Custard and Frou Frou

The part of the blogosphere that I read has taken a decidedly doggy turn recently, so...

Meet Custard:

Custard is nearly 6 years old and is a bit of a softy.  We got him at the age of 10 weeks, buying him from a local pig farmer.

Meet Frou Frou:

Frou is now 1 year old, is super cute but is also a bit of a tough nut. We bought her from a nearby stables after an exhausting hunt for a puppy - let down by rescue centres and a succession of supposed breeders that we found on the Internet, we eventually tracked her down at a nearby stable.  Mostly but by no means all Yorkie, she is a great little character.

Custard and Frou Frou "play" together quite a lot, and this generally falls into 2 categories:

Play fighting.  Custard laying on the floor like a beached whale with Frou attacking him - nipping his feet, jumping on his head, using him as a bouncy castle.  When she was younger, Frou would put her entire head into Custard's mouth and lick his teeth clean.  This sounds like a bad deal for Custard, but he does seem to have fun - he certainly tells her if she goes too far.

Steal the toy/chew - often started by Custard waving something around in front of Frou to get her attention.  One of them has something that the other one desperately wants - never mind that there are a dozen or so other things littering the floor.  If you have children you will recognise this behaviour.  If Frou gets it she will run rings around Custard with it until he somehow corners her and takes it away, using his far superior strength.  Frou now turns to a couple of strategies.  If Custard remains standing, she alternately grabs at the toy and nips at his toes until either she gets it or he lays down with it and holds it between his paws.  Now she gets subtle and starts turning her back on him, distracting him with her feminine charms.  Once he has taken the bait she backs towards him until she is between his head and the toy, grabs it and is off.  From time to time he stands his ground, refusing to give in, so she goes and finds something else to play with, which usually results her letting him have the new toy while she grabs the original one.

When it comes to chewies, Frou Frou finds them a bit hard at first, so she likes it when Custard has had a go at them first, making them nice and soft for her.  Sometimes Custard will eat a whole chew while Frou waits for him to make it soft - this really annoys her, unless in his haste Custard has swallowed it too soon.  This tends to result in him vomiting the chew back up, ready to be grabbed by the waiting Frou Frou.  Yes, I know that is totally disgusting, but what can you do?  Not so cute now, eh!

At meal times, they have their own bowls but Frou prefers to share Custard's dinner, sneaking mouthfuls of food when his head isn't blocking her way.  She might eat her own food when Custard has finished, but often doesn't.

But they do love each other and are hard to seperate, often sleeping snuggled up together.  Frou also seems to see herself as Custard's bodyguard, standing up to dogs that like to threaten Custard.

So there you have it - our Dynamic Duo!