A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

I’m a-goin’ back out ‘fore the rain starts a-fallin’

I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest

Where the people are many and their hands are all empty

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their water

Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

And the executioners face is always well hidden

Where the hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten

Where black is the colour, and none is the number

Baxter here again for you. I love it all here. It’s all good. Now that I’ve pretty much settled into Rumpy Pumpy Court I have started to appreciate how good life has become since I moved in.

I was a bit nervous when I first arrived, after all I had been living further north which I knew well plus I was much loved. I didn’t know what to expect down here. It felt a bit like I was just put into a car and delivered into this new world.

But, this new world is rather nice. DylanDog told me to just settle down and let Him Indoors get used to me. 

He was correct. Him Indoors takes me out two or three times a day. He’s told me that his knees are bad which means he can manage short walks but not long marches! What I didn’t realise was that he has some really lovely friends who would take me out on longer adventures.

You all know about Karen who takes me out with Alf, her border collie, which I really enjoy. Its hard work keeping up with Alf because he’s a young lad. Graham & Julie seem to enjoy walking me as well, so I try not too pull to hard on my lead with them. There’s a super couple Samantha & Levi who regularly turn up and take me along the river. I really like them so I try really hard to behave properly. 

Of course I mustn’t forget my apparently surrogate owner, his pal Mr Bridges. He often takes me around the town at half-time during the innumerable football matches that they seem to watch. It’s interesting because that’s normally in the evening which means I’ve got all the smells of the day to investigate. Mr B often doesn’t understand what I am up to, he thinks I’m swerving side to side on the pavement just to annoy him.

In amongst all this excitement, The Boss took me off to see his friends Rachel & Mark. What a time I had! They have a hound called Henry, who is about 18 months old and very handsome. He’s much bigger than me and runs about a lot (when you’re my age, you learn to pace yourself). What fun I had, playing outside with Henry. We ran and ran all afternoon. In fact, I was so tired that I slept most of the next day.

I didn’t learn though. I went off for a super long Sunday morning walk with Glynne & Ruth with their young terrier pup named Sidney. It was real fun along the riverside and I took advantage of The Boss not being around by having a couple of dips in the stream!!! It was a bit cold and the whole event resulted in me being a little dirty. Took three dips in the sink and lots of shampoo to whiten me up again. In truth I overdid it because my arthritic hip played up for two days, whilst I also seemed to have damaged one of my front legs. But I was soon ok.

We’ve watched a lot of news about somewhere called Ukraine. I’m not certain where it actually is but it seems to be in big trouble with Russia. I’ve heard Him Indoors talking about “dirty money” and “Russian money” in connection with Chelsea. I now know it applies to the Tories and our so-called Prime Minister.

He’s a one, don’t you think – Mr Johnson. 

Him Indoors has forever gone on about telling the truth but it seems this doesn’t apply to our Prime Minister? How can that be?

As for Ukraine, from what I can see this nasty bloke Putin is trying to divide the country in half with all his soldiers and bombs. What is it with these powerful blokes? We’re trying not to watch too much news because it is too upsetting.

The Bosses football team – and DylanDog has clearly informed me that I must now support them as well – continue to provide me with entertainment watching him watching them. His frustration knows no bounds and I keep very quiet and out of his way. It seems alcohol doesn’t help either so I am at a loss how I can help.

The Boss has taken me out for my first dinner party now. His friends Rachel & Martin had sadly sent their dog (Martha) over to their parents so I missed the opportunity of a new friend. I was very good, which resulted in a lot of fuss from everybody and plenty of treats. I enjoyed it and I look forward to other similar experiences.

Him Indoors can be funny though because we came home late and what did he do? He’d had lots of nice wine, plenty of brilliant food as well, so he should have been replete. But no! He pours himself his usual huge Irish whisky nightcap. The result? The next day he was rather sensitive – who wouldn’t be – and had to reply on friends Sam & Levi then Mr B to walk me because he was “really not well”. I sent a telepathic note to DylanDog who simply commented that he knew exactly what I was suffering and that the silly old fool should know better at his age. Who am I to disagree?

I hd more adventures with Sidney yesterday morning although it appears chasing the ducks and following them into the water is not such a good idea because Glynne hosed me down with cold water when we arrived home. Whoops!

I’d better go now and lie down. Him Indoors and Mr B were shouting at the tv when United played City. It was not a pretty sight or sound (and i’m not talking about the game).

I might retire to my bed in the corner and put the blanket over my head.

Stay safe 

Woof! Woof!