It’s been a couple of weeks or so since Beanie had her dental work and I have to say she’s been a very perky little girl every day since. That said, Biggles has also been a very perky little boy so it could just be the spring weather that’s charged their batteries. Regardless, they’ve both been especially playful and pesky, getting into everything in ways that would put very much younger dogs to shame.

Biggles has always had a taste for compost, often snacking it right out of the pots we’re preparing, so we made sure to keep him in the house on the morning we emptied out one of our compost bins, but we forgot about The Beanster. She was a nightmare, performing lightning-fast raids on the partially rotted scraps every time our backs were turned. I never once got to see what she’d nicked – I just saw her flouncy bottom on its way to the bottom of the garden after each snatch-and-grab mission.

Biggles samples our latest mix of compost and coconut coir

Our larger compost pile is also under threat now that I’ve loaded it with cow and horse manure

Biggles is great at stealing used cups and spoons from the kitchen, but absolutely crap at hiding the incriminating evidence

It seemed like such a good idea to get into Mum’s garden trug on wheels..

..but getting back out seems a little challenging. On the other hand if I injure myself I get to go to the vet…

Every time we let them back in the garden there’s a run-around in the kitchen, trying to get them out from under the table, extract their snouts from the box of delights that is Susan’s store of seeds and plant pots, and head them off before they make it into the utility room where their kibble is stored. When I’ve collapsed on the sofa from hard toil in the garden, it’s pretty much guaranteed that a certain little girl will whack me in the face with her squeaky fox and demand a play session. It’s almost like having pups all over again, and though it is pesky, I wouldn’t have it any other way.