It's getting a bit nippy

As I write this, my front door is open and the dogs alternate between lying on the sun-heated deck and cooling on the indoor carpet. In a week's time it could - probably will - be quite different, for them and for us humans. In fact, the change of seasons is already having its effect on my pets' lives.

Last week brought the first cold mornings of the year, and Connor felt them more than anyone. He's a wire-haired chap, whose coat never seems to grow beyond a flat thinness in certain places: his tummy, around his ears, and at the top of his front legs (his "armpits").

I suppose these are the places where he feels the cold.

On that first cold morning last week, he woke us at 5am with barks and whines. I took him outside for the toilet stop I assumed he needed - and noticed how cold the morning was. After the toilet stop, Connor raced back into his crate, away from the cold. I laid a doubled-over blanket across Connor's crate and, after a few more minutes of whining, he settled.

Meanwhile, Phoebe didn't stir, her long coat keeping every part of her warm.

Connor, I suppose, will always feel the cold. The saddest thing is watching him on a cool morning shivering and trembling, standing on my feet or next to my chair, pushing on me with his paws, trying to get me to pick him up and warm him.

I can't type and hold a dog at the same time (at least, not very effectively) so I make a blanket-bed for him until the room is warm enough for him to sleep comfortably in.

This autumn we'll have to get Connor one of those winter woollies - functional, not fashionable; he's so small, he'd practically fit in a rugby sock with the foot snipped off. In fact, that's an idea - where's my rugby sock?

Another change in autumn is the recent shift to walking the dogs in the morning rather than evening. After-dinner light is vanishing incredibly fast right now, but the mornings are an opportunity, so my partner has been taking them out for a crisp constitutional before starting work.

This has changed the dogs' biorhythms in a welcome way: their previous evening jumpiness and, let's be frank, occasional obnoxiousness, has waned. They'd still love to go for an evening walk, but it's not the urgent demand that it is when they haven't already exercised.

The third autumn issue is our backyard. Looming over the dogs' zone is a huge, unkempt grapevine. Bunches of hard grapes are already visible, and in a few weeks they'll be delicious enough to pick.

And delicious enough to attract clouds of wasps.

Phoebe and Connor love their insects, as I've blogged before, but wasps sting. So we have to do what we can to fend off the wasps by clearing fallen grapes and hanging wasp-catching devices.

We also read somewhere that grapes are not good for dogs, so that's another layer of concern. I'll be glad when all the grapes are fallen and the wasps gone, even if it does mean that winter has arrived.

And this May we'll discuss, as we did last May, how we could just pull up the grapevine. And this year, as last year, we'll forget about it.

Aside from all that, autumn is a wonderful time to have pets. It's the time when their coats fill out cutely, they pant in little steamy puffs, and they head back to the refuge of your lap. The dogs drag you outside for walks that you need but otherwise might not take. The cats start doing service as feet warmers.

So though I'm hanging on to these still-warm afternoons, when the weather turns it won't be so bad. Pets are great in any weather.

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LaDi   #1   04:48 pm Mar 16 2010

Ohh poor wee Connor!

You are lucky enough to work from home Nick. We live in Hamilton and like a lot of the country last year we had quite a few mornings where the temp was still in the negatives at 9am. I hated seeing our two shivering away on the driveway as the watched us leave for work, and hoped that they would spend the day in the nice warm kennel complete with hottie!

LL   #2   12:30 pm Mar 17 2010

We have a hungarian vizsla which feels the cold terribly, he is already wearing his weatherbeta coat at night. Its very cute and he matches all the horses.

paul   #3   02:35 pm Mar 17 2010

Definitely get him a coat (forget fashion - keep him warm!) and cut the green stuff back on your grape vine - let the sunlight (ha!) get to the fruit.

Melanie   #4   03:49 pm Mar 17 2010

My next knitting project is going to be a doggy coat - let me know Connor's measurements and I'll have a go at knitting him a flash one!

Sarahmm   #5   12:28 pm Mar 18 2010

Love the way you have descibed how Autumn is a good season to have pets. I have two cats, one warms my bed better than any hot water bottle and my big fluffy golden retriever is the warmest thing on earth once he gets his winter coat.

I commented a few blogs ago about the trust issue and about watching our dogs look back at us while out walking. Im happy to say since then I have been trying hard to build the trust back up with my retriever and now he stops every time he gets a few meters in front of me and checks back. I have also noticed that he doens't seem to wonder (touch wood) away either :)

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