Of dogs and sunshine.

Greyhounds aren't supposed to be terribly violent dogs, especially to humans. And Merlin, bless him, is the dopiest lounge lizard on earth. However, an insight into his racing past became apparent last week when he became absolutely fixated on a Jack Russell/Corgi cross. I should mention that this dog is small and is suffering a major case of small man syndrome. His owners who are clearly not brain surgeons, let him out to roam to his hearts content in the park. NO problem except that he wants to fight every male dog including, and not limited to Bull Mastifs, American Staffies and Rhodesian Ridgebacks, all of whom cower at the site of this little shit of a dog. This obviously encourages a very bad vibe in the off leash park and many owners are now reluctant to bring their dogs because of this little abomination. So, with that in mind, Merlin is a greyhound. Bred to chase down anything small and fluffy that moves quickly. And you can see him watching small maltese terriers running or cats or whatever catches his eye. So last week Cleo was off leash and Merlin was on leash (as he has to be) and Cleo was tormenting this little turd of a dog because she is so much faster. Cleo ran past Merlin with turd in pursuit at which point Merlin lunged forward, grabbed this dog by the neck and literally threw him into the fence. I won't lie, I had a little sense of satisfaction that this little turd was put back in his place, but thank goodness I had a hold of Merlin as that dog would've been torn to sheds. Suffice to say that when the turd now sees Merlin he legs it home. Good. For the past three weeks my body clock has been pretty much gone onto daylight savings mode. I suspect it was the fact that I was waking up at 0530 with sunlight streaming in the bedroom window and getting sleepy at around 2130 at night. And the thing is, when I say awake, I really mean AWAKE. It is frustrating as I have found that I am the kind of person whose brain starts ticking over at a million miles an hour in antipation of the day ahead. As a result I am physically incapable of sleeping in. Meanwhile, Miss R is quite happy and capable of sleeping well into double digit territory. So now, finally, the rest of Melbourne is in time with me and I'm not tired, not at all. In the past, losing an hour would put my entire body clock out of whack and it took a good 3 weeks to get it back in check. But not this year. Is it a sign of aging? Am I going to end up as a pensioner whose bedtime is after the evening news and wakes up in time to watch dodgy telemarketing?? Quite possibly. Anyway, all this daylight at the end of the day means I can walk the dogs in the light without either of them freaking out over a fire hydrant they think is a pit bull terrier staring them down in fading light.