Tea and Pets

Don’t you love it when you’ve made a cup of tea and can’t decide what to have with it? And then the doorbell goes? And it’s a package from Portugal with biscuits inside? Yeah, I’m pretty fond of that too.

Tania Ho and I decided to have a tea-and-jam swap a little while back, and the first of two (!) parcels from her arrived today. Inside were various local foodstuffs, including a selection of organic biscuits. I’ll take a picture of everything when the second package arrives — how exciting!
And here’s Minnie, trying her ‘if I don’t look at it, I won’t be tempted’ tactic:

She’s turned into such a good dog (compared to other dogs I know/have known). I left my plate of biscuits on the coffee table while I was searching for something else, and I didn’t even think that Minnie might go after them. I mean, I did tell her to leave it, and that’s about enough instruction for her.
She’s a fairly anxious dog, especially in loud, over-stimulating environments. I’ve been trying to take her for walks in slightly more commercial areas (the nearest of which is two miles away, so we’ve been taking some decent walks!). A few days ago, we went to an old-fashioned Dairy Queen (with the walk-up window outside), and I was amazed at how well behaved Minnie was. She sat when I told her to sit and stood patiently while I paid for and collected my ice cream cone. And I think it goes without saying that she was VERY attentive once I had the ice cream.
Today we walked down to the little neighbourhood grocery store. I had to spend about a minute giving Minnie pats and telling her she was a good dog, and then I tied her to a pillar and popped inside for a bottle of water. She can get quite tail-between-the-legs in these situations, so I was only gone for about thirty seconds. She was still waiting patiently when I came back out, and I was so pleased with her, and SHE was obviously so pleased with herself as well. How nice.
Speaking of nice, a good cat lies next to a person (preferably belly-up, for bonus cute points) rather than insisting he occupy a person’s entire lap. Funny how two little cats can make a person feel surrounded.