Reggie garden takes shape.

This morning started early - after feeding all the animals and taking Reggie for a toilet trip in the garden, we headed into town. We were there early, so we had a coffee at the café in the square while we waited for the bank to open. Stuart had received an email from Richard yesterday, saying that Marco, the bank manager, wanted us to go into the bank with our identity cards ASAP. We therefore headed across to the bank at 8.30am, where there were already two people waiting to be let into the security capsule. Once inside, we realised that Marco wasn't in - the corridor to his office was roped off - but we got to see the ever-smiley Gianguido at the counter, who had clearly been briefed as to what was required from us, and he simply took photocopies of each of our ID cards and sent us merrily on our way.

Before heading home, we thought we'd try the hardware shop to see if they did dog-tag engraving. They didn't, but the younger guy in the shop pointed us in the direction of the stationery shop further down the road (at least, that's where we thought he meant). So we walked down to the stationery shop, looked in the window and pretty much decided we were barking up the wrong tree - there was Pritt stick, Post-it notes, biros, whistles (every office needs one), ink cartridges, paper, box files, but nothing that looked like pet tags. Nevertheless, we went in, explained what we were after, expecting the man to look at us blankly - but instead, he went immediately to his shelves, pulled down his large stationery catalogue and flicked through to the 'pet tags' section to show us what we could order from him. We decided on a metal oval tag, wrote down Reggie's name and our mobile phone number for the engraving, and left with the prospect of a smart new tag being ready to collect next Thursday.

After that, we walked back to the car and headed for home.

It was then a day of office work for me and fence (and gate) building for Stuart, Nick and Tess.

Tuscan-style puppy-proof fence, archway and gate.

Despite having been promised a run of fine, sunny weather, today was overcast and later in the afternoon it deteriorated from overcast into drizzly. The lack of sunshine today made it feel a lot chillier than yesterday when we had been basking in glorious sunshine. I sat at my computer all day with cold hands and feet (despite a hot water bottle on my lap and a double layer of jumpers), and the three workers toiled in the gloomy weather outside. Lunch was therefore an indoor affair today - too chilly to sit around outside.

At about 3.30pm, Donatella came to visit and to be introduced to Reggie. We had a good chat about dogs/puppies/cats and she gave me some good advice. While we were chatting, Reggie came out of his cage and wandered around, sniffing every nook and crannie of the room - but steering well clear of Donatella, who clearly carried the scent of their dog, cats, rabbits, chickens... a bit too much for a little pup to take in. We realised that Donatella was also the first new person Reggie has met - Nick and Tess have been here since he arrived, so he's comfortable with them, but Donatella was brand new to him and he seemed to be a little on the wary side.

By the time Donatella left, Stuart, Nick and Tess were just finishing in the garden, having finished the fences and gates - Reggie's garden play area is ready for play! The three of them all looked very cold and extremely damp, having been working in the steady drizzle for the last hour or so.

I helped Stuart put the tools away, then put the geese to bed and we took Reggie for a walk up and down the drive a couple of times to try and burn off some energy, before settling down for an end-of-the-week beer. Reggie wasn't too happy about us sitting on the sofa without him though, so - once I'd made sure that Florence was safely tucked away in the office and Lucca was safely tucked away in our bedroom - we let Reggie out to have a bit of a play with us and a bit more freedom. He spent a while wandering around and around, sniffing, chewing things he really oughtn't be chewing (pieces of burnt wood/charcoal from the fire, slippers, chairs...) before trying to get up on the sofa, and eventually succeeding. We spent a happy 15 minutes or so playing with him on the sofa before he fell asleep.

This evening we are having a night off cooking and instead taking Nick and Tess to try a Mimmo special! We plan to take Reggie along for the ride and to have a little walk in town, before coming back to settle down for the night - tomorrow Reggie gets his garden freedom and will be able to play properly without the restrictions of a lead and harness!