I don’t know whether George ever told you about this, but I thought I’d write a little about our morning routine, especially as Mummy brought her camera with her this morning so we have some nice pictures to show as well.

Sometimes the sun comes up first, then the music comes on then Mummy comes and says hello.  Sometimes they happen in a different order, like the music is coming on very quickly after the sun is coming up at the moment and I think will soon overtake it.  Sometimes Mummy comes in before the music starts, but she doesn’t often come in before the sun unless the music is already there.

First she says “Good morning Boys.  How are you today?” although sometimes she apologises for being late and sometimes she says something like,” just a quick bit of feed and no cuddle becuase I’ve got to go out” or something similar but that doesn’t happen too often.  Which is good.  Then she’ll look at us in turn and say hello to us individually, and I’ll look back at her from my grassy hutch and sometimes I just keep my head down so I can carry on sleeping. Or Thinking.  And if we’ve done something odd in the cage overnight like turn over a food bowl or something else she’ll sort us out.  Like she did with Humphrey this morning…

Then she’ll start taking things out of our cage and wake either me or Vic up properly and pick us up and take us for our cuddle.

On a Saturday or Sunday she’ll put us in the weighing bowl and if we need any meds she’ll either do it then or after the cuddle.  We used to have our cuddle sitting on the sofa by our cages but these days we go in the other room and listen to Uncle Simon on the television box. Or watch the racing programme on Saturday.   And we sit on Mummy’s chest or her lap while she drinks her coffee and strokes us and talks to us, and I talk back and tell her what I’ve been thinking or complain about not getting grass yesterday or whatever.  And when it’s time to go back I tell her that too.

I assume all the other boys have much the same sort of cuddle really.  Vic likes his cuddles a lot I know, he likes to snuggle down and keep nice and warm.  Humphrey sometimes gets brushed to make sure his long hair is nice and smooth.  Hec doesn’t take long for his cuddles but I’ve noticed they are getting much longer than they used to be.  It used to be that Mummy would take him out to the other room and you could start counting and wouldn’t have got to 50 before he was back, and that’s in GP counting as well.  These days he’s out for nearly the length of a whole piece of music.

Then after cuddles H&H go on the floor for a run around (Victor sometimes has a short floor run before he comes back but Mummy brings him back before she puts Hec down).  I think they do that because they used to have run time when they had a small cage and Mummy continues because it’s good for them.  If there’s no chance of us going out and Mummy is going to be working she takes Vic and me up to our C&C run after the cuddle so we can potter around up there.

Then Mummy cleans our cages out – we stay up one end while she does the far end, then go down there to munch on the pile of hay that ends up there while she does the rest of the cage.  Then she puts clean bedding in and our fiddlesticks and usually the tunnel as well, and I’ve taught Victor to walk round through everything with me and check the layout is correct, just like I used to do with George.  I miss George, I suppose I always will.

Then the good bit happens!  Breakfast!  Mummy puts down fresh pellets and sometimes extras like a bit of muesli or dried herbs in our bowls, and fresh hay, and then she gives us a slice of cucumber and maybe some sliced carrots and celery sticks or pepper and something else from the fridge and then she picks up the blue box and goes out into the garden to get us some fresh leaves. Mmmmm!  And then we set to with some serious work getting rid of all that and Mummy goes off and comes back in a different set of clothes and makes her own breakfast and takes it to the other room.  Or sometimes if she’s wearing golf clothes (especially if we’ve had a short cuddle) she’ll eat from a bowl standing in front of us and then say good bye and go out.  Otherwise she comes back from the room, checks everything is ok with us and then she goes and gets on with her day work.

And we have a bit of a snooze until elevenses.