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.