Wilbur looking handsome

Ian Can't Whistle

Needless to say, Ludvig was chatting nicely and coherently before I started the video - but I think he does say Hello at one point. And yes, Ian can't whistle :)

Ludvig's Hoop of Fun

Ludvig is still treating his hoop of fun with deep suspicion...

Super Blood Wolf Moon

We saw the super blood wolf moon yesterday and it was quite impressive. We were a little late at seeing it at it's full glory, and the tip of the moon was just becoming uneclipsed. But I think this made it more impressive as it really showed the contrast. It was as we were on our morning walk, so we were able to see the whole moon becoming uneclipsed, so when we got back it was normal again.

We're awaiting delivery of a new washing machine. Our old one started to leak and then went pop and stopped working so that was that. I'm still inclined to think of it as being 'new', but I guess it would be 13 years old now. I noticed that the drum size has got a lot bigger. I had to cut a duvet in half to wash it in our old machine!

A cold snap appears to have hit Spain with a lot of Spain facing heavy snow. It's not reaching us - thankfully, as Ian we're getting low on firewood, and wouldn't want the firewood delivery man to get snowed in before he gets to us!

Ludvig and Me!

Unusually, here's a photo of Ludvig and me. He actually prefers Ian to me, so given the choice, he will sit on Ian's shoulder. However, I've worked out that if Ludvig is out of his cage and it is just me in the room, if I ignore him - rather than try to entice him over with sunflower seeds, he comes over to find out what is going on.

I've just finished a rather spectacular hanging play perch for him. So far, he's just been ignoring it, but even Ian looked a little startled when he saw it, so perhaps Ludvig is feeling a little overwhelmed by it.

It's getting to the time when poor little Horrace has to go and get trimmed. Which is a stressful thing all round, particularly for the groomer. So far he hasn't seen the same one twice, and each time when we take him in they look at me strangely, obviously wondering why I keep warning them about this cute little bundle of fluff, only for us to go back to pick him up to find the groomer looking pale and shell-shocked! He doesn't like being cold, so it's unfortunate that we have to get him trimmed in the winter, however the alternative is to bath him, and I think he'd like that less.

He's passed the two-year mark which is the average life expectancy of dogs with his condition. However, I very much believe that this figure must include dogs which are euthanized and whose owners can't cope with them. If anything, Horace has improved a very tiny bit. He's actually started asking for food and has decided he wants a third meal of the day. This is exceptional, as he's never shown any signs of knowing he's hungry before, and up till now he has been motivated to eat purely because he's aware of the commotion of the other dogs and he gets excited because they are excited, and if I didn't feed him at that time, he wouldn't eat. It's been a challenge to keep his weight up, so we feed him on high energy food, but this third meal will hopefully change that.

He still has problems with the physical process of eating, and nothing will change there as he has a loose jaw. He's also very funny about food and will only eat food he knows. When I change him from one brand of small dog food to another brand of small dog food - which is near enough identical, he'll pick out only the food he knows. It takes a couple of days for him to actually accept the new food.

But his favorite thing is to cuddle up under a duvet, and this is where he spends 99% of his time - so hopefully he won't notice the effect of his short coat too much when we do get him trimmed.

We've run out of logs to burn, so Ian has been chopping up our old doors. They burn surprisingly well!!!

Ludvig (doesn't) say Happy New Year

We tried to get Ludvig to say 'Happy New Year', however his words at the moment all seem to be variations of 'good boy'. Perhaps next year...

If you look closely at Ian's shirt, you will see where Ludvig has unpicked a seam on the shoulder - so this is now Ian's Ludvig shirt. The back of the shirt is also a bit 'decorated'.

It was a quiet new year's eve,  as we try to get all the animals settled before the fireworks at midnight, which kicks the night long party off! Although the animals don't get too spooked by fireworks at night. I think because they are settled and have to weigh up the option of staying snuggled up in the warm or going out and barking in the cold.

This is my New Year's Day project - it's some paper models I had printed, so I now need to cut them out and put them together. I decided that sending things out to be printed was going to work out better for us than getting a new colour printer, but it does mean I have quite a pile of projects to work through!!