Happy Birthday Mishka - his present is a therapist

It's Mishka's 5th birthday tomorrow! For anyone that doesn't know the story, he was born 24 hours after all but one of his brothers and sisters by caesarian section, after his mum was taken to the vets for her post-natal check up. It was only during this check-up that he and another sibling were found to be alive, and were delivered there and then! Hence his Kennel Club registered name - Sarianova Lucky Fella.

It's a coincidence, but we have arranged for a renowned dog behaviourist coming to visit the boys tomorrow. I'm fed up with Jackson's behaviour when we encounter other dogs on walks, he gets very wound up, and ends up nipping Mishka, who nips him back (as you would!). We don't know if it's aggression towards other dogs, or just frustration that he can't play with them, but we don't let him off the lead to find out. Hopefully this lady will be able to offer some advice.  She might even be able to tell us how to get them both to calm down when we have visitors! Any readers who have been to our house know to expect a very warm and friendly welcome from our boys for the first few minutes, but they really shouldn't do that, so I hope we can learn how to solve that problem too...

Golf - fore!!!!

I'm off now to my first proper golf lesson! It was a bargain on GroupOn, and I want to see if he can work miracles before the Littlewick Green CC golf day on the 30th September.

Lara Update

Lara's over her stomach bug now. She still had to sleep much of Wednesday night in bed with me, but she went to nusery yesterday and they said she was fine there, and ate well. Last night she spent the whole night in her own bed, for the first time after 6 nights, although she did wake a few times, and has developed an addiction to warm milk. This is OK just before bed, but is a bit of a pain at 1am, as our microwave is loud enough to wake the neighbours, never mind everyone in our house. Lara has promised not to ask for warm milk in the middle of the night again, unless she's ill. Tonight will be the big test. She did have a go at faking a tummy ache at 1am, when I was initially refusing to get her more warm milk, but she quickly refused the milk of magnesia I offered her to help her with her sore tummy. Funny that... I relented in the end though and got her some milk, but only on the definite promise that this was the last time..

CHAMPIONS - Lancashire County Cricket Club

CHAMPIONS - Lancashire County Cricket Club Official Website

I couldn't let this pass without a post. Sky were kind enough to show the last few overs once Warwickshire had given in to a draw against Hampshire. At least Dad had the best seat in the house to watch the Red Rose county finally win the Championship. There might have been a few ciders knocked back last night in Taunton, even if it wasn't the locals doing the drinking!

Cliveden

On Saturday morning we went to see the gardens at Cliveden, the swanky house near Maidenhead, famous for the Profumo scandal in the 1960s amongst lots of other things. Luda had read in the local paper that the gardens would be free to visitors on Saturday, as a way to entice people to join the National Trust. They were very spectacular, and all the better for being free :-)