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!

The weekend approaches all too soon... for some.

Thursday started with a 4am trip to the garden with Reggie for his pre-planned middle-of-the-night relief. I stared at the sky above (through one half-opened eye) that was filled with stars while he quickly did his business then led me back up the steps to the house and hopped into his crate for his 'bed biscuit'.

Helen, in exchange, got up at 6.30am to do the breakfast rounds, let the geese out and take Reggie for a walk along the drive while I snoozed some more, dragging myself out of bed in time for breakfast with Tess and Nick.

After breakfast, I set Tess up with the chopsaw to finish chopping up the pile of wood they'd all collected last week, while Nick and I went back to our fence-building duties.

The fence is coming along nicely.

It was a very cool and crisp morning with clear skies and you could see you breath in the air. It wasn't until about 10.30am that the sun finally made it up over the hill behind us and promptly warmed us all to the point of short sleeves again, heading to around 17°C at midday.

Coffee break came and went on the patio, as did lunch, by which time we'd progressed as far as possible with the fencing on the lawn, although it still a gate in the archway. I left Nick constructing the gate while I made a start on ferrying the piles of rubbish to the bins.

Four trips to the bins and back later, it was 4.30pm and the guys had packed up - Tess having single-handedly chopped up all but the largest pieces of wood (which need a chainsaw) and having made a rather substantial pile of wood towards what we hope will be next year's winter heating, while Nick's gate was proudly swinging in the archway ready for some wire netting and a latch to be fitted tomorrow.

On my final return journey from the bins I could see that the sun had just dropped low enough to put our house in the shade, but that Vellano - the next village along the valley and some 400 metres higher than us - was still basking in the last of the day's sunlight, so when I got in, I suggested that Helen, Reggie and I hop into the bus and drive straight up to Vellano for a walk.

The skies were amazing - some low cloud was catching the late sun and looking like Turkish delight floating along behind the mountain tops. The scene across the valley and down to the plains was very wintry indeed, and when combined with evocative smell of wood smoke it made us want to head home to start our own fire and settle in for the night.

Reggie seemed to enjoy his walk around Vellano, discovering new things look at, new things to smell, and new walls to try to peep over the top of. It was getting chilly though, and there wasn't much light left, so after one circuit of the village we headed back home, Reggie sitting on Helen's lap in the car.

So we got the cats indoors, the geese into bed, Reggie into his crate, Reggie back out of his crate for the toilet, back into his crate and back out again for another toilet trip, before I could finally light the fire and write the blog for the day sat in front of it with a glass of beer wishing for once that the weekend wasn't as close as it was - the amount of work we get done around here and the progress with the extra hands is addictive and working outside in this weather is an absolute joy - as is working with Nick and Tess; we've been so lucky with both of our first two HelpX experiences that we'll be looking forward to more next year.

So for now it's about time I wrapped up this post so that I can start dinner (pea and mint risotto) but before we go, by popular demand, a couple of gratuitous shots of Reggie!

Hail and wind followed by clear blue skies.

I'm told that the weather late last night was atrocious - Helen thought it must have been a hail storm (along with the almost constant thunder and lightning), as the din on the sky light outside our bedroom was so loud that she thought the roof was about to fall in. I have to take her word for it though, as I slept through the lot. Thankfully, it was calm and dry when I got up to do the 4am Reggie toilet trip.

After breakfast, Nick, Tess and I headed out into a chilly but clear morning - the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and there was no sign of the weather that has been blowing around the valley a few hours earlier. Nick and Tess cleared up the chaos on the lawn - their temporary wall re-pointing shelter had not faired well in the storms, with the posts ripped out of the lawn, the stepladders blown over, but thankfully, once ripped from its supporting posts, the tarpaulin had simply slumped limply over the wall, so there was still had some protection for it from the worst of the wetness. I'm pleased to report that the repaired and improved wood shelter survived the winds unscathed.

On finding out that woodpile 3.0 had survived the night, I went to work on wood shelter number two to implement the same improvements and repairs, as Tess was planning to resume wood cutting duties this morning.

