Poppy on the big comfy dog toy that Susan made. Like the original “Bonzo” toy, he takes a microwaveable heat pad in his tummy.

Poppy’s been with us for just over a week now and we’re starting to learn her personality. I still can’t get over how affectionate she is: put her on your lap and she starts climbing up until she can put her face next to yours; stroke her and rub her ears and she stares right into your eyes. We are however starting to see signs of the rascal within.

Just like Beanie & Biggles, Poppy has discovered where we keep the big bags of kibble in the utility room. She makes a beeline for that spot any time we forget to keep the door closed and she actually gets closer to the kibble than Beanie & Biggles because she can turn on a sixpence to evade us and is so good at getting under our feet that we’re afraid to move quickly to stop her.

Her toilet training is progressing reasonably well, but somewhere along the line she got the idea that the kitchen doesn’t count as a “clean zone”.  Even now if I place her down on the deck and say the phrase “go be a clean girl” without first closing the kitchen door, she’ll sprint round me or through my legs and let rip on her preferred kitchen mat.

Speaking of the deck, we’d been using it temporarily as a safe, enclosed outdoor puppy loo for those bleary-eyed wees in the wee hours. It made everything so much easier: stagger out of bed without even bothering to put any clothes on,  carry Poppy to the kitchen, pop her out through the door and open it again when she’s finished. Then one night, Poppy discovered that she’s just small enough to sneak through the bars on the gate. The recovery mission – which of course had to be launched immediately and without any hope of putting even a coat on – was not one of my finest moments; it was somewhere between 3 and 5 in the morning, raining (of course) and I had the pleasure of squelching on a little present that someone had prepared earlier.

Poppy may not be related to Biggles, but she shares his love of hooves. We’ve got her loads of puppy teething chews, but nothing beats an empty cow hoof.

An old rabbit-skin tugger has also proved to be a big hit

Of course we’ve been tugging other things around the garden too, and not everything has survived!

Poppy’s been soaking up hours of our time, but we’ve still managed to give our bigger pups some special outings, including a trip to Loudoun Hill.

Although Loudoun’s only a very small hill we celebrated the climb with a round of chicken feet. I’d packed two servings each into my camera bag just prior to setting off, but Beanie somehow managed nick one and leg it into the garden before I could stop her. Biggles looked at me with a hopeful expression on his face so of course he got one too, leaving just one serving for after the climb. Proof, in any were needed, that the big puppers haven’t lost any of their skills.