Fido has recently been complaining about his sleeping arrangements. I moved him into the storeroom and set him up in a cage with a nice hay bed and a drinking bowl. Fido would rather be in the van with me snuggled up on the rear bench seat. So why has he been cast out into the wilderness?
Last winter, during the nastiest weather, before Boris had his new, insulated home in its own grounds, I experimented with having the Brown Dogs and Boris in the van at nights. Initially, things didn’t seem too bad but gradually, tensions built-up and it ended up as a big fight one night with me chucking the whole lot of them outside to sort it out there.
From then on, I decided that they could all sleep outside except Obi, who, although not part of the fight, got chucked out too. Additionally, sharing the rear of the van with three Brown Dogs had its disadvantages as there was less room for me. Not to mention all the hair, sand and other unpleasantness.
Consequently, Obi is the only one allowed inside since he is cleaner and almost invisible but certainly not without hair. One virtually invisible dog and his hair, I can live with.
And then there was Fido and Luis attacking Boris whilst I was out at the Supermarket on two occasions. I came back just as things were coming to a close. Boris had been unable to fend-off both Luis and Fido, after all, they are Terrier-based dogs so pretty relentless. Fido and Luis were then confined to the Small Dog Enclosure even once Boris got his new dwelling with its own grounds. They used to taunt him through the wire. Luis was forever running to the gate followed by Fido. I got fed up with the interruptions so that was that.
Until the recent arrival of Πέντε, another invisible dog, it was just me and Obi. I always felt sorry for Πέντε when I went to release her in the mornings. Stuck outside in her poorly constructed polythene house was not my idea of how a dog should be looked after. One morning I found her chain snagged on a log and have no idea if she was out all night. I informed Maria and she had Xanthippos clear back the logs but they cannot really keep track of things when they are in Chania. With Mickey staying with Georgia in Chania, Πέντε was left on her own so used to amuse herself running around the camping barking half the night. We still had customers at that point so I had to do something about it. This is why she used to be chained up at night and I released her in the mornings. I brought her in one night after she woke me up at 02:00. She was near to Lau’s van for some reason. That seemed to work quite well so I started to bring her in to ensure a quiet night’s sleep. Now she is waiting by the gate to be let in. Once Mickey, Georgia and Maria are back, she will not come anymore.
Following the demise of Dave, there is now another house free although it has no door and is still in the storeroom. I need help from Lau or Antonis to move the house into the SDC and take in the wooden one as it is only really a box on its side with a bit of insulation on the front.
This evening I offered Fido the choice of Dave’s former residence and the opportunity to roam free on a long line or to go into his cage. I left him to consider whilst I got on with other things. The next thing I heard was him barking at the Albanians so I went out to tell him off. All the other dogs were in bed so this behaviour was unacceptable. He opted for the cage so in he went. I hadn’t been back in the van too long when he started barking. Not a loud bark but a sort of “let’s see how long I can do this before he comes out” type of bark. I waited to see if he’d voluntarily be quiet however that was a forlorn hope. My next weapon was the electric collar. You may recall these were very effective in dealing with other behaviours in the past. Recently, I’ve not had to use them much, however, Luis is pushing his luck at present. I put the collar on Fido and miraculously all is peace and tranquillity
Today has been warm and sunny. The temperature under the awning reached over 30C which helped to dry the washing hanging inside. The sheets and other items we on the line outside. Boris was lying in the sun and he’s a bit in the shade in winter, so I didn’t want to block it out with loads of shirts and fleeces.
Boris was very relaxed as he is using up the remains of Dave’s special diet food which is of a much higher quality than the food he normally gets.
Obi was not on the morning walk as I mistakenly let him out of the compound instead of Πέντε. I took her for a walk straight after the others. It was not long before Obi showed up. It was great fun watching Obi and Πέντε chasing each other about amongst the rocks and the sand. It was quite relaxing only walking two dogs.
The remainder of the day was quite inactive until the evening when I had to make up in order to close my Move circle. The Obi/Πέντε walk contributed but was certainly insufficient. I decided to run another 2km in order to be certain to close my Move Circle. Boris patiently waited whilst I completed my four circuits.
My timer has rung so my rice is cooked. My latest creation awaits!
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