Dog days . . .
Along with revision, this week has been dominated by dogs, both mine and the Dog’s Home’s. Mine are Jack Russell terriers. Normally fit, fighting fit, with emphasis on the fighting. Both dogs, being small, suffer from SDS (Small Dog Syndrome) part of which is a psychotic belief that one is actually a bull-mastiff or a pit-bull. Something that is big, anyway, and preferably threatening. This week my poor poppets have been unfit in so many ways. Dog One, the smooth coat, is fourteen and is beginning to suffer aspects of senility. He gets lost inside the house and just sits and barks until I appear and he can follow me. It’s no good me calling as he is almost deaf. But he is a vocal dog and is quite capable of letting me know when there is a problem, it’s just that the vocalising itself can be a problem . . . especially when one is trying so hard to revise a manuscript.