​At about 5pm every afternoon, the canine members of staff begin to anticipate their supper… I don’t know how they know it’s 5pm (because they seem to know it even if the clocks have just changed!) but within five minutes of the hour they will waken, stretch and look at me with liquid, expectant eyes.  If I’m working in the sitting room they will sometimes attempt to claim my attention by trying to climb on my head. I also don’t know why 5pm is their chosen time – they have never had an absolutely fixed supper time – but 5pm always signals the beginning of the suppertime anticipation…  They don’t just believe that supper will arrive – they absolutely know it.

What if we were to apply this philosophy to our own lives?  We know that we tend to get what we focus on, so if you have a firm and unshaken belief that everything will be alright in the end, despite what challenges and opportunities for learning that the universe offers you along the way, then where do you think that belief will take you?
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When you set your life goals, focus on them and believe in them with the passion of dog suppertime – you might not know exactly when it’s going to happen (although you can feel when it’s getting close!), and you absolutely know that it will.
At the end of the day – if it’s not alright, then it’s not the end.

Tizzie is the newest member of the part-time section of the canine team.  At just six months old, she is also the youngest; a fluffy, diminutive Lhasa Apso with formidable reserves of energy.  Her favourite pastime during her visits is chasing Theo around the garden until they both collapse, exhausted, in the grass, until one of them decides it’s time for the next round.  Tizzie is half his size, but nobody has told her that she can’t win.

Nobody has told her that she’s too small to jump onto the kitchen bench, either – even Daisy, with her balletic leaps, can’t manage the bench – but to tiny Tizzie it’s no obstacle… neither is our big iron bedstead, onto which Daisy and Poppy have to be lifted because it’s too high for them to jump.  It took her a few attempts to work out her perfect strategy; but to Tizzie, for whom failure was not failure, but feedback, it was her goal; and she knew it was achievable.  She just kept on going until she achieved it.

What would you do in life, if you knew you couldn’t fail?  Is whatever has been getting in your way really real, or is it just a belief?  Just think… what could happen if the belief was no longer there…?
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Beliefs are not real – they are just ideas we have ceased to question.  It’s perfectly possible to change a belief that is no longer serving you.  So ask yourself – are your beliefs limiting, or limitless?

Lily is an extremely determined lady. If a bit of biscuit (or a frozen pea – particular favourite!) makes a bid for freedom and escapes beneath a kitchen cupboard, then she will always be the first to draw attention to it by snuffling and scratching at it until either she manages to extract it or you give in and assist.

Since the ice has finally thawed on our little pond, Lily has discovered a new interest. Whatever it is (and frankly we probably don’t want to know) is so deeply fascinating that she now spends far longer in the garden, but unfortunately for Lily it’s something she cannot quite reach… None of the canine members of staff enjoy frolicking in water – Daisy is particularly funny in this respect and will go a long way out of her way to avoid stepping in even the shallowest puddle – so deliberately jumping in the pond is, for Lily, not an option. As she develops her strategies, however, she has clearly experienced some unwelcome feedback with a couple of early theories which resulted in her requiring some time for contemplation in the dogs’ hot tub (otherwise known as the utility room sink). Like Edison with the development of his light bulb, to Lily this does not mean failure – she is simply finding different ways which do not give her the result she wants. I am sure, given time, she will achieve her goal.
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Lily’s teachings:

• Hold on to your dreams and goals, despite what others think.
• Know that sometimes in the pursuit of a goal it might mean you have to leave your comfort zone. Be prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve it.
• Never give up on a lost frozen pea.

Lily, as her name suggests, is a white dog. Well, usually she is white, but occasionally some other colours creep in to add a little variety…
Last weekend John gave the lawn what was hopefully one of the last cuts of the season, but the grass was terribly wet and the mower left clumps of wet cut grass all over the lawn. The dogs were all very excited about the fact that we were in the garden and decided to have a very mad game of chase. When Lily came in, her feet were a bright, fluorescent green…

Another of Lily’s passions is coal – for some reason she adores it and can’t resist eating small pieces from the coal bucket (quite a feat if it’s a bit empty – she’s a small dog – we’ve just never had the heart to stop her!). Always a bit of a giveaway, however, when she wanders innocently into the office – with black whiskers and black tips to her ears…
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Lily’s teachings:

• Let go once in a while – forget about your appearance and have fun!
• Do whatever it takes to achieve your goals (or coals, in Lily’s case), even if you might have to put up with others thinking you look stupid.
• Sometimes things might have an alternative use which nobody else has considered.
• Weirdness is what individuality is all about. You are always free to be weird whenever you want to be.