Saturday, 13th September 2014

Hello Readers,

It has most definitely been one of THOSE weeks, but in a good way, not a bad way it’s just all been a bit strange.

The week started perfectly normally. On Sunday I continued to work on my Christmas cards, did some gardening. Monday a bit more of the same plus Pat and I got out and about for a walk, but on Tuesday things went a little bit strange.

To start at the beginning Pat and I have French language class on Tuesday mornings, at different times, but following on from one another. My class was cancelled so Pat went off by himself and after class went food shopping for our usual weekly provisions. On his way home Pat found a little puppy and an older dog wandering along the road out of our hamlet. He stopped to see if anyone was around, and to have a look at the dogs – collars etc, but nothing. Pat was able to get the puppy into the car but the older dog (who didn’t appear to be the mother) was happy to be stroked but would not to get into the car. So Pat shows up to the house with a small terrified puppy! We gave it a drink of water (it inhaled half the cat’s biscuits before I could remove them) and we placed it into the cat crate. After a hasty unpacking of the shopping we jumped in the car and went to look for the older dog, figuring that the two of us could hopefully catch it. Unfortunately to no avail, the older dog was not to be seen again.

So that afternoon, we gave the vet a call that he said to bring the puppy in (the vet lives in our hamlet). No microchip, no tattoo and really too young to be away from her mother. The vet thought that she was too young to have wandered away from home (even if following another dog), and being the local vet he knows most of the dogs in our area. So unfortunately we think she may have been dumped. The vet wormed her and gave us some free puppy food samples. The grand total of the vet visit – €1.85 – he only charged us for the worming tablet. The vet also asked “I was told you are Australian” which goes to show that people in the hamlet know who we are and it seems to surprise people that someone from Australia lives in France.

Pat and I both think the dog is part Golden Retriever by her look, but I also think that she has some terrier in her.  At this point no one has claimed her; we have not seen any lost puppy signs, and the vets haven’t heard from anyone saying that they lost a dog, so at this point we have decided that she is ours. Yes, it is early days, but we are fairly certain no one is looking for her.

She finally got a bath on Thursday morning and looks a lot better for the process and it helped us find all the tic’s that were on her (yucky) and get rid of a lot of the fleas (very nice). She goes back to the vet next week to start on her shots. We have decided to name her Siena, after the town in Italy (but also because of course it sounds the same as sienna – and she is definitely a raw sienna colour). There are photos at the end.

Wallace (our cat) is not quite so sure about the puppy – currently Wallace is bigger than Siena, but very uncertain. He has allowed Siena to come up to him a couple of times, but Siena did get a bop on the nose one day for being a bit enthusiastic. Since then Siena has generally avoided Wallace or been very calm around him – so that is good, and Wallace is returning to the house outside of meal times just to get a pat and stroke so we think it will all work out.

So what else happened this week? My exercise programme got a little bit left behind because of Siena, but I’m now back on track. I found my pedometer and I’m back wearing it, to make sure that I can get at least 10,000 steps each day. Unfortunately this week that was only twice, but I did get out for my walks each day so I did manage over 6,000 steps on the other days. This is quite good because when I was doing an office job I found that I was lucky if I got a couple of thousand steps.

I also finally got to sort out my art studio – aka the workshop. It did require a trip to the dump, lots of cleaning but it is now sorted and Pat spent yesterday sorting out a storage unit for my paintings which he will be finishing today (it’s not in the photos). I’m really pleased to have this space and will be using it this weekend. I did do a sort through of my paints and a huge number had to be thrown out, they were quite old and I must admit I have so many that loosing the older paints really isn’t a hard ship.  It was so good to be able to clear it out.

So hopefully next week, lots of art work done, lots of walking done and hopefully the front hallway will finally be painted!

Siena

Siena

after her bath

Studio – almost there

such organised shelves – how long will it last?