Number58

Over the weekend we took Harry the place known as Doggy Dreamland, Puppy Paradise, or as we know it – the pet shop. The purpose of the visit was to buy Harry a bone. Every puppy should have their own bone, although it’s much more fun to steal someone else’s.

However, all treats have to be earned, so before the pet shop we had a brief visit to our local M&S food hall. Harry didn’t have a fan club when he went in, but he did have 50 fully paid up members when he left. If he’d been able to sign autographs we would have been there till midnight.

Finally we made it to the pet shop, and after going up and down the aisles at least fifty times, Harry settled on a smoked bone which was twice as big as him. While he was distracted by all the other goodies we bought him a much smaller version. Its not that we’re mean, but the noise a bone makes when it’s repeatedly dropped on a hardwood floor, over and over and over again is awful. We figured if Harry had the smaller version then there was less chance he’d drop it.

This is the smaller version.

It’s huge.

And he can’t carry it around.

So he keeps dropping it.

And the noise it makes is awesome.

Due to a pressing family matter we had to take a trip northwards today. This meant a round trip of 140 miles and as Harry still objects loudly to travelling in the car, we thought he might prefer to stay behind. Our eardrums agreed.

So Harry was packed off, together with his favourite toy, to spend the day with another Guide Dog puppy walker. What he actually did all day he’s not telling, but we do know he went to meet some children coming home from school and had a fine time in the school playground.

By the time he got home all he wanted to do was crash out in his kennel with Fred.

Yesterday Harry went to his first Pilates class. This involves a lot of strengthening and stretching key muscles and can be quite hard work for a pup, especially when you have to watch a room full of humans wave their arms and legs around for a whole hour.

Harry was so tired when he got home that all he wanted to do was crash out with his best buddy Fred.

Fred is a wannabe Guide Dog pup but somehow I don’t think he’ll make the grade.

Today Harry turned 8 weeks old and has been at Number 58 for a whole week. It’s been a week of great changes for us as we’ve adapted to living with a puppy again, and a week of steep learning for Harry. And then there were the sleepless nights, but more of them later.

Harry’s had quite a busy time this week, getting out and about in the village. He’s been on visits to the barbers, the local library, newsagent, butcher, greengrocer and even popped his head in to say hello at the local art class.

When Harry arrived he weighed 5.8 kg and his tail measured 6 inches (15cm for those of you in metric-land) today his tail measures 7.5 inches (19 cm). We took a trip to the vet to get him weighed and Harry tipped the scales at 7.1 kg. Now that’s a weight gain of 1.3 kg, and when you consider that we’ve only fed him a total of 1.5 kg of food over the last week, it makes me wonder how come there’s been so many little deposits to pick up. Just doesn’t seem logical somehow.

Over the last 7 days Harry has learnt his name, taken to wearing his collar like a pro and most importantly of all, learnt some table manners at meal times. He no longer dives head first into his food as if it was the last ever scrap of food on earth and now waits patiently for the command that indicates he can go ahead and eat.

And the last 7 nights? Well, they have been interesting. Harry is obviously a party animal and likes nothing more than to have an all night rave up. Harry has his own soundtrack to dance to, a kind of vocal solo, and the louder the better. Over the last two or three nights he’s taken a few power naps while at the party, so we’ve managed to grab a couple of hours sleep, but at 2am and 5am (and numerous other times in between) he’s been awake and ready to party again and again. Then last night something strange happened. As we tiptoed up the stairs there was no howling, we cleaned our teeth and still there was silence. Still holding our breath we crept into bed. The silence was deafening. This was just too good to be true, but hang on a minute, what if he wasn’t well, what if he’d stopped breathing? The call of the pillow was too alluring, the need for sleep too compelling and common sense won out. Seven hours of pure blissful uninterrupted sleep followed. And there he was at 6am, still breathing, all bright eyed, bushy tailed and raring to go. It seems though, that Harry has learnt one vital lesson about all this late night partying.

The lesson? Well, not even puppies look their best the morning after the night before.

The life of a Guide Dog Puppy is privileged indeed. Today Harry went out for lunch to a restaurant. Actually, the real story is that Harry had his lunch in the car park before we had lunch inside. After his grand entrance into the restaurant where, of course, he was mobbed by all the diners, he promptly fell asleep under the table.

Talking of food, it didn’t take Harry long to figure out where the goodies were kept at home!

Harry had visitors at the weekend – on Saturday Guide Dog puppy Goldie came to visit. Goldie is a real 21st century girl and sees no problem in having a MUCH younger boyfriend. Although when that boyfriend gets a bit uppity and utters his very first bark while demanding to play, she did what any self respecting girl would do and barked back. Harry realising he’d pushed her too far retreated quickly to safety, hid under a kitchen chair, and fluttered his puppy dog eyelashes.

On Sunday another Guide Dog puppy by the name of Hadley came to visit. Harry was so excited to see him he just wanted to play and wrestle with him. Hadley’s quite grown up now and he tried to be so cool, pretending he was unfazed despite having what appeared to be a gremlin trying to attach itself to his neck.

In the end he just couldn’t resist and gave into the temptation to play tug. Mostly because he knew he would win every time. Without even trying.

Because size matters.

Harry likes to fall asleep on top of something, and sometimes we wonder how he can possibly find it comfortable. He’ll fall asleep on top of anything. Literally.

As he’s doing so well we decided to take him on his first big adventure – to Guide Dog Puppy Class. He met most of the other local Guide Dog puppies but all the commands to sit, down and stay were a bit too much for such a little chap, so he slept through most of it.

On the way there, travelling in the car, he was all, if I make enough noise maybe they’ll let me out. So he squawked indignantly, whimpered pitifully and when that didn’t work he tried to bark. Only he hasn’t quite mastered that yet and the resulting noise was kind of rrrr-yaaak. If it hadn’t been so LOUD it would have been funny.

Next time we’re taking earplugs.

As today was World Book Day Harry thought he’d take a trip to the library – an absolute must for such a cultured little pup. Having browsed the shelves, and rejected such titles as “Cooking with Delia” and “The Doctor Who TV Scripts”, Harry finally settled on this one. He thought it might be of some use to the humans.

Apparently we need to learn that this look means “I’m hungry – is it dinner time yet”?

It’s 6.30 pm and Harry arrived 5 hours ago. He went straight to the garden and created the biggest puddle that’s ever been seen from such a small pup. Since then he’s managed to make it outside every single time, however, in the time its taken me to write this, we’ve had 3 puddles on the kitchen floor.

Now that the bladder has been completely emptied, and the kitchen fully explored, its time for a snooze.