Alyn Waters Country Park

I am ashamed to say that, despite having lived in this area for six years, I have never ventured into Alyn Waters Country Park , which is only two miles away - until today, that is, when I decided to take Paddy there for his walk for a change of scenery. No camera with me today, I'm afraid, but I will definitely go back. The sun was peeping out and making a brave effort to shine, Paddy had lots of interesting scents to investigate and we had a very pleasant, relaxing walk.

But I'm not going to take the risk of expressing the hope that the worst of winter is over; no, that would be tempting fate.... but it would be nice to think that Spring is finally just around the corner.

The Great Escape

It had to happen sooner or later.
Paddy's daily routine is as follows:
A walk with me in the morning, followed by cat duty, which involves staring fixedly through the window and, on spotting the Enemy, frantically pawing at the window, alternating with running agitatedly round the room and back to the window, all the time moaning plaintively. (Barks are few and far between and blessedly low in volume.)
At the approach of dusk, it is clocking off time and the rest of the evening is spent in a comatose state until bedtime. When in this state, a cat could come and sit on his head and he would barely notice...possibly.
This afternoon, the prowling and agitation became too annoying, so I opened the living room door to banish him to the hall to cool down. Unfortunately, Keith was working in his van and had a lead plugged into the hall socket and the front door had blown open.
The people who live opposite us, had they been at home, would have been entertained by the sight of a dog hurtling through said door at the speed of light in close pursuit of a very surprised black and white cat, whose thought bubble, had it been visible, would have read something along the lines of "Oh, s**t! He's OFF the lead this time!"
As it happened, the chase only lead to the garden next door and both cat and Paddy effortlessly scaled the five foot high side gate into their back garden. Keith went to politely ask the neighbour if he could please retrieve our dog, while I streaked through our house into our back garden in the hope that Paddy would find his way back that way.
I don't know why I thought he would manage to get himself over the six foot garden fence, even if he wanted to, but he did. Neatly avoiding me, he shot back through our house to do a repeat performance. Luckily, Keith was standing in his way and managed to grab him, leaving a bemused neighbour wondering if the last couple of minutes had really happened.
The best bit was glancing out of the kitchen window a couple of minutes later and seeing the neighbour's large ginger cat perched half way up a tree and glaring furiously into our garden.

A new duck?

On one of our recent walks, Paddy and I spotted a couple of ducks in among the mallards on the lake. Paddy wasn't very interested as they weren't cats, but I was curious to know what they were.

Prolonged investigation did not solve the problem until a friend suggested that they were probably " male mallard variant plumage probably caused by crossing with escaped domesticated mallard breed; this variant seems to crop up everywhere spasmodically, probably a recessive gene that exhibits in phenotype every few generations. "

So that's that, then. Pity really, as I was getting quite excited at the thought of being the discoverer of a new species and having it named after me. "Jenny's Duck" - has a certain ring to it, don't you think?

Concerning!

Paddy is continuing to be happy and settled here and Keith and he have bonded beautifully. There is just one thing that concerns me though. I told Keith that, in order for a dog to realise his place in the 'pack', it is advisable for us to eat before Paddy does and he has taken that on board; so much so that, before he gives Paddy his dog biscuits, he eats one himself.
I refuse, absolutely refuse, to buy Keith his own packet of dog biscuits when I do the shopping!

Serious training

We've been doing some serious training today, Paddy and I. The aim of the lesson is for Paddy to realise that jumping on the back of the armchair and throwing himself at the window when a cat comes within two miles is NOT acceptable behaviour. So this is him, wanting to and remembering he mustn't.

Spider Dog

We established on Paddy's first day that he is not keen on cats. Suffice it to say, that might have been an understatement.
Today, while I was in my counselling room with a client, Keith stayed in the living room to keep an eye on Paddy in case he needed to be kept quiet. No problem there, as it seems that Paddy can't bark properly. The best he can do is a hoarse, breathy imitation of a bark. The problem arose when a dreaded cat sat itself on the grass outside the window. They're like that, cats. You can just see them preening themselves, staring cheekily at the captive dog in the window chanting, "Ha! Can't catch me, you foolish canine creature!"
All this was grist to the mill for Paddy. After launching himself repeatedly at the window, and eventually realising that, as it was a window, there was little chance of him passing through it, he suddenly took a mighty leap and hooked his front paws onto the top window bar and stayed there, spreadeagled against the window. Unfortunately, Keith was not able to take a photo (which would have been hilarious) as he was too busy peeling Paddy off the window.
To his credit, he achieved this in relative silence, so as not to disturb the counselling session.
I've booked him in for a few counselling sessions of his own - Paddy, not Keith.

Ecstasy v. horseriding

No, sorry, the logic of this opinion of the aptly named Professor Nutt is passing me by. Apart from his conviction that Ecstasy should be downgraded from class A to class B, which is another issue, I am struggling to understand how riding a horse, a healthy, outdoor pastime for the most part, can be compared with deliberately ingesting a drug which will cause harmful chemical changes in the brain, some of which are likely to be long term. Certainly riding a horse can, occasionally result in physical harm if the horse decides to bolt or refuse a fence, but the object of the exercise is to enjoy some healthy physical activity, whereas taking Ecstasy can in no way be excused by the aim of becoming healthier and fitter.
As David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance comments, if his personal view conflicts so strongly with his professional position, he should 'consider his position' or someone should do it for him.