It's a dog's life.

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about an incident last night. It involved a dog. I had my pair on a lead, and this white staffie off it's lead it's owner about 100 yards looking a bit puggled shouting something I couldn't hear because I had my headphones in.

I took my headphones out as Cassie and Luna stood in front of this other dog wagging their tails and it went for Cassie, really went for her, trying to bite her. Now my touch bounce around and mouth each other a lot, but this was vicious and Cassie was yelping, which she doesn't do with Luna. I was going to kick the staffie in the face, when I saw the owner and her teenage son (who also had a dog running over), so instead stuck my foot under the staffie and lifted it up and backwards. and went to grab the collar, when the owner just beat me to it, shouted at it and battered it over the head a couple of times with a retractable lead.

I checked Cassie, I couldn't see any blood and it she visibly had a fright. The woman was clearly mortified, the dog has slipped it's lead or escaped from their house and she couldn't stop apologising and repeatedly asking me to check my dog. I was surprisingly calm, there was no harm done, and they were clearly worried.

The teenage son said a jarring phrase "She's a friendly dog." I'm thinking really? It just attacked my dog, but I gave the benefit of the doubt, I didn't know the whole story behind their dog, and this purely could have been bad luck.

The woman kept saying about how she couldn't forgive herself if something had happened to Cassie. I assured the woman Cassie seemed OK and had just had a fright, they seemed genuinely concerned. I continued off to the park and let the dogs off as usual. Cassie wouldn't leave my side, until I petted her and reassured her. It took a few minutes, but soon she was off chasing after Luna. We wandered through the fields and up the hill Cassie seemed pretty much back to normal, though I did notice a couple of cuts on her legs, so I took them home and washed and treated the small cuts. She spent the rest of the evening lying in her bed looking sorry for herself, like she's done something wrong.

My wife did ask me if I thought the reason they were so worried, was that the dog would have been put down if she'd mauled Cassie? This had not occurred to me, I was still processing what had happened earlier.

Looking at it from another perspective, how often have my two bounced up to smaller dogs and made the owner shit themselves? One woman picked up her chihuahua and gave me dirty looks, other people with spaniels look a bit worried until they see the dogs are just wanting a chase and seem relieved. It's the curse of having bigger dogs, people assume they're vicious, if a big dog barks, it's vicious, when it's nothing of the sort. We have a problem with the posties, we leave the front door open so the dogs can wander in and out of the house, don't worry our garden is fenced in. If it's a particular woman she comes in to drop off the post and gives them dog treats. If it's the men they stand at the gate and shout "POOOOOSSTTT!" because the dogs bark, they believe they are likely to try and bite them.

I think the issues of is it the breed or is it the owner? Well the answer is both play a part, I believe that some breeds are more predisposed to certain behaviours, and how the owner deals with that dog will influence how the dog behaves. This will mean that sometimes however, even good owners will get a dog that will challenging.

What I don't understand though is, why do people with a dog that has issues, walk it to popular dog places, at times when there is a lot of dogs? They have the right to obviously, but where is the sense in it? The dog will clearly be stressed and surely the increased risk of something bad happening would be enough to go somewhere else or go there at a quieter time?

It was a situation that caught me off guard and I'd like to think I could have stood on the dog quickly and stopped her having a go at Cassie, but that's hindsight, and being in the moment we don't always think of what we'd like to do, so there's no point in beating myself up over it. Thankfully this morning Cassie seems her usual self and was curled up with Luna on our bed when I left for work.

Barking

Are you a cat person or a dog person? I'm both. I never intended on owning either, it just seemed to happen. My dogs are both lurchers, which is a type rather than a specific breed, sighthounds cross bred with something else. Here's how it started.

I'm going to see my friend tomorrow, Star's had puppies.  

Really? You're not coming home with one.

Don't worry, I won't.

The next day mid afternoon the phone rings.

Can I bring a puppy home? She's so sweet, she came and lay next to me, she came back after feeding to sit with me.

I thought you were allergic to dogs, particularly Star?

This dog is smooth coated unlike Star, we talked about getting a dog before, this one has chosen me, all the others are running about mental and this one came over and slept beside me all afternoon. 

*sigh* On one condition, ask if you can take her a couple of days to make sure you and the kids don't end up allergied up to the eyeballs, otherwise you have to take her back.

OK, thank you! 

Yes, but any problems and you have to be allowed take her back, don't  bring her home if you won't be allowed to take her back! I hung up wondering if I'd really just agreed to getting a dog. I was secretly quite pleased, but I didn't want to get my hopes up if it wasn't going to work out.

