a birth

We swore blind we wouldn't, but two weeks after Biscuit's death, with Crumble ageing before our eyes, we succumbed. Here is the result: Blackberry, aged 7 weeks, although I warn that if you are currently looking for reasons NOT to have a puppy, these photographs will be seriously bad for your resolution! We bought her from Staffordshire, a county which has consequently gone up in my estimation. She comes from a highly respectable family of small, clever Jack Russells, smooth-haired, with tri-coloured faces and jaunty eyebrows.

I must report that Crumble is not very impressed, and whilst we have told her we love her quite as much as ever, and that she is most certainly the senior dog in this household, with senior dog privileges, she continues to be a trifle sniffy. If we give Blackberry toys, she carefully removes them. 'I shall blow raspberries at this blackberry,' she says, 'until she learns some manners.'

It's funny how guilty you feel, though, at bringing in a new dog when an old one dies. Whilst Blackberry is sweet as jam, I thought it quite right that Crumble didn't at once welcome her without reservation. After all, Biscuit is still a benign presence in the house. But though it will be strange, I'm going to give Blackberry his old bed to sleep in. Silly as it is, I like to imagine that in her doggy dreams, she can hear him growling 'respect, Blackberry, respect'.

Onwards and upwards,
Katie