I bagsied Faye this morning for ‘take your dog to work day’ and so far it has been a complete success. It would not have been simple for Faye to have gone on the bike with Matthew to his work, or to sit in his office passing wind and huffing every so often.

So Faye is with me. As usual, she helped me walk the children to school. She was very keen; she loves her walks. I marched, the children scooted and Faye trotted and kept an eye out for cats. She took an interest back home when I prepared her breakfast and cleaned out the wheely-bin. She observed me doing a bit of housework and admin, then behaved herself while I had my quiet reading time. She watched while I did some editing and research, all the while listening to the radio without complaining. She went outside reluctantly to lie down so I could hang out the washing. And then she came indoors reluctantly so I could get on with more writing. She wanted to come outdoors when I put the recycling outside. Mostly, however, she has been dozing. She doesn’t care about word counts, deadlines or making notes on last night’s great book idea which might have involved looking up blind dogs on youtube. Nobody yapped.

Much of the rest of the day: lunch, more writing, more housework, more admin, an early walk, meeting a teacher, collecting children and feeding everybody, should also involve Faye one way or another, although I will have to leave her for a short time later. Mostly she will be sleeping. Every so often she may pass wind or huff, but I won’t take it personally if I’m in the room. I have a thick skin and a fragrant room spray (fig leaf and elderberry).

Faye has it pretty easy really.

She’s been up to all sorts since I blogged last month, in fact. Here’s a little of what she has been up to:

Joe learned that if you put your bedding downstairs in the hope you’ll be allowed to camp out overnight, the dog will be very grateful and think it is for her. Faye learned that if you wait long enough, eventually you don’t need to wear your muzzle out and about everywhere. Both these things made her very happy.

We all attended the Greyhound Extravaganza near Newmarket at the end of May and Faye won ‘Second Prettiest Bitch’ and ‘Judge’s Choice (1st)’. We were all thrilled, although I was a little concerned about the Hot Dog stand. On such a warm day, and with so many greyhounds around (not muzzled, all behaving and not barking), I hoped they had sourced their hot dogs wisely.

We took Faye on holiday in May half term break to Sherwood Forest. It was wonderful and did us all good. Faye had the whole boot of the car for her things for the journey so we had to pack light in the rest of the space. She met Biscuit, my friend Andrea’s tri-pawed rescue lurcher and enjoyed sniffing around Major Oak, Clumber Park and Rufford Abbey, as well as exploring lots of forest areas. She had fun on and off-lead and seems fine with car journeys of a couple of hours or so.

Faye did another visit to Suffolk one weekend, where she walked to Trimley Shores. It was a beautiful day and she helped Grandad look out for lots of interesting wildlife. Nobody caught any, thankfully.

Faye has been struggling on one of her legs with some arthritis, so she has started a course of K-laser treatment at the vets. She loves going there and gets lots of treats, rubs and attention. She’s still very stiff, so we are evaluating how long to keep her on the treatment.

She has to fit around us a lot of the time of course, but doesn’t always understand how to. When I held a planning meeting for a trip to Albania recently she decided that the map looked the most comfortable place to rest during proceedings. She was very gentle and didn’t damage it.

Right now she’s hoping for a walk, as she’s woken up and is staring at me, making a few whining noises.

Life is never dull with Faye, and no two days are exactly the same. I enjoy having her around to motivate me to work hard. She likes to be around me too and will get up and move rooms with me, even when she may be only half awake.

Perhaps there should be a ‘take your human for a walk and a chill out’ day. Hmm…