Dogs and Monkeys and Other Animals in Diary

Well my weekend just gone was a busy one!

Saturday morning I took Roxy for a walk and she tried to maul a small child. I was terrified! This little boy, about two years old, was running down the pavement towards us and I saw Roxy's ears go up. I recognised the signs, so I grabbed her lead with both hands and pinned her against the wall. When the small boy got level with us, she lunged at him and almost pulled me over; Rottweilers are very strong! The small boy STOPPED right in front of us to STARE at what was going on, while I was wrestling an excited Rottweiler and trying to stop her from eating his face.

I told her owners when I got back and their excuse? "Oh yeah, she's like that when the grandkids come round, she doesn't like small children because they run around and get in her way."

Seriously? Like that makes it ok? And why do you let your small grandchildren run around with this beast?

She needs some serious behaviour classes...

On Saturday afternoon, I headed over to Twycross Zoo to meet my friends from Loughborough. There were 17 of us there, the weather was hot and sunny and we had a lovely time looking at all the monkeys and going "Awwww" at all the baby animals. The gorillas, chimps, meerkats, elephants and penguins are all having babies.

And so are Ed and Ashleigh, whose wedding we went to on 5th April. I found out at the zoo and was told it happened on 5th April; on their wedding night! Talk about taking the bull by the horns.

So that's three of my friends who are pregnant now and I shan't pretend I'm not insanely jealous, because I clearly am :o(

Anyway, have some zoo photos. I'm sorry they're so huge, I have no idea why but I only seem to be able to make these enormous ones or thumbnails. I'm too lazy to wait until I get home and resize them, so you'll have to suck it I'm afraid.

It was 39C in the butterfly house. That's quite hot.

Spider monkeys queuing up for ice lollies!

Mother and baby. I felt sorry for them because they kept trying to reach the grass with their trunks but it was too far away. The enclosure is bare and is basically just loads of dusty ground with a pool for wallowing. No greenery at all.

A chimpanzee, sitting above the sign telling us who he is :o)

Penguins on their way to lunch. I'm a bit obsessed with photos of birds walking, I think they look really funny.

People!

On Saturday night, me and Jay went to the pub with Rob and Angi, who are also having a baby. I sang karaoke, I can't help it, if there's one there, I have to sing. Rob has a great voice but he never sings; I think I've heard him on karaoke once in five years. We finally persuaded him to put his name down but they never called him up! Annoying.

On Sunday morning I went to visit a lady from the Cinnamon Trust. They are a charity which helps people to look after their pets if they're too ill. Anything from dog walking to fostering if people go into hospital or permanent adoption if their owners die. The lady I visited is elderly and has arthritis so she can't walk her little buddy Ollie anymore. So I'm going to be taking him once a week on a Sunday morning; she has other people coming on other days.

He's so friendly and really excited to be out. It's a novelty walking a dog that doesn't try to pull me over or attack every other person or dog it sees, like Roxy does! I followed him and he took me to a small nature reserve which I had no idea about. It was lovely to be there on a hot day, and I could let him on the long lead to have a good run and sniff about.

After I walked Ollie, I went to my roller derby class. We practiced things the Fresh Meat requested as we have a Safe to Skate test next week. There's no way I'm going to pass, I still suck at transitions, among other things. But it'll be interesting to see how I'm getting on.

We also had our first go at hitting. We got into a pace line then took turns skating along the line and doing hip checks; bumping everyone with our hips to try and knock them off balance. I kept on missing people and just succeeded in knocking myself off balance instead! lol. But it was good to try it out for the first time.

When I got back from that, Jay was pressure washing the patio. He had just got bored so I took over for a bit. Wow, the difference is amazing! I had no idea just how dirty our patio really was, now it looks almost brand new.

So after dog walking, roller derby and pressure washing in quick succession, all with a slight hangover, my hands wouldn't stop shaking afterwards!

I'm knackered after my full weekend, but I had a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it all :o)

47 working days remain.