So while I was finishing the repairs and Tess started wood cutting with the chop saw, Nick went back to emptying the affectionately named "sh*t shed" of the last (we hope) pieces of rubbish left for us by the previous owners.

I left Tess happily chopping and stacking wood and went to help Nick finish emptying the shed. That didn't take long though, as he'd already done a fair amount last night.

So, with a new pile of rubbish on the drive, Nick and I went to fencing work.

The fence starts to take shape.

We had our mid-morning coffee break on the patio - the sun had now made its way round to our part of the hill and we were all in t-shirts as the temperature was climbing towards 17°C. It was hard to tear ourselves away from the view and to stop basking in the glorious sunshine after the wet weather of the last week, but tear ourselves away we did - comforted by the fact that this weather is due to stick around at least for the next four days.

By the time lunch arrived (amazing Tuscan bean soup again - eaten outdoors again), the fence was looking great and so was the wood pile. Good weather makes such a difference to productivity and I can't help but get excited about the amount of work we might be able to get done over the coming days.

Just after lunch, Helen spotted a large while pile of what looked like the small polystyrene balls that are used to stuff beanbags. Incredibly, it was a pile of hail stones that were still frozen despite the weather now being sunny and warm and close to 20C.

Hail stones from the previous night's storm.

But the weather was like this!

As lunch was late, it was soon 3.30pm, time to stand the guys down and head into town to buy more fence posts.

By the time I returned with another 40 fence posts it was 4.30pm - I unloaded the car, then brought some wood into the house for the fire, called the cats in, fed the geese with lettuce and put them to bed while Helen headed off along the drive with Reggie for his pre-dinner walk.

When Helen got back to house Reggie seemed to have found a new reserve of energy and was in full-on play mode, bouncing around and virtually throwing himself off the terrace onto the patio. I went and fetched his towel for him to play with to try and tire him out- but that didn't work.

When we put him in his crate he wouldn't settle and was very whiny and barky - more so than at any other time since he arrived. The situation wasn't helped by the cats appearing from time to time - every time he sees or hears the cats he starts barking. When he still didn't settle after having had his dinner, we decided to take him in the car for his first trip into town for a 'proper' walk.

He travelled down into town happily enough in the passenger footwell with Helen (Helen wasn't in the footwell), and we parked up and walked along the river and around the square for half an hour where he was distracted by every person we passed, one of whom crossed the road to say hello to him. He met three other dogs in the square - the first of which he barked at, the next he barked and sniffed, and the third one he just sniffed. After 40 minutes or so, we were pretty chilly and were glad to get back in the car - Reggie spent the return journey in the footwell again, but this time seemed a little more relaxed. 

We got home to find Tess and Nick having started to prepare dinner (we'd asked them to cook some rice to go with the vegetable chilli we'd pre-made and frozen), so it wasn't long before we were all sitting down to dinner while Reggie settle down in his cage for a good sleep after his exhausting adventure - mission accomplished!

It's all about the routine

I promised myself that today's blog post wouldn't all be about the dog. And it won't be. But he will feature quite prominently - he has, after all, taken up a large amount of our day. I apologise in advance if you are trying to eat your breakfast while reading this. Just like parents of a new baby, the main topic of conversation in our house today has been Reggie's bowel and bladder movements (what have we turned into?!!).

After dinner last night, as we sat chatting with Nick and Tess, Nick searched the internet for advice on toilet training puppies. He found several articles, cross referenced them, and between us we came up with what seemed to be the best master plan: take Reggie out after he wakes from a nap, after eating a meal, and generally once every hour or so, and always stick to the same routine. When taking him outside for toilet duties, the advice is to use a word that he will associate with the action (after the internet suggested 'eliminate' and we gave due consideration to 'evacuate', we plumped for a simple 'toilet'), and of course to give a large amount of praise when he performs the action outside. Google also suggested that taking him to the same spot each time would be helpful as he will be able to smell 'toilety' smells and that will encourage him.

