Lancashire Lass

Is there anyone travelling out to Kathmandu soon please? I need to get something small to my daughter who is out there. I know this is a long shot but it is an emergency and the post does not work there!

Oh my goodness! They look very like my little Boo Boo did when I re-homed him 3 months ago! He is a Cocker and Epagnole cross! He is a sheer delight and has fitted in a treat with our other two dogs! He is a much ''better upholstered" boy now if you know what I mean!

If you are the owner of a friendly dog or indeed dogs and are in striking distance of Jonzac and would like to share dog walks, please e-mail me! I call us the Cold Nose Brigade!

If every dog owner with one or two dogs took on one more, it would help get down the numbers in the refuges no end! I had two dogs and never had any intention of having a third but I read Siobain's plea from the Hope Association for someone to adopt or at least foster this particular dog as he had nowhere to go! I cannot tell you why but his photo touched my heart, he looked so sad! Siobain brought him to us and he was truely a sad little fellow who had had a very bad time! He used to almost hyper-ventilate in his sleep caused by bad dreams and he needed to be woken up and reassured. However four months on these dreams are now a very rare occurence and he is no longer a little bag of bones! He has been fully accepted by the other two dogs! As I type all three are curled up around my feet together making a large furry footmuff and my little rescue boy is snoring gently! For me, having dogs is like having a young family all over again but the dogs are a lot less heartache! We are retired over here and have the time to give them! We walk every day and this keeps us healthy and I am sure I would not do it if I did not have the dogs! We watch the seasons change and learn through observation about the flora and fauna around us! I find with dogs that the love you give them is returned more than a hundred fold! As you can see, I am well pleased with my furry family and I would heartily recommend anyone reading this to adopt a dog or indeed another dog!

Our French neighbour who hunts with his 18 months old English setter bitch has bought one of these collars that you ping a button and you can choose either a loud noise, a vibration or an electric shock when the dog in question does not obey a command! In our neighbour's dog's case, it is the 'viens' command she ignores and flies after whatever unfortunate game she has in her sights! The collar worked well at first but now she seems to have become used to it and it does not work even turned on full! My Field Spaniel used to be somewhat of an escape artist when he was below two years but now at the ripe old age of three he stays put - thank God! Now our land is fully fenced in and securely most people would think but he used to tunnel or chew through the grillage! Fortunately for us he was always to be found tongue hanging out ogling the English setter bitch through their grillage!

Each year we have had the TV money attached to the taxe d'hab but this year it is not there! I just wondered why! It seems wrong to pay a TV license when you only watch satellite UK TV and not French TV!

Yes I had my taxe d'hab today and saw there was no audio vis taxe on it. Now we only have UK satellite TV no Franch TV so am I immune? I paid it last year but maybe as a golden oldy you don't pay?

Well the pee pee is less - now down to about twice a day! Boo Boo has put on weight and look so much better! His back legs are still stiff though and when he runs he looks a bit like a rocking horse. The vet has looked at them but says the muscle is there but it needs to be built up due to poor nutrition - probably since he was born! Toby, the Field Spaniel, is running round the garden with him every day, so hopefully this will rectify itself with the good home cooking here!

This little bit of insecurity is a very small price to pay for having such a lovely dog as Boo Boo! My OH came back today after a week away and he can see how he has grown in size and in confidence. We have bought him an Ezydog collar and a bungy lead as the others have them and he was like a dog with two tails, he was so delighted! I guess he has never had anything new before!

Put in sibyll15 and the password is tobyrandall. Let me know if that works and you can see the photos!

Oh heck! I spent ages getting that up and running! Sorry all!

OK! By popular request here is our Boo Boo, our new,  golden cocker spaniel with Toby, his Field Spaniel, brother. The refuge vet thought he was four but my vet says he estimates he is only two - something to do with his teeth and one looking like a 'fleur de lys' I did not understand that comment but I do know of old he is an excellent vet and I would trust what he says! Boo Boo is the smallest Cocker Spaniel I have ever seen - he is more the size of a miniature poodle!  http://www.villagephotos.com/members/photos.aspx?a=2140557 (The photo Boo Boo and I makes me realise I must soon do that long promised diet! The walking with the three dogs seems to make no difference whatsoever!) Boo Boo was in a very poor way when we took him on! We called him Boo Boo as he looked to us for all the world like the little bear that was the companion of Yogi Bear as he followed our huge Field Spaniel round the garden! (Only those of you of a certain age will remember Yogi Bear and Boo Boo!) We had originally said we would foster him but he was very little more than a walking skeleton with all you could imagine wrong with him that he had picked up on his travels - fleas, worms and mites in his ear! His little pads were worn down and his nose had been burnt with over- exposure to the sun.  His fur was horrid as he had had one of those sticky fly papers wrapped around him when he was scavenging in a bin to survive. A trip to what my other half calls the poodle parlour stripped a lot of that nasty sticky mess off and he scrubbed up a treat! LOL! No, we knew immediately we saw him that Boo Boo had come home!  He is rapidly gaining weight and he eats as if there was no tomorrow! Sadly I cannot feed him with the other two dogs as he eats so fast and he would be finished all three dinners before the others got a look in! Our Field Spaniel, Toby, was like this when we took him on but he soon normalised and he and his Border Collie sister, Mrs Socks, eat happily side by side! Once Boo Boo has the confidence to know the next meal will be forthcoming, he will slow down and we can allow him to join the other two. Boo Boo is still quite insecure and barks when I am out of sight! If he is unsure of what is about to happen i.e. we are about to set off for a walk, he runs in circles yapping! However, out of the house, he is a treat to walk and trots by my side, he is not interested in exploring on his extending lead. Maybe he has done quite enough exploring in his travels! It will be quite a while before I feel I can trust Boo Boo to walk off his lead. I feel he needs to know well our area and to be sure where his home is first of all! Now Toby who does the most wonderful training and walking to heel in the garden will pull like a drain on his way to where he can be let off his lead! No 'heel' does not to apply in the great yonder it seems even with the incentive of cubes of cheddar cheese! He also will shoot off into the tangles of trees and bushes and I always fear he will not return, I have a spaniel whistle and he eventually reappears crashing through the thickets covered with leaves and bits of branches!  Mrs Socks is a well behaved girl and she is no problem on her walks! She will walk to heel and always comes on command! So 2 out of 3 well-behaved dogs is fine! As you can probably deduce if you are reading this we are well pleased with our furry family!

