Escapes, scratches, friends and fires

Hi folks I hope today's Blog finds you all well. It seems to be my new normal to say "whew it's been busy" haha, but it certainly feels like it. For the next installment of 'The Houdini Saga' a.k.a. Max the escape artist/yorkie. For those of you who have been following his escapades you will know what lengths we have gone too in order to keep him from escaping out of the yard, these methods have been many as well as costly with the last update being where we ran wire down between the pallisade poles. That lasted all of three days and we came home to find him OUT on the street. He is currently running around with a small plastic flower pot (empty) attached to a cord, attached to his harness and gues what? He is still getting out between the wire and the upright, a space of 4cm, it is absolutely ridiculous, in all our years living in Johannesburg we had the same fencing with only about 40cm high of mesh across it and he NEVER climbed over or under or even through for that matter. He did escape out of the front door at any opportunity but NEVER through the fencing, now in a yard that is three times bigger and we can't keep him in. Our nest step is going to be to attach a pvc gutter pipe along the top so that when he jumps it will roll around and not give him any sort of foothold, we won't go down the road of "what will it look like" or the cost as that is of no concern to this dog.

It would seem that we have unusual pets or at least pets that keep us very busy and entertained. Jasper is growing so beautifully and has now grown into his ears and become a sturdy little fellow, he has a silky soft, super glossy coat, but when it comes to his 'bathroom' routine this little kitten just missed that class altogether. We have two sand boxes, one an enclosed box with a hatch door and an normal open sandbox, whichever he uses he goes through the same routine, once he is finished he covers up the necessary by scratching not only the sand but the wall, the side of the box, the roof (of the enclosed) box, any surface that is near the actual box. As you can imagine due to all the extra surfaces that need scratching it takes a little longer for him to be satisfied that the smell is covered, usually leaving us all laughing at the entire routine. Up until Saturday night he has slept in his carry box next to my bed. I thought that he is old enough to now sleep wherever he wants, so bless his little white paws he went to sleep in a shelf right next to my side of the bed on top of all my scarves. So far so good until 4.30 am Sunday morning when he heard Gemma moving around and decided the day had started, he came out of the shelf and straight up to mr where he then kneaded my arm with loving licks and kisses for more than a half an hour, all the while purring up a storm, he kept coming back for more loves until I woke up properly. This morning he woke up at about 6am and same procedure except I kept my arm mostly under the pillow and stayed very still. Next thing he lay on my arm, purring loudly and just stayed still so I peeped with one eye and there he was, 4 cm from my face just staring at me and purring, the minute I moved I got kneaded and licked. So I guess I'm on early good morning duty for awhile hehe.

Yesterday we took a drive to Pringle Bay, the next village and took some time to drive around and explore a bit. It is very similar to Betty's Bay but much smaller with the houses being closer together. We often go there to do 'top up' shopping as they have a super little Deli and a couple of nice coffee shops etc. We followed a dirt road which appears to lead back to Betty's Bay for about 4km where it abruptly stops at the Nature Reserve that ends here in BB. There are only a few houses along this road which goes under Hangklip Mountain, there is one in particular which is absolutely enormous and must have an incredible view. Then today we have had friends come to visit who used to be our neighbors in Boksburg. It was so good to see them and catch up on all the news. This lady is our pets 'god mother' so she got to meet her new kitty 'relative' and has fallen in love with Jasper, the other three were super excited to see her and smothered her with licks and kisses. It's always so good at to see old friends.

As I type this we have an out of control fire at the far west side of Betty's Bay to Pringle Bay where one house burnt out which is devastating, according to one report that side of Pringle Bay is being evacuated. All traffic is being re-routed back through Kleinmond and then on the highway over Sir Lowry's Pass to Cape Town. We are currently listening to the helicopters, and the small planes as they water bomb the fire, the wind is very strong so our prayers go out to the firefighters and those involved.

Friends on that note and amid the noise of the planes I am going to bid you farewell while wishing you a good week. Wherever you are please stay safe out there.

Jasper posing in all his cuteness.