How Much Should We Give?

Bit of a step back in time today for a Monday incentive  to put a spring in your stride…

It does feel a bit like give-give-give at the moment.

I’ve been working with Lidy at the shelter this week to build in frustration tolerance and a bit of patience, a few manners and so on. She’s a cracking dog. I’m really, really taken with her. I mean… really. She is such a smart dog. Hard-faced when you first know her, then all soft eyes and belly rubs. It torments me that she does Tobby’s soft eyes and relaxed smile. I mean really torments me. Plus, she has such a bad (and deserved) reputation. Not a dog for first-time owners by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve spent all my lunchtimes this week taking her out and giving her a bit of a reminder about how to behave with people, and when she cried to see me on Friday, it practically broke my heart. That’s very tough.

We had a drop-off in Poitiers to do this week again, and instead of Ruth listening to me prattling on, I took my dad. We had Larry, Loyd and the inappropriately-named Fifi to drop off. Fifi is a boy. He doesn’t care much for his name. Loyd was terrified and took a bit of wrangling to get into the van. For the first time, Fifi looked scared too – I really hope they all arrived safely in their new shelters. All three were boys that nobody looked twice at here.

It was also magazine run week and another few errands as well. I don’t think this week will be much quieter, and I’m looking forward to Easter, though I have so many GCSE students this year that I might as well give up any hope for a break of any kind.

I think I ended up accidentally offending the world last week. I upset some woman with some accidental science she disagreed with, and then upset some meat-eaters by accident who didn’t like to be implied that they don’t love animals as much as vegans (sorry – that’s not me speaking, either…. that’s a survey of your peers, dude) and then I upset some other people. If I’d not become so very efficient at pissing people off, I’d have thought Mercury had slipped into retrograde again. Thankfully, all of these people felt free to take issue with whatever thing stuck in their craw. What makes me most sad are people who don’t tell you that you’ve pissed them off, and then behave like smiling assassins, slagging you off to all and sundry even when they’ve taken issue with something that someone else told them that you might once have done. Maybe. And rude people. Since when did it become okay to say what the hell you like to other people? There was a court case up for hearing at the tribunal here, and if the judge could take into account the various death threats and insults, I think the guy would probably have been locked up. By all accounts, the lawyers had never been threatened in such a way before. The world doesn’t feel like a very harmonious place at the moment. I think it would be great if people just took a breath.

Anyway, this week is a busy one as per… Double lessons today, and Lidy Lunchbreaks and final drop-offs. Tomorrow I absolutely must get on top of the grass situation, as I’m one wet week away from living in a jungle. I’m running a training course here on Friday for reactive dogs, and I simply can’t expect people to accept the huge Feff-sized turds in the garden, or the knee-high grass.

Have a lovely week, and make it your mission to be as kind as you can be to as many people as you meet.