Luci’s Diary. The world's full of strangers, but some of them are just friends waiting to play with you. 

August 2015

Squirrels! They’re wonderful. I discovered them this week. The humans say they’ve been around the whole time, and they couldn’t understand that I’d never spotted them previously. But I have now. What a great game it is to try to catch them in the open, before they can shoot up a tree.

I knew about birds already. Specially crows. They like to stand around in the park just waiting for me to chase them. That’s such fun! They wait until I’m really close – do they think I’m going to change my mind and stop or something? – and then they go flapping off making that strange cawing sound.

I’m really quick these days, so I can keep up with them for a while even when they’re in the air. What a great game.

And in the park with the lake, there are ducks too. I nearly caught one the other day. It took off for the water when I came running up, but didn’t get high enough to get over the railings, so it flew into them and came crashing back down to earth. If it hadn’t been able to slip through the bars, I’d have had it.

Come to think of it, I’m not sure what I’d have done if I had got it. Maybe it’s just as well I didn’t. It could have been embarrassing. I don’t think my jaws would fit around it. Anyway, the fun’s chasing the birds, not catching them. 

Which I never have.

As well as birds, there’s other dogs. Not the big ones. With the big ones, I find the most sensible thing is to keep behind the legs of whichever human I’m out with. 

By the way, you don’t have to be really big to be big as far as I’m concerned.

But with the ones my size, it’s just play, play, play. Which I enjoy all the more now that I’m so quick. There’s not many of them can get away from me or, when we turn around and chase the other way, catch me. In fact, the only annoying thing about them is that sometimes they just stop and lie down panting. I have to keep running up to them to get them back on their feet.

Got to be quick if you're going to catch me...

The human puppies are good too. I mentioned the ones I played with in the park before, but there are others I meet in different places. That always works out well. There was the one from Scotland who used to give me treats when she decided to let me train her, though I think she may have thought she was training me.

With my good friend in Scotland

And the other day we went and saw another favourite of mine who was always ready to run around, sit around, play around or stroke me. Little girl human puppies? You can never have too many of them, I reckon.

With another good friend

What a great world. Full of strangers you have to approach warily, or back away from. But every now and then, one of them turns out to be a friend who was just waiting to meet you. And a friend’s someone you can play with.

Like the human puppies. Small dogs. Crows. Ducks. And now squirrels.

Though the crows, ducks and squirrels may not like me quite as much as I like them.

Luci's diary: it' so hot...

Luci’s Diary. It just keeps getting hotter. But playing's still fun. If you find the right companions, or pick the right element. 

July 2015

It’s got so hot! When I was just a little puppy, it was fine. I used to be really proud of my fine coat. It kept me feeling great while all the humans went around being miserable about the cold. But now I’m a big girl: 4.1 kilos, I’m told, and if you think that point-one isn’t important, think again: it puts me in the big dog category for Advocate flea treatment, and that matters.

And I don’t care that the silly owner of one of those stupidly oversized dogs – a Rottweiler or something – reckoned I was just the size of one of his dog’s meals. All that says is that there’s a lot too much of his dog.

Panting time.
I say pants to this hot weather.

Anyway, now I’m a big dog, it’s much too hot. I just hope it won’t go on getting hotter and hotter because, though human number 1 has got my fur clipped really short, I still find myself panting all the time when I’m out walking. And walking has to be my second favourite activity, after eating (you never know, I could make it to 4.2 kilos soon), so I don’t like it being made uncomfortable for me.

Well, I say second favourite. It’s probably third really. Playing with Misty has got to be second. He’s funny about that. Always complaining. He has this silly plaintive mew, and it fools the humans.

“Luci,” they say, “stop tormenting the cat.”

Yeah, right. I’ve got the measure of him. If I stop so-called “tormenting” him, he just comes running up to me, saying “go on, play with me, play with me again.” He just likes playing hard to get, that’s all there is to all the fuss he makes…

You think he's not enjoying himself?.
If I stop, he comes chasing me to start again

It’s not just with the cat that playing’s fun. It’s brilliant playing with puppies. And I’ve worked something out: humans have puppies too. They’re the smaller ones, the ones I always liked. Human puppies, if you know what I mean.

It turns out they’re good for a romp too.

We met some in the park the other day. I don’t know if everyone has this problem, but whenever we meet humans they always seem to want to touch me. They come up saying silly things like “oh, isn’t she cute?” (or worse still, “isn’t he cute?”) and then, inevitably, they follow it up with “can we stroke her?”

The puppy humans in the park were just the same. They all kept asking whether they could stroke me, as though it was any good asking human number 2 (he’d come along on my walk.) He said yes, but I shot off as soon as they got close. And – joy! bliss! ecstasy! – they started chasing me. Oh, wow, that was such a great time. Even in this terrible warm weather. Somehow I didn’t notice it so much, oddly enough. Funny how much you can put with when you’re having a good time.

It seems human puppies like playing as much
as the real ones do.

In any case, I’ve found out what’s good in this heat. Water. Go right into it and it cools you down like magic. Don’t think I mentioned before that I’d learned to swim. Well, I have, and it’s great.

It’ll be useful, too, if things just go on getting hotter.

Yup. That's me swimming.