The Joy of Dogs!

Or how to become poor in easy stages.

One of the early posts I made was on the subject of having recovered my painting mojo which had been dented by the arrival of two rescue dogs, to whit George and Barney.  At the time there was a slight doubt over whether we would keep George as initially we were an emergency foster home for him when his original adopters decided they didn't want him.  Long story short we did keep him.

George being goofy you can see why we kept him.

George on the chair, Barney on the floor

 George is a French breed once known as a Breton Spaniel and now (in the UK at least) known as a Brittany. They are a general purpose gun dog although George is a family pet pure and simple.  To describe him as 'affectionate' is a bit like describing Stephen Hawkins as 'a bit clever'.  Every where Mrs E or I go he wants to be.  He really doesn't understand that he isn't a lap dog (or even a two lap dog to be honest).  They are almost two dogs in one skin, inside the home they are cuddly and people orientated, outside they become independent and determined to explore just one more hedge line even if it's in the next county!  Its what they were bred to do; flush game where its scarce by ranging far and wide.

Mrs E trying to see around George

Barney is a little more stand offish until he decides not to be and then he wants attention NOW.  He is a Dutch breed known as a Kooikerhundje (no I can't pronounce it properly either).  From a re-encating perspective Barney is perfect as the breed existed in the early 17th century, at least in the Dutch Republic.  Apparently William the Silent was saved from Spanish Assassins by his Kooiker who barked during the night alerting him to the danger.  George looks a lot like the hunting dogs in Dutch Genre paintings so they are both good to have around a 17th century BCW event.

A Kooikerhundje in one of Jan Steen's paintings

What we didn't really grasp at the outset was how much they would change our lives.  The immediate impact was that we take a lot (I really mean a lot) of walks with them, which is good for Mrs E and I as we get older. Since having these two furry rapscallions we have had to buy a house with a larger garden as it turns out that George has the need to run around like a mad thing at any and all opportunities.  I swear that at our old house he used to do wall of death turns using the shed wall and the back fence he could get moving so fast. When we first got him he loved to take long runs in the park at every possible opportunity without that being coupled with any concept of recall, which meant that we quickly learned every trick in the book for getting him back within collar grabbing reach.  George on the other hand knew to a nicety how long a human arm is!  As a result he now has his walks on a lead and his runs in the garden or when we hire a secure paddock.  Most recently we had to buy a bigger bed so there was room for Mrs E and myself when George and/or Barney decide to come and join us in a short snooze.

When we bought the current house the main consideration was 'will the dogs like it' and not as I had thought would be the case 'is there space for a war games room', The next way to get poor are the vet bills!  After all we would have bought a new home anyway but vet's bills are a slightly unexpected extra. To be fair we expected vets to be involved but just not quite so frequently!  George it turns out has developed quite serious arthritis in his left hip and recently started to struggle to put that paw to the ground without pain relief.  This is probably due to an injury when he was a pup or a young dog.  The vet has suggested that at some point he may need a hip replacement, and the other hip looks like it could go the same way!  Don't ask about the cost I'm just grateful for pet insurance!  Barney currently has an eye infection on top of that that is needing pain relief and eye drops.

Assuming human private medical bills would be even more expensive that canine ones, it really brings home what a world without the NHS would be like.  It also leads me to wonder why didn't that nice Mr Bevin think to include dogs in the plan.  The bottom line to this post is that George is in no pain now the pain meds have kicked in, Barney's eye is getting better and I'm not buying any more toy soldiers for a couple of months!  On the plus side I might get a head start on reducing the lead mountain in 2019.

Well that's it for this year.  All that remains is to wish you all a Happy New Year.