We started the regime before bed, with Tess and me taking Reggie out for 'toilet' in the pouring rain. He, of course, didn't realise what was wanted of him, and pranced about the lawn, did lots of nice sitting, and kept looking at us in utter bewilderment ('Why are we all standing out here in the pitch black and pouring rain getting soaked and freezing cold? And why do you keep shining a torch at me? Can I go back to bed now?'). Finally, though, after what felt like an age, he capitulated and received much praise from both of us.

We took soggy pup back indoors and let him get back to his bed, before Nick and Tess decided they would also call it a night, and we headed to bed as well. The plan (half-plan, without fully committing to it) was to set an alarm for around 4am, get up and take Reggie outside, then go back to bed again. Stuart gallantly took it upon himself to set his alarm, and off we went to bed.

At 3.45am, we both awoke to the sound of the alarm (actually Italian radio), confused and disorientated. After a 10-minute snooze, I was surprised to see Stuart climbing out of bed and pulling on his warm clothes (I hadn't expected the plan to come to fruition). I heard him head downstairs and out the front door - and I checked the time on the clock to see how long it would take poor Reggie to perform in the middle of the night. I was astonished to hear the front door opening and closing again just two minutes later, and Stuart coming back upstairs - I thought he must have forgotten to take a torch out or something but no, everything had gone like clockwork, Reggie (who had to be lifted out of his bed as he was too sleepy to get up) had performed immediately on getting outside and everyone was able to get back to bed.

After the 4am toilet trip, there was a solid ten minutes or so of whining and whimpering, but that eventually calmed down and we all got back to our peaceful night's sleep.

Come 7am I knew it was my turn to take the reigns, as it were, and I left Stuart to grab a few more minutes sleep while I came downstairs, fed the cats, put Reggie's lead on, grabbed the goose feeder and headed outside. The logistics were a bit tricky - should I open up the goose house first, with Reggie tied to an olive tree (and run the risk of him doing his business without me there to witness and give appropriate praise for it) or should I deal with Reggie first (including taking him for a walk along the drive and back) and leave the geese to get more annoyed at being cooped up for a bit longer. In the end, I decided to tie Reggie's lead to the olive tree, run into the goose enclosure to open their house and put their feeder in, but leave clearing their sawdust out until after I'd dealt with Reggie.

Reggie waited patiently by the tree, then came down to the lawn with me - did his business almost on cue - then we went for a walk up and down the drive before going inside for some doggy breakfast, by which time Stuart was up and able to supervise him while I went back to clean the goose house.

All animals fed and watered, I showered, had breakfast and then we all set to work for the day.

Tess and Nick spent most of the day continuing with the re-pointing of the garden wall under the shelter of the tarpaulin. Much of the morning was dry, but the afternoon was wet and soggy yet again, so the tarpaulin was put to good use (to protect the mortar as well as the workers). Meanwhile, Stuart concreted in a few more of the fence posts around the garden.

Tarpaulin work area.

The workers!

My morning was spent trying to get some office work done, but with a time schedule beside me of toilet trips for Reggie (trying to stick to the Master Plan). I therefore made quite a few trips out to the garden and ended up simply wearing my wellies all day, even while sitting at my desk (what has my life turned into? I used to wear smart clothes and heels to work, now I'm sitting in wellies!).

Reggie himself spent most of the morning dozing in his cage - which at least meant I had fewer distractions than yesterday when I had attempted to have him in the office with me and had to constantly stop him from chewing vitals equipment or eating non-edible substances.

After a lunch of celery and celeriac soup, the rain really started in earnest again. Nick and Tess continued with re-pointing, and then Nick moved on to starting the big clearout of the rubbish shed. Amongst other things he has so far found: a large Thermos flask, a swimming pool, another fairly sizeable wood pile (yay! something useful!), a satellite dish, three wooden garden chairs (two of which are fully functional), a couple of pairs of steps, two electric chainsaws, some old windows... and the list goes on.

And so the rubbish collecting starts all over again.

Spot the dog - I couldn't resist one photo of Reggie.

