It’s the start of October and fortunately it’s still wonderfully warm. Our neighbours kindly give us their old water tank, which Linda cuts a hole in to make a fabulous, large, watertight kennel. The puppies think this is enormous fun and scrabble about in it, barking gleefully. Unfortunately, we’ve forgotten that our next-door neighbours arrived in the wee hours of the morning for a desperately needed holiday as they’re having a terribly stressful time. They’re furious at the noise – fair enough – though unsurprisingly their shouting at the puppies to shut up doesn’t quite work. Linda heads round to apologise and explain how we’re stressed too, and this is absolutely not what we planned or wanted. All seems fine until we hear them going round the other neighbours trying to whip up some sort of rabble against us. No idea what their idea is – or if they have one – but luckily no one else is playing. Thank heavens we are blessed with other wonderful neighbours. A couple with an olive farm down the road kindly offer a shelter where we can keep the puppies until our stressed neighbours leave. We pop in to feed and play with the pups twice a day, and they are constantly entertained by all the chickens and cats around!, but it feels a bit mean. It’s a really sh*t time, so here are some bottoms.