Paper hats and wooden swords

Here is a minor write up of the weekend news so far. The experiment, getting Sophie and Totto together has worked out well. In spite of his initial antagonism, he has accepted her and they are together in the garden during the day and in the house at night. This morning they were in full throat for the morning chorus and together. If you have never seen Howlers making their call you won’t really understand. The head is shaken and the sound literally thrown out. I have not yet determined what the sleeping arrangements are but more on that as the news come in. This is a great relief to me because of my concern about Totto’s loneliness. Clearly, I was more worried about it than he was.

This evening was another first. We gave Mañiña freedom to wander over the whole house. Now there is no denying that this has been chaotic. He raced around exploring everything, whilst we are in the kitchen trying to prepare a meal. Nothing has been sacred. Pots have been flying and David threw up his hands in horror as one of his cloisonné vases hit the floor. Fortunately no real damage was done.
This was the first time; MonaLisa, Mañiña, Imanol and Rosita have been together. They played hard; in particular, Imanol puffed himself up to nearly twice his normal size and pretended that he was a big monkey. Paper hats and wooden swords Mañiña showed he was a gentleman and excused the bad manners of the younger ones. And did I notice some deference that he paid to MonaLisa?
Rosita really came alive today. She made it almost impossible for me to type this post. Jumping on the keyboard and eating my files. She is going to be a real handful.

As dinner was served, Mañiña joined the others in the meal. It’s a competition. Who can snatch the most off my plate before I yell. Then afterwards, they lounge comfortably on the sofa as bedtime approaches.
Our Photograph shows Sophie and Totto in their garden