Saturday 8 March 2008

Poor little Mishka


Mishka had a trip to the vet yesterday morning. When I came down to see him at 8.15 it was clear he wasn't a happy puppy, he was looking very sheepish and not his normal bouncy self. I thought he'd perhaps left a little brown message for me somewhere, but I couldn't see (or smell!) it. I let him out into the back garden anyway, in case he was desperate for the loo, but he just went and lay down on the decking, then slowly moved to the garden and just lay down again. I showed Olga and we agreed he should go to the vet straightaway. Olga took him, and while she was stroking him in the waiting room he yelped when she touched his right hip area. The vet diagnosed just a soft tissue injury and after a massage and prescribing some anti-inflammatory painkillers, Mishka came home looking more like his old self. We're not going to take him for long walks for a day or three, but he's booked in for a long grooming session on Tuesday so hopefully he'll be OK for that. We don't know what caused it, although Olga & I did hear a thud followed by Mishka's scurrying paws, so perhaps something fell and scared him, and he pulled a muscle while trying to run away. Our wooden floors downstairs aren't ideal for dogs and he does look like a cartoon character when he tries to run on it. He seems a lot better this morning.

Thursday 6 March 2008

Our brave soldier - the little fatty

(NOT what Lara is going to turn into!)

It's that time again, it was the BCG jab yesterday and the meningitis c and diptheria today, Lara had a bit of a cry in the surgery this afternoon but was happy again by the time we left. She was weighed, and we were rather shocked to find out that she's...wait for it.... 12 lbs 8oz! Or 5.68kg. That was much more than we expected but still perfectly on target given her growth rate already, so if we'd looked in her red book we shouldn't have been so surprised. That means she's doubled in size since she was born... I wonder what Olga has got in her milk! Maybe it's whatever they used to give Eastern Bloc female shot-putters.

At last - a smiling photo

I only just realised I'd been blogging about Lara smiling and we'd not taken any photos of the moment itself, so here's one, and there are a couple of new photos on the Web Album (one of them is a smiler, I didn't want to post loads even though they are all cute, of course!)


Wednesday 5 March 2008

Snow? I'll have a 99 please

It snowed yesterday morning, just while I was walking Mishka. Sadly it didn't stick; I remember it snowing only one other time this winter and it didn't stick then either, so we've not been able to play in the snow with Mishka this year, which is a shame.
I did hear a daft thing while we were out walking in the mini-blizzard - an ice-cream van!

Have passport, will travel

Lara's British Passport arrived on Monday, that took just under 2 weeks, and she didn't need an interview or anything :-)
The next stage is a trip in to London for all of us to start the ball rolling on getting her a Russian passport. I've a feeling it might take longer than two weeks...
It's worth noting that no matter how cute you are in real life, there is no way the Government will let you have a cute photograph in your passport. Lara will be delighted that this one is only valid for 5 years, it's not a flattering photo!

Monday 3 March 2008

Mishka's new friend

Earlier this week I bumped into another dog-walker on Deeds Grove, and as we shouted a greeting to each other (I'd taken Mishka across the road as he does get excitable around other dogs) we agreed that it would be a good idea to socialise the dogs together, and this lady - Yvonne - had a suitable area in her back garden for this, and that I should bring Mishka around on Sunday morning. I discussed it with Olga, and we agreed it would be a good thing if Mishka could play with another dog regularly, it might make it a bit easier to walk him in places where he's likely to bump into other dogs.
So we took him round to Yvonne's on Sunday morning, and he spent 20 minutes playing with Daisy the 2-year-old Rottweiler. As you might imagine, much of the play was Daisy telling Mishka that she's not that sort of girl, but there was plenty of chasing round in circles and other doggy-type fun. We decided to call a halt to it when we noticed blood coming from Mishka's mouth! It wasn't anything bad, in all the excitement and rough and tumble, he'd bitten his tongue, the poor fella!
Being that little bit older than Mishka, and a good few kilos heavier, Daisy could be a good influence on him, and she's very friendly, and wasn't jumping up at us, so we're hoping to make this a regular thing, Olga & Yvonne can meet up for a cup of tea and the dogs can play for 20 minutes. He will keep trying to romance her but an old fairy liquid bottle with cold water in it might remind him of his manners!

Chris Two-Woks

Olga, Lara and I had a sophisticated Saturday night while Lucy dog-sat for us, we went to Chris & Cara's for dinner. Chris performed admirably in the kitchen, and the Oriental Fusion Menu is one I'd definitely recommend. I'm sure if he reads this and posts a comment with the recipe, you'll all be rushing to Waitrose and the POW for the magic ingredients.

Just have two woks ready....

Remember your driving test?


It seems that Desborough Avenue and Deeds Grove are on one of the routes for the driving test around Wycombe, there was one morning last week when I was passed by at least 3 nervous looking teenagers accompanied by men in their giveaway luminous green jackets. I probably formed part of the test for one of them, as he turned up into Deeds Grove whilst I was waiting with Mishka to cross the road. The words "Hazard Awareness" will leap to mind for anyone who's had to take their driving theory test (so that's Olga, then) or been on a speed awareness course (that'll be me and nameless others!). I did think of loosening Mishka's lead just a little so he might make a sudden move that would give both the examiner and driver a heart attack, but instead I just wished him a silent "Good Luck" as he passed at less than 30 mph. I did feel for one candidate that I saw on another occasion, who pulled up to do their hill start on Deeds Grove. The stop was perfect, and even the start was faultless too, except that they didn't indicate before moving off. Is that a black mark? I'd have thought so, but I'll check with Olga, she's bound to remember.