Animal Farm

I never read George Orwell’s classic novel. I was never asked to read it at school and have never got round to reading it since. It’s probably a bit out-of-date now anyway, but the book came to mind the other evening when our friend Marj came to visit us and decided after dinner, to stay overnight. Not a problem, except that she  was accompanied by her friend’s two terriers. Given that we have Shadow (our dog) and two cats (Bijou and Coco), it was a recipe for animal chaos but after a faltering start everything worked out fine. The dogs slept on a blanket in the studio with Marj and were perfectly behaved.

The terriers, named Stacy and P1, (don’t ask) remained outside on the terrace at the start of the evening and seemed to be reasonably well behaved. Like every other dog who visits, they scoffed Shadow’s food within seconds of spotting it and, as usual, he couldn’t have cared less. He just watched them with his different coloured eyes and probably thought, ‘why bother getting into a scrap over some dried biscuits – anyway there’s two of them’. Then his water went in a flash and again, despite the fact that he loves his bowl of fresh water, there was complete indifference on his part. He couldn’t have cared less.

The cats however, were quite different in their approach to these strangers. They wandered into the kitchen quite unaware that two terriers were watching their every move through the glass door but as they approached their food bowls, they saw these two little faces looking at them. and backs arched, and hair standing on end, they retreated to the safety of the kitchen door where they could make a quick escape down the stairs if necessary. Stacy and P1, on the other hand, live with cats and so their reaction was one of bemusement as the two cats peered round the corner of the kitchen cabinet with glaring eyes.

After a few minutes, the cats decided that a phased withdrawal was called for and Bijou (Coco’s mother) slipped quietly and slowly backwards until she had made it to the stairs , followed by Coco, who from our previous experience of her exploits obviously fancies herself as something of a streetfighter, or in the current vogue, a cagefighter and who backed off more slowly and with a more menacing look on her face.

The cats gone, we allowed Stacy and P1 into the kitchen along with Shadow, who had decided it was his time to lie in front of the fire and snore. But before Shadow had left the kitchen, the terriers started scoffing the cat’s food. Now this is a complete no-no in our house. If Shadow is caught even sniffing the cat’s food he is roundly chastised and banished from the kitchen, but here he just looked at the terriers enjoying their second meal of the night and his face was a picture. You could see the thoughts going through his doggy mind about the total injustice of these two strangers being allowed to do what is regarded as a major felony in the Hellon/Cupples household. Anyway, Shadow watched them finish off their ‘main course’ followed by the large saucer of milk which the cats had not touched and then he turned and headed despondently for his spot in front of the fire, only to find two little terriers now wanting to play. 

His nice quiet life had been shattered and the look on his face as the terriers got up to even more mischief was a sight to gladden the heart of any animal psychologist.

It’s truly a dog’s life.