Dog Sitting Days Five, Six and Seven

Wow the time has passed quickly enough. The dogs have been quite good although somewhat depressed as their "parents" are still away returning tomorrow. Fortunately it has been just cold enough at night that the ground is frozen in the morning letting the sheltie run back and forth to his heart's delight in the cool morning (usually 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.) and then a foot wash because we have a lot of garden space that is now exposed. Our snow cover is gone amazingly early this year. While almost gone; still enough of a path to move up and back in the yard so as not to trample the grass down too much whilst it is thinking of starting to grow. The sheltie especially loves the hedge at the back and spends a lot of time under it hunting out little twigs and barking at the cars passing by and the few pedestrians unless I am there with my rattle can first.

Our last full day and then one last night's sleep and then their "parents" return to claim them. They are missing them dreadfully as well from afar. It seems strange to go away and be depressed about part of one's family but that is the human and it would appear the canine way!

Nothing accomplished in terms of genealogy other than updating my H11 group (3 new members with the latest deal at FT DNA). Even at that we continue to but a small portion of the entire group (35 members in over 2000). The concentration continues to be Europe.

Opera tomorrow afternoon and our task will be finished as their parents arrive home soon after. At the moment they are somewhat depressed sitting quietly waiting for their "grandfather's" return from his morning walk with a friend. It will be their turn later for a walk around the block. The older dog especially misses him and will be so excited when he returns. At 16 years of age he is fairly chipper and sleeps very well. Mostly they are sleeping seven hours at night and probably four or five in the day.

Back to genealogy in another couple of days. I shall need to clean after the boys go back home. We have done a hit and miss job knowing that they will be tracking in mud every time they are in the back yard.