Regulars to this spot will be aware of my affection for Penny.

She is a funny dog and full of personality. She loves conversations where she will throw a silent snap in my direction and I will respond with a snap of my own. These silent conversations can last quite a while until I get a fit of the giggles.

She is incredibly loyal and trusting. When we are in the village, I can leave her somewhere while I go off about my business and she will wait happily and patiently until I return. If I leave home without her she can get quite upset and will treat me with a level of scorn on my return.

She is quite rigid about her little routines [and there are many]. One of these is bedtime when there is a routine to be followed ending with her on my adjoining bed enjoying a couple of biscuits before falling asleep. Later, when she thinks I’m asleep she’ll sneak onto my bed and cuddle into me, but will be back on her own bed before I awake.

Now Penny is getting old, like the rest of us. We’re not sure how old she is but it’s somewhere between eleven and fourteen. Two manifestations of her ageing are quite severe arthritis where she is now getting monthly injections, and a new tendency towards incontinence. I now have to regularly scan for little puddles or turds around the house. Fortunately the turds are like little walnuts in size and texture and are easy to clean up.

Recently, for various technical reasons I moved bedrooms from downstairs to upstairs. This annoyed Penny and she would wait patiently outside the downstairs room until it was plain that I wasn’t for moving. A problem then arose – the upstairs beds are higher than the downstairs ones. With the arthritis, she had extreme difficulty jumping onto them. I tried various tricks, like providing steps for her but she insisted the only way up was to jump. Usually after some frantic examinations of all options accompanied by some whimpering she would take a flying leap and just make it up. Last night was different. Three times she flung herself upwards and three times she fell back on the floor. She got into a right state, crying and pacing around. I had to do something.

Eventually I decided the only solution was to move downstairs again. The technical problems would have to be solved another way. So I carried all the bedclothes, my clothes and shoes, the two phones [landline and mobile], the bedside lamp and my Kindle downstairs again. Penny was delighted. She hopped onto the newly made bed and fell asleep on my feet.

This morning I woke to scene of horror. Penny had suffered a dose of the liquid squits overnight and there were traces of this everywhere, on her bed, on my bed and on the carpet. A new [uncovered] quilt on the other bed took the worst of the damage and it’s a mess. Fuck!

I don’t know what caused this departure from the normal. Her food was the same as she has always enjoyed. She’s not showing signs of any stomach complaints. I can only conclude it was one thing =

Revenge for all the upsets.