Pets

You may recall that back in May we took in a dog called Tommy. Well, I came to call him Tom, because that sounded more manly when calling him in the street.

Anyway, the thing with Tom is that he was a total nightmare. Without an enclosed back yard, we had to tie him up whenever he wasn't inside the house. He hated this, and would howl, especially when he saw us in the kitchen.

We got a new dog - Tommy - from the Carryduff USPCA a few weeks ago. I'm tempted to say the last Friday in May (29th?), but I'm hazy on the details. Time has kind of flown in.

About four years ago, we rehomed our Labrador, Cindy after we realised that we couldn't give her the time and attention she needed. At the time, we had three very young children, Lisa didn't want the dog in the house for hygiene reasons and we sadly made the decision to part company with her.

The family dog, Lassie, died yesterday. Lassie was a border collie that my father and I had brought back from a house he was doing some work in. She'd been in the family for years, like since I was back in secondary school.

Before my father got taken into hospital, he'd remarked on how the dog's health was deteriorating. She had no energy anymore, and had started a disturbing habit of collapsing when walking through fields.

This is it. The cat who adopted us. Or Swissy as Rachel likes to call it.

The latest news on this moggy is that she attached herself to the woman who lives two doors down from us. She started to feed the cat and ended up making sure it got innoculations and stuff like that. Lisa talked to her the other day and she was surprised to hear that Swissy was still around.

I think the agreement is that we have some kind of 'joint custody' arrangement.

So, we're feeding the cat daily now. She's got a place on the weekly shopping list, and a cardboard 'kennel' I cut out of an old Dell box. Added to that, if you go into the kitchen now, she'll be on the back step miaowing at you for attention.

She's still not allowed into the house at the moment, due to Lisa claim of a cat allergy. However, old Swissy is doing her level best to get inside. Last Sunday, I left the kitchen window open while the tumble-dryer was running and came back into the room later to find her perched on the window ledge about to jump in.

She was in the house again this morning, although Rachel and Jake swore that she'd been there already (a flimsy excuse). I reckon she'll keep working away to get a place inside the house. For the meantime, she's shacked up in the Dell box.