And here comes Caspar

Just when you thought you had enough to do, what with the job, the kids, the garden and the lottie, someone has the bright idea of getting a dog.

Actually, that someone was me. Him Indoors queried whether it really was sensible to have another hound following the death of our wonderful first dog, Dylan. And what I actually said was: "If we have reached the stage where we are too busy to have a dog, then something has to give". Dangerous talk, readers! But come on: it's the old live to work or work to live arguement, isn't it?

Move forward a few weeks and skip over a few heart-breaking trips to local dog rescues, and we found Caspar.

He is a Lakeland Terrier/Jack Russell cross but most of the time he looks more like a sheep. He has driven us nuts at times (especially when he kept doing mammoth wees on the kitchen floor); he has removed every single plant label from the pots in my garden and he has eaten nearly as much of the fruit grown in the garden as I have (see Plum Bonanza for just one example).

He hates the allotment as he has to be tied up down there. So that's another time-saving idea (walk the dog to the allotment and combine the two tasks) which has failed. But he is a great little dog: good fun, lively at times but really mellow with the kids.

Here he is guarding some broad beans, back in early summer. At last, some garden produce which he does not want to eat!