UPDATE
Adopting Leela has inspired a collection of dog-themed poems and illustrations:
Love, Fluff and Chasing Butterflies - 50% of profits is donated to the Dog's Trust
So what's been happening in puppy land? Well the big event was Esther's 5 day absence from puppy HQ to attend her grandma's 100th birthday party!!!! It was a busy 5 days (for both of us) to say the least. Here at HQ I tried to stick as closely as possible to the puppies usual routine. Typically that meant they woke me up at 6.30 for a short outside play, followed by an hour or so upstairs until they'd let off a little steam. Then they went back in their pen for breakfast while Leela got a walk for an hour so, followed by her breakfast. By now they were waking up again and it was time for our wonderful next door neighbour Marijke to come and dog sit while I worked through their individual training time.
What this means in practice is 4 trips back and forth to a street far enough away that they're not tempted to dash home, which in the San Jose Easter heat was a good workout for me as well. Thank goodness for Marijke is all I can say as I couldn't have done any of this without her. We're so lucky with our friends here in San Jose.
A few days later the pups got to 'enjoy' another vet visit for their third puppy vaccination, which means that by now they are pretty much covered for the usual suspects, another weight off of our mind as they are so strong and inquisitive when out and about now.
UPDATE
Adopting Leela has inspired a collection of dog-themed poems and illustrations:
Love, Fluff and Chasing Butterflies - 50% of profits is donated to the Dog's Trust
To be frank I am starting to find myself using the words 'the dogs' to describe the pack now rather than 'the puppies'. I know that in age they are still definitely pups, but size wise some aren't too far off their mum any more. Rose, for example, weighed in at 4.9kg at her vaccination and Leela was only 7.3kg. I've even confused the pair of them once when I saw them trotting outside.
Even putting this post together just now I'm staggered at how much they've changed in the past 2 weeks from the photos, and also reflecting on how much their personalities are developing too. Bella is incredibly loving, Rose is incredibly inquisitive, George is playful and mischievous and Pati is wonderfully docile and gentle. They've been like this for a while of course, but the differences between them seem more apparent, which of course could be my interpretation as well I suppose.
In the weeks ahead we're looking forward to an exciting time as we gear up for our departure from San Jose, leaving is in the mood to make the absolute most of our remaining days here on the golden beaches with the pack.
Enjoy the pictures.
Hi guy's, do you have to worry about the processionally caterpillar issue at all while on your extensive walks? We will be bringing our 4 to this area for a month May/June. Regards, Mary.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary,
DeleteIt is something we worry about, especially during Feb - April when we have read they are most active. I should say from the outset we haven't been doing very remote walks so our experience this year is limited to the areas in the Cabo de Gata natural park. We just haven't gone much further afield with the pups being so young.
Here in San Jose, throughout late Feb and March particularly we often saw processionary caterpillars on the streets that have pine trees along them. Sometimes they were crawling across the road, but since they are nocturnal usually we saw remnants of processions of 20-30 caterpillars that had been run over showing just how many were out at night.
We are less worried now, but still vigilant. In theory I think in southern Spain by now most of the caterpillars should have buried themselves and started turning into the moths they become. We can certainly see fewer nests in the trees and haven't seen any on the streets for a few weeks.
Still we continue to be cautious. Our routes in and out of town when we have the dogs avoid roads with pines trees on them. We take our outdoor shoes off at the door or rinse the soles if we have gone down a pine tree street when out without the dogs for example.
In the wild it really depends where you walk. Some hikes we have done have what seems like thousands of pine trees on them, others not so much. Near San Jose there are plenty of hikes with no sign of pine trees. Up in the Almahillas behind Nijar I remember there being lots.
If we were to go on a hike (and this will be true next year when we come back) I think we would still avoid certain areas or turn around outright if we saw a big patch of pine. As I said above, in theory the caterpillars go to ground around now in this area and don't come back until next year (varies with latitude/temperature as I understand) but that doesn't mean there won't be a dead one in the scrub a dog could decide to eat.
So I reckon we'll stay cautious as long as we have a dog with us from now on.
That said, on the flip side, we see many people walking their dogs off the lead along pine tree lined roads here right through the caterpillars most active season. I guess it's about what risks you're willing to take?
I hope this helps. It's just our point of view. We have chosen to be quite risk averse, reasoning there are plenty of places without pine trees to explore as well.
Best wishes,
Dan