{"id":508,"date":"2015-11-07T11:32:16","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T22:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/?p=508"},"modified":"2015-12-07T15:54:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T02:54:56","slug":"the-old-dogs-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/the-old-dogs-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The old dog’s project"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the usual way of things here on the farmlet the dogs will be hanging out\u00a0wherever we are. They run alongside as we walk with the ponies through the Seven Acre Wood<\/a>, look for forgotten bones while\u00a0we weed out thistles and JC<\/a> in the clearing, and recline on the deck when\u00a0we go inside to\u00a0do the work that pays the bills.<\/p>\n

Recently Ella<\/a> has been conspicuous by her absence. It took us a little while to figure out where she was.<\/p>\n

\"Ella's<\/a>

Ella’s got a project. Giselle<\/a> photo-bombs!<\/p><\/div>\n

A couple of weeks ago, somewhere under the chicken house, there was a disturbance in the force<\/a>. Ella felt it, and ever since she has spent a couple of hours a day lying in this position — waiting.<\/p>\n

It’s the perfect wheeze for an old dog*. Lying in the shade, busily inactive. When Maisie bounces\u00a0in with whoever is feeding\u00a0the chooks Ella waits patiently for her to leave. Maisie: ‘OOOOH what are you DOING?!’, Can I HELP?’,\u00a0“Shall I dig a HOLE?!’, “I’ll dig a hole.’, ‘See me DIGGING?!’, ‘Want to dig?!’.<\/p>\n

\"Maisie<\/a>

Maisie. She’s grown a bit since you and she\u00a0were first\u00a0introduced<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

As you can see Maisie is a walking\u00a0exclamation mark. Whatever disturbance is under the henhouse probably runs a mile when she\u00a0arrives. And so, the old dog waits. She waits until Maisie leaves, and then she waits some more. Because she knows that one day, if she is patient, whatever is lurking under there is going to have to\u00a0come\u00a0out. And when it does\u00a0it’s going to\u00a0run\u00a0straight into her mouth.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>

Another photo-bomb moment. This time it’s Nell.<\/p><\/div>\n

P.S. We think the disturbance\u00a0is a rat, so as well as our self deploying canine time bomb we’ve set up one of these<\/a>.<\/p>\n

*Wheeze: BRITISH (<\/span>informal) A<\/span>\u00a0clever or amusing scheme, idea, or trick.\u00a0“a new wheeze to help farmers”. Synonyms: scheme, plan, idea, tactic, move, ploy, gambit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the usual way of things here on the farmlet the dogs will be hanging out\u00a0wherever we are. They run alongside as we walk with the ponies through the Seven Acre Wood, look for forgotten bones while\u00a0we weed out thistles… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chickens","category-dogs","category-rats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}