Being responsible pet owners, but not feeling good about it today

Today Little-E has gone off to the vets to be spayed. As we don't have transport ourselves a friend took her down to Fethiye for us, and I felt dreadful when he took her away. I know it's the right thing to do and that all responsible dog owners here should ensure that their dogs are neutered, whether they are male or female, but I still don't feel a nice person to be putting her through the upset.

Little-E looking so trusting, something I feel I've betrayed today

Earlier this year as many of you are aware, we had to have three of our pets put to sleep due to age and illness, and Little-E and Kizzi both watched them leave the house and return wrapped up and lifeless, to be buried in our garden. It was obvious at the time that they knew and we said then that they must be dreading going out in the car because when their friends go they never see them again. So we wonder what she was thinking as she was driven away.

Because we consider our pets family members, we probably credit them with more insight than they actually have, but right now knowing that doesn't make me feel any better, and I have a wonderful chicken and gravy tea waiting for her return, if only to assuage my guilt.

It will only be a couple of months before we have to go through it again with the sisters, we have recently taken on - Bebek and Red. They are settling in a treat now and seem to be really settled and happy with us. I am not saying they don't have their moments. they are like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead that my mother used to tell me about (I can't imagine why!). When they are good, they are very, very good, and when they are bad they are horrid.

Bebek can't bear to be apart from me, even if I have only been upstairs for five minutes she will greet me as though I have left her in the kennels for a week. If I have been away from her she climbs up my front to have a cuddle, and she will put her front legs round me and bury her head in my neck. She is my little shadow, and follows me everywhere that she can. She can still get through the terrace railings and also over the wall out of the back garden when she chooses to, and she does this most evenings while I water the back garden. But she doesn't any other time and comes straight back when I call her. So she must be here because she chooses to be, not because she has no options. Bebek is the cuddly 'baby' of the two and her name has transpired to be spot on.

Bebek being a baby!

Red favours David with her affections really, probably because I have had to reprimand her so many times! She is obsessed with anything made of cloth. Given half a chance she will drag off tea towels, dish-clothes, mats or any other cloth she can lay her hands on. On one occasion I took my dress off as I got into the pool (to be modest with all the workmen about) and when I got out it had gone! Good job I had a bikini on and wasn't skinny dipping, I could have been in there for hours. When retrieved it had three holes in it.

Red is also besotted with food and is never far away if I'm cooking. The other night the pups were coveting the apple and mulberry crumble David was eating for his dinner, and suddenly to our astonishment Red had the gall to jump on the coffee table to ensure she was the closest for any spoils that may happen by. Not acceptable, but I did have to delay telling her to quickly take a photograph.

"and when she is bad she is horrid"

But her major claim for infamy was destroying David's kindle. Well she has been blamed anyway as she was laying beside it when David got up in the morning. He had left it quite high up, so somebody quite tall had reached up and got it down!!

They are both very protective of the property and will bark at the slightest unusual sound, or anyone being about. Usually this would be a comfort, but as there are two teams of workmen in the field opposite us building new houses, it is a constant battle to keep them quiet. Fortunately their barks are quite different from each others, so I know exactly which one is kicking off without even looking and can shout accordingly. One wonders which the neighbours and workmen find the most wearing the pups barking or me shouting at the pups!

Our cat Thomas continues to tease the dogs by laying wait under the sofa throws and grabbing them as they go past. When they prepare the counter attack he will run out of the window, or he has discovered that if he lays under the shelf on our coffee table that they can't reach him. He will wait until they are looking under one end then will tear off out from the other end. I think they help to fill the loss he suffered by losing his pal Peggy earlier this year.

Thomas the pup's tormentor

The kennel we are building is not yet finished, so it was with some trepidation that we went out for five hours last week to do our monthly shopping, leaving them alone in the house. When we returned, the place was perfect they had done nothing wrong at all. But that has definitely not pushed me into a false sense of security for next time!