Last week I had my 1st day alone with Navajo for an entire day, we have now moved over to feeding all of the dogs the raw diet the breeder had used for Navajo and her dogs. It seems a great idea but the actuality of having to handle everything from kidneys to sheep’s ears is a bit much. But 4 times a day I man up, chop veggies and fruit and make some mealy meal and mix it in the meat. The dogs love it! But it is a full time job almost.
Our lives have changed so much since we brought home Navajo. He is a lovely, clever dog but having a puppy, especially such a large lumbering puppy, means that you have to be there for him.

Friday was a public holiday here, and I had lunch plans and was very happy my domestic arrived as I did not expect her too and was in a quandary about what to do with Navajo while I was out. Paying double time was well worth the freedom!!

My friend Mandi and I went for the Women’s Day lunch at Pure at Hout Bay Manor Hotel. I love this venue, the décor is so lovely, the staff are so attentive and the food is always fab. The sun was shining and it was a gorgeous warm day so we chose to sit outside by the pool.

We shared a salad to start, it was just a normal garden salad but a bit fancied up suitable for the venue.

Then for my main I had a fillet steak which came with these fancy wee mushrooms and roasted baby tomatoes and chips. There was a little puddle of the most divine sauce, very intense so only a drop was needed to accentuate the flavour of the beef. It was so tender and just melted in my mouth.

There is a special on during the month of August for cake and coffee for R20. That of course cannot be beaten it is so cheap. On Friday they had lemon meringue, chocolate cheesecake or brownies fresh out of the oven. We had a bit of banter with one of the managers about dessert, I told him that as an American I know my brownies. And outside of the USA they are never quite up to standard. He then tried to convince us to try the homemade olive oil ice cream. We resisted his charms and both ordered the chocolate cheesecake. He did bring us a little taster of the olive oil ice-cream which I did not enjoy – it was like olive oil mixed into butter. I found it very heavy and not to my taste. But the cheesecake was so delicious! We made the right choice there.

It had a thick topping of solid chocolate and was so rich and delicious. It had a bit of coulis – I think it would have been better with a bit more coulis as it was so decadently rich – the sharpness of the coulis lifted it to perfection.

We had a lovely day chatting over a bottle of wine from which is one of my favourite vineyards. My absolute fave wine is their Chardonnay and I do not even usually like Chardonnay as I find it too oaky and heavy. It is completely without any taste of oak and it is crisp and fruity and dry. Pure does not have their Chardonnay but the Sauvignon Blanc was divine.

Saturday we had to run errands and had a dilemma about leaving Navajo so off he went with us. It was a cool day luckily so he was happy enough going out with us. We went to Gabriella’s for breakfast and the staff were brilliant, they brought him a big bowl of water and I bought a treat for him at the pet shop so he was so well behaved. He lay at our feet and watched the world go by. A rather rude woman came past and complained that we had a water bowl for him as she said it should be under the table so no one slips. What a miserable old cow. I wanted to have a go but Norm restrained me.

Instead we enjoyed our Eggs Benedict.

I resorted to shooting her daggers with my eyes instead of using my butter knife as an instrument of death. I am like a mother lion when it comes to my babies.

We had some friends come to visit to meet Navajo that afternoon. It was nice to see them and nice to socialise Navajo a bit. He is still such a baby and I want him to be comfortable around strangers.

On Sunday we had planned to go to the Hout Bay Harbour Market with friends. I have found that lately the market is just too busy to be enjoyable. I can cope with the crowds shopping but if you want to eat or watch the band it is impossible to get a seat, and as there were 6 of us it was nightmarish. We wandered round getting annoyed and then wondered why we even were bothering and went off to The Lookout Deck instead. We got a table right by the window and ordered some cocktails.

The Lookout Deck had a special on crayfish tails. For my non-South African readers, this is not a crawfish, it is the SA equivalent of a lobster. The deal was that you get 1 and a half tails for the price of 1. And it came with butter sauce for dipping and chips or rice.

It was so yummy! The only issue was that 2 of our friends ordered sushi and it was not delivered with the cooked items for the other 4 of us, in fact we 4 had all finished our food and still no sign of their food. This is not acceptable – a table needs to be served at the same time, not in shifts. After we had a word with the manager the sushi not only arrived but was taken off the bill. That was beyond what I had expected and I was very impressed with the professional way the manager dealt with it. Big up to their response when dealing with it.

We had a lovely day and it was great to catch up with our friends. Life is so busy we often just do not make the time to do so.

We are waking up so early now and our routines are built around the dogs – Navajo is being crate trained and he wakes up and tells us he needs to wee, Norm takes him down and outside, then takes him for a long morning walk as he needs so much exercise, then they all settle down for breakfast.

We have had a bit of backlash from people about using crate training, but he was raised sleeping in one and it is familiar to him. Last night we realised he was nowhere to be seen and like a naughty toddler, silence is not golden when they are on the loose! We went upstairs to find him sound asleep in his crate. Obviously the family were too noisy for him to have a snooze in his giant bed in the lounge.

The cats are terrified of Navajo, but there is no need to be. He has never seen a cat in his life before he arrived here and when he did get a glimpse of Blue, Navajo screamed like a little girl and jumped in my lap whimpering. We have had to gently introduce them all to each other and I hope it works.

Navajo torments poor Panda. He nips him on the bum and the ankles and then Panda squeals or snarls and then they do it all over again and again. He slams his giant paw down onto Panda’s head trying to get him to play but Panda is not having it, he does not know what to do with this large beast. Pixie is doing her best to remain dominant; she even defends Panda and will sit between them if Navajo is being particularly obnoxious. However she does play fair and when Navajo whimpers or cries she goes over to comfort him. There are some moments of peace and bonding, or maybe it is just temporary tolerance.

We are hoping that they do bond, that they form a pack and that he will become a brave little soldier to defend us – after all that is why we bought him.