Stuart, meanwhile, helped with a bit of the re-pointing, then turned his attention to trying to reconstruct the wood piles (or rather their cover), this time stapling the tarpaulin to some wooden struts to try and create a stronger 'roof'.

5pm rolled around very quickly. For your benefit, I have omitted from this post the description of the 10-12 other Reggie 'toilet' trips that were made through the day with varying degrees of success. I say that there were varying degrees of success, but the fact of the matter is that it is now 24 hours since he last performed any sort of toilet activity inside the house - we have had a dry day and night (see, just like a new parent talking about a baby), and I'll take that as a success!

At 5pm, it was time for me to drive down the hill to Pescia, pick up Sue, and drive to Rita's flat for our weekly Italian lesson. As always, it was a fun 'hour' (the lessons - which are always a mixture of a bit of Italian and a bit of chatting in English - usually last about an hour and a half, if not more), but the more we learn about the language, the more impossible it seems! I comfort myself with the thought that if I learn at least one new word or phrase each week, I'm doing better than if I hadn't gone.

By the time I'd dropped Sue back home and driven back up the hill in the pouring rain (and thunder), it was 7.30pm and I found Stuart and Nick nursing a beer each and huddled up over the fire discussing boy stuff - making fires, keeping them alight... Tess was down in the apartment preparing for a job interview that she is having via Skype this evening (a job at a NZ court for when she eventually returns to New Zealand in the spring - she is being interviewed by the judges).

We will have dinner when Tess had finished her grilling - I'm sure she will need a glass of wine after that. I can't imagine having to get my head into work-mode, let alone interview-mode if I had been travelling around Europe for several months and was currently 'working' at re-pointing stone walls in the pouring rain on an isolated hill in Tuscany while sporadically being in charge of calling 'Reggie, toilet!'. Fingers crossed all goes well for her. And fingers crossed for another quiet, dry night.

A day of many puddles

We had a good sleep last night - the newest member of the household slept quietly in his crate downstairs, and with the exception of a half-hearted attempt at a whimper when we went to bed and another brief whimper at around 4.30am, Reggie kept the peace. Florence even shared a room with her new housemate - sleeping on her (current) favourite cushion on the sofa throughout the night, while Lucca came up to our room to snuggle up with us.

Anyway, Stuart and I hauled ourselves out of bed at 6.45am to go and find out how Reggie had really got on overnight - and found quite a mess. Not only had he soiled his cage (which we had been expecting), but he had managed to do it in his bed, and sleep in it. It was therefore a team effort to get the dog out, clean his head and paws, dispose of the soiled newspaper, wipe down the bed and throw it, his toy and the towel all into the washing machine before putting some fresh newspaper and a fresh towel into his cage so that he would have something else to sit on while his bed was spinning around in the washing machine. It took us almost an hour to get everything straight and clean again as well as sort out the geese and cats (who had been fed first, so as not to have to wait for Operation-Reggie-Clean to be finished).

While I had a shower, Stuart walked Reggie up and down the drive, where Reggie performed his first outside toileting since his arrival - brilliant!

Once the animals had all been seen to, we had a quick breakfast before leaving the menagerie in the capable hands of Tess and Nick while we went to run some errands in town.

While out and about, we stopped off amongst other places at Arcaplanet to buy Reggie some doggie shampoo (after this morning's episode I've a feeling we might be needing to give him a hose down before long), some more toys to give him a bit of variety, and some doggie nappies. We did NOT buy him nappies to wear (and were quite horrified to find out that you CAN buy nappies for dogs to wear), but large flat square absorbent 'nappies' for lining the inside of his cage overnight. We don't have an endless supply of newspaper, as we don't know Italian well enough to buy a paper, but we did have a small collection of papers that friends had brought with them from the UK, as well as the newspaper-style advertising catalogues that end up in out postbox from time to time. However, we had kept these to one side, thinking that they would be useful for lighting fires - and indeed they were: we burnt most of them before realising that we would have a puppy's bladder to contend with.

After Arcaplanet, a dash into the agraria in Borgo a Buggiano to buy another sack of goose feed, and topping up the car with methane, we headed home to find out how the morning had gone for Tess, Nick and the menagerie.

