Today he woke her at 7.45am. When Baggy told number one furry this on the phone, he said, "Have you not noticed that he wakes me up at 4.00am every Sunday?" Baggy hadn't. The good news however baggetts, is that Pepper was back to his usual self at 10.30pm last night. Now Creative Clara might say "Good news", but Hormonal Hannah would describe it as bad news! Having been asleep for most of the day, and not having had a walk, the pooch decided he needed to burn off some energy! He proceeded to grab a toilet roll (a full one), and with it in his mouth, run (flat out), down the stairs, up the stairs, into the bedroom, across the bed (that Baggy was attempting to get to sleep in), into the bathroom; then repeat! About ten times! Baggy has bruises. Pepper finally wore himself out and went to sleep on her feet.

Billy Bob was an ice cube when they were ready to set off. Even the lock was so frozen that Baggy couldn't get in him from the driver's side! Between the black ice and the Christmas tree in the back, Baggy drove even more slowly than usual. The tree made it all the way to the road that the holiday cottage is on, before falling over! Thanks to an idiot driver on the single track road. Only one bauble was lost! The Domestic Goddess set the tree up with a few other decorations.

While the pooch made himself at home!

Hopefully the singing dog will be a hit.

The Christmas one on the writing desk baggetts - not Pepper! Furry Mama didn't leave him behind!

Quick catch up and cup of tea with the neighbours. Whizz into the village shops to pay the bills. Then home again. Furry Mama stopped off at Needham Lake to let the pooch have a hurtle about.

By the time they got back in Billy Bob it was gone 3.00 and getting really cold. The pooch, as is his way, had thrown himself in the frozen lake, (before Furry Mama could do a thing about it), and was soaking wet with little snow forms dripping off him. Furry Mama wrapped him in his drying-fleece and covered him with a blanket.

Baggy had the matching blanket over her lap.

The pooch slept all the way home. By the time they got back, Baggy couldn't feel her toes. But would she swap Billy Bob Jalopy campervan for a modern warm car? No she wouldn't........

When nothing feels right.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggetts): 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): Blue.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 8.
Tears: Yes.
Overall day: Not right.

Baggy was up early so that Furry Mama could take Pepper Pooch to the vet. Freda Fretter and Hormonal Hannah were both a mess. It's bad enough that number one furry had to leave them at 5.00am to go to work. But then when they had to leave the pooch as well, they totally panicked. Giving animals a sedative is always a risk and as Baggy drove away from the vets, all kinds of terrible thoughts were hurtling through her tiny mind. Even Clever Bird struggled to calm her down. By the time she arrived in town, Hannah was a shaky, crying mess. She called Calum. As usual he calmed her down. Then Clever Bird realised that Hannah had once again forgotten to take her happy pill. The woman is hopeless. She decided to take her mind off it by doing a bit of Christmas shopping, having realised in the middle of the night that Christmas is this weekend, not next, as she'd thought. Where pray has the year gone baggetts?

Creative Clara had a happy hour buying a few little presents. Then she pootled into the vintage shop to put her "smelly" vintage bowls out for sale - not in her cabinet, but around the owner's things. Just until after Christmas. Clever Bird was delighted to be told that two things had sold from her cabinet! She is now hoping that she might make a breakeven result, at least. Time to be optimistic, and go for a 2018 rollout! When Baggy got home she felt a little better about everything. So The Domestic Goddess decided to keep the gang busy, to stop Furry Mama from worrying too much. First lunch. Then vacuuming. Then the biggest challenge of the lot - get the Christmas tree into Billy Bob! Clever Bird realised that this would be a lot easier without her little black pooch-shaped shadow. Miraculously, not only did she succeed, she only lost the fairy and one bow in the process!

Do you think it's a little over-the-top baggetts, having a Christmas tree in the campervan?

Baggy sat down and had a cup of tea after her efforts. By then it was nearly 11.30 and Furry Mama was very concerned that she'd had no news. Everything felt wrong! The house felt empty. Hannah felt lost. For a little dog, that pooch fills a big space in the Baggy home. Finally Furry Mama got the call at noon - he was awake. She could collect him at 12.30. Phew!

The short journey to the vets with a Christmas tree in the back - interesting! How Clever Bird thinks that Baggy's going to get it all the way to the holiday cottage in one piece, is anyone's guess.
Nearly £600 later, the pooch was home. Furry Mama was told that she could "treat him as normal".
"Really? He won't need to rest?" asked Clever Bird.
"No, he can do his usual thing".
"Charge about totally losing the plot!"
"Yes, he'll be fine."
Clever Bird was a little taken aback by this information, but assumed it was correct.

Furry Mama gave him his (very late) breakfast. He wolfed it down. Then he found his ball. But he looked so sad. And he just kept whimpering. Furry Mama threw the ball. He chased it - slowly. Then wobbled. Clever Bird realised that he was still well and truly under the influence of the sedative. She picked him up and plopped him on the sofa. He instantly passed out. He slept for the next hour on Baggy's knee. Then he woke and whimpered. Hannah couldn't bear it. He went back to sleep. This went on all afternoon. Sleep; wake; whimper; sleep...... At four, a worried Furry Mama phoned the vet's practice. A nurse reassured her that Pepper was probably very susceptible to the sedative, and that they could sometimes take up to twenty-four hours to wear off, he "just needs to rest". Hmmmm! By five, he seemed slightly less spaced out. Furry Mama felt better. But the vet that told her that he was "back to normal", was the same vet who said he had allergies, without even trying to rule out any other possibility, by doing the various test that are now being done. Furry Mama will be requesting the other vet from now on!

The pooch hasn't whimpered for the last thirty minutes, so Furry Mama is hoping that he's feeling like his old self again. Thank goodness, nothing seems right without that little chap around...........

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggetts): 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): Grey.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 2.
Tears: Yeah.
Overall day: Christmassy.

Today was the day that Baggy crawled up into the attic so that Creative Clara could get all over excited with the Christmas decorations. Three trees have been trimmed. Wine has been consumed. Christmas songs have been background music. No bah humbug this year.

Baggy is not too sure how seriously number one furry was taking it. He is after all only five years old (well in his head anyway). Pepper Pooch couldn't work out whether he was impressed or totally freaked out. "What is it with humans bringing trees indoors anyway?"

"And who is this Santa Claus?"

Clara worked round them.

 

 

First the main house tree for the sitting room of Baggy's house.

Then the tree for Baggy's holiday cottage. There are four people staying there from Christmas Eve until the Monday. Then from the Monday afternoon until the following Monday, another four people are staying!

Clever Bird decided it would be a good idea to finish the tree and take it over to the cottage all ready to just switch on. What she didn't do was factor in just how ridiculously heavy it now is for Baggy to carry! Hopefully it will fit in Billy Bob Jalopy campervan.

Next, her whacky tree for the snug.

Both fireplaces fiddled with. Stockings up.

Certain furries seem a little impatient to see what's in their stockings!

A few finishing touches.

The children played while Clara tidied up.

Quick whizz over to Beccles to give Pepper Pooch a run about before it got dark, and do some food shopping. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.........