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Puppy news!

Tonight I'm writing with mixed feelings as while we have very happy news - a new puppy(!!!) - it's tinged with sadness as well. We have been debating when to get a new puppy for a while and of course many of the conversations in France with Abi involved whether we should do as she would like and get a Great Dane (no, for so many reasons!). Somehow the conversation escalated very suddenly when Abi found a litters of Boxer puppies online and in a moment of weakness got me to make an enquiry. The advert was a few days old, advertising a litter not yet born, and so I thought I was on pretty safe ground. The breeder, a family rather than a 'proper' breeder, suggested we speak rather than text and so we had a really nice conversation with an ever more excited Abi next to me. The Mum to be had been scanned and there were 6 puppies expected, and we were #13 on the list.... clearly therefore we were unlikely to be lucky this time. Not to worry though as her other dog was due to come into season with the intent of a second litter in 4-6 months time. Perfect I thought.  The puppies were due this weekend but I didn't expect to get a call to say that we had made the cut. Friday morning, phone rings and it's Emily to say that Mum had given birth (under their hedge rather than the whelping box they'd loving made for her) to 6 pups and there was a little brindle female for us if we wanted her! Of course by this point I couldn't say no and so we said yes! I then checked the location (Colchester) and the price (more than I had intended to pay) but so be it. The next 48 hours we had a plethora of photos and videos to the What's App group she set up, with lots of messages being shared between the adoptive parents to be of the 6 little puppies. This morning however the group chat got suspended and there was very little today other than a text from Emily with a photo of our little girl. This evening she rang me to say they'd had a very tough day and very sadly 3 of the puppies - 2 boys and a girl - had sadly died. One was the runt and so it's not unusual, but the other two turned out to have a very rare double cleft palette which meant that they couldn't suckle. So sad for her, but even sadder for the families that had got so excited about their new arrival. So we are very relieved that our puppy is fine, but as I said, it's tinged with sadness for the others.

It's been lovely this week having time at home before I go back to work tomorrow. I don't feel that I've done so much, but that's the point of time off. The front end of the week was absolutely scorchio - +30 degrees and very humid, so I was very glad when the weather cooled down and we got a more traditional British summer mix of thundery showers and sunny intervals. I've been to yoga classes, walked and run and even got out on my bike. The kids have been in and out with a number of requests for visits to the garden centre - I've either trained them well or they think they get a better class of ice cream there - I wonder which?!  In fairness, Abi is very happy with her hands in the soil planting out and was keen to choose a few plants to give some late summer colour to my pots. She definitely takes after me!

Izzy on the other hand has finally admitted that she can't be bothered to look after her fish and so Abi has managed to add yet more animals to her collection - we have said that this is definitely it - no more!! She prefers inanimate objects - as she said, she would prefer one of Glenn's t-shirts to an animal - takes all sorts.

One excitement this week has been the school starting to communicate on what can be expected in September for the ew term. They will go back in their PE kit (which given it has about 3 variations wasn't particularly helpful info), they will be bubbled into 2 year group at a time and they can expect a full timetable. From all of our perspectives the most important thing is that they get to go back. I don't really care what they are wearing - the key is that they get to be with their friends again and that a routine is reinstated. Abi is worried her brain will hurt and Izzy is worried that she won't like anyone (she's going through that stage of thinking she is different to everyone else). I'm just worried that something will get in the way and it won't happen! Fingers crossed though - the government are making it very clear that it's a priority so we will have to trust them...

Right, got to go - family hot tub time!

Tea and cake after sneaking out
for a ride on the motorbike this afternoon

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