Everyone seemed tired today - both Nick and I have succumbed to the cold that Tess has been suffering with, and both Stuart and I still felt like we hadn't caught up on the sleep we missed out on from the night before. Besides all that, the weather was enough to make anyone want to curl up under the bed covers and go back to sleep. It felt very 'British' today - cold, grey and wet! Despite that, the view from our patio still manages to look magical, with the mist hanging over the valley, the landscape turning to wintry colours.

We therefore all sat down to a cup of coffee and a chat - it seemed that the animals had all behaved, Reggie had been outside for a short walk, and Tess and Nick had appreciated the slow start to the day.

We decided to have an early lunch as the weather was not the least bit encouraging for those who had outdoor work to attend to, so Stuart decided we would all have lunch and then he and Tess and Nick would venture out for the afternoon.

After a lunch of pea and pesto soup, and a coffee afterwards, the inevitable could be delayed no longer, and Tess, Nick and Stuart donned waterproofs and braved the weather.

I needed to settle down to some office work, so I brought Reggie into the office with me, tied his lead around the arm of my chair to stop him wandering too far or racing after cats, and turned to my work. That lasted all of three minutes as Reggie happily wandered to the corner of the room and created an indoor puddle (as if today wasn't already wet enough). I dashed outside with him, but it was too late, he was already feeling relieved. I mopped the floor, then the pair of us traipsed back indoors for take 2 at settling down to work. That also lasted all of three minutes, as it soon became blatantly clear that Reggie was in need of some more toilet action, so I dashed outside with him in the pouring rain. Once he gets outside he seems to forget his previous urge, or else get too distracted by what else there is to see and do outside. So, while I was getting soaked and shivery in the cold rain, Reggie was prancing around the lawn doing anything but his business. Stuart, Tess and Nick were in the middle of erecting a tarpaulin over the garden wall at the time, so I asked Tess if she would hold Reggie's lead while I ran indoors to get a coat. By the time I came out again I could hear Tess and Nick singing Reggie's praises as he had done his business in the garden. Clever boy!

Reggie and I traipsed back indoors for take 3 at settling down to work. That lasted all of three minutes (can you see a pattern developing here?). This time, Reggie growled at Lucca (and rushed at him when my back was turned for a second), shredded and ate tissues from the wastebin, shredded and ate paper from the recycling pile, attempted to eat my scarf, attempted to get onto the bed (which is out of bounds), attempted to get onto my lap, wound himself and his lead into knots around my chair, and generally messed about.

But I don't want you to work! I want to play!

Eventually, though, he settled down in his 'office bed' (after having another wee on it for good measure...) and snoozed his way through the rest of the afternoon, while I managed to get a couple of hours' work done.

All tuckered out.

Peace at last.

In the meantime, Stuart, Tess and Nick made a start at repointing the garden wall under the protection of the piece of tarpaulin they had strung up. A truly cold and wet afternoon for all of them.

When Reggie showed signs of waking up - and my computer crashed at the same time - I decided that, since the light was fading rapidly, it was a good time to go and put the geese to bed and get Reggie to stretch his legs again. Reggie and I went up to the goose terrace - I left him outside, with his lead around an olive tree, while I went in to encourage the geese into their house. That done, Stuart joined us for a walk up and down the drive (twice over). We managed to get Reggie to 'sit' on command (certainly just a coincidence that he sat down at the same time as we commanded it, but he was duly rewarded in any case), but of course he showed no signs of interest whatsoever in relieving himself outdoors.

Of course, once we got inside, he made more puddles - once on his towel in his cage and later on the floor. I can tell that our patience (and washing machine) will be tested to its limits over the coming days/weeks! He also spent the evening exercising his vocal chords - there was a lot of growling and barking at the cats, and general whining. I suspect that tonight might not be quite as peaceful as last night was!!

