Coughs and sneezes spread diseases

On Thursday night I bathed Harry, cleaned his teeth and dremelled his nails so that he was nice and clean and sparkly for his stint at Discover Dogs at Crufts. It’s always a bit of a worry how he’s going to behave – one nightmare year there had been an in-season bitch around somewhere and he got An Idea in his head, which wouldn’t be shifted, no matter how sternly I spoke to him. Anything, luckily only on four legs, showed potential, and his sister got extremely miffed with him. This year he was on the stand with a ‘stranger’ bitch, and my heart was in my mouth when they met. But he was completely calm and very well behaved, which made the whole time a lot less fraught.

I was a little taken aback when chatting to the visitors and answering their questions when a voice said “Can you tell me about dalmatians?” and a large microphone was thrust into my face. My immediate response was to say “Eeek!” and step backwards, unfortunately onto Harry’s foot, so he squealed and mayhem ensued for a brief while till he calmed down again. Flipping ‘Crufts FM’ – I could have done without them, but it seemed to go all right, and the other club members said I did very well, not over-selling the breed. Too many people think they’re a fashion-statement rather than a very active dog which’ll cover you with hair.

But it was very crowded even on Friday (though better than at the weekend), and I didn’t get to see the things I wanted to. I was interested in seeing the Lagottos, but the effort of negotiating the crowds with Harry and an awkward bag rather put the kibosh on that. I’d also wanted to find a stall where I could get a plain ordinary rolled leather collar and lead, as Harry’s hasn’t been the same since he ate the handle of the lead, and the D-ring of the collar’s coming loose. Could I find one? Not likely. Pink leads, diamante collars, show leads by the zillion, rope slip-leads a-plenty, but ordinary workaday stuff? No chance.

So I came home, along with the flu-bug I picked up there and which has laid me low since. Wonderful.