My tree

Do you have a tree? 

This is mine. My own personal sycamore. 

OK, in the parallel human universe (see I'm still working on the multiverse hypothesis, Nobel Prize pending), Aberdeen City Council lay claim to the sycamore, which stands in the street directly outside my house.

But in the dog world, the tree belongs to me, no doubt about it. To make sure it stays that way, the first thing I do each morning after breakfast (Gail's and mine) is to rush out the front door and (how to put this delicately?) ensure the base of the trunk is liberally sprayed with all that I have saved up overnight. 

There are other neighbours out there (you know who you are, flat-coated retriever Jake from no. 8, sleek greyhound Marcelle and fellow Westie Jock, both who live just up the road, next door's springer spaniel Molly, to name but a few) who will trespass on my property and leave their mark. 

But I am a terrier, ever vigilant.

A resolution

Prompted by my owner Gail, I've been thinking carefully about a New Year Resolution.

It is just possible that over the course of 2008 there were some trees in Duthie Park that I failed to sniff, and some lampposts in the neighbourhood of Ferryhill against which I never lifted a rear leg. 

Yes this really was most negligent of me, and my resolution for 2009 is to make sure that it doesn't happen again. By the end of the year, I vow that every single vertical post-shaped object within a 1 mile radius of this house will have received my close attentions. My territory will be carefully and diligently kept marked at all times.

Oh. Gail is giving me a 'look'. Apparently this isn't the sort of thing she had in mind at all. 

Well that's just too bad.