Introducing Reggie

Neither Stuart nor I managed to sleep very well  last night. There was the anticipation of getting our new dog in the morning, the knowledge that we absolutely had to be up early and out of the house on time (not to mention having to call the courier, Guiseppe, at 7am), and the weather was appalling. We had strong winds, heavy, heavy rain, and thunder and lightning. After tossing and turning from the point of getting into bed, we both woke up at 4.30am - the noise of the rain and the thunder and lightning were more than enough to wake us from our fitful sleep.

Stuart eventually managed to get back to sleep until the alarm went off at 6.30am, but I ended up getting out of bed and coming downstairs to do some things (such as finish my Italian homework) that were running through my mind and not helping with the getting-back-to-sleep effort.

As 6.30am came around, I was just starting to feel sleepy again - but it was too late! Time to get up, clean up the broken glass from where the wind had blown over one of the large wine vats last night, feed the geese, put some gravel down on the very, very soggy, slippery drive to help us get the car up the hill, and assess the full extent of the damage done by the stormy weather (several ripped tarpaulins, a blown over fence, broken wine vat, and broken goose ramp). While we scurried around cleaning up glass, wheeling barrows of gravel down the drive and letting the geese out, the rain - and hail - came back down again, although thankfully only for a short burst.

Exercise area/work area 2.0 - trashed.

Tarpaulin over wood pile 1.0 (and bamboo fencing) - trashed.

Tarpaulin over wood pile 2.0 - trashed.

Once the dog crate had been loaded into the car - together with a blanket and some cushions that Lucca and Florence sleep on, in the hopes that 'Jeremy' would start to get used to their scent - we grabbed keys, ID cards, and coats and set off on our way.

We found Claudia already waiting in the car park at Frateschi's, so were on our way before 8am. First stop was Esselunga car park so that Claudia could leave her car and transfer to ours. We then headed for the autostrade and the Lucca Est turnoff. Claudia chatted to us along the way, in a mixture of Italian and English - she's such a nice person, we're so pleased to have met her and grateful for her help.

Before long, we arrived at McDonalds just off the autostrade and parked the car. We were early, so there was time for a coffee - Claudia was very definite that McDonalds was ONLY useful as a car park and under no circumstances would she be found eating or drinking anything from there (and we agreed). Fortunately, there was a pasticceria on the opposite side of the road, so we ran across and had a breakfast of a croissant and cappucino each.

We then went back to the car park to wait for the arrival of the couriers. While we were waiting, Claudia explained that the whole organisation is completely voluntary - the two guys driving the animals from Puglia in the far south of Italy all the way across the north of the country (ours was one of their first stops) do it for the love of the animals and they had been driving through the night, after having set off at 10pm last night. Other than petrol money, they are completely unpaid.

She explained what a terrible problem there is with stray dogs and an overpopulation of puppies in Puglia - there are next to no laws in Italy that relate to animal welfare, and all rescue organisations are entirely run by volunteers, funded from their own pockets.

After quite a long wait, we all spotted a long wheel-base van with the unmistakeable 'Europcar' logo across the side, which came in our direction and slowed to turn into the car park - they were here!!

The two guys got straight out of the van and opened up the side of it - also waiting in the car park were a young couple from Pisa, who were here to collect a German shepherd pup - the German shepherd was first out of the van, so we got a chance to look at the other travellers while we waited - it was a van full of bundles of fluff! ALL puppies. All rescued after having been abandoned on the streets, in supermarket car parks, at motorway service stations and so on. All on their way to new families and homes in the north of Italy:

A vanload of puppies heading for new homes.

Finally, it was time for us to see 'Jeremy' for the very first time (I say 'finally', but the whole process was done and finished within five minutes and the guys and the rest of the puppies were already on their way again)! This time, Guiseppe opened up the back of the van and there, on the top row of cages in the far left corner was the unmistakable face of 'Jeremy'. It was love at first sight!

Guiseppe lifted him out of his cage, gave him a hug and a kiss, then handed him over to Stuart.

And that was it - we had a dog! Claudia said 'let's go home!' and we were off. We were given some paperwork with details of his microchip and his vaccinations, but other than that there were no other formalities. We paid nothing for him, and weren't even asked for a donation.

