The naughtiness continues...

It's been a long week! MatildaLily is a little ratbag for hours on end and has certainly earned her nickname coined by our friend Mary - Demon Child. She's a calf nipper, jumper, whiner, thief and escape artist. We've been getting exercise chasing her down the block as she shimmies out around our legs in the speed of light. She thinks bouncing around the neighbors yard while we try to coax her close enough to snare is a great game. Clearly we need to get serious about working on some recall skills!

She has to put things in her mouth constantly. On the upside, she rarely destroys whatever it is she finds. The exception this week was a cushion - for some reason, it had to die!


She's also decided that getting up two or three times a night is the way to go, so Dave and I aren't getting much good sleep - which occasionally takes its toll on our good humour, at least temporarily. Even when she settles down, she's such a talker that she whimpers and whines and gurgles to herself for hours. Tilly is also in the stage where she must sit on Dora at every opportunity - including in the car.

God forbid she sit on her own side when there's action going on...

But Tilly's short attention span will drag her away from sitting on Dora - especially if she can ruin a perfectly precious potential photo!

Dora continues to be a champ with the puppy but even she needs a little break now and then.

Dave has been working on the boat and I've been taking the girls down in the late afternoons to have a run around with Kai, a friend's dog. The three of them don't really get on just yet, but there is progress! Dora prefers to play the man while they are chasing things and sometimes gets a little overprotective of Tilly; Tilly runs along happily after Kai but often forgets what she's doing and wanders off course.


Yesterday we all went for a swim in the marina. Tilly was a bit nervous on the steps - and both of them were very ungraceful on them - but we finally got her in. Dora loves just swimming around in circles.



Craig took responsibility for teaching her to swim more effectively - she tends to get her front paws out of the water as far as possible and simply splashes around without much forward movement!


We've been trying to head out at low tide for beach walks to work off some energy. She's recently discovered that she is her Grandfather's dog and is exploring a career in earth moving - I'm hoping she confines it to the beach and doesn't decide the backyard might provide opportunities as well!

Excavating is pretty tiring work...

Break's over...

The foreman, Digger...

We didn't get to go diving this weekend thanks to some cyclone activity up north bringing down a bunch of yucky swell and wind. Maybe later in the week or this weekend will be better conditions - fingers crossed. I have a photo gig at the local day care tomorrow so that should be interesting - bring on the 3 year olds!