I introduced the girls to Sam and they all got on fine.
I introduced the girls to Sam and they all got on fine.

After an early start and time to settle Sam down, we made the journey home to Paxton and had soon settled Sam in his new kennel. Nigel called round, and the girls and I played with Sam until bedtime.

I was awake at 6.30am again but was finding bedtimes of after midnight and awakenings of this time a lethal combination. I got washed and dressed and, with the dog's food ready such that I was just starting to eat my own breakfast, when he woke up and I had to rush down. An hour of exercise and preoccupation with him to ensure that he was going to settle and rest and then I put him back into the kennel and set about my own meal before packing up the Range Rover ready for the journey home. There was a hard frost and the vehicle locks were frozen at first but I was soon all right. Left the two properties at 10.00am and had a good journey with no trouble at all from Sam.

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He was neither car sick nor had an accident. I had piled up a wall of plastic container boxes to enclose him and I think that this is the best method of protecting other goods and keeping him under control. Some time on arrival showing him the new garden and kennel and then I put him in whilst unloading the car. After an initial fit when I had to go back to him and take him inside to groom and acclimatise him, he was all right. The first couple of times I left him, he cried for half an hour, but then settled well. Nigel Smith telephoned and came round later and we exchanged anecdotes and counter-signed one-another's application forms for Firearm Certificates.

He has been having a terrible time over legal court cases and losing them rather worryingly. Then the girls arrived from school in difficult moods, and I had the dog, daughters and Diana all playing up for a while. A mad panic over the completion of a form for Debbie's health cover whilst on holiday next Easter in Austria did not help. We all settled down eventually as we had tea and then I introduced the girls to Sam and they all got on fine. He bedded down for the night with little fuss, and I had the rest of the evening to sort my papers out.