It was all a bit bizarre as we travelled back along the autostrade with a little puppy in a cage in the back of the car. Every time I turned around to talk to Claudia, there his little face was!

We dropped Claudia back to the Esselunga car park, thanked her profusely - not only for holding our hands, as it were, but also for her company. We parted promising that we would give her a call and drop in to see her and Massimo the next time we are Monticatini-bound.

And then it was just the two of us and our pup!

Before we knew it, we were trundling slowly back down our drive and parking up at his brand new home. We called Nick and Tess from their apartment to come out and meet him while he was in his cage in the back of the car. Both Florence and Lucca were pottering about in the driveway - Florence soon spotted the new face, but Lucca was completely oblivious, even when we attempted to pick him up and show him his new housemate. Perhaps he actually did know what was going on as he seemed to make an enormous effort to re-focus the attention back on himself - the four of us were chatting and cooing over the puppy, when we suddenly heard a noise, looked up, and Lucca was sliding from the very top of Nick and Tess's campervan all the way down the windscreen and off the bonnet! If only we'd had a camera it would definitely have made a true 'You've Been Framed' moment. Of course, he jumped down, looked a bit embarrassed and pretended nothing had happened (and STILL ignored the dog).

Nick and Tess offered us a cup of coffee, and we decided between us to get 'Jeremy' out and take him into the apartment.

The four of us then sat with him, cuddled him and cooed over him in the apartment while trying to work out what to call him. He didn't seem to respond to 'Jeremy' and, while the name had grown on us over the last couple of weeks, when we tried it out (out loud), it didn't really work. With a Lucca and a Florence already in the household, we thought that continuing the Italian place name theme would be appropriate, so we got out a tourist map of Tuscany and pored over it. The obvious name was Monte - what with Montecarlo and Montecatini so close by, but we felt we couldn't name him that as our good friends Jennie and Pete have a Monty dog. We then considered 'Carlo' (as in Montecarlo), which we quite liked, but again it didn't come naturally when said out loud. Tess then suggested 'Reggie' as a shortened version of Viareggio. We looked at him and decided that, yes, he could be a Reggie!

And so it was decided - welcome home Reggie!

We then took him upstairs and put him safely in his crate in the living room to get used to his new surroundings and for Lucca and Florence to investigate.

Florence was wary, but seemed interested in watching him from a distance. Lucca, on the other hand, refused even to come in out of the rain once he finally worked out that there was a new kid on the block.

Reggie seemed very happy - his first bark came when he saw Florence attempt to settle down on Stuart's lap, but he soon settled down. Lucca eventually braved it and dashed in before dashing out again, giving Reggie a wide berth, but at least it was progress for him to venture into the house.

We spent the next few hours cooking another soup, fussing the three animals (so none of them got too upset/jealous), taking Reggie outside in the hopes that he would empty his bladder in the garden rather than in the crate for the second time. Taking Reggie for a walk up and down the driveway, and looking at each other incredulously, saying 'Blimey, we've got a dog!!'.

Stuart lit a fire, and after a second walk up and down the drive, I put the geese to bed and then everyone retired indoors. I was a little worried about getting the cats inside tonight, as I thought they might be reluctant to come in, but thankfully they cooperated - this time at least! As I write, all three animals are having a nap - Lucca on the bed in the office, Reggie in his bed in his crate ('his' bed being the cats' old bed), and Florence on a cushion on the sofa. A cosy, snuggly household.

Stuart and I are pretty tired after our restless night's sleep last night, and a good night's sleep tonight would be lovely - but we are preparing ourselves for a night of whining and crying as we plan to leave Reggie to sleep in his crate in the living room, letting the cats come upstairs out of his way. It could be another long night!

Wet and wild

After getting up to let the geese out at 7.15am this morning, I attempted to get back into bed for another hour or so's snooze, but by the time I'd got up, gone into the fresh air, opened the goose house, put their feeder in and cleaned the sawdust, I was pretty wide awake, and sleep wasn't forthcoming.

