Another addition to the family

We have a new member of the family ..... well not really new ... more like returning.

Jess has recently had lots of things going on in her life ..... not all bad ..... just hectic and she was finding it hard to cope with 2 energetic dogs, Kovu, her pregnancy and managing working too.

So after much heartache she felt that she would have to give her dogs away .... thinking that would be best for them. Thankfully, at the same time as she was thinking this .... Dan was considering getting a puppy and had already asked Greg and I how we would feel about this, as he still lives at home.

We were a little cautious about this as (and those of you who read the blog regularly will know) Harley is not exactly sociable with other dogs!

We had been through a similar situation before, introducing a new dog to the house, that just didn't work out at all. We had gone to a re-homing organisation (and I do think they do a wonderful job so this is not a reflection on them) where we met a very boisterous terrier and he immediately warmed to us.

Now whilst I am not criticising the re-homing organisation as such, I will criticise the person whom we dealt with. I explained that we already had 1 dog (Billie) who was still quite young and this was why we were looking for another dog, as a companion for her. Greg also emphasised that we had a cat, who was the boss. Oh and 3 teenagers too !

This lady had absolutely no interest in the rest of the household ...... had no inclination to engage with us in that sort of conversation which I did find surprising. She did reassure us that this dog was friendly with the other dogs in the kennels and that was as far as her concern went.

We duly paid our £100 and took "Bobby" home.

DISASTER ! 

We had him on  a lead and as we walked in he and Billie gingerly sniffed around each other. They did seem fine although Billie appeared a little nervous. We took Bobby off the lead and all seemed quiet for a few minutes until he spotted the cat ............. I had never seen Scamp move so fast or jump so quickly up the stairs and onto the window sill of the landing . Scamp instantly knew this dog was not cat friendly. Bobby was snarling, growling and desperate to get to Scamp ... with Scamp hissing back at him wondering what chaos we had brought into his home!

We decided to call the lady to explain that we were happy to see how it all went overnight but that it did not feel right ..... including the fact that by now, Billie had hidden under my desk to keep out of the way!

The answer she gave is one I was horrified at and will never forget - and since have repeated this to anyone using her services - "well you could always get rid of the cat" !!!!!!!

I informed her that the cat was here first and, on looking to home a dog, we specifically asked her that question around the dog's sociability. She did not seem happy!

We duly kept Bobby overnight and repeatedly and gently tried to re-introduce him to Billie who by now had decided she wanted nothing to do with the "intruder". We had a couple of further attempts to get both Bobby and Scamp in the same room and it clearly was not happening.

In the morning, Greg and I took Bobby back to the lady's house, reluctantly. Her main concern was that she did not want to give us our £100 back - thankfully in the contract we signed there is a trial period - and I guess it helped that my husband became a little intimidating - particularly reiterating that we had asked about the dog's history and she had been reluctant to go into detail.

So we were lucky I guess that when we got Harley, as a young pup, he had only known a harsh beginning (Greg got him from the traveller's site) and, as a pup, he was easier to integrate, immediately accepting that Scamp was boss! 

Of course then he and Billie mated, had 5 puppies and 2 of those puppies remained with us (Kenzi and Ruby).

Then, when they other dogs all moved out with Jess and Gina moving from home, he only had Scamp as his companion, and since Scamp's death he has become more unsociable to most other dogs except Billie and Kenzi. 

So Dan's request for a dog seemed fraught with challenges .......... until Jess's dilemma arose and a very obvious solution appeared ! 

We took Kenzi (or rather Dan did) and Jess was able to keep Billie (one dog/half the worry)

Harley has already calmed down again - he and Kenzi are best buddies, and there had been no need to worry about the unknown factor of how they would get along ! A peaceful, harmonious home.

All you need is love ...... and a dog (or 2!)

The Tax System from an Economics Professor's Perspective

Loved this so much I thought I would share on my blog ...........

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100...
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7..
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.

So, that's what they decided to do..

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by £20". Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.

So the first four men were unaffected.

They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men?
The paying customers?

How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realised that £20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).

The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33% saving).

The seventh now paid £5 instead of £7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% saving).

The ninth now paid £14 instead of £18 (22% saving).

The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a pound out of the £20 saving," declared the sixth man.

He pointed to the tenth man,"but he got £10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a pound too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"

"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get £10 back, when I got only £2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works.

The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.

In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible

Procrastination

I have several jobs on my to do list ....... and I have been procrastinating ... AGAIN !

I am definitely the queen of procrastination ..... I even went onto a site that gives tips on how to avoid procrastination ..... rather than actually DO what I was supposed to do !!!

The site gave all the usual advice ... like 

1. "make a list" !!!           I had to stop myself laughing - I have a list for EVERYTHING!

It suggested that if the list itself didn't help .... 

2. to re-order the list ........ hahaha !!             I have categories and sub categories on my list  and spreadsheets to re-order items on a regular basis !

3. Reflect on the important things ... the priorities ...... yep ... got that one down to a fine art too .... I regularly read and re-read the jar/pebbles/sand/coffee lecture.

4. Avoid the computer .....yeah right !!!        I know the computer is a HUGE waste of time .... you intend to read a couple of emails and an hour later you find you are still staring at the screen ....replying to tweets or Facebook statuses .... but sorry ... I don't want to avoid the computer ....I LIKE my little netbook. 

HOWEVER ...... I am going to put the netbook down and take advantage of the sunshine .... I'm going to take the dogs for a walk ..... OK ... so it still means the jobs aren't going to get done ..... but I think this is a  a very good excuse ........ so that's the BEST way of procrastinating ...... in my mind at least !!!