Thanks Mel! Yes, he is the new dog on the block and he is trying to establish were he stands in relation to the other two dogs! I have to report that the peeing is subsiding as he went all day without a slip up but I went out to play bridge last night and when I came home, he had had an accident! It could be that his bladder is not as strong as the other two! I had made sure they all 'went' before I left!  However, this little lad is anxious whenever I am out of sight and that is when he barks his head off and pees! Like a lot of rescue dogs, he has had a hard time and I know that it is only our love and patience that will in the end give him back his confidence!

We have adopted a male dog who has been castrated but despite us telling him NO firmly when he has performed or is in mid-performance and then pushing him outside, he still continues to perform in the house. I do not want to rub his nose in it as my French friends tell me I should! I have bought a spray that is supposed to put him off but it does not seem to make much difference! I am sure he has never lived in a house before and wherever he was before he came to us, he could pee to his heart's content! Has anyone else had this experience and can give us some advice?

Generally Border Collies are fine with cats and small animals! Ours was born on a farm and this maybe why! It is a very different story with the Field Spaniel who is in a permanent state of war with next door's cat! This cat likes to live life on the edge and will saunter into the garden, flaunt himself, then run like the clappers when the spaniel spots him!

Well Sweet, we will see what we will see!

Yes Sweet, we are here full-time and it is our only house!

Before you go for that, you might want to research the noise these make! We know a family who installed this and have had to change it after a year as it kept them awake all night!

The other thing I want to source is 7" twin wall flue with connectors as unlike Alpinemist we have no chimney and have to have the double skinned, insulated piping! The price for this in the UK is £135 a metre, could it be that it is cheaper in la France? Does anyone know of any on-line stove accessory providers where I could look up this price?

Alpinemist - I will send you by e-mail who we intend to buy our stoves from. They deliver to most of Europe. Also I will let you know what the plumber says when we ask him about the installation! You must not even think about installing your woodbrner yourself as it would invalidate your household insurance if there was a fire!

Our plumber has left us the Godin book and even with the 40% off, the prices are way above what we would pay for a good English Hunter stove! I never considered that he would not install the stove if we bought it elsewhere! I am grateful for your post as I will now go back to him and see if he throws his hands up in horror at the notion of 'la poele anglaise'!!!!

Will and Nick thank you for your replies! I have decided to go and speak to the tax office! I will screw up my courage as they are the only people here I have found to be xxx unfriendly! Our plumber has been working here in the South West all his life, I would put him mid 50s. I cannot imagine why he would say what he did if it was not true! I also speak good French, so I was not mistaken! I have other friends who are telling me that they did not have this performance providing old fires for the tip! The plumber said that he really should be saying in his documentation that he removed the old fire. Now as this is a new area we are opening up, there has never been any sort of heating there before! Yes, I must brave the dragon tax lady with the disapproving leer and the facial warts and go ask her!

Eos - yes, I think as some of the rads we want to install are on the first floor a pump will be necessary for us too! Thank you for mentioning it!

Hey up Cooper lad! I was born in Oldham where were you? Thanks for your comments and I will mull them over with 'him indoors'! We have propane gas heating in the parts of the house that are done and we have found it to be exquisitely expensive! We are now here all the time and are opening up areas of this old house to give us more space! We just thought that wood central heating would be a cheaper option and also give us a cosy fire to sit round in the winter! However I do see your point!

Hi all! Now I know that we are allowed to claim 40% off the price of a woodburner if it is fitted and bought from the same chauffagiste! I also know from him that we must provide an old heater, so that he can take it too the tip and they will sign that he has brought it to dispose of before fitting the new one. Now these are my questions: As woodburners are so much cheaper in the UK than in France (even with the 40% off), can we claim the reduction if the chauffagiste has ordered the woodburner on-line from the UK and then sold it on to us? It does not to my mind's eye seem any different than ordering from Godin in France. Also does the old heater have to be a woodburning stove that goes to the tip or can it be any old heater e.g. an electric one? I have seen what look like really good Hunter stoves that do radiators for sale on the Net. Has anyone got one and likes it? Or has someone got another make that they would recommend? Thank you in advance for your help with these questions!