...Temi & T

Hello everyone. Perhaps some introductions would be useful...

This is Temi (dog); a five-year-old golden retriever/border collie cross. She’s actually Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting, though that’s only used when she’s been particularly wayward. At all other times she’s Temi for short, or Tems for super-short. She’s sneaky; she’s small and still looks like a golden retriever puppy, though at five-and-a-bit she’s supposed to be middle-aged. As she has not been blessed with our previous true blue goldie’s secret weapon: googoo eyes, Temi’s puppy features are her secret weapon to twiddle ALL (well, almost all) humans around her small paw. It’s really disconcerting that she is 100% collie inside, which is uncharted territory if your only previous dog was a golden. Though Tems is gorgeous, she doesn’t do golden very well – she seems to struggle with being laid back (unless she’s really really tired), she has no idea what to do with a ball, used to lack the food-hoover gene (more about that later) and is very intelligent indeed. And super-strong for her size. She does a passable impression of a princess or even a diva (a smidgen highly strung) … She also fervently believes she’s a lap dog. And she herds everything in sight, humans, or even herself if she gets particularly excited. That’s the unexpected. Oh, and because she’s a rescue, she has terrible separation anxiety. I bet all you rescue dog parents know exactly what that means…

Temi is, however, the most affectionate bundle of fur I have ever met, heavily into leaning on her humans, she’s a natural empath and a superb listener. And with a single coat, doesn’t shed quite as much as we’re used to 😊 with an interesting side-effect – she enjoys a spot of sunbathing. Short spot of sunbathing I hasten to add and only in moderate environments. With me like a mother hen fussing and calling her in if she goes over the allotted few minutes.

Much-favoured are her humans, her collection of soft toys (she’s only destroyed a couple, which means her stash is growing), food (a relatively new phenomenon), and recently squirrels! The latter are a revelation – she chases cats (sadly) and woofs madly at them, but with squirrels she whimpers, goes frantic and is partial to hugging the tree up which said squirrels have nipped. It’s very funny and would certainly be worthy of a picture, but as this tends to be her first thing in the morning routine, am not compos mentis enough to remember my phone, and anyway, I tend to notice just as she lets go of the tree. She seems to believe the squirrels are a smaller version of her, in a way, very alert and lightning fast.

In this blog I’ll endeavour to portray the world through her eyes as well as mine.