John "the dogs"

Yesterday a neighbour asked me if I would like to go with her to the Methodist chapel for a "frugal" lunch. Now not being much of a Church goer, I have little knowledge of the traditions of lent, but as I am a fan of The Archers, I now feel pretty more informed of the state of frugal lunches as experienced by Clarrie Grundy  at Ambridge over the past few weeks or so!
There was around 20 villagers at the lunch, which consisted of hot pot ( is hot pot frugal?) cheese and bread. I knew most of the people there but there was a few faces I did not recognise, so I seized the opportunity to "conscript" a couple more of the older villagers for my oral history blog.
As I introduced myself to one older lady she preempted me by saying with a smile "I know you, you're John the dogs",

This kind of "title" pleases me, it is also a typical Welsh description of a personlike myself. as I can always be seen twice a day walking around the village and local countryside with the four dogs walking cleanly at heel.
This kind of Welsh nickname remains commonplace in communities like ours.

Now I know recently I have been waxing rather too lyrically on the virtues of a deadpan flatulent bulldog with an over abundance of saliva and in answer to the prolific e mailer Mrs Fickle, I agree I have not perhaps shown William, Meg and underdog George in a similar positive light.......so today I will endeavour to rectify my mistake.

William is a delightful five year old Welsh terrier. Of all of our dogs he is the one with the best manners and the sweetest personality.
William possesses a gentleness about him which I always think is a rare trait is such a young dog. He is slow to rile and quick to welcome other dogs and people.
He also allows himself to be bullied by the physically more dominant Constance

Meg is the baby of our pack even though she is the oldest dog at six. Neurotic, needy, clingy,and constantly jealous of anyone and everyone, she is not happy unless she is within a gnat's crotchet of me at any given moment of the day.

If Meg was the female version of Woody Allen in the household and William a canine version of Matt Cardle (?) George is a bit of the Elliot character from ET.
George has always been and will always be the underdog in the house...even the hens understand his low status and will bully him without a thought when he checks each of the hen houses for spare eggs.

However, despite his low standing, George remains the comic of the group. Resolutely cheerful, he remains  a constant wall flower in the daily cottage routine......and therefore  secretly dominates everyones affection by his undemanding behaviour. He is just a real sweetie

If we had a bigger house and garden, we would have a huge pack of  dogs, of that I am sure.....but then I guess my nickname would not then be "John -the dogs".......it would probably be "John the  "f*"king" nutcase