A Senseless Waste

We have arrived once again to the hunting season in Tuscany. Oh joy of joys. That is me being sarcastic by the way.

• Did you know that so far this hunting season 14 people have been shot dead by hunters.
• The latest casualty was a nurse with a young family; he was out picking mushrooms when a hunter mistook him for a fox and shot him through the heart.
• Last years season saw almost 30 people killed and 90 wounded.

Why is this allowed to continue? Could it possibly be because the Italian government are raking in the cash that the hunters pay in license fees? Is there not a better way to organise this?

And what about the hunting dogs? These animals that are kept outside in small kennels or cages all the year, brought out to go hunting and end up getting lost, or even killed because they have minimal training and handling.

Here is a link to a recent article on the Tuscan Hunters. Please read it.

Excuses, Excuses....

Bad dog, naughty dog, on your bed. Yes, here I stand with my tail between my legs, knowing I have been very naughty indeed. I have commited a terrible sin and I have neglected my darling sweet little blog. That's the thing with blogs though, you can beat them, ignore them, scream at them and they will always be loyal to their master.

So why all of a sudden have I returned to my neglected audience? Actually to be honest the Boss asked me to do her a favour. Sorry to disappoint. You do realise that I'm not a baby anymore though, don't you? I had my first birthday back in June, I'm almost a grown up now. I really should be working right now, but I promised the Boss to help her out, so here I am you lucky things!

What could the Boss possibly want from Hostel Dog's Blog? I hear you cry! Actually it's quite simple and quite boring really and now I don't even know if I feel to help her after all. I know, I know, I'm here now, I might as well, but now I feel so guilty for drawing you all in here under false pretences as if I had some really amazing news for you; when in fact I've got somebody else's amazing news for you. And what do you care for the Boss? It's ME you are here to read about, why doesn't she write her own blog? I know, I thought the same thing, but to be honest she's not as good with computers as me and I think she'd probably make a bad job of it anyway. Plus she does do nice things for me sometimes, belly rubs and the like, so I suppose I should give something back to her once in a while.

And I guess it's nice for you to hear something from me, I know you must have missed me like crazy but I'm still her, all is going well, and I promise to post some new adventures soon.

Oh, before I forget what the Boss wanted me to do....She's set up some new business or other, which means that we're moving out of the B&B Maison at the end of this month and in fact we're moving out of Florence! We're off to the countryside, where she's opening a new horse riding place, you know the Boss and horses, she never shuts up about them, so finally she's got her dream and got her own stables. Great for her I thought, but also it's great for me; lots more time outside and I don't even have to be on the lead! I told you I'm all grown up now. So this new place it's called La Fiaba, it's in a small village called Iano (not too far from Florence so hopefully I can still see some of my friends after we move), and you can check out her website either by clicking on the link to the left (under 'More from Hostel Dog') or by clicking on the words 'La Fiaba' right there. Enjoy, or don't, I guess it depends if you like horses really.

Well as some might say 'that's all folks'; until next time when I will tell you all about the new addition to out family (I was NOT impressed at first, but actually she's kind of cute in an ugly sort of way. I'll tell you next time anyway), how the big move goes, what I've been up to over the summer (actually I'll tell you now; sunbathing, sleeping, and scratching - bloody fleas!), and, er, anything else interesting that happens. Also, I don't know if I'll have to think of a new name now. Farm Dog? Sounds terribly common and a bit uncouth to be perfectly honest. Perhaps I'll be famous enough soon to just be known as 'Dog', now that would be impressive. Suggestions welcome anyhow....TTFN!

Forever Friends

Well it's been a long time no blog, my major apologies to my avid readers (hehe!). I have been working on a couple of new blogs which I've got in the pipeline, plus of course I've been working soooooo hard at the hostel. And of course there were all the preparations and partying for Christmas and New year.  We're also opening up a new place so I've been supervising while the Italian Bear has been doing some lifting and carrying. The Boss has been doing a lot of 'admin' whatever that means, so has been taking up all the internet time, hence why I've been unable to update you all on my daily activities.

So apart from the move, what's been going on? Absolutely LOADS! So what am I going to talk about, hmmmmm. Now there's a good question. I think the general theme of this past month has been trust and friendships, so for me that's a great place to start. I have a few friends I meet fairly regularly at the park, one of my best friends even came to my house recently and we had SO much fun! My friendships are quite straightforward. I meet another dog I know, we have a sniff, we play for a bit then someone like The Boss goes and spoils it all by insisting we have to go back to work. It seems to me human friendships are a little more complicated. I personally think this is due to the lack of sniffing, I mean, what can you really tell from a person from just a hug or a handshake?? Nothing really, but when you give someone a good sniff you can tell an awful lot; where they've been, what they ate for lunch, if they need the bathroom (maybe you don't want to know that!), how confident they are, whether they are happy to see you, if they are relaxed or not....and when you put all the information together you can usually tell if that person is friend or foe. With humans you have to work so much harder to figure out if you can trust that 'friend' or not.

If I were to meet another dog who was wagging his tail, ears pricked forward, maybe sitting or lying down, how annoyed and scared would I be if that dog then turned around and bit me when I got close! But you humans do this so often. Ok, you dont have a tail to wag, but I have seen you send out all the 'right' signals. A nice smile, a hug & a kiss, making cups of tea, 'please sit down', blah blah, then when the person isn't around it's all 'I can't stand that so-and-so why do they keep coming around?'....er, maybe because you make them cups of tea and tell them they're welcome??? You guys are strange. If you don't want them to come, don't smile, don't kiss them, don't give them hot drinks in your best china cups and most importantly don't tell them they can come around 'anytime'!! The worst part of this behaviour I've seen is not only do you call people names behind their back, but when do something you know will hurt that other person without them knowing! Ok, so it's a great way to get away with it, but do you really think it's a great way to live? I don't and I would hope anyone who reads this remembers the next time they give a friendly dog a pat on the head, how much that would hurt if he turned around and bit those manipulative little fingers!