Many Tears Animal Rescue

  
      Hi Everyone at Many Tears, I have now lived with Diana for a month and what a month! Everyone I meet thinks I am adorable, and my official fan club is growing by the minute. I'm still very wary of strange people but in time I think it will be OK. Actually, I have booked a one to one human training session for Diana, who *thinks* we are going to a dog trainer! We rang her about classes, and she thought that first of all it might be better to introduce me to other people and dogs in more controlled conditions, away from loads of barking, scatty dogs in a village hall.
      I have already established a few ground rules:

1. Time does not exist before 10.00 am. so do not try to get me out of bed before that! This rule is relaxed as a concession on Thursdays only (and on Sundays if Diana is preaching at church).
2.  Evening lap and hug time commences at 7.00 pm and continues until 9.00 pm at least - every day. 
3. Food will be eaten when *I* want it and not before! 
4. "Doing it" in the rain is not acceptable - I will oblige only under extreme pressure.
5. Walks, at least three times daily, will be taken when I sit by the front door looking hopeful, whether or not this is convenient to you.
6. Play times (me dashing around the house like Jenson Button) will occur at approx. 11.30 pm each day - just to ensure you are tired out for the night.

     I'm looking forward to winter, because Diana has built me a ski slope down from her sitting room into the garden.  Even without snow it means that I don't have to strain my back getting in and out of the house. We've been to the seaside, which I love, but the silly swans didn't want to play with me. We stayed at a hotel and I was very good. I go to a sewing machine shop every Thursday, where Diana teaches people to make quilts. I always take my smuggle bag, which is a safe place to be, and all the students and some of the customers make a fuss of me. I especially like Dave who thinks I'm gorgeous. A small boy who is frightened of dogs came to the shop this week, and I encouraged him to touch my back and gradually he got braver until he patted my head. How's that for psychology then?!! He looked very happy and I was so proud to have helped him.
     This Thursday, a sausage was donated to me at lunch time - the lady at the hot potato shop adores me. After the quilting class, we visited the hairdresser, for Diana. I hid under the cape. I'm pretty good at going outside for you-know-what now - although when it rains, I hate it. We tried to buy me a little jumper today, but the pet-man couldn't help as I am not a standard size, so we will have to find a tailor. Afterwards, we went to visit the corgis at Sandringham, but they were all at Buckingham Palace, so no luck. However, we had a lovely walk on the Queen's estate. Sadly, I wouldn't sit still for a photograph, so I can't send evidence.
     I'm not so frightened of traffic now - lorries are especially noisy but I act brave and fearless and am trying very hard to get used to them. So altogether life is pretty good. People keep saying I have fallen on my feet and I guess that's right.  I am talking to Diana about having another dog.
    Anyway, thanks for all the love and care you gave me, and if you speak to my old owners, please tell them I'm OK. I will send printed photos for them eventually - when I will sit still for the shoot!
Lots of love Emma (Camilla)

Hi Sylvia and Liza
I thought you might like to know how Efa (was called Below) is doing. She has been here almost a year and has been an absolute dream to live with. She is super with my other dogs and has had no problems slotting into the pack. She loves the children and in particular loves her daily job of 'horse-watch' when I am seeing to the ponies. She is an angel at home but a demon at agility. She lives to work and is the most focused dog I have ever trained. She just loves it! She had her first agility competition this weekend and the photo speaks for itself.
Claire

Hi,
       Well it’s only a week since I came with Scraps to pick Timothy up and in many ways it seems much longer ago as he seems to have been part of the house for a long long time. It was probably a very long trip in the car for Timothy, he had been slobbering a bit by the time I got him out of the car, but apart from that, not a peep out of him the whole 3 and half hours journey home.
      Timothy has settled in wonderfully, sleeps in the same bed as Scraps, perfectly house trained, learnt to use the dog flap, has a wonderful “song” in the morning when I come down stairs and quietens down as soon as I say “thank you”. After a week, he now walks well on lead and has learnt that he stays on my left, with Scraps, otherwise my big feet get in the way! I’ve not let him off lead yet, but he is a hound, so until I know his recall is getting near perfect he won't be off lead out in the open anywhere, but in the meanwhile he is able to run and explore as far as the “long lead” allows him to when we are away from roads.
      Food issues – Well I’m not going to be complacent and say “what food issues?”, but this boy has worked out who is boss and where he fits in the with the pecking order in the house. He also knows it’s my food and he gets it as and when I say he can have it. I started the week feeding him in the way that MTAR showed me and I have since progressed that to getting him to go to his bed and then I take a handful of the food and only when I call him is he allowed to eat the food from my hand. When that handful is done, he goes back to his bed and waits for me to get the next handful, kneel down and then call him over to have that. When he eats from my hand, his tail wags and he is happy being stroked with my free hand as I tell him what a good boy he is. I will keep this routine up for at least a month, so it reinforces who is boss and whose food it is. He knows where the dog food is kept in the house and pays no attention to that cupboard unless I go to it – but keeps his distance when I tell him “No” or “Leave it”. He is fed separately from Scraps; I don’t see any point in trying to push the boundaries in to doing that just yet. At best, it will be that they both gobble their food down as quickly as possible so they could get to the others bowl or worse WW3 could break out. But, so far, I can’t say I’ve seen “food aggression”, but more like “food enthusiasm” from him, but as I said before, I have no room to be complacent as we’ve not gone through all (not even most) of the food related situations yet.
      Friends have come over to visit and Timothy has been the perfect "gent" wanting to say hello and great them as they come in, then is happy to be petted and "cooed" over and then goes off to be a dog with Scraps. He likes a cuddle or to lay by my feet in the evening. Yes, I’m one of those people who likes to have the sofa for my friends and myself and as much as I love my dogs I don’t sleep in their bed (however drunk I get), so they don’t get to sleep on mine or the sofas!
      He’s been to the vets, to be registered and given the “once over” and behaved wonderfully there. There needs to be some work done on his teeth, major amount of tartar build up on most of them and there are at least two teeth that have been broken. With the amount of tartar, we can’t see how bad his teeth are under it all, so it will be a bit of wait and see. This work will need him to be asleep at the time, so I’m not rushing to do that to him just yet – I’ll give him a month to settle in properly before I leave him at the vets for the day to have this work done as he doesn’t seem to be in any pain or discomfort with it all.
      I’m not one of life’s photographers, I don’t have a camera (well apart from the one on my mobile and they are never great quality) and walking two dogs, when one is on a long lead, carrying poop bags both full & empty and keeping an eye out for cyclists, joggers, horses etc is not accommodating to well focused and framed pictures, so when I’m out with a friend who is happy to "snap" away I’ll send in some pictures for you. In the meanwhile though, here is one of the little man lounging out in the garden.
 Best wishes, J
 P.S. I’ve started calling him “Benson” as he didn’t seem that attached to “Timothy” and he is beginning to come to me when called it. I think, as the old joke goes, he’s happy to be called anything, as long as I don’t call him late for dinner.