Cup of Tea, Anyone?

This morning I was talking to one of the mums at school about our pets and the things – good or bad – that they love best. It turned out that one of her cats is addicted to catching pigeons and ripping them to pieces (not a nice picture, I know), whilst the other is addicted to having its fur brushed for hours on end. Her hamster is mad on tomatoes and their dog is always partial to a bit of chocolate (which is toxic to dogs, so I’m not encouraging that at all). We then went on talking about other people’s pets, as she remembered that her mother’s parrot has a passion for classical music and I remembered that one of my in-laws’ dogs would do anything for chips.

As for George, there are a number of things that he is addicted to. Stealing socks, chewing tissues, roasting in the sun and stealing Brianna’s teddies are some of them. But top of his addiction list must be drinking tea.

It’s no secret that the British love their cup of tea. Morning, lunch and evening, all day long, the kettle and tea-pot are under a lot of stress and get a lot of use. It’s a documented fact that the National Grid faces the peak of electricity consumption during the commercial breaks half-way through the nation’s most loved soaps or football finals. Apparently, that’s when everybody rushes to put the kettle on and mash a cuppa before the programme returns five minutes later.

We’re no exception from the normal British family. We like tea and drink a lot of it. Our visitors like tea and drink a lot of it. There are always mugs around the house, containing different quantities of tea at any one time. That’s how we found out that George is partial to a bit of tea himself.

As soon as he was big enough to reach the coffee table, our little whippet has tried to sneak his nose into our tea cups. And our visitors’ cups. Every day. Whenever he got the chance. He’s proved to be extremely good at this from an early age. One moment of distraction, and you could return to an empty cup and a very content-looking dog. He’s so keen on the taste, that he’d sit next to you and lick his lips – in the most off-putting fashion – whilst you’re trying to enjoy your drink.

Eventually, something had to be done about this, since it’s not always funny to find a whippet nose in your cup and I was starting to get worried about his sugar intake. So we called a family council and decided to give George a little bit of tea, rather than have him steal ours. Brianna offered to donate her plastic Princess cup to this noble cause, and George became a full rights member of the tea club.

Most days, especially on weekend mornings when we can have family chats in bed, I make 4 cups of tea: two big, full ones for the adults, half a medium cup for Brianna, and less-than-a-quarter-full cup for George, with no sugar in it. You should see the delight on his face. I don’t know what he enjoys the most, the tea itself, or being part of the morning ritual. If the tea is the right temperature, he’ll slurp it in one go, without even breathing in between gulps. Then he’ll lick the cup clean and lie down on my legs. If the tea’s too hot, he’ll lie down on my legs first, waiting for it to cool down. Then he’ll slurp it in one go.

I find George’s love for tea strange and sweet at the same time. And I’m just wondering how many of you are experiencing similar behaviours from their pets? Do your furries have any unusual preferences or addictions?

A World of Whippet Paraphernalia

This morning, whilst I was drinking my tea out of my whippet cup (pictured below), I realised that we don’t have many whippety things around our home. You know, ornaments, vases, lamps…things that would tell the world we’re into whippets. Statements of our dedication to the breed and love for our dog.

I know a woman – let’s call her Sue – who has built her whole life around whippets. Her house is a “whippet shrine”, as she likes to call it. You know that whippets rule around there before you even get to the house. There’s an oversized whippet statue guarding the end of the drive, plus a number of other garden ornaments scattered between the flowers, in front of the house. The door is, again, guarded by two identical marble whippets (which must have cost a fortune). The first glimpse of the interior decorations can struck you like lightning. Everything is whippety…I mean, everything. Whippet paintings on the wall, whippet ornaments in the glass cabinets and pretty much everywhere else, whippet blanket and cushions on the sofa, whippet rug on the floor, whippet vase on the table, whippet lamp in the corner of the room, plus a big box full of  whippet toys. And, of course, real whippets. 8 of them, to be precise. She’s even personalised her car registration plate to include some sort of abbreviation of the word ‘whippet’!

I’ve only got the whippet cup and a small photo of George on a bookcase shelf. Whilst I’d like to acquire a couple of whippet ornaments for my display cabinet and maybe have a portrait of George painted by a real artist, I’m not planning to go much further than that. However much I love George and like his breed, there is a limit beyond which my love and interest could border on madness. Too much is too much. Although Sue is a lovely person and I appreciate her dedication, I won’t be visiting her house again. I found her obsession with whippet paraphernalia very off-putting. Some of those objects were real gems that I would have liked to have in my own home (like the sculpted floor lamp in the corner of her living room), but the overall effect was just too overwhelming.

So here’s my only piece of whippet paraphernalia. So far. My precious whippet cup. Isn’t it beautiful?

Do you have any dog, cat or other pet-related decorative objects on display around your home? Are you a collector of such treasures? Do you know anyone like Sue?

And yes, before you say it, I’ve used to word “whippet” a lot in this post. 23 times, if my maths is correct. Hopefully, by doing so, I’ve managed to render the feeling of suffocation I got when faced with Sue’s obsession.

*****

Mystery Creature Revealed

OK, voting is now closed, folks. All votes have been counted and verified by an independent (not) judge. I can now reveal who George’s mystery friend is and, more importantly, who won the ‘Guess Who’ competition.

Taadadada…Meet Ishoo, everybody.

Ishoo is my mother-in-law’s Yorkshire Terrier and George’s youngest buddy. He is 1 now, but was only about 5-6 months old in that photo. He’s still a tiny boy, but has a lot of character and we are convinced that he’s a whippet at heart, since the behavioural similarities between him and George are amazing. Which might be why they’re best mates and George prefers him over dogs his own size.

Here is the original photo…

…and another one just because they’re both so cute:

Now we’ve come to the exciting part…The Awards Ceremony! And the winner is … complicated.

No one guessed that George was playing with ‘Ishoo the Yorkshire Terrier’, but a few of you have identified or guessed some key elements. Therefore, in joint first place, we’ve got Kristine and Carrie, who both guessed George was playing with another dog. Ladies, please let me know if you’d like your fur babies to make a guest appearance on our blog at some point in the near future.

Because I’m a softy, I’ve got a few more awards to hand out. First, our worthy runner-up is Kas, who guessed George is playing with another animal, smaller than him, but then got distracted and failed to identify it as being a dog. Her silly answers would have won her the comedy prize, if there was one. Which there isn’t, of course, since this is a serious blog.

We’ve also got two special prizes. The prize for originality goes to Sara, who guessed that George was playing with a toad!!, and the prize for logic goes to Melissa who deducted that George is playing with someone smaller than him, whom he’s not very familiar with. I find this impressive, given the fact that Melissa is not a doggy person. Indeed, this was the first ‘unsupervised’ play session George and Ishoo shared outside in the garden, so they were both testing the water.

I have really enjoyed everybody’s answers, so I’d like to thank you all for playing along. The funny thing is that I came close to choosing a similar photo in which George was playing with Brianna, which would have made pretty much everyone else a winner. Such is life.

I hope you’ve enjoyed out little game. It’s back to more serious stuff next week. Have a nice weekend!