Barbeque

We held a barbecue last Saturday to celebrate Tommys 'second pick me' day, and my 40th(!).

He was excited from the minute we got up on the Saturday because of the change in routine (we got up in the morning!).  Whilst b/f was at Asda, I done some last minute cleaning and moving of stuff, which Tommy watched with great anticipation.  Then 'the help' arrived, closely followed by b/f, and enough food to feed an army, let alone the 40 odd people that were due to arrive.  Tommy done his normal yapping at the Steves' and Matt, but they are well prepared for him now and ignore him till he calms down.  Then they are all quite happy to give Tommy a scratch and a good boy.

B/f decided to blow up balloons.  I was not impressed.  Tommy constantly barking the garden was not what I had in mind!  Even someone from up the road shouted to 'shut that bloody dog up'.  Not good.

I put a sign on the door with basic instructions on how to behave around Tommy - it took up an A4 sheet!  And everyone ignored it anyway...

People started to turn up.  Tommy was being his normal barking self to start with, but as the people kept coming, he kind of gave up.  He made great friends with 'the Steves' who were doing the cooking, and gradually made his way round everyone in the garden to beg for food!

He only growled at two people all day.  One of them was a lady I work with.  He moans at her at work as well.  The other one was a man from the pub who has a beard.   B/f had picked Tommy up and he was close to the other man's face.  I'm not sure Tommy had seen a beard that close before.

All in all, it was a good day.  Tommy quietened down about the balloons, and no one got bit.  It was more than I could have ever had hoped for.

Christmas time

Christmas is over and done with at last.

Christmas is a good time to be a JRT in our house. Owners are around more, food is about more and people come visiting more. That roughly translates as I have company and more walks, I get lots of treats and I get to bark at people!

Tommy had done very well this year with his Christmas presents. A lot of food based presents, some of which are too big for him - they turn him ‘silly’. He gets all protective and agitated when he has them. Visitors walking around are obviously not going to the toilet, or getting a drink. They are trying to distract Tommy so they can steal his treat. It’s just not worth Tommy getting all upset over (by that I mean him growing, barking, and generally snapping). I’m quite happy to give him a rawhide chew of a smaller stature, or a pig’s ear, sometimes even a dried bone, but the large treats, or the very hard treats are just not worth it.

Personally, I’d prefer stuffed squeaky toys as a present. They last about the same time before being totally destroyed!

1st 'Pick me' day

It's Tommy's 'Pick me' day today! As we don't know when his birthday is, I've decided to use his adoption day as his special day and named it his 'pick me' day. I think it sounds great!

What a year its been, some lows, lots of highs, and allot of general getting to know you stuff. I'm still unsure sometimes of Tommy. He still has some issues and sometimes I wonder why I chose him. Then he rolls on his back with his nylabone in his mouth... What a cutie!

Here is one of Tommy's first photos -



And here he is now. (I couldn't get him in the pose I'm afraid!)





As you can see, he's put on some weight! But seems allot more relaxed in his surroudnings.
We didn't do anything special to celebrate - I'm more worried about him settling into the flat to be honest! He's still off his food...

Keep on running

Took Tommy for his run tonight. As the nights are darker now, I don’t like running through the alleys’ to get to the bridge to double back along the seafront, so I go along some wide pavements round the office blocks and back along London Road. He’s great to run with past the offices but the London Road? Just too many take aways and chicken bones. It drives me nuts!