My friend Boris

Hello hello!

Can you believe it's Christmas already? Time just flies and before you know it another year has gone by. We are bracing ourselves for a challenging year in 2009. I hear everyone talk about global financial trouble, terrorist threats in India scaring tourists off and I fear this means that we won't see as many new faces at the centre as we're used to and that makes me really sad.

I have my own personal challenge to face with my 'friend' Boris. Boris was abandoned outside the gates of International Animal Rescue in August and was admitted to be sterilised and then put up for adoption. He was in the kennels for ages and gained the sympathy of all the volunteers so when no one had adopted him after a while they convinced the staff to make him a centre dog. That's where the challenge started as far as I'm concerned! Boris very quickly decided that he wanted to be the leader of the pack around here and subsequently he gave the rest of us loads of grief. Sometimes he’d even attack us for no apparent reason! I tried to put him in his place a couple of times but with no back up from the others I soon had to realise that he's much stronger than me and back down. Even Tina, who normally is the last one to approve of a new arrival – if indeed she ever does! – has accepted him and has sometimes even been seen succumbing to his verbal warnings for her to back off.

Three months on and we've all come to accept that Boris isn't going to give up on his claim to the top position in the hierarchy and I must admit that he seems to have mellowed a bit. He can be quite fun sometimes actually because he's very clever and knows lots of tricks on how to chase stray cattle or monkeys for a thrill! He climbs up on the surgery roof and cuts off the path of the monkeys and it's so much fun to watch the monkeys trying to escape his attention so they can get through. He's too smart for them though. These little games have us all up and running and we have a great time. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that although Boris can be a bit of a handful to deal with at times, he’s also livened things up a bit around here, which I guess isn't such a bad thing.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I look forward to staying in touch with you all in 2009!

Bye for now!