Febuary 2016

The Japonica is flowering and the Catkins are swaying in the breeze – Spring is in the air.

10th Feb. Germain’s 94th birthday. We had celebrated it with cake and flowers at Franglaise on Monday

and today we had more cake, mulled wine and non alcoholic  fizz. There was a good turn out and Germaine blew out all the candles. There were not 94 of them though!

11th. Drove to Prety today to pick up Faraz. Prety is a pretty village and I took the opportunity  take a brief walk and a few pictures.

When we got back to St Jean I took him for a long walk and a play with his ball. He was a bit fretful back at the flat, I think he is missing his mistress, but he will settle down.

12th. Faraz was forced to go to bed early (6.30pm!) ’cause I was bushed. He winged a bit, I think he is missing his mistress, but then settled down well till he told me at 6am that he needed to go out for a Pee. Had a good walk after breakfast where he met up with people, dogs and a cat and behaved very well. We met Lison with her fat Labradore “Eden” and all went well till Faraz decided he wanted to hump her, it turns out she is not sterilised!  Now don’t worry the blog is NOT going to be filled with endless Faraz stories!

16th, This evening eight of us went into Dijon for an evening of ten pin bowling. It was great fun. I was quite useless and very erratic. alternately scoring zeros and strikes! We sipped Mojitoes and had a good pizza dinner afterwards. Helped to distract me from the awful dilemma presented by Faraz who is perfect in every way except that he is a cat killer. When he spots one I have no control over him. Even the electronic collar recall makes no impression. He is too strong for me to hold even on the choke chain and just rips the lead out of my hand. There is a population of stray cats that hangs about the apartment building because someone throws food out of the window to them. On Monday he caught and killed one of them and yesterday he came close to nailing a second. I have to be able to resolve this problem. Apart from the problem of loss of control of this rather powerful beast both the boating and camping community has people in it that travel with their cats. Whilst reducing the stray cat population is one thing chasing fellow traveler’s cats would be quite another. HELP. Anyone out there got any ideas.

And it went straight down the middle – NOT!

18th. It was with some sadness that I took Faraz back to his old owner today.

21st. There was a collectors market at the Village Hall today. It was very well attended. Patricia, Jojo and & I were on waffle duty and were selling them as fast wsa we could make them!

 

25th

I am currently about 400k north of St Jean in a Euro 49 (cheapest option around). I came here to pick up the next potential dog. Met the owner and “Hades”. Nice mutt, Quite a light weight compared to Faraz. We chatted for a bit then I suggested we take him for a walk. We donned our wellies and walked up the hill behind the houses he is building. He let Hades off the lead then called him back to heel. Very impressive. However the second time he did it I asked if I could call him and he didn’t come back. In fact half an hour later we were still wandering round the hill hollering for him. Aldo called his Dad who lives on the other side of the hill to see if Hades had gone there. No luck. The parents came over but by now it was getting dark so I have settled into the Hotel for the night and await his text. If I don’t hear I will go over in the morning and help with the search. if he has been found  I will take him home. However he wont be going off the lead for a while.
Driving up here it was funny to pass by Langres and another hearby hill village, under a light coat of snow. A bit different from the searing heat that accompanied my visit in the summer.

26th.

 I heard nothing from his owner over night or indeed prior to leaving for his place in the morning. When I got there I was greeted by his brother who said that the dog had been found by someone who took it to the Police station. The Police in turn took it to the SPA. As these organisations are run by volunteers it was not going to be possible for him to pick Hades up till 13.30. I decided that I would stay the night as I did not want to be driving in the dark. Hopefully I will be heading home with him tomorrow morning. In the meantime I went into the town of Sarrbruck or is it Sarreguemines, to explore.

The Sarr runs up to Luxemberg and at this point it runs very close to the German boarder. The German influence is evident in the architecture. Pottery was the major manufacture of the town in the past and one kiln remains as evidence of this.
41. The history

The potters were obviously rich and considerate employers as they built a recreational facility in 1878, called The Casino, that included a gym, a theatre and a library. Today it belongs to the City and houses a smart brasserie. The menu was too rich for my pocket!

The walkway along the waterfront is very attractive with story boards and sculptures.

The lock and weir

and the Port de Pleasance

27th.Picked Hades up early and was on the road by 9am, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the tolls and took the motorway which substantially shortened the journey time. Hades behaved well in the car but tried to have a go at another dog in the motorway service area. Almost as soon as I got back I took him for a long walk along the river. All went well till we were on the home stretch and an old man with an old small dog was coming towards us. Predictably I couldn’t hold him and found myself face down in the mud ineffectually beating him with the rolled up FT! So it was off to the shop to buy a spiked collar amd a muzzle. They did not have a muzzle in his size but the spiked collar makes him way more controllable. Also he is gradually getting more used to me. Poor thing has had a bit of a rough ride. He lived with Mum. Dad, two kids and two cats. Then Mum and Dad split up. then he was moved from living with Mum and the kids and the cats to living with Dad who was out at work all day! I am taking him to dog training on Saturday to get him to socialise with other dogs and to enable me to re-learn the ropes. It is over 20 years since I had my Dobermanns. Not great photos but as you can imagine walking him is effort enough for the moment without having to take a camera along as well!