My veggie patch was beginning to look very good indeed, and I was now busy preparing a new patch to plant the strawberries by also putting some shading net down where I had removed the soil, as the veggies thrived now that their roots were left in peace.
I had a good laugh the previous night when I went to feed Irma's dogs, as she was singing in George, and would be away for the night.
Karel, Irma's Belgian fiance, as they were not married yet then, and who we called Karel 'Waterpas' (spirit level )because he used his spirit level for everything, and I was in awe when I realised that he even used it to level his veggie patches had gotten some pressed wood and planks, had decided to make a wooden house for Hendrix and Tembi, as he did not much like the dogs all over the house. Irma, a real Heyns when it came to that, her Grandmother having been a Heyns and also crazy about house animals, allowed her dogs the freedom to sleep where they liked, and they each had their favourite chair. But lately poor Tembi had started to smell, as she was now about sixteen years old, but still going strong.
Karel, who apparently never had an animal as a kid, disliked the animals's hair, and Tembi's stench all over the house so the necessarry stuff were bought, and the spirit level brought out!
It took a few days of sawing and hammering, and of course if something was only half a centimeter out, that piece was taken off, and with great patience from Karel, and growing impatience from Irma, who, like me, always jumped in without doing any prep or calculations, and of course always ended up wondering why the intended piece of wonder did not live up to expectations, was sawed or skuured to perfection.
But after some heavy slog and plenty of sweating, the dog house stood proudly in the backyard against the wall, and it certainly made a statement, as not only was it the most perfect thing, but it almost rivalled their own house in size!
I got to their house to feed the dogs at about six that night, and it was raining quite hard, but I had no fear for the dogs's comfort, as the new house was a masterpiece where no rain could penetrate!
What met my eyes was so bizarre that I stood for a minute or two before I took action, as in this new doggy palace, stretched out on the new bedding Irma had put in, completely relaxed and stretched out like bally madam 'le Pompadour', was the ugly Tembi, and turning around to look for Hendrix, I found the poor boy squeezed into a tight ball on the kitchen step, trying to escape the rain.
I soon found out why the poor boy was lying outside in the rain, as when I called him and told him to go into their house, Tembi became a ball of black fury, and with that long and dangerous teeth of hers flashing like sables, I even got scared, and the thought that I might also have preferred to sleep in the rain flashed through my brain! Maybe the old boy just did not see his way out in sleeping with Tembi's flavour!
I decided to put Hendrix in the kitchen and close the inside door, as I could not leave him outside, the rain now coming down heavily, and I don't think the kids would mind that!
The animal world is really so interesting if one look at their view of things, as Tembi in this case was number one in their relationship, and although Hendrix was the male, she ruled him with the iron fist of a real and ferrocious matriarch!