Dear Milo
Hello again!
It seems like an awfully long time since my holiday now, and the routine here at home has settled back to normal: stay in bed as long as I can and get up only when Dad makes me, have a walk, breakfast, back to bed, help Mum and Dad with their work, have another walk, lunchtime snooze, play Silly Boy outside, more work, late afternoon doze and then a big long walk before having dinner and going to bed. Things have been a bit strange here recently though. Some of the places in the house look a bit different – some of the lights are in different places and some of the wooden things have changed. I think I like my home exactly as it is and worry that if it changes too much it won't be my home anymore. I'm getting used to it now though and it's not too bad. At least my bed is in the right place and hasn't moved, although I have experimented a bit by bringing my blanket into the place where Mum works.
Something else strange happened the other day and I didn't like it at all. It was only for a little while but it made me quite unhappy. Mum and Dad went up the wooden hill, even though the sun was shining, and when they came down again, they had different coats on. Usually they look very light and bright and happy but this time they looked dark and sad and a bit scary. They reminded me of something that happened a long time ago in the other place and I got very frightened. I could hear their voices but I was too scared of what I was seeing so I ran away. When Mum came to find me she had changed and didn't look dark anymore so I gave a little wag although I was still worried and it took me a little while before I was ok. Mum and Dad went out then and neither of them were dark when they came home so I was very happy about that and gave them a great welcome.
I don't know why I'm scared of people who wear the dark. Sometimes you forget things until a little thing happens and then you remember how you feel but not why. I think Mum and Dad know now
Dear Milo
I hope you are well.
I am very well, although because of The Cough it will still be a little while before I can meet up with you or other dogs and have a proper chat. I saw Rosie today but she was on the other side of the road and I wasn't allowed to talk to her which made me very upset. She was upset too which made me feel better.
We've been doing a lot of walking since I last wrote, and I've been thinking about it a bit. Do you remember in my last letter I told you about the rope that tied me up in the other place and how it hurt me? Well, I was thinking how strange it is that I still have ropes attached to me, but these ones are so different to how it used to be.
In the other place, I was tied up all the time and the rope hurt me and stopped me from going anywhere. The ropes here are the complete opposite. When I'm at home, I'm not tied up at all, and when the ropes are attached that means we're going out for an exciting adventure!
I have two ropes - we used to call them leads, and I think it's the same here - and l wear a different one depending on what we're going to do. When we're going out, Dad takes my clippy strappy thing off the hook and I always get excited when that happens. He holds it out and I stick my head straight through, which isn't as easy as it sounds when your bum won't stop wiggling. Once it's clipped up he puts on my short lead, which means we're going for a short walk.
The short lead means I have to stay close to Dad as he needs my help to cross the road and stay away from cars. We don't go on the road much, but when we do I always stop and look before crossing, unless I forget and Dad reminds me. Once we're off the road I can go a little further away but still stay pretty close, although sometimes I'd like to go further and faster but no matter how much I lean into it, Dad never speeds up. I used to lean a bit more when I first got here, I think, but it's usually more polite to let Dad set the pace. He's a bit old and
Dear Milo
I hope you and your people are well and you're being a Good Boy.
Sometimes it seems like I've always been here and sometimes it seems like it was only yesterday I was tied up and always hungry. I thought about that today, as I sat on Dad's lap, trying to eat the cheese from his dinner even though I'd just finished my own. He tried to use the Boss Man voice to stop me but I used the big eyes trick (thanks for that) and made him laugh instead. Then I wiped dribble all over his legs. I really like it here.
The searching for birds is getting better. I still get very excited when I smell them, but Mum and Dad help me a lot. We do two things on our walks now. We do "Wait" where they say the word and I'm supposed to stop and stay where I am until they come to me. I'm really good at it but sometimes I get bored waiting and wander off a bit so they have to remind me. There's often cheese when they get to me though, so it's worth hanging about. We also do "Come" where they say the word and I'm supposed to stop what I'm doing and run over to them. I'm not as good at this one, to be honest. It's very easy to get distracted and veer off toward something far more interesting when you're halfway back. We're getting there, I think, although I was very good and found a lovely pheasant today.
I met lots of dogs since I last wrote. Rosie actually came into the house and ran off with Duckie! I know Uncle Reefing says we should share, but that's a bit much. Mum got him back though and Rosie got told off again but I'm not sure it got through to be honest. I'm beginning to see why Bertie the Boxer fancies her. I saw Lola today at The Yard. She was seeing off a German Shepherd who was lucky Lola only has little legs. I was busy at the time cooling off in Uncle Reefing's water bucket. I couldn't fit completely so only paddled in it and have sent you pictures. Lola is very proud of her new bed and was showing it off for me so I've sent you a picture of that too.
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