The Dog’s Blog: A Drew’s Eye View – Christmas Temptation

Yesterday (Friday 9th December) Mum was home a bit earlier than normal from work. She went and sorted the hens out when she got in but wasn’t with them for as long as normal because of all this bird flu panic that’s going on. I hope I’ve not caught it after sharing the house with hens? Anyway, if you want to read about it, mum wrote a blog that you can find here. Personally, I’m not that bothered by it as it doesn’t affect me; if the news was about a biscuit shortage or not being allowed to sleep on the couch, then I might be a bit more interested.

I think mum was going out because she was upstairs for a while. When she came down she smelled different to normal and she had posh shoes on, not her normal muddy boots. She was wearing something funny too because I could see her legs and she never gets those out. After she’d wandered around the living room for a bit a car arrived and she left.

Dad came home from work and he made my tea and we went for a walk. He went and checked that the hens had gone to bed – they hadn’t, but I’m going to do a blog about that – not so clever now are they!! While mum was out dad got the Christmas decorations out of the loft ready for putting up at the weekend and brought them downstairs – I supervised, from the couch of course. I decided that if dad was getting the Christmas things out of the loft then mum probably had probably gone on her Christmas night out – it would explain the legs anyway!

Mum had asked dad to pick her up so I went with him to get her, I was on the back seat of dad’s car. It was nice to go out with him but my safety harness isn’t that great – I can’t stretch out and sprawl on the back seat too much when I wear it, it keeps me awake! We got mum and came home. Mum stayed up for a bit but then went to bed because she had to be up early to go to the vets with Rosie the hen. Dad went to bed a while later and I must have fallen asleep on the couch.

I woke up about 1.30am had a drink and decided that I’d have a sniff round the Christmas things from the loft. Most of it was in boxes but I found a few things that weren’t. There was a thing in a big blue IKEA bag, I’ve heard mum call it a garland or something, it was very interesting. Its got bits on it and I remember from last year that some of these bits were quite tasty. I found the tasty bits again – they’re round and red and in little groups of 4 or 5. I started with a little nibble but they were chewier than I remembered so I had to tug on them a bit more to get a good bite. I thought I was being quiet so you can imagine my surprise when suddenly mum was behind me and she didn’t look very impressed. I hadn’t heard her come downstairs at all but my hearing isn’t so good now I’m getting older. I turned round and tried to tell her that some of the red things seemed a bit loose but it was hard to talk, and even harder to convince her I had nothing to do with it when I still had a mouthful of these red things! Mum wasn’t very happy because it was 2am and I’d woken her up with my not so silent bag rustling and chewing. She put some of the chewed red bits in the bin and started to take the bag upstairs. I decided it would be a shame to waste the chewy red things and got them out of the bin – not the smartest move. Mum spotted me and took them off me again and put the bin up high so I couldn’t reach it!

I still wasn’t tired so I had a another sniff round and couldn’t believe my luck when I found some more little red things on a round twiggy thing that I’ve seen dad hang on the front door. I think it’s called a wreath? I was just happily nibbling on these when mum appeared again! I don’t know how she does it – I didn’t hear her at all! I didn’t even try to talk my way out of this one – I’d been caught (again!) fair and square. I gave up sniffing around and went back to sleep on the couch. Mum put the twiggy thing somewhere I couldn’t reach it and went to bed too.

Saturday started the same way it does each weekend and mum went off to the vets. When mum got back she started putting up the Christmas tree but then her and dad went out for a bit in the car. While they were gone I felt a bit poorly and I was sick on the leather couch. Mum spotted it as soon as she came home and shouted to dad to get some cleaning stuff. I was on the other couch feeling sorry for myself and she came to check on me. Dad started cleaning up and I thought I’d got away with it but then he said, “It’s those red things she’s eaten, the berries off the garland“.

I couldn’t believe mum had told him she’d caught me last night and then dad had said that as if it was my own fault I’d been sick because I’d eaten the red berry things! So it’s OK when mum says she’s accidentally eaten too much chocolate and feels sick but it’s not OK for me to accidentally (ahem) eat red things and be sick? I wasn’t really sure what to do so I went for the ‘big eyes, cute face, feel sorry for me’ look – it works every time!

These little moments of naughtiness soon seemed to be forgotten and I’m pretty sure I’d just about got away with staying off the ‘Naughty List’. I love Christmas and can’t wait to open my presents on Christmas day – sniffing them out and ripping the paper off is so much fun. Sometimes I get carried away and one year I opened my presents and then started to help dad open his too – I wasn’t really interested in the socks inside (boring!), I just wanted to shred the paper, it’s the best bit.

A few days after the berry nibbling I saw dad get the wrapping paper out but I feigned disinterest and stayed on my bed. He wrapped a few presents and put some of them on the coffee table in the living room. I casually wandered around to where they were and decided that I should test how well they were wrapped. I was having a great time and then mum (she’s like a hawk!) spotted me…..she started laughing! I have to admit, I probably did look pretty cute. Dad was less impressed as I’d made some ‘delicate’ nibble marks in the wrapping paper of the presents. Luckily he saw the funny side too but that was the last straw – all the Christmas temptation has now been moved out of my reach.

I’m not sure after this second incident whether I’ll be on the naughty list or the nice list now but I’m sure Santa gives everyone a few chances.

I probably won’t get chance to write another blog now before Christmas Day so whatever you’re doing, I hope you’re on the ‘nice list’ and  I hope you have a very Merry Christmas.

Love Drew xx