Custard

This week we adopted a 7 year old Labrador called Custard.  The kids and Jules all wanted a puppy but I have never owned a dog before and as I knew I would be chief parent I felt strongly about getting used to an older dog first.  It ended up being quite a sudden decision with us seeing Custard on the Labrador Rescue website on Sunday, sending an email that morning, talking to his foster mum on Tuesday and picking him up on Saturday.

We think he is incredibly beautiful.  We don't know anything about why he ended up as a rescue dog but he has a very calm nature and clearly loves people.  Unbelievably he does not appear to be motivated by food at all - not very lab of him! - and he very rarely barks, even when the next door neighbour's dog was barking at him he was unfazed.  The only bad habit we've discovered so far is that he pulls on the lead and as he's a very strong boy it makes walking him a bit of a mission.  Jules let him off the lead this morning up at Tania Park and ended up having to chase him to get him back on the lead.  Some training will be required!!  It goes without saying that the kids are beside themselves and one thing we can be sure of is that he will get a lot of love.

The kids went back to school this week.  They have both graduated to swimming squads and had their first training session on Monday.  After 20 minutes of non-stop butterfly up and down the pool they were exhausted and a little shell-shocked!

Jules has had considerable pain in his ribs since surfing last weekend and on Saturday he made it to the doctor who recommended an x-ray only to discover that he has a cracked rib.  Sadly there's not much one can do and hopefully within about 3 weeks it will have healed.  Tom is a bit distressed as that's his surfing side-kick out of action for a while!