Distant friends

Gosh it's been ages since I saw my nice pals in England. More than a year in fact. So when I asked if we are going to visit Janet in Nottingham soon, or perhaps meet up with Janet and Helen for a walking holiday in Northumberland again, Gail just sighed, sat me down in front of the computer and said "sorry Bertie, this is the best we can do right now".

Fellow pups, have you ever taken part in one of these 'Zoom' calls?

Such a disappointment. 

For starters, there is no connection, other than linguistic, between 'doing a Zoom' and 'doing Zoomies'. Rather than having a wild time racing around the garden in circles, one is supposed to sit still, stay awake and pay attention to faces flickering on the MacBook screen.

It seems Janet did attempt at one point to engage my interest by growling at me through the screen, but by then I had drifted off...

Now Gail is always telling me that in this time of lockdown restrictions one has to focus on what one can do, and not what one can't.

But it's hard isn't it? I mean Janet is, among her many talents, a world beater when it comes to playing tug-of-war with a terrier-like level of commitment, and this is not an experience that can be replicated in the virtual world. 

Likewise, I'll never forget the wonderful time I spent as a puppy, licking the berry-flavoured moisturiser off Helen's feet...

Oh I do hope we can go down to England and see some of our lovely friends in person before too long.

Friends together

It's such splendid fun hanging out with Tootsie.

Everyone should have a Swiss doggy godmother!

Nice people and broken dog flaps

I am just taking a wee break from intensive preparations for next Monday's canine science lecture (it's Quantum Physics - you need to be there....) in order to tell you about a couple of my extra specially nice human friends.

First and foremost is Marie-Thérèse, who lives with us here in Gail's home while she is writing up her PhD thesis, and is, much more importantly, chief purveyor of absolutely the best cuddles going. She doesn't want me to show her face (although it is a very agreeable one) but I think you get the idea.

Secondly there is Clare, who loves to play, and always ignores Gail when she says "oh don't wind him up that's the last thing we need!" On Sunday she left me a great new toy. It was meant for me, wasn't it Clare?

(In case you are wondering, the fragments you see dimly on the far right of the photo above are the chewed remains of my dog flap. A new one has been ordered, meanwhile it is a little cold and breezy in our 'conservatory', although that doesn't matter 'cos the few plants are all dead anyway, some humans just have brown fingers I guess...)

Well that's all I have time for today. Of course I have lots more friends and and I'll tell you about them in some future post. Meanwhile, back to the physics equations. See you on Monday!