If You Go Down To The Woods Today...

Just put your paw into the sleeve!

Today I took Alfie for his first visit to the woods. I’ve been promising to take him, but the weather’s been rather wet and it’s been very muddy under paw, so we decided to wait till it dried out a bit. He’s been very impatient to get out, of course, and I’ve been just as impatient to take him, and eager to see his face when he would get his first look at the trees. They are massive, and there are a lot of them. He was so impatient to get out of the door he couldn’t get his paw properly into his jacket sleeve, but I managed to corral him on the window-sill (we hang out there a lot) and get him properly dressed for inspection before we were allowed out. The woods aren’t very far away, and it was just a pleasant walk to get to them. Alfie hasn’t been out of the house since he got here, so he was fascinated by everything around him. He wanted to look in detail at every Christmas tree in every window, and I had to keep tugging at his sleeve to get him past the houses. Can you imagine what would have happened if one of the people in the houses had looked out of a window and seen two bears peering in at them? Yes, me too. I don’t think we’d ever have been allowed out on our own again. 

Race you to the top!

I got him down the road eventually, and he stood and gazed up in wonder at the ancient, massive trees. “Has anyone ever climbed all of them?” he asked in wonder. I had to hide a giggle as I pointed out I’ll be surprised if anyone has even counted them, let alone climbed them. We made a start on a couple of them - not the tallest, as it’s still getting dark quite early and I’d promised we’d be back before then. We had a lovely time, and found a convenient place to sit for a while and watch the river flowing by, a long, long way below - the woods are on quite a steep slope, so even in a fairly small tree you can look down and feel as if you’re way up in the clouds! There was only one small disappointment - we’d forgotten to bring the picnic basket! Its contents weren’t wasted, of course, because when we got back we took it underneath the dressing-table (another of our hang-outs) and had our picnic there. 

OK, OK - who forgot the picnic basket??

Something else really exciting has happened, too - Alfie and I have been invited to a pawty at Culzean Castle In Scotland on New Year’s Eve! Now, to be fair, I ought to say that all anipals, including bears, stuffies, plushies and even their humans, are invited, too, but just try telling Alfie that. It’s his very first pawty, and he couldn’t be more excited! My first pawty was just before Christmas at #FurryTails, and I loved it, so I’ve got a pretty good idea of how he’s feeling. The upcoming pawty is a special edition of #caykclub and it’s hosted by @mogsbear, so it’s bound to be a lot of fun, and there’s obviously going to be the very best of food. Alfie says he isn’t going to eat all day to make sure he has plenty of room for cayk, but I’ll believe that when I see it. Going without food all day, I mean, not having plenty of room for cayk. Alfie always has room for cayk. Anyway, the pawty is at 10pm UK time. If you’re in the EST time zone, that’s 5pm, 4pm in CST, 3pm Mountain Time and 2pm Pacific. Hope to see you there!