Holiday journal

Tuesday December 30th

Isis, unsurprisingly, is very tired and sleeps until I get up at 8.30. Great!

She has a good run along the edge of the sea. I introduce her to sea foam and she delights in running through all the the batches we meet, tossing clumps from her muzzle.

I notice how much more freely she runs compared with when I first brought her to Wales last September. Then her default was running in circles as though she was still attached to a rope. It is brilliant to see her running as fast as she can in all directions. When we walk back along the promenade she scrambles over the wall for the hell of it.

Yes, she’s a different dog today, much calmer. Polymath urges me to get Green the puzzle feeder from the car.

I put in treats, scattering them around the feeder. Isis finds them all. Then, for the first time, I try a handful of dry food. Isis works at the task for ten minutes, carefully  fishing out the pieces. Amazing. No growling. No snarling. None of her usual frustration and rage around food. And, unbelievably, she actually misses two pieces – she who can swallow a whole bowlful in thirty seconds.

Later she enjoys hundreds of deeply engrossing sniffs in the woody areas of the nature reserve, and on her return eats her tea without snarling and growling.

A very good day, Isis.

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.com