Blonde

Over the weekend I had an amiable idiot living with me.





I was looking after Jasper while my parents, to whom he belongs, were at a conference on the east coast. Considering that he is only 6 months old and full of buoyant puppyish enthusiasm, it's remarkable that over two days he only destroyed three pot plants, knocked over one work of art, and dragged a single dead shrub onto the centre of the living room rug. With a dog, that's the equivalent of having Emily Post as a houseguest.


Considering that I spent a lot of the weekend painting the spare room, he demonstrated a truly heroic display of canine self-control. Preoccupied human kneeling on the floor, freshly-painted walls just waiting to be rubbed against, open tins to stick one's nose in, spills to be stepped in then tracked across the carpet.... from a dog's perspective, the scenario is almost irrestistible. But resist he did, and I'm proud of him.


He distracted himself by sleeping in a sunbeam in the living room, chewing on random bits of stick, and slipping off into the back yard to roll around in the compost pile.