Caught red paw'd

Gus has been caught in the act of digging by his granddad who is not to impressed!

Our back garden doubles up as our driveway, we are on a corner plot so my dad drives the car in at an angle to park it on the drive, the rest of the garden is grass. (apart from the spending area)

So our car is a little bit too long to go through the gate at the right angle to end up on the drive, so the front left wheel always goes though the grass, well its winter so the grass is a bit dead and gone on that particular spot.

My dad went to let the dogs in just before christmas and found Gus digging! So now there is a little hole in the ground, at least it explains where the mud has been coming from!

Today we did something new, Ian and Gus where left alone in the house while we went shopping, Gus does not get left really at halls, I'm always in the building if he is alone in my room, I don't think its safe to leave him alone in my room if I go out. Basically he goes everywhere I go. So leaving him is a bit of a new thing, and we came back and nothing had been destroyed, both dogs where still in one piece and the sofa  had not been sat on; success!

Gus was incredibly pleased to see me, I got a massive bounding jumping hug all over my white coat, followed by a gentle chew on my hand and lots of circling me!

I really love him, he is so perfect and so full of cheekiness and character!

Settling in

First off apologies for the lack of posting as I am sure our readers will understand Gus and I have been rather busy with settling in to the routine of university life.

I think we have now settled into a nice little routine although it was a very bumpy start for Gus.

After cutting his paw and having a bit of time off he continued to limp so ended up back at the vet. Adding more to my concern on the way there Gus fell going up a flight of stairs, which made me worry more!

The vet was lovely but did little to put my mind at ease reeling off a whole selection of things it could be. It took about 45 minutes of examination to work out that it was his elbow causing the problem (he was not giving much away!).

Elbow problems are renowned for being tricky to locate the source of the issue so it could have been a host of things.

A common problem in Labrador retriever dogs is elbow displaycia, if it was that it would be very serious and may lead to Gus taking early retirement.

In the end he was given a weeks worth of anti-inflammatory painkillers and had to have complete rest. He was allowed one short walk a day for a week and that was it. Then in the second week he was to gradually build up to working again. The hope was that it was a sprain and that rest and painkillers would sort it out, if not he would have to see a specialist and have X-rays.

Unfortunately for me having just started at university that meant that Gus had to go and stay with my parents for a week.

Gus had a ball with them and mums dog Ian and enjoyed his little walks to different places, he loves my parents to bits so for him it was a lovely little holiday!

For me it was a nightmare, I missed him so much and really struggled to get around university and do the basics like food shopping. I was also a complete blubbering wreck for most of the week, on one occasion I saw a black Labrador puppy and cried in the middle of the high street!

Fortunately when we where reunited and Gus started to get back to work all my worries subsided as he is now absolutely fine. We will never really no what it was but it was probably just a sprain.

Panic over!

Gus and I seem to be bonding more and more as time goes on and we are attempting to get into a bit of a routine.

Recently Gus has decided he likes cuddles but only on his terms!

Thursday morning my alarm clock went off I sat up and Gus had already got off his bed and was wagging his tail with that good morning look on his face. He then put one poor on me then the other and then his belly-landed!

He is not allowed on my bed, but as long as he keeps his back paws on the floor cuddles are fine and we certainly had a lovely one on Thursday!

I’m also discovering that Gus is not a morning person the majority of the time bless him, he does not like getting up in the morning and off his bed, but sometimes surprises me.

Due to the painkillers he was on he now has 2 feeds a day, morning around 8 am and evening around 6 (but unfortunately lecture dependant) he likes having more feeds, even though he has the same amount.

Overall I think Gus is very happy here, he still loves to go home and see my mum, dad and Ian but he likes lots of things about Southampton to.

Unfortunately one of the things that Gus loves about Southampton is the rats, there are a huge amount of rats in the city and the come out everywhere at night. A few weeks ago on my way to the station that is about 15 minutes away from my halls Gus saw 5 rats!

I cant see the rats but Gus most defiantly can, in fact I think he wants to chase them all, my mates have been joking about buying a radio controlled rat for him for Christmas.

Also another thing he loves to do now is look out of the window on the buses trains or whatever he is on which is cute.

Gus is also absolutely obsessed with my friend Tom, he wants to follow Tom everywhere, we think it might be because Tom wears a lot of black so Gus identifies with him but its rather sweet, he can find tom in a crowd of people and likes standing on Tom!