Meet Marmaduke

(and Tammy and Tom). Went to buy fruit for our guests this morning and found a group of concerned people at the gate, wondering what to do about a dog who had been abandoned outside, complete with food and water.

HH not being around to veto the idea, I decided he was a likely candidate for a playmate for Kayla and made a unilateral decision to keep him. To give him his due, HH appears to have accepted the decision with his usual calm resignation.

The dog, christened Marmaduke by the gateman, turns out to be amazingly sweet-natured - and was made very welcome by our house guests, who arrived last night. Naturally, most of the rest of the day - and rather a lot of money - was spent on  him. We discovered he was shedding ticks and fleas all over the place - probably why he was abandoned in the first place. Can't you just image the scene? Husband/boyfriend overjoyed with his new dog, wife/girlfriend not convinced, and then he comes back from a weekend in the country full of parasites. "That dog has got to go!" - and she marches him up the road the minute her partner's back is turned (it was a woman who abandoned him). 

The cats are not amused - I've had to move them, lock, stock and barrel, up into our bedroom and bathroom, leaving Marmaduke in the service area out back.