Biscuits

Tobia: "Now they are eating again. As far as I can smell, it's really a delicious but after the tall one moved in no more tidbits tableside. <sigh> I can’t help getting a tad nostalgic about the good old days, when it was just my master and me”

Peggy: “Don’t go in there, you know they’ll kick you out. Do like me: go in there when they are not around.”

Tobia: “And then they come downstairs and you find yourself in a pickle.”

Peggy: “Well, then I take my scolding and that’s it. I don’t sit around sulking for hours like someone else.”

Elections

Tobia: "Have you heard the good news? My master let out a cry when he heard about the elections in Milan, Naples and Trieste. Center-right had lost all! I hope that this means the beginning of the end."

Peggy: "Well, if they did give the vote to dogs, I would of course vote Lega Nord. Let's keep Italy Italian! Or rather, let us keep Padania Italian. I hate to say it but for once I agree with you but also with the women of Italy and with mr Bossi. We have done our duty and we cannot tolerate the behavior of the Dear Leader of PDL."

More rain

Tobia: "I knew something was brewing!"

Peggy: "Sure, sure... but I bet you thought that it was the tea!"

(The music is from the Channel4 "Brideshead Revisited")

Concentration

Tobia: "I don't know what is wrong today, I can't concentrate. I keep drifting, thinking of nothing and to boot I have a great need for caresses."

Peggy: "A willy-nilly if there ever was one, a bit of rain and wind and off you go. Concentrate??? It is that one track mind of yours that needs fixing. Well, I I hadn't really noticed your problems, it is so difficult to see the difference - whether you are concentrating or just staring off in the void!

Friends

Peggy: "Rita's here, Rita's here! Oh dear oh dear oh dear, how are you, what kind of lotion did you put on your legs this morning, where have you been, do you have something edible in that bag oh dear oh dear oh dear, I've been missing you, a lot, really a lot, a big lot! Oh dear oh dear oh dear."

Tobia: "Peggy, really! Let the poor soul alone for a moment, you are really being a nuisance, you know."

Peggy: "Well, who is it that can't see a female without getting excited, and not just females I could add!"

Tobia: "At least I go about it with a bit of style, not dancing around like a fly in a bottle."

Hot

Tobia: "I really must say that this heat is rather too much. And it is only May, I can just imagine what July and August will be like."

Peggy: "Nobody asks you to run around digging holes and barking at lizards! Those things you can do in the morning or late afternoon but not in the middle of the day. 'Mad dogs and Englishmen...' - in this case it is "Mad English Setters"! And just because the weather is hot now doesn't mean that it is going to be hot until September. Anyway, why worry about July, who knows what'll happen anyway. The important thing is to get through the day without too much trouble, having the food and water, you need and perhaps a few caresses...!"

Work load

Tobia: “What is ailing you these days? You keep close to the tall one all the time and when he’s not there you stay glued to my master. It almost seems like you are not feeling well. But then, once we are outside, you keep arguing with the neighbors or barks at anything that might be an intruder.”

Peggy: “I don’t know what is happening, I sense something – agitation, stress, preoccupations – and my instinct tells me that I should stay close to protect in case something happens. You keep talking about your past, your genes but I know that in the mix of my DNA there are both genes of sheep dogs and I need to know that everything is calm, that there are no enemies around and that the people, I protect, are calm.”

Tobia: “I think you are overdoing it just a tad. I mean going into the bathroom with them seems hardly necessary.”

Peggy: "Look who's talking! Who is the one sitting outside the cabin when his master is taking a shower?"

Stormy weather - inside

Tobia: "Did you sleep last night? I heard you moving around quite a lot."

Peggy: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not that soft on them... if they want to throw things down the stairs, slam doors or shout, it's not my problem.
...
But I know it's better to stay out of the way when that happens, you never know what they'll do, I learned that with the family where I stayed before.
And sure enough: this morning the tall one got on my case just because I tried to tell Rocky where she could go. I mean: let's keep things apart: Just because he's upset about something doesn't really give him the right to get angry with everybody, does it?"

Tobia: "Well, you are the one that starts out every morning looking for someone to pounce upon! And you always find someone."

Rest

 

Tobia: "Peggy, are you all right? You look almost like someone taking a rest?"

Peggy: "Very funny, very funny indeed! I've been busy all morning and could use a rest but I don't have time for that, you know. 

I'm not resting, it's just that the tall one has put up some kind of netting that is difficult to see through so I have to look underneath it to keep an eye on the neighbor! Me, resting? Ha!"

