By Aubrey Beardsley

6 June 2017

Today was full of rain, wind, and deadlines (well, for Human anyway). We were all willing research assistants, snoozing on our sofas in the Lookout Library.

Amazon arrived and was in the process of delivering a book. Howard gets extremely excited whenever there is a delivery, so he raced down to wait at the door in case there was some amazing cardboard or bubble wrap that needed his attention. Or better still, maybe it would be one of those padded Jiffy bags – paper and bubble wrap in one – they’re amazing! As he stood there, waiting for the delivery to poke through the door and the wonderful packaging that might come with it, he didn’t anticipate how quickly it would shoot through and it almost hit him on the head. It didn’t put him off further deliveries though, as the door went again later in the day, and he raced down to greet the parcel. He did grab the phone before he ran down though. Presumably he thought he might need to be able to make a call if in fact he was stuck under a large parcel.

The humans had ice cream and, despite Jeff’s imploring looks, Deputy said they couldn’t share it because it wasn’t good for dogs (and possibly not humans either!). I think that is the definition of being cruel to be kind. Although we did get compensated with a lot of ribbies, so we didn’t really mind.

Human had a huge round of the duvet game with Jeff and Howard in the evening. This is where Human hides under the duvet and Jeff jumps all over Human trying to uncover the mystery. We all like to play this game with Human. We want to make Human happy and it is one of Human’s favourite games. Apparently Human has been playing this game since about the age of 7. And from the laughter and fun we were all having, I’d say this is a very good way to deliver the goods of happiness!

7 June 2017

Today Deputy went to Cardiff, and we had our breakfast outdoors (sort of), enjoying some time on the roof terrace with Bulldog Drummond. He likes to be on the roof terrace, but Human says he has to be supervised in case he goes on one of his Spider-man adventures over the rooftops.

Deputy brought us back a present from Wales, our very own drink bottle! As I am an honorary Welsh boy, I am allowed to use it too. We were so excited to see Deputy and Howard had to gather a lot of objects to show Deputy just how excited we were. When he couldn’t find any pens or telephones, he decided to greet Deputy with some socks, a shoe, and a toilet roll. Thankfully Howard is more of a gatherer than a shredder. He says that gathering unrelated, random objects is one of his favourite ways to show his love and appreciation.

But it’s been a day of epic cuddles, yoghurt, and sharing our Orijen treats with the kitties. We’ve even had a ribbies party tonight. So it has been a very busy day. But Howard has been especially busy.

First, in the Lookout Library, he decided to turn on the printer as he really wanted to see the test page.

Then, he really wanted his favourite toy but it was in one of the baskets on a high shelf. So he climbed up the sofa and stretched as high as he could and he managed to get the crunchy pig out of the basket. He then took it into the kitchen.

But as soon as he had the pig, he realised that there was another favourite toy he wanted. So he went back into the Wreck Room to find his other favourite toy, a chew ring. Seeing that the pig was unattended, Jeff raced in and snatched it from the kitchen and brought it back into the Wreck Room. But Howard didn’t mind because by this time he was well and truly enamoured with the chew ring.

Then we all tried to watch something on Netflix, but apparently so was everyone else in the world and so Netflix wasn’t coping and it simply didn’t work. So Howard decided to go to the DVD shelf and choose a movie. He really did, without any prompting. He went over to the DVD shelf, fumbled through some movies, and then made his selection. He is very proactive and particular when it comes to audio-visual entertainment. On this occasion, he came back with Due Date. His tastes are not very sophisticated (we all blame Deputy). But Howard said he chose it because it had a dog on the front. He also said he delivered a very specific good of happiness by choosing not to eat the DVD box, which bears a remarkable sensory resemblance to the delights and wonders of the crunchy pig.

That’s happiness.