This morning I was woken up at 6.15am by Hugo wondering round the bedroom, violently shaking his head every few steps, because he had SOMETHING in his ear! Funny thing was though, as soon as he knew I was awake and leaned over to give him a cuddle whatever it was seemed to disappear - hummmmmm!
The other morning we were, again, awoken earlier than necessary, this time with the sound of crunch, crunch, crunch. Miss Pip had been down the bin in the bathroom and fished out the empty toothpaste tube. She and Hugo spent many happy hours crunching the plastic and licking out those left over remains in the bottom - at least they both had lovely minty fresh breath for a day or two which I suppose is better than when Madam insists on drinking out the toilet!
Everyone who has every had anything to do with Akitas will know that one of their traits is to have a hight prey drive - cats, small dogs, birds, in fact anything fury that moves is fair game to them. It is one of the reason's we always keep them on a lead when we walk them, one of their other characteristics being notoriously stubborn with the ability to turn a deaf ear to their owners frantic shouts if they have their mind set on catching something. However, at home in the garden they are free to wander and you regularly hear a scurry and scrabbling over the fence as some lucky cat, squirrel or bird makes their escape leaving two very frustrated, panting dogs behind. One poor blackbird was not so lucky the other week as we found Hugo and Pip playing with a rather limp specimen - we are still not so sure if they actually caught it themselves or if it flew in to the window as it did not have any marks on it but it seems to have intensified their desire to chase anything that flies and they spend hours sitting in the middle of the garden watching next door's racing pigeons fly round and round. They are certainly not amused when anything feathered lands on the roof, Pip in particular going rigid with tension as she goes in to stalk mode.
On 19th May Toby and I got up early so we could take Hugo and Pip for a walk on Selsley Common before setting off on a two-hour drive up to Stoke on Trent to meet with a group of other Akita owners for a pack walk around Wesport Lake. Two Akitas in the back of a Panda is a bit of a tight squeeze and we had to keep getting Hugo to lie down as he totally blocked the view out the rear window. Fortunately, after we had been on the motorway for a while he settled down and it was plain sailing. We had a lovely time and there were about 15 dogs there in total, including the honorary Akita, Marvin the Staffy (aka the Orange Dog). All of them were exceptionally well behaved and a credit to the breed. The walk was organised through the Akita Rescue and Welfare UK and was one of three taking place on the same day, the others being in Epping Forest and Blackpool. The weather was beautiful and the dogs enjoyed dipping in and out of the water, some even having ice creams to cool them down. Pip was more than excited to meet up again with her old foster parents Kim and Mike, and threw herself at them as soon as she saw them - a great tribute to the people who had shown her the first bit of kindness and love she had ever had when they took her in as a 12 week old puppy. We broke the journey on the way back home and called in at my parents in Stourbridge - Hugo and Pip were exhausted and so very well behaved, especially as Mum had got them some tasty bones as a treat. We didn't have to keep telling Hugo to lie down on the way home, he was flat out in the back of the car all the way back. Two very happy dogs.
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| Hugo likes the shade but Pip prefers the sun! |
The holes in the lawn are getting bigger, despite us brushing the soil back in the holes every day! I watched Hugo the other day - he wondered over to one of the holes with a tennis ball in his mouth, looked around to see if anyone was looking, drop the ball in the hole and then proceeded to scrape it out with his feet - oh dear, the soil comes out too, but I was only getting my ball.
The garden is now very dry and dusty and, as Hugo and Pip spend much of their day rolling over and over play fighting, every time you pat one of them a huge cloud of dust rises off them. What with that and the fact Pip has been 'blowing' (moulting) for the last couple of weeks I give up with the housework (that's my excuse anyway!).
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