When previously discussing dogs I'd said I'd easily take a rescue greyhound or something if we were to get a dog. We hadn't done this due to concerns about allergies and them chasing the cats. Lurchers are the ideal kind of dog for us, they're lazy dogs, but enjoy a good run-around.  I arrived home from work that night to see little white puppy, who was very happy to meet me.

Alright, maybe you did the right thing!

Don't worry she won't be sleeping in our bed.

Sure about that?

Definitely! 

Over a year later we have own a large dog who shares our bed and tries to sneakily push me out in the middle of the night. Luna is a cross Deerhound/Greyhound/Saluki/Collie. We generally take her everywhere with us, she has separation anxiety so we try not to leave her too long.

At some point during that year we joined the Lurcher Appreciation Society on Facebook. Regularly there's was posts asking people if they can get dogs of Gumtree marked as "free to good home" as soon as possible. The reason for this being that such dogs are used in dog fighting.

We both decided it would be nice to get a second dog to keep Luna company and to be able to get a rescue or older dog that needed a home. After a couple months of half looking, a dog was put into a rescue not too far from us.

We phoned up the vet that had posted about the dog, got the details of Claire who had rescued the dog. Claire has managed the phenomenal task of rescuing and re-homing over 500 dogs off her own back.

This is Claire's website, please take a wee visit here: http://www.cusidh.co.uk/

The following day I went off with Luna and one of the kids to go and see the dog. The dog was a little smaller than Luna, the two of them seemed to get along ok, she was ecstatic to see people, very friendly, much easier to walk than Luna and we discovered she could jump over a 4 foot high fence, something Luna never does.

The next day I took my wife and other child to go an see this dog to see what they thought. They both liked her and again I took her on a short walk. We had a few days to think about things and I ended up going to pick her up.

Her story is that she was about 9 months old and came to Scotland via Ireland and some travellers. She had been in Wick, someone had tried to train her for hunting (illegal!), but she was no good at it, so she was sold to someone in Fife who also failed to train her to hunt. The man went to dump her and Claire caught him in the act. The following day he had the audacity to come back to ask Claire for the collar back because "it was worth money".

She had been called the highly original Lassie, which Claire had been trying to change to Lass. We took her home and debated over what to call her, settling on Cassie since it was similar so it would make it easier for her to respond to and it's also short for Cassiopeia. Astronomically named dogs in our house. Cassie, we think is a greyhound or whippet/collie/staffy cross.

We've had to do a lot of work with Cassie, it's no been easy the past couple of months, but we're getting there. It's taken her 2-3 months to adjust. She's different to Luna, she was kept in a kennel her entire life, so we had to toilet train her. Which wasn't too bad, I remember how long it took to train Luna, and we got her at 8 weeks! She had little or no recall. We had to put up some trellis to heighten our fence to stop her jumping over it. We took her and Luna to Skye to visit some friends and they both behaved very well and amusingly Cassie slept flat on her back on the bed with her paws in the air all night.

We have to be careful not to leave things lying about as Cassie loves to chew on everything she shouldn't. So wooden furniture gets sprayed with anti chew stuff. Thankfully she has stopped a weird habit that had appeared out of nowhere, when she pee'd on the couch or one of our beds. It would seem this behaviour is relating to wanting to fit in and wanting to smell of 'us'. Don't ask me how that works, I read it on-line it could be bollocks.

My toy!

The past few weeks, she seems to be noticeably more settled and her and Luna love nothing more than tearing about chasing each other around the beach, woods or a field. Luna on the other hand doesn't love Cassie when she's at home and is jealous if anyone gives Cassie attention and not her!

We're gonna need a bigger sofa!

I wonder how we went so long not having them? Walks are great for catching up on podcasts I'm behind on and more importantly clearing my head. Giving dogs that have been in the sea or mud a bath isn't that fun, but Luna entertainingly looks more like a Llama afterwards. They both enjoy going to the pub or visiting other people's homes.

There is nothing better than coming home from work to two dogs bursting out the front door, so happy to see me when I've been out at work all day.

ZzZzZzZZZZzzzzzzz......

Minor Update

While I like the last blog post I didn't manage to convey the intensity of the thoughts going through my head a few weeks ago and appeared more like the random thoughts I think most of us have, unfortunately these were relentless and I didn't get that across as I wanted. Asking yourself seriously if you are capable of making a rational decision is incredibly unnerving, 'What if I'm wrong?', I started to doubt every decision I'd made both recently and in the past and started to undermine myself even more. That's what I wanted to get across, but still feel the post was relevant and I do like how it turned out, I might do a few more in that style when the mood takes me.

