Baby steps

Freya managed to climb the stairs this morning! I was upstairs collecting laundry when she started crying. She does this whenever Emma and/or Day-z are inaccessible. Naturally they’d both followed me upstairs and Freya was left at the bottom. It then went quiet. I popped out of the bedroom and looked down the stairs. There was Freya on the fourth step. Looking determined, her front paws on the fifth step almost willing the escalator to start up.

Emma was about halfway up the stairs, taunting her. I sat down and encouraged her to go higher. Setting her tiny jaw with coiled determination, she hauled herself up until she’d reached me. Naturally, it wasn’t just the height she had to contend with. There was also the matter of Emma continually trying to dislodge her footing.

But she made it and received a big hug from me. Of course she couldn’t get back down again so she was carried in the laundry basket (an indignity that Emma also had to experience).

A little later in the day I couldn’t find Freya. I called and whistled. She wasn’t in her usual spots and Day-z and Emma were hanging around me like I’d waved a chop bone in their faces. Finally I found her. She’d climbed up four steps and was sitting there, confused because she couldn’t get back down. I think this is going to be a problem for a while.

They all seem to like sitting up high. Way back when we lived in Shottermill, the poodles just adored sitting in front of the big plate glass windows in the bedroom, watching the street. Then, here, they would sit on the window sill in the loungeroom, particularly when Mirinda wasn’t home, ready to dash for the front door at a moments notice.

Well, Emma is no different. She likes to sit quite high up the stairs so she can see through the glass in the front door and, today during my Skype with mum, she decided she wanted to sit on my desk between the amplifier and the printer.

This is where my mouse and coffee go so, naturally, they had to be moved to make room for Emma’s bum. I was forced to use the track pad on my laptop and drink my coffee with my left hand.

Of course, after a while, sitting is just too much effort so Emma had a go at lying down.

It didn’t take long for her to tuck her head in and fall fast asleep.

And she stayed there for the length of the Skype call.

While the weather was fine while I Skyped, most of the day was spent inside as the weather was, again, appalling. I’m sick of this rain. Perhaps it means we’ll have a dry February. Tonight I heard an Irish weather forecaster who uses the Moon, cows, birds and fungus to predict what will happen. He said the rest of the week (and next week) will be changeable. Really?

The weather didn’t put off Sue and her extended brood from visiting and meeting Freya this afternoon. She’d asked if I minded her niece coming round with her. Then she asked if her sister could also come. When she turned up, she was accompanied by her son, her sister, two nieces and a nephew.

The niece she’d initially mentioned loves Emma. She’s obviously been at Sue’s on a Friday (or holiday time) and has become attached to our teddy bear cocker-poo. And Emma is quite attached to the niece.

Anyway, the whole tribe sat cross-legged on the floor in a big circle and passed dogs between them. There was quite a lot of nose burying in Emma’s velvet coat and going gooey over Freya. It was all a bit surreal.

Then, as suddenly as they’d arrived, they were gone – they had to drive home and wanted to miss the peak hour traffic.

Sadly there was no walk today as the rain forgot to let up just after lunch. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.