Going to the dogs

It's a long story, but this weekend we suddenly accquired three dogs. On Friday evening an old friend, Alf rang us to ask if we would like three pedigree dachshounds, absolutely free. A friend was going to be travelling between the Netherlands, Bergen and Thailand, and now had no girlfriend to look after his three dogs. I would have said no at once, but our friend Arild, who already has one dachs was already thinking about getting another. I also though that the local dachs club would help to find good homes for them. We gave Arild the dog owner's number, and he arranged to go up to Valdres to look at the dogs on Tuesday. So far so good... Imagine our surprise yesterday evening, while enjoying dinner with friends, to get a phonecall from Jeremy, saying that Alf had arrived out of the blue ( as always) with a dutchman and three dogs. We hurried home, and found them all in our back-garden. Alf, anxious to show the dogs off at their best, let them all of their leads. Mistake. Sniff disappeared into the forest, and reappeared nearly 8 hours later. The owner and Alf sat and waited until he returned, so finally left at 3 am.! There was alcohol involved. (Not Alf, who was driving.)

Today has been doggy from start to finish, beginning with three dachsturer before breakfast, a walk all the way round Mosjøen before lunch, a return visit from the owner and Alf ( a two and a half hour drive each way, incidentally),

a visit from Arild. May Sissel and their dachs Snorre - Arild fell instantly for Sniff and they took him home with them - and finished with taking the remaining two away in the car so the owner wouldn't be sad saying goodbye, and ending up visiting the leader of the dachs club. Dennis, the pretty long-haired one, has a wonderful pedigree, and should be snapped up at once when he appears on the club's web-page.

Reidar's sister Sigrid wants the female, Bianca, so she'll be moving to Tønsberg later in the week. I'll take a picture of her before she goes.

Our three cats, and cat supporter Jeremy are less than thrilled with the whole affair. The fact that Reidar's other sister Mia arrives tomorrow, most likely with a big black labrador, doesn't make for peace and harmony in our home.

The flowers were to Reidar from his amateur theatre group. The card tells him to "hang in there", which he has every intention of doing.