We had a slow breakfast and did a few admin-type tasks, before drawing up a shopping list and eventually heading out at about 11am.

Our first stop was Atum - the tool shop. The shop was busy and there was a lot of waiting - various people behind the counter were otherwise engaged either on the phone or in other conversations. When we first went in, however, there was a chap behind the counter who seemed free and said something to us. Stuart tried to explain that he'd ordered a particular tool and wanted to know whether it had arrived yet. However, the man said something in response that neither of us could make head or tail of - he spoke quickly, and mumbled his words, and we both felt frustrated that we couldn't communicate with him. In the end Stuart told him he'd wait until the other man had finished on the phone, and would ask him instead. After another five minutes waiting, the first man suddenly burst out laughing - seemingly at us - and left the shop via the 'counter' side door and came straight back into the shop on the 'customer' side door. He then started saying something to us and laughing. It didn't take us long to work out that this chap had just done exactly what Stuart did the first time he visited the shop - he'd used the wrong door and ended up on the serving side of the counter instead of the customer side, and while Stuart had been trying to ask him for something, he had been making exactly the same mistake and, thinking that Stuart worked in the shop, and was asking him for something!! We all had a laugh and then continued waiting.

After what seemed like an age, we were eventually served - the tool Stuart has ordered should be in the shop on Monday, and while we were at it, he ordered a spare part for his chop saw, which hopefully he will be able to collect next week as well.

Next, we decided to try the cafe opposite the flower market for a coffee. Going for a cappucino seems to have turned into a bit of a weekend treat for us - and with two rounds costing only €4.80 in total (for 4 coffees - which came with complimentary biscotti), it's a nice way to unwind, away from the distractions of the house.

Coffees dispatched, it was time to hit the supermarkets. First we went to Esselunga and then on to Lidl - somehow managing to do one of the smallest shops we've done in a long time, despite catering for extra people this week!

With the car full of shopping, our last errand was to drop in at Chris and Sue's to drop off a slightly belated birthday card for Henry. Chris was unfortunately laid up in bed with a bug, but we had a coffee and a long chat with Sue, before leaving and finally setting off for home at just gone 3pm!

By this time, the rain had started to come down in earnest. We unloaded the car running between the raindrops and once inside got straight to heating up some leftover soup for a very late lunch.

After lunch, I washed up then started preparing yet another vat of soup for the freezer, while Stuart lit a fire, brought the puppy cage downstairs in preparation for tomorrow and settled down to do some puppy training research.

Once the soup was bubbling away on the hob, I retired to the office to do my Italian homework - and got so engrossed in it (while Stuart was engrossed in reading up on dog training) that at about 5.50pm, I looked up and suddenly thought GEEEEESE!! Yikes, we had both completely forgotten and not only was it pouring with rain but it was also properly dark. We both quickly put shoes on, grabbed an umbrella and a torch and headed out to Goose Island with some lettuce. The geese seemed a bit perturbed by the torch and almost seemed to be a bit put out that they hadn't had their usual going-to-bed routine. Nevertheless, we managed to get them into their house relatively quickly, then skidded our way back down the wet terrace to the house.

We are hoping for an early night tonight - we are due to collect Jeremy at 9am tomorrow from Lucca, but we have been asked to call the courier at 7am to make sure all is on schedule. The guy from the re-homing centre has called us so many times today to make absolutely sure that we will be in the right place at the right time (they have asked us to arrive early), and has even asked Claudia to meet us so that we actually get to the right place - we will therefore meet her at Frateschi's at 8am tomorrow morning and drive in convoy!

As I write, the wind has really whipped up - a few moments ago we heard an enormous crash and smashing of glass in a particularly vicious gust of wind. Nick has just come up to let us know that one of the large wine vats/bottles outside the apartment has blown over and smashed, so he and Stuart are now out there trying to find shelter for the remaining ones. Nick and Tess had been planning to go out this evening and give Mimmo's porchetta van a try, but the wild weather has put them off, so we're going to throw together a bowl of pasta that we can all share. Let's hope for some calmer weather in the morning!!