Hang on, Snoopy.

I was hunkered down in front of the X-factor final on Saturday with a German beer and some nibbles when Snoopy jumped off the sofa and looked at me with that look says "ignore me at your peril". He will often do that during the course of an evening. It is almost as if he hates to see me finally relaxing after I have been buzzing about all day like a blue - a****  fly while he snores his head off on the sofa. Come the evening, I slow down and he comes alive. Well, no wonder, he's been asleep all day!

He'll stand in front of me and fix his gorgeous brown eyes right on mine, look right through me and try to tell me something. It can mean "I want a biscuit for looking cute", "I want a biscuit for not looking cute", "Just give me the biscuit" or "Let me out into the garden, I need to do a wee." By process of elimination, I usually get to find out what he wants.  I can't simply ignore him, because he stands between me and the television  and, as he is quite a big dog, he blocks my field of vision.  Which can be pretty irritating when you have just settled down to watch the X-factor final with a beer and some nibbles.

I had to pause Christopher Maloney singing a duet with Gary Barlow (thank goodness for being able to pause live television these days) and go downstairs to let Snoopy out into the garden. He did a wee AND a poo, came back in again, got a biscuit for looking cute and I then returned upstairs to the lounge to carry on watching TV. He didn't follow me upstairs and after a few minutes, I paused the TV again and went back downstairs to see what he was doing. He has a habit lately of scavenging in the kitchen waste bin, pulling out the discarded cellophane that has wrapped meat or fish and chewing round it for the flavour. He'll then leave the tell-tale bits of cellophane all over the kitchen and when reprimanded look at me in all innocence with a look that says "it wasn't me". I half expected to find him doing that. What I found, however was not nearly as pleasant. Diarrhoea all over my kitchen floor! Eeeeeeuugh! All hopes of returning to the X-factor were rapidly abandoned, as I gathered kitchen towel, plastic bags and gloves for the mop-up operation.

I already know he has something wrong with his liver and pancreas (see here). However, looking cute is no compensation and I suspect a trip to the vet will be on the cards this week, if this continues.

Footnote   We went to the vet yesterday and after three injections (painkiller,antibiotic and steroid) Snoopy seems much improved this morning. Could be a touch of colitis, thinks the vet, but I am to observe what the steroid does over the week and report back. Now I have a pain in my purse!     12.12.12.