ABC Wednesday once more, and there are so many ‘C’s to include – in fact, it’s been a little difficult to decide which ones to leave out!   But first a little puzzle for you.   Where is the ‘C‘ in that picture up there?

Those that have greyhounds will know the answer of course, because the Princess Renie is demonstrating a classic pose known as the ‘cockroach’!  Otherwise known as ‘roaching’, it’s a pose beloved of greyhounds* all over the world.

Yes, greyhounds certainly do love their comfort.  And to this end, without any encouragement at all, they will adopt the use of cushions.

Notice that not only has the Princess laid her elegant head on a convenient cushion, but she has one gently supporting her hind leg, too – and another behind her head, should she decide to roll over and roach.

She isn’t the only one to love cushions.  Jack had a knack for making himself comfortable with them, too.

Aaah, such contentment!  A comfy cushion to cuddle. What more could a dog want?  Well, actually, my little Pirate Jack had another great love in his life.  He was a playful little fellow, and adored his yellow toys. In particular …

Mr Yellow Chicken!  He’d chase that thing around the house, and even wander up the garden with it clutched in his jaws!  Sometimes, he’d even use Mr Chicken as a cushion!

You see, though it used to be thought that dogs could only see in black and white, and shades of grey, this isn’t quite true.  We now know that they do have limited colour vision.  It is poor, compared to ours, though, and the colours they see best are blue at one end of the spectrum, and yellow at the other.  So you see, if you put a red toy on a green carpet, it would be hard for a dog to spot that colour.  But if you put a nice bright yellow toy on a green carpet, well then, it would become quite clear.  Jack had poor sight anyway, being elderly.  He had cataracts, as well as an inflammatory eye condition called episcleritis, so the yellow toys were very helpful to him.

Jack loved all toys though, when he could find them.  Sometimes, he’d cart them all off to his bed.

Quite a collection, huh?  You’ll notice that apart from that red one, they’re all fairly high-visibility toys.  You’ll also notice that one of his favourites – this time the yellow duck – is tucked up under his chin.  Aw, bless!

Renie did play from time to time, but mostly she was the Princess, and confined herself to a few minutes activity here and there before climbing back into her chair.

She loved to be cosily covered with a blanket, when it was cold.  And see that?  Looks like that one was taken at Christmas!

Sometimes, the Princess liked to be completely covered!

And yes, she often slept with her mouth open.  Charming, isn’t it?

So, where was I?  Oh, yes.  The Princess and the Pirate were very good companions.  Here they are in the car -

Quite possibly on their way back from Central Park.

And here they are in the kitchen, companionably watching me cook.

In those days they were quite comfortable walking on the tile, but they both became concerned about it as they got older.

So, what to leave you with today?  Hmm … well, it seems that Sid hasn’t had a look-in, so how about a picture of Sid …

… looking cute!

* And not only greyhounds, of course. I know that other dogs do it, too, and so did our cats!

I don’t know about you people, but I had great fun with last week’s Macro Monday puzzle, partly (no doubt) because I foxed you all! Mwahahahaha!

Well, all except Squirrel Queen, and two others who were very close, anyway. This week I have another quite difficult puzzle for you – at least, I think it is – but I promise I’ll be kinder next time. After all, it’s no fun at all if you don’t feel you have a fighting chance of guessing, and I don’t want you all running off and deserting me, besides which, half the fun of setting a puzzle in the first place is to provide some entertainment for my readers.

So bear with me. I struggled a little to think of something this week, because at the moment I’m struggling to think at all. I’m no longer stuck in the 30 second loop, but I’m a long way from being back to normal. When I saw this, I realised it would make a great picture, but until I was nearly done I didn’t realise that it might be really quite difficult for some, impossible for others.

Take a look. It’s something I found in my kitchen, although it would have been equally at home in the dining room, or even in certain places of recreation and relaxation outside the home entirely.

Let’s see … what clues can I give you that won’t give it away entirely? Well, I’m betting very few of you actually have one of these at home, but if you do, it will be pretty much this size and shape but maybe it will have a different pattern of holes. Those of you who don’t have one might never have seen one – and might not know such a thing even exists – so I’m going to give you two further picture clues showing different angles. If you’re one of these people, and you’re really stuck, you might want to go here.

And if you still have no idea, there’s one more – but this is the very last clue I’m going to give you. Okay?

Now, off you go and wrack your brains, and then come back and start guessing! As usual, I’ll be back here tomorrow to add a link to a picture of the whole thing, and I’ll let you know in the comments what the answer is. Good luck!

Well, here we are on Tuesday evening and no-one has guessed this one correctly – except for Teresa who has seen this item for herself here in my kitchen, and Kat, who hasn’t seen mine, but who definitely knows what it is because she’s seen one on film at the very least – and in the hands of a naked Johnny Depp* too! Thank you, ladies for keeping quiet and not spoiling the game!

