Back in from the morning walk with the boyz to find the newspapers reporting that overnight France has been hit by the worst storm in 20 years. 500,000 houses in the departements of Poitou-Charentes and Charentes Maritime are without power and 50 people have been killed by the hurricane force winds. Thankfully, here in deepest Tarn-et-Garonne the tempest seems to have passed us by. Wilf and Digby spent their day chasing squirrels, dozing in the sunshine and barking at the woodpeckers oblivious to the havoc and destruction being wrought further north .Digby wandered into the bedroom at six and woke me with a gentle scratching of the bed post and the lightest of hand licks. Scratching alone usually means that he wants a tickle and reassurance. Scratching and licking of my hand means he wants out for a widdle - now ! Can dogs suffer from early onset alzheimers ? Last night I let the boyz out at nine, ten and then ten thirty . While Wilf raced around irrigating every bush and shrub in sight Digby sat contentedly staring at the stars , the call of nature the last thing on his mind. You'd think there were certain things like bladder control he wouldn't or couldn't forget. As he gets older a lot of early morning hand licking seems to be on the cards. There are some things about older dogs the books never tell you .
