Mabel and the Real World

A rather nervous Mabel in the back of the car

It must be hell coming to a new home in Wales when all you have known for 5 years is a kennel mate in Liverpool!

New sights, new smells, new dogs (and cat), new routine and new owner...it's a lot to cope with even though I am know I am pretty good at bedding a new dog in, so to speak.

Nervous dogs need consistency, patience and routine. They must not be pushed or forced to "join in" in any way but need an unhurried "boss" to lead them into the direction you want them to go.

Voices need to be lowered and actions slowed....it's all common sense really

Toileting has to be done every couple of hours ( Mabel has never lived inside a home so therefore is not house trained) and the company of a more laid back dog ( in her case George) should help her adjust to the changes of a new way of life.

Well that's the theory!

Bless it can't ever be easy.

Mabel managed to follow the other dogs into the car, and bless she shook like a leaf as I collected animal feed from the wholesalers and paid my Nurse registration at the bank (Did you realise that nurses have to pay nearly 80 quid a year just for the privilege of working?)

As we drove through a neighbouring village of Meliden, I noticed a mound of flowers outside one of the old miners' cottages....it was the many tributes left by the locals in memory of a Hungarian delivery man,Gabor Sarkozi who was murdered there only a couple of weeks ago..

Even in our semi rural situation the big bad world sometimes rears it's ugly head!

So when I got home, I was sort of happy to be lulled back into the pedestrian world of the village by

Mrs Hopkins, who called me over to her tidy little bungalow with the kind offer of my new winter mittens!

 They are a triumph of knitting engineering! Phase 1- fingers

Phase 2- mittens!!!!

I like living in the 1960s..I only hope that Mabel will!