Dear Zak,

Themba has gained his half birthday! No more midday meals, he gets what the others get now. That doesn’t mean that he’s slowed down growing. I used to think he wasn’t going to be a big dog and I still don’t think he will be as tall as you but I do think he’ll get to Roxy’s size. We have no idea how heavy he is but he has long ago surpassed Tia – mind you, she is not a heavy dog.

We got a trainer in this week as we were having difficulty getting him to jump into the back of the truck, which he can do easily enough when he feels like it, when we are going somewhere. Coming home is another story; he just sits and looks uninterested. I have taken him to work on two occasions and had to get Fabian to lift him into the cab when it was time to come home. He struggled with the stairs too. Did them once and never again. Not like you – you were so pleased with yourself for working it out (actually, it was Kharma who showed you how) that you kept going up and down them until I called you off.

Now we are using the upturned crate to get him into the truck that we used for both Kharma and you when your cancer got too bad. He’s got the idea and even got into the truck at the Wag Zone on Thursday morning. We’ll see if the trend continues as the trainer said that now he’s becoming a teenager he’s likely to get difficult. A Ridgeback difficult? Never!

Actually he’s pretty good. We had two long recalls at the Wag Zone which we were impressed with. Now I just have to get him used to the idea that not everything is his!

He had his first bone this morning. There’s no real reason we waited this long. We made sure Roxy was not around and Marianne said she did her usual drama queen act; carrying her bone around the house and whining until it was taken away. I did watch Themba in the garden in case he thought of going to see what Tia was up to (she’d have given him plenty of warning to push off) but he was engrossed in his and made a good job of sorting it out. Then we did a tour of the garden where I picked some mealies that he thought he’d like too (above).

We are coming to the end of the rains although there is a bit predicted for later in the day. The fence around the muddy corner of the garden has been taken down and the trees have grown well over your grave so it’s a really shady spot now.

Miss you as always.