Tibur 2001 - 2012

Just before we were due to sit for a family in Normandy we had the sad news that one of our charges had died.

Tibur had been suffering from fits which gradually got worse and it was the kindest decision to have him put to sleep.

He had had a good walk, his breakfast and was having a snooze in his favorite place in front of the fire just before he departed from us.

He enjoyed his walks taking his time to investigate everything in his path, like a true hound. He was very shy with new people to start with, but after a little while he became your best friend and followed you everywhere.

He will be sadly missed.

Dogs in the Dordogne

Bordeaux

For the second half of January we re-visited another existing client, this time in the Pretty
Dordogne region of France.

We had a brief visit to Bordeaux en-route to see a potential client. Although we have been flying into the Bordeaux area for many years, this was the first visit to the city itself. We were pleasantly surprised at the lovely buildings there. It was bitterly cold, but we had a good look around for a morning before we set out to travel south to Le Bugue.

Spot the Cat.

Here we look after 6 lovely dogs, a Black lab and her pups and a golden cocker spaniel and her two pups. They are all girls and a real delight to look after, although you have to be pretty nifty to get a place on the sofa of an evening! There are three cats and a horse to complete the family. The girls have plenty of land to run in, so we had plenty of exercise on a daily basis.

Tracy and Zola

The weather was cold but dry most days.

We spotted deer frequently, trying hard to avoid us. Le Bugue is a small town very picturesque on the side of the Vezere river which snakes its way past picture postcard villages and gorges.


There are plenty of Neolithic remains in this area, caves with paintings and archaeological sites. This was Della's second visit here so it was great to be able to introduce Tracy to the family.

New Year in East Sussex

We saw Christmas and the New Year in familiar surroundings, looking after various animals. We had sheep, chickens, ducks and ponies outside, and three dogs and a cat inside the house.

We arrived to a lovely message from the owners' children.

Having sat for this family in the summer months, we were familiar with the area and the surrounding countryside. We had a trip to Hastings to meet up with some friends who stayed at the campsite during the summer, and they showed us around their town.

On New Years day we went to a local pub for Tracy's birthday, and met up with friends who live in Edenbridge.

We got into a routine with the animals very quickly, having a lovely walk around the land with the dogs, who chased about with boundless amounts of energy. We had a daily puzzle to solve of how one chicken kept escaping from the chicken pen. We finally saw it in the act of escaping one day, putting an end to the mystery. We counted the sheep daily to make sure they were all present and correct. The ponies needed their 'electric tape' re-erecting most days, as they had a habit of pushing it until it broke, to get to better grass.

We were helped in all these duties daily by our very loyal friends. Fergus the greyhound, Marble the Jack Russell, and Noko the very springy, Springer Spaniel.

For most of the sit we had mild, dry weather, with occasional rain and some rather windy days which brought a tree down. Some days the ground was very wet which made things difficult, especially in the ponies' field where we were in danger of losing a welly. On the whole though we had a good month.

We said goodbye to our furry helpers, and we will look forward to seeing them again later on in the year.