So, I guess the rest of you would like to know what it is, huh? OK, then. Go here, and all will be revealed, including the set-up I used to photograph it.

Well, perhaps not quite all, because some of you still won’t know what it is. If you are still curious and/or frustrated, try this link.

Thank you all so much for playing! I promise next week’s image will be a more recognisable item!

* Johnny Depp played Inspector Fred Abberline in the movie ‘From Hell’. At one point, Fred is seen drinking absinthe in the bathtub. Of course, he’s also laced his absinthe with laudanum AND been smoking opium, neither of which are a recommended part of the absinthe ritual, so it’s not surprising that he passed out cold. Do not try this at home!

Forgive me, JD, but your blog is a gift at times like these, and I hope you won’t mind me borrowing your theme.

I wanted to let you all know that quite a lot of the last two days is a complete blank to me, because I had that thing up there: transient global amnesia* – at least, that’s the temporary diagnosis until the neurologist gets his turn with me**. It’s a very interesting and amusing disorder, if it’s not you that’s experiencing it. You should look it up on the Interamanetweb thingy and check it out!

Seems I got out of the shower on Wednesday morning and came downstairs to find OH, and I was panicking and saying things over and over and over again. Things like ‘why is my hair wet’ and ‘why is there toffee?’ and ‘I can’t remember anything!’ and ‘is it nearly Christmas?’. Understandably he was a bit rattled and called an ambulance which took me to the hospital where I was parked on the Acute Assessment Unit. Once there, I continued to ask the same questions over and over again till everyone was ready to tear their hair out – though they were all very patient with me, bless them. Even the other patients in the ward forgave me and smiled at me when I started to come out of it … or maybe that was relief rather than forgiveness?

That piece of paper up there is the list of answers which OH wrote out for me after he’d endured some hours of this, and it was incredibly helpful. To both of us.

So, because my brain is still rather fuzzy, this is a very short post, just to let you all know why I haven’t been able to visit and answer comments.

Hopefully, normal service will be resumed soon, and during the next few days, I will do my best to catch up with the ABC Wednesday comments. Meanwhile, thank you for your patience.

Um. Have I had my tea yet?

* I’ve taken the unusual step of editing this post, because I discovered I’d remembered the name of this thing wrong. Which is quite amusing really, when you think about it!

** I’m now waiting for a consult with a neurologist, a gastroenterologist, and some guy who wants to slice my shoulder open.

For ABC Wednesday this week, we’ll begin with beautiful Sid, balancing on three legs wearing his blue collar and lead set, with matching blue tag collar.  There’s a little boy riding his bicycle over the bumps in the background, but since he’s not a greyhound, we won’t dwell on him.   Lots of ‘B’s in that picture, huh?

It’s actually quite surprising you have a picture of Sid upright, because like most greyhounds, he sleeps a lot.  Sometimes, when he sleeps, his nose bends on the carpet.

It doesn’t seem to bother him at all, though it does tend to make him snore!  I expect what it is, is that he gets worn out with the busy life he leads.

He has to keep his stuffies in line, for one thing.  Here he is on his blue camouflage pattern bed, happily biting his purple lips.

Yep, that’s what that toy is, a set of purple fluffy lips – I think he’s saving the black sheep for later.  And look at the muscles bulging on that front leg!  Could they be his biceps?  I think they might be! 

Sid believes he’s our official food taster.  He loves to benefit from bits of our lunch, which he samples from bowls on the floor.

He’s a good boy, and doesn’t beg, so we don’t mind letting him help out. He just looks at us beseechingly with those big, brown eyes and somehow we seem to give him things.

Of course he does get his own food, though you wouldn’t think it to look at him sometimes.  Occasionally, for a treat, I give him breakfast in bed.

That’s a piece of raw lamb rib, complete with bone.  It’s very good for him to chew on that, and helps to keep his mouth clean too.  But it’s messy, which is why I don’t put them in his bowl. If I did, he’d only drag them out onto the carpet, so I lay an old towel down in front of his bed, and make him lie down before I hand them over, and he’ll eat them there, nice and tidily.

Also, there’s the product testing.   These are his new black boots, especially made for greyhounds, and he’s still getting used to them.

By the time he does so the winter will be over, and then we’ll have to go through the whole process again next year, but we’re still working on it.  I have to take it slowly with Sid you see, because I can’t have him panicking and falling over.  On the other hand, these things were meant to help him to stay upright! Oh, he doesn’t mind wearing them, he just doesn’t want to walk in them.

Did you notice the lovely view of his backbone in that picture?

Anyway.  By the end of the day, Sid is ready for sleep, despite having spent half the day snoozing.  And because I sleep with the window open and the radiator turned down, the poor dog needs pyjamas.  Yes, he really does, or he keeps getting up and staring at me pathetically.  So here is the lovely Sid, in his blue pyjamas.

He does love this bolster bed, but he’ll abandon it the minute I retire, and come and join me in the bedroom. 

Bless him.