Three days, three runners

It'll be an early start in the morning to get us to Taunton well in advance of the 1.00 race. Still, the morning is forecast to be less intimidating than the conditions which we endured today: a very hard frost 'warmed up' rapidly just before dawn so that we were left with the worst of all worlds, ie it was both cold and wet. Rain and temperatures hovering about 1 degree was truly unpleasant, but we're promised drier and milder conditions tomorrow, which should make driving around in the dark less of an ordeal and being at the races, touch wood, rather pleasant. So let's hope that Dr Darcey can rise to the occasion, and then that we can then get good runs on each of the two subsequent days too, with Karma Chameleon backing up at Wolverhampton on Wednesday and Asterisk set to head over to Hereford on Thursday. It'll be a busy three-day period, so let's hope that we have something to show for it. Not, of course, that the horses are the main worry in these conditions - the smaller animals are more the concern. It's hard to get the cats outside at present, which obviously presents problems. It's actually hard enough to get Alamshar out of the radiator bed (pictured at the top of the page), irrespective of whether or not the radiator is turned on. She will leave it to eat, and as she eats a lot that means that Natagora, who is considerably less greedy, is able to nip in there briefly (as you can see). But that, I am afraid, is all that Alamshar will leave the radiator bed for, which means that she has decided that cold wet weather means that urinating indoors is acceptable, which is not good. Natagora, at least, will go outside for brief periods, but not for long enough to get the freshness out of her, which means that she's got plenty of energy left for her favourite Yuletide pastime, which is adventure training in the Christmas tree (pictured). Which is rather sweet, if destructive. Compared to the worries posed by these cats, the dogs are relatively straightforward and will at least go outside for reasonable periods. Gus doesn't really like being rained on, but he doesn't mind getting dirty, so at least he is happy to frolic around as usual, stirring the other dogs into action and checking up that these yearlings have been performing to his satisfaction. So that seemed to be OK as I was thinking that he, our problem child, would at least be getting enough exercise despite the adverse conditions to satisfy his puppyish spirit of adventure. However, that might not be the case, as I found him earlier this evening with the chewed-off end of my mobile phone charger in his mouth, which wasn't a good discovery to make. Still, there should be a day's worth of power in my phone, so I can set off for Taunton in the morning without worrying about the problem. Wednesday's departure for Wolverhampton won't be so early so I might be able to sort something out then. And I'll make sure that Gus gets a good walk around the course at Taunton tomorrow to tire him out. I'll be tired enough come tomorrow evening, so no harm if he is tired too.