Like Old Times

The supper is reheating in the Instant Pot. Having returned from the Evening Walk, all the dogs are settled down after enjoying their food with a little added rice left over from Tuesday evening. There was some onion in the rice, which I know is not recommended for dogs and hopefully is not too farty tomorrow evening. Charlie is next to me on the bench seat, Obi in the corner and Luis stretched out taking up the entire red blanket. Fido is in the corner of the floor by my feet near to the hot air duct which is now pumping out a welcome stream. Oskar is alone at the front of the van on a large piece of vet bed. He seems to prefer his solitude under my bunk.

The Evening Walk was later than usual as I was deep in meaningful conversation with Ursula, Tony had taken himself off to bed following a demanding trip to Azogires and an equally demanding lunch in Paleochora. Apparently, they ate at the ‘sad lady café’ which has a very narrow frontage with a sad-looking female proprietor.

The Evening Walk began almost as the sun was setting giving a further forty-five minutes or so of daylight. Like old times, I took a ball thrower. Boris did not need a ball thrower for his last few months due to his mobility problems. A short throw was more than enough. Boris always wanted to control every ball or other throwable object making life difficult when there were multiple dogs to entertain and exercise. Luis and Fido knew not to compete with Boris during his hay-day as he was always quite possessive and somewhat unpredictable. Luis and Fido are now making up for lost time so it’s harder to keep them both going without a little help. This evening I took one of Boris’ throwers so that I could launch the ball more reliably and further. Both dogs raced about madly chasing their respective balls and had a very enjoyable time. After some food, exercise and a warm environment, I suspect it will be a quiet evening. Charlie was worn out through just spectating and Obi had to trail around behind me.

The Early Walk was equally pleasant as it was mild with no significant wind. The sea was still breaking over the rocks to fill up the lagoon but this was an aftereffect of the previous day’s windiness. Ursula and I were kept busy throwing for Luis and Fido but I managed to fit in a couple of circuits of the Promontory as insurance should the Evening Excursion not be possible due to rain. As it turned out, the rain confined itself to the morning leaving a tolerably sunny and warm afternoon.

I busied myself with sundry support calls and other administrative tasks. Following the excitement of completing my tax return the previous day, I felt I deserved a bit of a rest.

I need to get on tomorrow morning as the plan is to take Oskar and Obi to see Stavros in Maleme so that all the dogs will be ‘legal’ with chips, registered and with current health documents. I’m aiming to leave around 10:15 so need to keep to schedule in the morning.