On Sunday morning we packed up to head back to Exmouth after our Christmas holiday in Perth. We had a good time while we were there: spent Christmas Day with family, caught up with some friends, ate at some good restaurants, saw The Golden Compass & National Treasure II: Book of Secrets. All in all a pretty relaxing time.
There was some not great stuff, too. Ricky, our youngest son, had to be admitted to hospital on Christmas night due to an infection under his skin on his coccyx! It's called P-something sinus, for those who know about those things. I can't remember that name of it. He went to the ER that night and was transferred to another hospital on Boxing Day. Dave and I headed down to see him and it took ages for a doctor to come to do the consult. Finally they conceded that there was no way a surgeon would see him that day so they transferred him to hospital #3. Finally some action as he had surgery that night. This is with the top health cover, too...imagine relying on public health care!! Two days in hospital for recovery and then Dave drove him home. Not a fun way to spend the holidays! He's recovering, but it's a fairly painful road - we'll keep you posted.
We were happy we had decided to pick the puppy up a day early as it gave her time to run around in the morning and wear herself out a bit. MatildaLily didn't mind her crate too much and proved to be a pretty relaxed flier. Before the flight we let her get used to the crate on her own terms and she was perfectly happy to wander in and out of it.
She was happy to be out of the box when we picked her up in Exmouth, but she wasn't crying or carrying on at all - just gave me a bit of a look when I opened the door ;)
Introducing a new member to our household is always interesting with our Dora-girl and three boy cats. The cats headed for high ground and sent scything glares her way every time she bounded past them. Dora also gave her a wide berth at first since Til seems to have two speeds - full throttle, no sense and conked out! It hasn't even been 24 hours yet, but already Dora is warming up to her...most of the time. And sometimes they are very good together.
Dora is also learning how to explain the order of things around the house to MatildaLily. At first she'd just growl at her but that had no effect and Tilly would just keep walking. Now she allows Til to come up to her and even play with her tail. When they play and Tilly gets too rough, Dora noses her over onto her back and treats her much the same way Cassie (Tilly's fur mom) did. Dora isn't rough and is really getting the hang of things.
Ali, one of our friends who had been minding the house and critters while we were away, came over right after we got back to the house and Boof came up on the couch to get a cuddle from her. Tilly immediately had to join in to see what was what - Boof briefly gave her a stern talking to, but didn't run away and wasn't too aggressive about it. Tilly had no clue and kept pushing until Boof gave her a little bat in the head and we distracted her with the toy chicken.
Tilly has no fear and is an exploring maniac - all at 100 miles per hour, too! She is also a true Ridgeback - she knows exactly what a fridge is, where it's located and what it's for - it takes two of us to get anything out of there...she can hear the seal crack from anywhere!
The weather here is horrendously hot and humid with a giant swell running. We had to cancel our tour today so all of the crew were at the dive shop demanding that we bring the new baby down so they could meet her. She was, again, a huge hit - spreading her love around but in typical snooty Ridgie fashion, never really fawning over anyone but just allowing them to play, pat and entertain her. She scampered all over the shop exploring all the cool things at puppy height while five new people tried to get and keep her attention! Finally she used up enough energy to let them take turns getting a proper cuddle.
Tilly found Junko's hair particularly enticing!
Back home there were a couple more discussions on sharing the big dog bed, but eventually Tilly understood the right way to go about it and joined Dora for a little snooze...Dora, as you can see, isn't thrilled, but she'll be OK. Too bad she has such a short memory - I seem to remember the shoe being on her foot not too long ago!
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