Best in Show

Last week our dog Lily won Best in Show at a local pet show.  Yesterday she also won a Third Prize for Novelty Class, Child Handler.  Springy was her handler and it always amazes me how good Springy is with animals.  I hope that this will somehow be a passion that she takes into her adulthood.  I'm hopeful in many ways that her future career will involve animals and psychology, perhaps as a trainer for the police or for dog charities.  We were informed yesterday by some dog obedience teachers that Springy is a natural and that was a really good reinforcement.  University is a long way off but I'm hoping that animal sciences - zoology or biological sciences will be subjects that she wishes to study.  At the same time, I'm trying to be careful not to live my own dreams through her.

Springy's cursive writing has improved considerably this summer.  I sent her for a couple of tutorials with a tutor who is a school teacher.  However, it was Springy telling me, "Mummy, do you know why my writing improved? ... because I decided!"

We had a lovely day today.  It was sunny and warm. We went to an outdoor place for a walk and took two of Springy's friends along.  They were telling scary stories to each other (Halloween seems to be early!).  We found walnuts, beech mast and hazelnuts on our walk.   There were some adorable pigs in the woods - a mummy and 5 piglets.  She was a Tamworth - so they were all a beautiful bronze colour.  I always imagine that the reason there are legends of golden pigs is because in the sun, their bristles glint away.  I am so glad to be vegetarian:  they were skipping and running about and when we threw some beech mast in for them they ran away to their mother.  They were adorable babies and to think of them as sausages makes me so sad.