Stormy weather

Tobia: "I don't like the rain, even less with a strong wind like that. Why do we have to go outside?"

Peggy: "Haven't you been house trained? do you want to be punished for peeing in the corner?
Before coming here, I stayed with a family... No, I won't even tell you what they did when I made a mess in the house. Let me just tell you that there is a reason why I always run away as soon as I have left my "calling cards" - even now when I never do it the house. The fear doesn't go away." 

Tobia: "Poor little Peggy, here you don't have to worry - come now, I'll go outside with you, even if it's raining cats and dogs."

Double feature

Tobia: “How about that! Two walks today – almost  like the good old days before we moved here, do you remember? Perhaps it is the start of a new era….”

Peggy: "You are not really paying attention, are you? Can’t you see that your master is behaving just like you these days. Staring off in the distance or staying upstairs working. Hardly talking to anybody. That just eats up all the oxygen in a room, if you ask me.

But if it means more walks for us, I don’t really care what is going on. And it seems like you've already forgotten what you told me the other day: It's the season, so it's not going to last!”

Times of trouble

Peggy: "What's all the fuss about? Lights burning at all hours, both of them gone forever and when they finally come back, they go straight upstairs where we - well, rather - where I can't check what they are doing. It is driving me crazy."

Tobia: "It is the season, I think. My master is always like that this time of the year. Don't worry, it will soon be over and then he will have lots of time for us."

Peggy: "We'll see about that. I bet that they have to do so much work now because they were too lazy earlier. And of course we have to pay the price now! That's not right!"

Information overflow

Peggy: "What on earth are you doing there? It's been almost 3 minutes that you are frozen in the same pose. Don't you have anything better to do, or are your three neurons arguing about who is to be in charge?"

Tobia: "But Peggy, it's spring, the air is full of sounds and odors. So much information have to be dealt with... you just can't go running off in all directions, you have to evaluate, concentrate...."

Peggy: "Yes, and in the meantime arrives a hundred new inputs! Might as well get going, you'll have to learn to decide on an incomplete sets of information."

Tobia: "You are repeating yourself, you should know by now that this is the way I am, and you can't change that."

Peggy: "Males!"

Food

Peggy: "Did you see that rabbit's head on the field the other day? Why didn't the tall one let me take it home? I hate to see food go to waste."

Tobia: "You will eat almost anything, won't you?"

Peggy: "Look who is talking! I don't eat salad, oranges or some of the other strange stuff that they eat. And that you, for an even strange reason thinks are edible too, just because they eat it with pleasure."

Tobia: "What about coffee then? I've seen you drinking it, even without sugar..."

Peggy: That's because I need it, I don't really like it but with all the things I have to do, I must stay alert and awake!"

Contemplation

Peggy: "How can you stand there for hours looking at nothing, not moving? That is not being a dog - that's a vegetable!"

Tobia: "Vegetable? No, I guess the word you mean is vegetating."

Peggy: "Smart alec...."

Tobia: "I do like to contemplate the various issues, we are facing everyday. Think about them in detail. Give the thought time to mature and ripen."

Peggy: "And in the meantime the door will be closed and you'll be left out in the rain."

Temper

Peggy: "Where did your so-called English temper go? You've been barking at I don't know what for 5 minutes now. Sooner or later the tall one will come barging out, shouting at us and we'll have to go inside. It'll be all your fault!"
Tobia: "I'm barking at you!!! Can't you see that I am standing two paws away from you and barking in your ear? Why do you keep biting my legs, running after me whenever I want to investigate something, you don't let me near the food if you are not quite finished eating, you keep growling at me if I set paw in you bed, but oh - you can pass through mine when it suits you, you chase away all the prey, I have taken a stand at, you keep running"
Peggy: "OK, OK, I get your point. You just want me to go away, do you! Well, you're missing me as soon as we aren't on the same side of the door."

Long walks

Peggy: "Why on earth are we staying at home two or three days in a row and then suddenly we go for a 3 hours walk? Well, at least he had brought along water. And always those 'stay behind', 'don't pull', 'NO'.... I can't see or smell anything if I stay behind all the time and it's not my fault that he is slower than me!"

Tobia: "I did like the walk today but we could have left earlier, before it got so hot. I didn't even want to take my usual runs on that fenced-in field. And then the long walk home... I kept wishing that my master would call and ask if we wanted to go back in the car.
But I guess we are being ungrateful."

Peggy: "No, not at all, we just want to be treated in a decent way!"