Gilbert the Good - proper swimming

Gilbert the Good - proper swimming  

The other day I thought I’d help the humans with putting the shopping away. They didn’t seem to think that my bed was the right place to put the mackerel pâté. I dunno, I suppose they’re right - it would be too warm. I was really careful carrying it, though, but then we Labradors are known for having soft mouths.

Roxy and I aren’t having brazils regularly any more – too fatty, apparently. It makes sense – if the humans only have three a day, one a day for us dogs is too much. We still have our carrots every day and celery some days and I’ve discovered I almost like lamb’s lettuce, but Roxy doesn’t.

Arthur came to play when Susannah had to go to London. It was all nice and quiet until Jellicoe came in with a baby magpie in his mouth. The humans tried to get it away from him but he wouldn’t let go so they had to shut him outside and leave him to it. We all tried to help but it was no good. Poor magpie! I think it died of fright. I dunno why Jellicoe wanted it – he didn’t eat it or anything. He just walked away and left it on the ground. It’s a good thing we dogs are bigger than him or he’d hunt us down, too. 

 Barry’s got a new harness arrangement thing that means Roxy and I can both be attached to him at the same time.

 It takes quite a long time for him to get into it. Janice wonders if he could attach a parachute to it. 

Anyway, the weather has been beautiful lately and we’ve been having wonderful walks in the woods. 

Roxy and I really like it when we go to the ponds. We went to the big pond the other day, where Roxy first learnt to swim. We did some proper swimming - no paws touching the bottom. It was exciting! 

The humans said when Roxy was young she always used to hold her head up high when she swam, as if she didn’t want to get her hair wet. 

 I nearly managed to get the stick away from Roxy . . .

  We were still quite damp when we got home but we soon dried off on the furniture. It's so  kind of Janice to put clean covers on the chairs for us.

We're  going out in a few minutes, so I've got Barry's shoe for him. I'm a very helpful chap.*

*Janice says: It's the wrong shoe, but we won't tell him that. We don't want to hurt his feelings.

*Janice says: These are the boots he needed.