Pick me!!

If my guys could talk that is what they would all be shouting at me at the moment.

I feel a little guilty that I am not spending much quality time with my fur kids lately. I am working full-time and then some. This is a shock to the system for me, previously I was self-employed and basically did my own thing whenever I felt like it. I was home an awful lot more than I am now. Patch has been with us from the beginning, when I hardly worked and she went everywhere with me. Gradually I have increased my hours and been around less and less. I feel bad for this. I am extremely lucky that I chose greyhounds as my dogs or I would have no house left! Greyhounds aren't particularly destructive by nature and they cope extraordinarily well with whatever situation they find themselves in. "Real" dogs would have by now dug up the entire yard, chewed everything in sight, barked until we got evicted and most likely packed their toys and left home. I do not think that having greyhounds gives me license to ignore my dogs as they seem to cope.... and they have their ways of telling me they need attention.

Rocky's way of getting attention is to throw toys and do 360's in the lounge, chuck the water bowl around and whine sadly. Patch gives me death stares if I pat Rocky and not her, then she puts Rocky's head in her mouth, nips at his ears and generally dominates him until he settles down. The Chicken attacks the dogs, attacks me, sleeps on my head - yes, I wake up with a cat on my pillow and paws in my face - nice. The dogs also dig up the garden, shred the mail and steal shoes.

The obvious solution is to spend more time with them, however that is not viable at the moment, so I do what I can with them, when I can. We all went to the dog park the other day and Patch and Rocky had a great time chasing a ball. Ok, so Patch got the ball and Pete, Rocky and myself spent the whole time chasing her to get it back. Effective way to blow off steam. The Chicken didn't get to partake in this outing so I spent a bit of time flicking rubber bands around when we got home and the dogs were sleeping it off. Everyone was happy.

The huge exciting news from Chicken Manor is that we are going to be house hunting in the very near future!!! The list of requirement to house us is quite specific. The house had to have a large flat yard for the dogs, fenced, obviously! It must be Chicken proof - screened windows and no way for him to get out into the big wide world. Ideally we would have separate vehicle access from the yard so we could do away with the complicated gate routine we currently have in place. No carpet is a preference, but can easily be fixed by just ripping it up when we move in. No doubt The Chicken, who has been house trained for around 7 years will feel the need to mark our house as his. Those are just the basics, the list of things Pete and I want is endless too. We can compromise on some things, not those that affect the furry members of of family though.

Our poor unsuspecting Real Estate agent is going to end up loathing us and our requests. We are going to cart the dogs to all house inspections to see if they give the all important greyhound seal of approval. The Chicken will just have to deal with the abode of our choice. I am sure he will have an opinion and let it be known when we move, that is if I can locate him after the packing stage, knowing him he will curl up in a box during the process and potentially be misplaced......