Now that's out of the way, here's some random cartoons I made over the past 8 years.

Fame

Spreadsheets

Magic Shoes

Grow Up

Time For A Comic

This is a comic strip about what ran through my head when I had a bad day last week, when I was adjusting to a change in my medication. I've been fine since, but I want to try and convey what it's like when you have thoughts you can't control going in and out of your head. A lot of the thoughts are recurrent throughout the day. along with a song I had stuck in my head and other random thoughts that popped in.

These aren't all normal thoughts on a normal day, I hardly think like this due to the medication. The creeping doubts is the worst part.

MiNE!

I wanted to get more exercise and I needed to motivate myself. I was looking at a the vast array of sports wristbands of somewhat varying prices. One of my colleagues recommended the Mi band. At £13 it's a cheap and cheerful step counter and sleep monitor. A charge lasts 30 days and it can also unlock your phone.*

I've been trying mine for the past week or two. There's an app, it connects the Mi band via Bluetooth and config it from there. I've been setting myself a goal of 18,000 steps a day, a bit over 8 miles. In the past I've usually struggled to reach 10,000, not now though, walking the dogs in the morning and at night allows me to hit that target and sometimes, hitting over 20,000.

The band can vibrate on incoming phone calls and text messages, which is great if you keep your phone in a bag or jacket pocket and don't always hear it ringing. The band can also act as a vibrating alarm. The app can sync to Google Fit. However I picked up Mi Band Notify and Fitness, the PRO version for £1.38 and it presents a more detailed breakdown of steps and sleep. It also allows configuring what apps you want to buzz when they generate notifications.  It also allows you to connect to a heart rate monitor as well should you so desire as well as a few other functions.

I've found the Mi band helps me retain my motivation, partly due to accurately counting steps and at £13 it's cheap, cheerful and fairly robust. I might copy my colleague and get a couple for the kids and connect it to their tablets? Oh you've not walked 10,000 steps? No internets for you until you do!

Click for more info about the Mi Band

* There's a Bluetooth bug in Android Marshmallow 6.0 that stops the unlock feature working, it is fixed in 6.0.1 and works in Kitkat and Lollipop.

Fallen in the trap

I'm a little annoyed with myself. There's a bizarre stubborn streak that insists on being able to do everything for myself and not have to rely on other people. What I should have done was go straight back to the doctor when I wrote that last post. No I thought, I need more rest, I'll be fine, it should sort itself out. Erm... not quite. In fact it was the anxiety starting to take root again. I was thinking I shouldn't bother the doctor as I'd be fine I could wait for the next appointment.

Stupid me. Really I should have gone to the doctor upon returning from visiting friends on Skye a couple of weeks ago. The trigger should have been when I kept having to leave the kitchen because of how I felt. Too many people, too much noise, I regularly wandered out into the garden because I couldn't handle it. Again I thought I'll be going to the doctors in 2-3 weeks so I should just wait as I didn't feel I was in a state where I needed to see the doctor quickly.

Last week my wife, told me to make an emergency appointment and go see the doctor. I did and they doubled my medication. I've been on the increased dose for a few days and already I feel better, having a bit of chat with people serving me in shops instead of smiling and saying very little. 

I am annoyed because I didn't see what was right in front of me, I fell into the trap and started descending the steps again. I'm annoyed because I didn't listen my wife straight away and allowed myself to feel I wasn't important enough to see the doctor as soon as possible. Instead I allowed myself be self aware of what was happening, but allow part of the anxiety to influence my behaviour.

You'd think I'd have learned? Maybe this time.

Podcasts

I listen to a lot of Podcasts, so I thought I'd have a wee review of a few I've been listening to lately. I don't like writing reviews, some seem easy to write, others don't. Are they of a decent quality or not? I don't know, just do yourself a favour and give some of these a listen.

Radio 4's Wireless Nights
Jarvis Cocker narrates together a list of stories and experiences of people who work at night. The background sound will draw you in so it's best to get some good quality headphones and block out the world, lie down in a dark room and immerse yourself in this.

Frequency: Infrequent series
Current Episodes: 16
Average Length: 30 mins
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sg4kg/episodes/downloads

The Janey Godley Podcast
This is my favourite podcast. The no holds barred Janey Godley and her daughter Ashley Storrie talking about what they've been up to and the state of the world. Janey and Ashley are consistently funny and thought provoking about the issues they discuss, over nearly 300 episodes.

