Nolan and the Twins

Towards the end of the last school holidays, my next door neighbour had a visit from his twin granddaughters.  Of course, when they heard about Clancy of the Overflow, they gave their poor grandfather no peace till they saw him.  He rang and arranged a time to come and visit, and they all turned up, Pa with video camera in hand.  They had to fight their way past the dogs, who were overjoyed to see them.  The girls helped me feed Clancy, and Pa managed to catch some of this on video….until the battery went flat.  So….I got out my camera, and took some photos with that, which I have since emailed to them.

While they were here, checking out Clancy, Nolan of course made it quite obvious that he wanted to play with them.  And play they did.  Eventually their Pa wanted to go home, so they all trooped out the door, and Nolan went with them.  I called him back, but the girls pleaded with their grandfather to let him come and play with them for a while, so off went Nolan with a huge grin on his face.  I could see their back yard from my place, and Nolan was kept busy the whole time he was there.  They found an old tennis ball, attached to a rope, so Nolan chased it, played tug of war with them, and generally ran the legs off himself.  Gypsy in the meantime stayed with me….she had no wish to get herself squashed by all these running feet….

After about an hour, they brought Nolan home.  He was puffing and panting, but was so happy.  We had a bit of difficulty explaining to him that he was meant to stay put….he wanted to go with the girls, and the ball….but he eventually took the hint, and went and got on his bed.  He sat there panting for a while, and then fell asleep.  He was completely exhausted, but he would have kept on going till he dropped I think….

While both dogs had a sleep, I went off for a walk.  When I came back both girls were waiting for me out in their front yard, and wanted to come home with me and play with Nolan again.  So home they came, and Nolan was off again.  This, probably mercifully, was a much shorter session, which Nolan was quite happy to end when it was his dinner time.  The girls had to go home for theirs too, and once he had finished, Nolan took himself off to bed.  He slept very deeply, and woke up with a start when he needed to go for a “wee” walk.  He was as stiff as all get out, and had a lot of difficulty getting up.  I had to help him….

Once I managed to get both the front and back halves operational, he walked to the top of the steps, and looked at the steps, then at me.  I thought oh no, I’m not going to carry him, I’m not that much a glutton for punishment!  I had to walk down the steps with him, and he then started walking round the yard looking for a suitable patch of grass to water.  I left him to it, and went back into the warm.  After a few minutes, I stuck my head out the door, and there was Nolan sitting at the bottom of the steps.  Down I went, and walked him back up the steps.  When he got inside, I put his rug on him, and went to find his arthritis pills.  Of course I was out of them, and made a mental note to myself not to let this happen again….make sure there’s always a few spare!

Nolan then went off to sleep till morning, and woke stiff.  He wasn’t quite as bad as before but he tried very hard to make me think he was.  He quite enjoyed all the fuss I made of him the day before when he was newly stiff.  However, I realised he wasn’t putting it ALL on, and made it my business to get those arthritis pills for him.

The girls have gone home, but I’m sure Nolan is looking forward to their return!