The Kiss

These are my two fur babies, or dogs if you prefer... The one on the left is called Reiver, after the brigands that lived in the Marshes between Scotland and England and where John thinks he had ancestors... and Millie who is recieving the kiss.. Millie is 2 years old now and so is Reiver. Millie is part staffie and part collie and very very bright and naughty** Reiver is part staffie and part lurcher, so he is larger and is Millie's best friend. We got Millie through friends, and she joined us when she was 3 months old and tiny - so I would have a reason to get out and walk after my knee operations.-.Sasha our old dog was too infirm to take out far, so Millie joined us and I think that the last months of Sasha's life were happy with this new little friend.. When Sasha died, Millie was sad and so when she was almost a year old, Reiver joined us. His background was awful, he was a rescue dog and he had been kept cooped up in a bathroom so small that when he was rescued his back legs were so weak he had to be carried.. He joined us when he was a year old, so he is her big brother now.. He was gentle and quiet and didnt jump up like Mad Millie did, so we thought he would calm her down... well he didn't --the opposite happened--, he followed her lead and thought jumping up was fine and dandy... but he does stop, which she doesn't until she is tired out, and everyone else is too--, she thinks that licking a person all over and jumping and wriggling is the way to greet people, and although she is 2 now, she is still doing it... She doesn't jump as high as she could, before she could jump onto the counters in the kitchen, but she's heavier now, so cannot reach the same heights as before...
#Reiver loves her to bits and often kisses and licks her all over, and as you see in the  picture she accepts it as her due! As if she is the queen of sheba!! These dogs have turned our hearts over and they really are loved... although the other week when Millie found my dentures and crunched them up into little pieces, I would not have said I felt anything but red hot anger at the results!!!!!!!!!!!
She was the only one in the litter that looked like this, her mother was the staffie, and her dad a collie.. the others were all black and white and as that was the colour of Sasha, I thought I would go for different .... Reiver also has staffie colouring, but it is a lot darker, but the gold does show through... he is the most darling of dogs, but does pull a bit... John finds it hard to manage when they are both walked together... he allows them to pull as his arms are stretched out in front... when I take them walking, I make sure my arms never leave my side, so they pull less...

 So this is the kiss that Millie takes as her due, and Reiver gives as her courtier, makes me laugh to look at it again...