After a morning at work photographing gazillions of over excited children at the opening of a new play pod at the charity I now work for, I went home to an over excited four year old's birthday party. Bless him, he wanted a traditional party with his family and specified sandwiches, cake and silly games. His mum has trained him well in the art of birthdays.
As usual, Bentley wanted to be part of the action but was a bit more reserved this year. Instead of barging in and taking over the unwrapping of gifts, as the child was clearly useless at it, he sat back and watched. We even managed a game of pass the parcel without Bentley taking over.
When I left work I was given some left over bottles of bubbles which had been donated to us. Of course we had a bubble blowing competition. Bentley likes bubbles. He rolled over on to his back and swatted at them with his paws. He was very cute.
You may have gathered that he's slowed down quite a bit. Against all the odds he has reached the age of 11 and a half.
We have gone from three walks a day to a slow bimble around the garden. Obviously, we don't do any kind of training now. his last video competition was last year when we entered a team event, which we won. I'll see if I can dig out our bit of the routine. It was funny. Bentley and I sat under an umbrella sharing 'fish and chips' while friends poured gallons of water over us to make it look like it was pouring down. Anyway, back to the story...
I always make sure when we go in there garden that I have my keys, phone and a fleece with me no matter what the weather. This is because on a few occasions now he hasn't been able to get back up the steps and I've had to phone for help and then we use the fleece as a sling to carry him back in. He's a bit wobbly now and sometimes he forgets that he's an old man and tries to jump up the steps. That inevitably ends with him on his backside.
What we do now is go into the garden and just sit for a while, he likes to be outside and we oblige as much as possible. He lies in the shade while I get on with some gardening. The other residents comment on how he occasionally lifts his head to make sure I'm still there before nodding off again.
Since he doesn't get in the sea now it's harder to keep him clean and, to be brutally honest, he honks a bit and he has a lot of staining on his face from lying in his own drool. I can't put him in the shower because he's not up to it, it would exhaust him too much. So I just wash him down. I posted a Facebook video of me giving him a bed bath and how he just lies there as I turn him over, lift this leg, lift that leg, give him a good scrubbing. People don't believe me when I tell them how laid back he is. He just lies there enjoying it and then lifts his head to give me a look of disgust when I stop. One day a friend turned up at the flat with some leave in shampoo and coat conditioner for him. How sweet was that?
Here's a photo of him enjoying his last bed bath.
Here are some photos from baby Bobby's party, I hope you enjoy them.
