A new generation 3

 While waiting I told Kithsiri that I should now get another dog. I had thought about this earlier, but it seemed self-indulgent, but now it had become a necessity if Toby was not to give up his peripatetic existence totally. And then, astonishingly, while I was on my way back, Nigel Hatch called me to ask if I wanted a pair of German Shepherds. The day before I would have reluctantly refused, but now I decided I would take them, not least because they would cost less than what I had saved by not going to Kumana.

I had planned to go to Kandy on the way back from Kumana, to stay with Derrick Nugawela, and to visit Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe, whom I had not seen after his wife died last year. I had cancelled all this when the Kumana stay had been cancelled but, not least because the puppies Nigel said were near Galagedara, I went up to Derrick’s on the Friday. Kithsiri’s wife Vijita came too, to spend that night at her sister’s, but this was a boon because when we collected the puppies next afternoon, after I had lunched with the Bishop, she took charge of them for the return journey.

They did not travel well, for both were sick, in turn, though they were not too incontinent. Kithsiri had come prepared with a cloth which covered the seat, and cleaning up was not too difficult. We were back home when it was still light, and Toby was so delighted to see us, as he always is, that he had no time to show any hostility to the new arrivals.

But they did not realize that his excited barking was from affection, and they panicked, and rushed to hide behind me when I sat on the bench that had been build next to the new garage. And that became a favourite place for them in the days that followed. 

And so Benjy and Lara joined our household. Kithsiri calls the former Mr Benjamin, which I quite like, as I quite liked Mrinali calling Toby Mr Tobias. Lara of course cannot be shortened.

She is an excessively active character, and rouses Benjy at all hours, particular when he is inclined to sleep. Her teeth are very sharp, and occasionally we hear squeals of anguish from him, which I suppose she thinks right and proper since she is his older sister. Toby goes rushing to see what is going on when there seems to be a problem – and he burst into the garden when Benjy managed to fall into a pond and panicked, though he was out in a moment – but there is no lasting damage. And though I too have felt the impact of Lara’s teeth, for she seems to think it necessary to bite me for several minutes before she goes to sleep, she means no harm and rarely does any.

All of which goes to show that, not just being with them, but observing their antics, took up a great amount of my time. The pictures here were all taken in the first week they were with me.