Update on the Dogs and the Greenhouse Orchids

17 month old Toby

Our daughter, Linda, and her 5 month old rescue puppy, Noodle, have been with us all week...

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Noodle being dressed (by Linda) in her new jumper

Our five dogs, Bonny, Heathcliff, Toby, Milo and Coco have fully accepted Noodle into their pack.

Bonny, 10 years old

Heathcliff, 6.5 years old

Toby, 17 months old

Milo, 7 months old

Coco, 6 months old

We decided to place Noodle with them from Day 1, as we wanted the puppies to bond and play together and we also felt that the influence of our two older dogs would help her become more self-assured.
 

It has worked even better than we'd hoped! Noodle not only sleeps through at night now, but she has put on in excess of a kilogram in the 12 days since Linda adopted her and, more importantly, she has recovered fully from the nasty bacterial infection she had.

  She has been quick to learn and obeys basic commands. She loves all the positive interaction with her new playmates and is thriving on all the attention we have been giving her.

She seems to be fully housetrained now as well, which is going to make Linda's life a lot easier when they return home.

She is well-behaved in the car and easy to bath.

She's rapidly developing into a robust and spunky little pup and we are all enjoying her immensely.

Since I last reported on Milo and Coco's progress, there have been several developments. Both have now been sterilised (Coco, spayed; Milo, neutered).

They attended their initial puppy training/socialisation classes where they were successfully introduced to the "clicker" method of training. They both proved eager to learn and we are very happy with their development to date. 

Coco and Milo sound asleep after a busy morning in the garden! They remain best of friends!

Toby and Bonny enjoying their outing today! My husband takes them and Heathcliff to a lovely field to run and play, but we have not yet introduced the puppies to this activity, as we do not yet want to risk having them off-leash. They stay home with me and we have plenty of fun playing in the garden, where they are safe!

Toby's skin rash was successfully treated and he has bounced back superbly. His coat is soft, dense and shiny and he no longer scratches and bites himself. He attended a more advanced training programme than Milo and Coco and did very well. He is a natural and displays all the most desirable breed qualities of a well-bred German Shepherd. We are thrilled with him.

Bonny is just as sweet, loving, tolerant and patient as always. She interacts and participates in everything during the day, but prefers to have her own space at night and sleeps in her own room. Heathcliff sleeps in our room at night, while all four puppies snuggle down together in the kitchen at bedtime. 

Heathcliff snatching a catnap with Toby, Milo and Coco before he heads down to our bedroom with us at bedtime. They all HAVE to huddle right in the narrow doorway opening even though their beds take up half of the rest of the kitchen!

Noodle and favourite teddy wrapped up in a sleeping bundle right up against the childproof gate

Our house is open plan, so we have fitted a childproof gate across the open doorway to restrict the puppies to the kitchen at night, but we are within  earshot of each other.

Heathcliff assumed the role of alpha-male after Tessa, our 12.5 year old alpha-female died 17 months ago. With the subsequent introduction of, firstly, Toby, then Milo and Coco, Heathcliff felt he needed to demonstrably take charge of his expanded pack. It's amusing to watch him controlling and shepherding them during play, or when things reach an over-exuberant state. He muscles in, obviously instructing them all and growls and barks to get their attention, yet (amusingly!) he is by far the shortest!



He has also recently fallen in love! Deeply! Possibly even bordering on obsessively! The object of this affection? Coco!
 

I am IN LOVE!!!

Heathcliff lovingly licking Coco. He washes her whole face and even cleans inside her ears!

He spends hours gazing at her, wagging his tail next to her, trying to cuddle and snuggle at every opportunity, "protecting" her if he thinks she's being shown too much attention by the others and, disconcertingly, appears to think his rear is his best feature. He edges up to her presenting his posterior to be admired whether she is interested or not. Coco is very even-tempered and will continue to chew her toy or bone, good-humouredly ignoring him for quite a time, but if Heathcliff's demands become too amorous, she gives him a short, sharp, unmistakable telling-off (not that it has much effect nor does it succeed in deterring him for long!)

Noodle thinks both Milo and Toby are too marvellous.She can romp all over them and snap and nip them and they just roll with the punches taking it all in their stride. Bonny loves Noodle to bits, following her around, gently nudging and edging her and, in the process, drools all over her! Coco adores Toby and is often to be seen either sitting beside him or lying snugly against him. She has quite a haughty demeanour, and clearly finds rowdy boyish behaviour a bit excessive at times. We then allow her to join us indoors for some "young lady" quiet time and individual attention (she is with me right now, lying on the couch while I'm typing). 

Milo and Toby, being the young males that they are, are ball obsessed, but Milo is very definitely our professional athlete. He arrived wearing white socks and we've subsequently seen why! He is incredibly agile and super fast on his feet and is permanently in the crouched mode, quivering with anticipation whenever we are outdoors. He has yet to figure out that tennis balls don't actually miraculously sprout from the end of our arms! Toby is intensely focussed, but Milo's super-attentiveness and visual acuity, coupled with his incredible co-ordination skills exceeds that of any dog we've owned, or indeed, observed elsewhere. He was born to catch and chase any ball, whether kicked, thrown, rolled or whacked and seldom misses the mark. Were he human, he'd be an Olympic athlete par excellence!

Coco is our thoughtful, gentle gardener. She is fascinated by plants and bark and is always bringing bits of the garden indoors to dissect on the kitchen floor, or her bed. There has not been a dull moment around here since we took them in!

My large flowered, yellow cymbidiums are currently in bloom.

 The original plant was a gift from my parents, just before they left South Africa (in 1996). They had visited Duckitt Nursery just outside Darling, a quaint, rural town in the Western Cape of South Africa. Dickitt's is the largest orchid nursery in the southern hemisphere and I would love to visit it in person! 

These individual blooms are huge. Twice as large as the pink ones http://driftwoodramblings.blogspot.com/2011/06/symphony-of-cymbidiums.html which are now coming to the end of their flowering.

When you give someone a flowering plant, as opposed to fresh flowers, it continues to bring pleasure for years to come and, each time it blooms, they will be reminded of you!

Thank you, Mum and Dad, for my beautiful orchids!