Preparing for Wigeon

This has been an interesting week to say the least. Wigeon is arriving on Monday so there's been a lot to do to try and be truly ready for her. The hiding of any attackable wires, in fact anything that might be possible puppy chewing material. Then there's getting ready for the likelihood of times coping with a widdling Wigeon until she becomes properly house trained. These are just for starters. I got her a new bowl and a collar today - just a temporary baby collar as she'll be in a proper hound collar when she's big enough. Judging by the amount she's grown in those last two weeks, it won't be that long. I've dug out some puppy toys too that my old girl has grown out of playing with .....mostly!

I realised that it's 11 years since I brought a puppy up and that seems so long ago. I've sometimes thought of my life in the dogs who have shared life with me and seen how ones life passes with these special friends. It's going to be interesting to find out what my 11 year old thinks of her new housemate. Thankfully the lively old girl has a wonderful nature and so I hope that she will have the sense to lay down the ground rules with Wigeon and then come to love having a canine companion again in the house instead of being stuck with boring me and her canine and human friends up on the farm.

Oh, and I also bought the all important bag of puppy food today. One of the most critical things to get right from the start for the young Wigeon to get her as strong as possible. I don't want her to end up in the serious state her mum has done.

Her mum, Teasel, had a trip to the vet yesterday as there has been a lot of worry about her condition ....or lack of it. The vet asked loads of questions; all of which couldn't be answered as we know nothing about her other than when she came into the rescue centre and when she had the 11 pups, rearing 9 of them. Today, after Teasel's first lot of injections and the medicines the vet gave her she did look brighter ....now, if only we could get some weight on those bones of hers. She's in good hands with my mum so that's hopeful to bring any dog round to full health. It's the canine equivalent of intensive care with loads of TLC thrown in too.

I'll have to recheck the garden for any 'potential escape routes' on Sunday but I'm scuppered for now as I had a steroid injection into my right knee today so I've (in theory and hopefully in practice) to rest the leg for a couple of days to get the greatest benefit from the injection. That's important as I need to be as mobile as possible to cope with an active youngster when she comes. She might run rings round me as it is! One thing ......I wondered if Wigeon will grin like my old dog does? I do hope so as it's such an endearing trait. Do you think she'll pick it up as 'learned behaviour?'

The other very important thing I have to do now is to get ready for a poetry reading I'm doing on Sunday in Callander as part of the Poetry Scotland weekend (I think that's what it's called!) I'll just try to be at the right place at the right time, catch up with fellow eco-poets from the region who I'm reading with and hopefully we'll all read well and perhaps we might even have a dry day for a change?!