Big Black Dog

A few months ago, when AunTia confirmed they were not flying north to celebrate hogmanay (and therefore we would not have another five people in our house), and knowing how much all my kids rrreeeaaaalllllyyyy-rreeeaaallllyyy-reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaallllly love dogs and rrreeeaaaalllllyyyy-rreeeaaallllyyy-reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaallllly want not just one but multiple dogs, I agreed to dog-sit a gorgeous, friendly, easy, affectionate black labrador called Monty for the week. I mean I'd never met the dog so didn't know he was gorgeous, friendly, easy or affectionate at the time, but after three days he is definitely all four,

We've actually done it before, many moons ago, but this time the kids were so much more excited... I mean they were counting down the days, not to opening the presents (except for Joey, who really was excited about opening the presents), but to Monty the Dog coming.  I did warn them though that as they were the ones wanting the dog and having him for a week was my gift to them, that I wasn't going to be picking up any of the 'gifts' that the dog in turn would leave behind.  And in fairness to them, they have been very good at doing their duty.

The first few days we mostly just walked around the park, walked into town to run errands, gave everyone a turn at holding his lead, then learned that we could just let him loose in the field outside our house and that he very easily came back and obeyed most of what we said.  And that he was obsessed with carrying sticks.  We also learned he is great in big wide open spaces, but has zero street smarts, probably because his owners own an acre of land which is where he does most of his exercise. But today the Don was back at work, I was very lazy getting up and couldn't be bothered walking around the park and field again, and eventually just sent Lightning out to the garden with him for half an hour.  By lunch time I was feeling guilty (mommy guilt comes in so many forms!) so the Don came home early from work and we decided to take both Don and Dog on a trip to The Don and The Ury. 

This is the Dog (wrestling with a stick)
and the Ury

This is the Don and the Ury

There is no photo of The River Don.

What fun it was walking along the rivers again and then back through the fields behind our former house.  We found some new tracks we never knew were there, ogled the changes the new owners made to our old house, and had a hairy moment when Monty launched into the river but couldn't get back out because the sides were too steep.  Of course if he'd bothered to let go of the massive stick in his mouth is might have been easier... but it didn't seem to cross his mind.

He did make it back out.