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!