Dear Zak,

We haven’t weighed Themba this week – he is simply too heavy for Marianne to pick up. That makes him over 20kg, so really he’s not a puppy any more. The behaviour is still there though and he has developed an alarming affinity to steal and destroy toilet rolls which are no longer safe on their holders (or anywhere else for that matter). He’s also starting to chew furniture which reminds me of Kim, my first Ridgeback, who chewed some borrowed furniture when I was working in Chinhoyi way back in 1991. I was mortified but fortunately the owner found it funny. I suppose this is just the start of the teething process. He’s lost a few of his milk teeth but I can’t easily see any adult teeth coming through. It doesn’t help that holding him still must be a lot like holding an eel still, nearly impossible.

Since the last blog there has been a few altercations (one sided) with Roxy. I thought she wasn’t herself so we took her off to the vet and yes, she was in pain from the spondylitis in her spine and that was likely making her grouchy. So she’s been on anti-pain medication and CBD oil which helped Kharma so much in her final months. No more punch-ups. So far so good.

The training is coming on well. He can now jump up on a log on command and will leave a treat for a while at least. Not up to your record as yet but he’ll get there. His obsession with food does exceed yours though and is a bit of a problem when it comes to getting him away from the kitchen door at meal times. We are going to have to work on that one as getting past him without him barging through must be controlled. Kharma was of course the Barge Queen!

We got in a slow-feeder bowl from South Africa which has slowed his feeding down considerably but he has not learned to respect other’s food. Last week it was raining at meal time so Tia was given her bowl by the kitchen sink. Themba left his food, ran over to Tia’s, and stuck his nose into her bowl. Unfortunately she did nothing. Roxy, as you found out, would not tolerate that. We haven’t even risked giving out bones on Sundays so far but I’m going to persuade Marianne that we cannot put it off any longer.

I developed the Covid ‘flu this week. The symptoms are relatively mild but I’ve had to isolate into your bedroom. Themba was delighted as he gets to sleep on the bed with me. In the main room we have discouraged that, not least because there will be no room on the bed once he gets big but also Roxy is not keen on sharing her sleeping space. During the day it’s not a problem but night time – no! The downside for me is that he farts a lot. Marianne has been buying chicken “matumbos” i.e. guts, in an effort to reduce the meat bill which is substantial but we’ve decided to give it a break and see if that makes a difference. They smell bad enough when cooking never mind after being processed by Themba. Right now I’m thinking we should have called him BOC or HandiGas.

I was looking at the background photo on my phone this week. Of course it’s of you my boy, looking regal as ever. I wondered if I could ever change it – I certainly don’t have the courage to let you go just yet.

Love you as always.