Warning: May include characters such as Dave the paedo ice cream man or tales of THE BOLD ALEC! 

Frequency: Weekly 
Current Episodes: 288
Average Length: 30 mins
http://janeygodley.podomatic.com/

Welcome To Nightvale
The creepy goings on of a town somewhere in an American desert. It's in the style of a local radio show, updating the residents of Nightvale about what's happening in and around their town. Narrated by Cecil with occasional interactions from radio station interns and some of the towns more unusual residents. The show also features a track by an unsigned artist and slot it in at an appropriate point and it 'The Weather'.

It like Twin Peaks meets the ambience and atmosphere of Radio 4's Wireless Nights. It sits nicely in the middle ground never leaning to far either way being creepy, imposing and comedic. It has also featured guest appearances from Wil Wheaton.

Frequency: Fortnightly (Every 2 weeks)
Current Episodes: 83 (and some pay what you want live shows)
Average Length: 20 mins
http://nightvale.libsyn.com/

Alice Isn't Dead
This is a new podcast from one of the Nightvale writers, I've only listened to the first one, it was out this week. Not sure about it, premise is good, but language used by the narrator was a little bit grating for me in places. As with anything these things take a while to get used to , so I'll be happily listening in to see where it goes.

Frequency: Fortnightly (Every 2 weeks)
Current Episodes: 1
Average Length: 20 mins
http://aliceisntdead.libsyn.com/

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP!)
Comedian Richard Herring interviewing comedians. Off the back of this and his Edinburgh Fringe podcast, I ended up listening to The Guilty Feminist, Janey Godley, The Parapod Mysteries and The Comedian's Comedian as a result of the various people Richard has interviewed.

I've found that it has changed my views on some comedians and made me more tolerant towards people who I thought were unfunny and now find more interesting as a result of talking to them, rather than just their material. Though the 'emergency questions' do start to head towards unbearable territory after a while.

Frequency: Weekly series
Current Episodes: 100
Average Length: 60 mins
https://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/richard_herring_lst_podcast/

The Guilty Feminist

Comedians Sofie Hagen and Deborah Frances-White perform this podcast live in front of an audience. They set themselves a challenge related to the theme of the show. Themes so far include food, pornography, advertising and apologies and they are also joined by a different special guest each week. It's been really funny so far, so get subscribed.

Frequency: Weekly series
Current Episodes: 5
Average Length: 45 mins
http://www.guiltyfeminist.com/

The Comedian's Comedian
Stuart Goldsmith discusses what it's like to be a comedian with other comedians, unlike Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP!), Stuart is more focused on the work side of it, how they develop ideas and how they got started down that particular path.

Frequency: Weekly series
Current Episodes: 180
Average Length: 60 mins
http://www.comedianscomedian.com/

The Parapod Mysteries
Ray Peacock and Barry Dodds are the hosts of the paranormal podcast, Barry is the believer and Ray the hardline skeptic. I was expecting this to be a nice friendly discussion about strange goings on, debunking myths with some fun poking and leaving some unexplained.

Unfortunately Ray puts the "cock" in Peacock by acting like a complete bell-end most of the time. I realise is there to debunk Barry, he does it in the most irritating way possible. Like a budget version of the torment that Gervais and Merchant dole out to Karl Pilkington. Ray constantly interupts when Barry is explaining a story or premise to make Barry look like a tool rather than have a sensible discussion about it. It would be nice for Ray to allow Barry to build up a story, even let it be a bit spooky, before telling him it's all bollocks.  All is not lost though, you can pick through the info and it does prove interesting and for all his faults Ray occasionally pulls it out the bag by either setting up Barry with or turning up to a ghost hunt in his own Ghostbusters costume.

#TeamBarry

Frequency: Weekly series
Current Episodes: 180 
Average Length: 60 mins
https://player.fm/series/the-parapod

Distraction Pieces
Scroobius Pip conducts in-depth interviews an array of guests from artists, musicians, actors, comedians and activists. Pip offers a unique windows into the subjects that matter to and the lives of his guests. Even if you've never heard of a guest, these podcasts manage to be engaging. Another podcast that manages good solid material week after week.

Frequency: Weekly 
Current Episodes: 1
Average Length: 60 mins
http://www.scroobiuspip.co.uk/distraction-pieces-podcast/