Skinny

The High Chaparral was part of my evening entertainment. The episode included an overseas visit from an English lord of all people. You’ll be glad to know that things are settling down between John Cannon and his new Mexican wife (of convenience) Victoria. Sadly, many Indian Ameriacans died in this episode including the one Blue rescued from some Mexicans who were not best pleased. By the end of the episode, everything had been sorted out and we left on a high note.

Since the rain, the nights have been cooler which has been a bit of a blessing. The van door remains permanently open as is the roof vent above my bed and the sliding cab window at the foot. The opposite one at the head end is now closed. My magnets transformed my insect ‘tent’ so I have more usable space without the mesh drooping down in the night.

I can let Skinny out in the morning without him jumping over the fence and disappearing even though the electric fence has been inactive since the rain on Saturday. He must have noticed just isn’t bothered to do anything about it. He fools around with Isabella whilst I put my boots on but both come when I want to put on their collars and leads.

Our walks were uneventful although we managed with one fewer circuits of the Promontory today as I had plans for later on. We joined the river at the beach and squelched through the mud. VGD was present but inactive however the cat with the green eyes was elsewhere. We went further by accident as it was still quite dark so I missed the track we take down to the riverbed. The tracks are far easier than scrambling down the sides. Only Charlie went missing for a little while as he’s quite black and has a tendency to slope off if he can manage it. He comes back quickly enough when summoned but I like to be able to keep my eye on all of them.

It was light as we walked downhill towards the sea and the mud was avoidable if careful. The beach was deserted except for one French motorhome and the two Italians who were packed up and ready to leave. I saw one of them later who said they were heading to Kissamos to catch the ferry to Githeo tomorrow. I’ve been on this route which passes via anti-Kythera and Kythera on the way to the Peloponnese. The trip from Crete to Githio must be tedious as I stopped at Kythera on the way and the trip from Kythera to Crete was tedious enough! It is shorter than the Piraeus route, however.

With the dogs lodged in the van, I took Isabella and Skinny out for an additional walk just to the Promontory to see how they worked together and for Skinny to get used to the collar. He’s been wearing one for a few days but has been on the lead as usual. He was on the lead until we arrived at the Big Beach where I let him go to play with Isabella. They were both reasonably lively despite having walked the previous couple of hours. They chased around together so we kept going onto the rocks and back round to the Big Beach the long way. I called them to me on a couple of occasions just to see how responsive they are. Isabella is generally very responsive but Skinny followed Isabella’s lead without any encouragement. At one point, on Grammeno Beach, Skinny was tempted to wander off into the camping. I called and used the vibrate option to begin with but progressed to some level 2 stimulation which was the deciding factor and he came running. Skinny is quite a ‘soft’ dog so doesn’t need much remote encouragement. Isabella can be a little stubborn at times so requires for the volume to be turned up a little on occasions.

From there, we went a little way down Alonáki Beach and then back via the track where we’d been earlier. They surprised one of the Italians who was working on his van as he’s unused to dogs so found it a little daunting to find two sizeable dogs bearing down on him. He was obviously unaware that they wanted to play but was more relaxed once he recognised them. It was he who told me they were leaving Crete via Kissamos.

The first Skinny walk on the remote collar went amazingly well so I feel we can try again tomorrow then perhaps allow him some freedom when we’re out altogether. Starting by releasing him at the end on the beach section progressing to the return river valley section if things work out.

It was still too blowy and a bit chilly for swimming so we progressed through the morning without much excitement. I prepared the Doggy Dinners and had a long chat with Crystal who tells me she’s hopefully going for breast implants in October if there are no pandemic complications. We worked out that it’s nearly thirty years since the days of the small boy who did a paper round at the shop where Carl used to markup the newspapers. Carl used to mark up the papers as well as do a couple of rounds as this was his main income when he was at college. Carl used to give me half his round at weekends when it was particularly heavy. Sometimes, Chris (now Crystal) used to help Carl if I was unavailable driving a coach for example. Sometimes Chris and I used to divide Carl’s round if Carl was unable to do it himself.

The dogs are wonderfully quiet and relaxed until I move from this chair as we’re approaching Doggy Dinner time…

Now fed, some have taken up their positions inside. Skinny is very relaxed inside and curls up and just sleeps. Unless I put an olive pit by his nose then he feels duty-bound to crunch it up.

Today saw the highest Greek Covis spike to 453 for new cases yesterday. The total number of reported cases on Crete is currently 465 however that number is likely to be underreported by a considerable factor. I read that UK is considering its options with the balancing game between the economic and social costs of ways to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. We are probably not far off the first anniversary of this particular event as no one can be certain when it actually began as it probably remained unreported long before December when there was no likelihood of hiding it any longer.

Maria is presently paying a visit to Janne and Erica. Skinny, Obi and Isabella are fooling around on the decking and Luis is skulking about as he has a collar on due to excessive annoying barking earlier. Strangely, when Luis has a collar the others are mostly quiet. That was until some stranger walked towards the gate leading into the camping and was spotted by one of the dogs. It was amusing how quickly he retreated when the dogs started to bark!

My supper appears to be ready so I shall let it cool a while before eating it.