... behind you!

Oh my goodness! I'm sure you've been hearing all about how the Scarlet Puppynickel is roaming the world committing dastardly deeds.

JD and Max blogged about it a few days ago, and lots of other puppies have since told their story about how the Scarlet Puppynickel stole into their homes, destroyed things, and then disappeared without a trace...

Well, I have to report that the Scarlet Puppynickel has also visited me - and I managed to get a picture of him!

A few days ago, I discovered, to my horror, that he had caused a bookalanche...



... and I knew he'd be back, because he clearly hadn't had time to finish chewing the books before they all fell down.

So I lay in wait, backed up my faithful friends Rat, Pink Elephant, Grey Elephant and Pink Thing Toy. He arrived, as we knew he would, and immediately set to chewing the books. We waited until he had moved on to chewing the rug, and then we got his picture!

As you can see, the Scarlet Puppynickel is a master of disguise, and looks almost exactly like me!



He ran off immediately, of course, and I couldn't catch him. He's obviously studied under Houndini and is also a master of escape.

Gosh, he's such a romantic, dashing figure, I almost hope he steals into my home again... I don't think I should be worried... should I...?

Cats are weird

Recently, when we were at the vet, I made friends with one of the kittens in the display case they have there.

My human said we looked really cute - I had my nose to the glass, and was wagging my tail, and the kitten was rubbing up and down against the glass where I was standing. My human and I considered bringing the kitten home to live with us, but in the end we decided we aren't really set up for a kitten just now.

Tonight when we went for our walk we came across a cat who didn't run away from me. They usually run away from me, when I just want to play with them, and then I get all agitated because I want to catch up with them and my stoopid human won't let me.

But this cat didn't run away from me, it came up and sniffed me, and I sniffed it back. And I wagged my tail, and it kept turning around and brushing its tail across my nose, and we were becoming very good friends.

So I went into my "play with me" crouch, and bounced around a few times in a very inviting manner, and then... the cat hissed and tried to claw me! I couldn't believe it!

Of course, we vacated the vicinity immediately, but I kept on looking back at the cat, I couldn't quite believe what had happened - I'm such a gregarious little puppy, and all I wanted to do was make friends.

We passed the cat on our way back. It kept trying to lure me closer to it, but I wasn't going to be fooled as easily this time. My human patted it, and it didn't try to claw her - but I still didn't want to go near it. When we walked past I stayed as far away from it as my leash would let me.

I'm a little bit glad we're not really set up for a kitten right now.

A cure!

I blogged recently about my debilitating pawicap - Selective Hearing.

I've had so many comments from other puppies who suffer from the same affliction that I feel much better about my decision to bring it into the open and discuss it.

Then the wise and beautiful Honey commented that it is possible to cure Selective Hearing - with hard work and patience!

She said:

Your humans have to do this thing called 'Training' with you and do it often - like a little bit everyday if they can - and they also have to become Dr. Consistent and Dr. Persistent, and be very patient about repeating things with you, gentle but firm, since Selective Hearing stops you learning things quickly...and then you will find that you WILL be able to hear them after all, even if you are suffering from Selective Hearing! It's more a mind disease than an ear disease, I think, but once your brain realises you can't get away with it, then Selective Hearing gets better!

My human laughed and laughed when I showed her Honey's comment - she said that was one of the reasons why we've been doing a lot more training recently, because I had got out of the habit of doing what I was told, and she thinks that practicing every day will get me back into the habit.

I thought we were doing more training because my human loves to spend time with me and she also wants to help me earn liver treats. But, of course she loves to spend time with me, and wants to help me earn liver treats, so I think she's making up the bit about good habits - I always do what I'm told, unless I can't hear her, of course. Or if I don't want to.

Our training sessions almost never end because of Selective Hearing, either. It's usually because I steal the clicker and run off with it. Or sometimes I have a Puppy Moment. That's when I just sit there with a big smile, looking amazingly cute, but don't understand anything at all my human says to me. Actually, that almost sounds like another pawicap...

My terrible affliction

I haven't talked about this before, because it's rather a difficult subject for me, but I suffer from a terrible affliction.

And it's not just me. All around the world, thousands of puppies are affected by the same awful pawicap - Selective Hearing.

Selective Hearing can happen anywhere, anytime, for example, near interesting things, or people, or other puppies, or if it's windy or sunny or rainy, or if it's day or if it's night.

I often suffer from it when I'm stripping gum nuts off branches, and also when it's time to put my leash back on in the park. And when I'm doing something that perhaps I'm not supposed to be doing - only I can't tell I'm not supposed to be doing it because I can't hear my human.

I'm fairly sure there's no cure for Selective Hearing - if there is, I've never managed to hear my human telling me what it is. So I will just struggle on and try to live as full a life as I can, under the shadow of this terrible pawicap, as so many other puppies have done before me.

Lazy Sunday

I'm too lazy to do a proper post today, so I thought I would show you some pictures of me I found the other day.

They're from last December, when I was a little puppy - just after I decided to move in with my human.



I was really tiny and cute.



Of course, I'm still really cute!