Today is my boy Leo’s sixth birthday—already!!! His daddy Nigel only got to celebrate two of them, but I’m spoiling him enough for both of us—of course. I noticed from my previous posts for Leo’s birthday that there’s always been something about him being clipped: Either he was in the middle of one, just had been, or was about to be. Technically, this year it’s the last two, LOL. Tonight he’ll get extra cuddles and maybe a treat or two. 🙂❤️🐶🎂🥰This year he was much more willing to let me take a photo of him, possibly because he’s used to me taking photos of him all the time. Then, too, he hasn’t been newly shorn, obviously. Of course, there’s more to it.
Last year, I got Leo groomed the day before his birthday, and said about it: “It took months to get this organised, mostly because of delays of various kinds—especially not being able to find a groomer. However, I also was very uneasy about the whole thing precisely because of all the loss over the past three years.” All of that is still true. Also, I’ve taken Leo to that groomer twice, and both times he wasn’t exactly happy about it. If I’m totally honest, I didn’t think the groomer did more than an “okay” job grooming, and, as I said when I talked about Leo’s big outing a couple weeks ago, it seems they didn’t trim his nails as they told they would (I asked when I dropped him off).
Because of all that, I decided to learn to groom Leo myself, as I also talked about a couple weeks ago. I still haven’t actually attempted it, and for silly reasons: I too-well remember him nipping daddy Nigel and me when we tried to groom him, but mostly because—of course!—I’m worried I might hurt him. Even so, I’ve been using the special rounded-end dog scissors to keep the fur immediately around his eyes trimmed so he can see. He seems to actually appreciate that, and I think he may be about ready to trust me to give him a full grooming. Just not today—not on his birthday! Okay, that one is totally on me, but this is basically what I was referring to in the Instagram photo caption: He’d just had his eyes groomed, and the rest is coming soon.
This year is the first of our “now normal”, as I call it: I don’t want to say “new normal” because whatever “normal” is, it keeps changing, and I don’t want to encourage that. This is Leo’s first birthday since his very first in 2018 that marke the end of a year in which no one in the family died—we’ve definitely had a rough ride over the past four years. That means he and I, all that’s left of the family of six we were on his first birthday, survived another year. That’s something to—celebrate sounds kind of weird, but, yeah. Celebrate.
Despite my hesitation to groom him, Leo’s still the same happy little guy he’s always been. He also still loves to sleep on my lap, as he’s been doing since he came to live with us five years ago, and when he isn’t, he’s usually sleeping in one of his many spots not far from wherever I am. He also absolutely loves when we play The Chase Game, in which we take turns chasing each other around the living area. He prefers to play the game inside because he gets a better grip on the carpet, which is good: I’m way too unfit to run around outside. Or, maybe he realises that?
The important thing is that Leo’s still a great companion, an entertainer, and my best buddy. I’m pretty sure I’m all that for him, too. I think his other daddy would agree.
Happy Sixth Birthday, Leo!
Related:
Leo is five – 2022
Leo is three – 2021
Leo is three – 2020
Leo is two – 2019
Leo is one year old – 2018
Another new addition
All blog posts tagged “Leo” – All the posts in which I’ve talked about him
Today is also the first day of meteorological winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Leo had a better day than that would imply.
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