I've been here before you know. Back in 1999 the Cherub had his First Day at School. It was a big and momentous event, and I'm not saying it was easy for either first born or doting mother.

Yeah, and here we go again.

I'm going back to work. Full Time. And this means Day Care for the youngest - Ned Dog.
Should be easy. I mean I've been through this before, and, as Sensible Self would point out he's, well he's a dog, come on. But being a Collie and all, puts him about half way between child and dog. Apparently they have the same reasoning abilities as a three year old human, though I reckon they have the edge on three year old humans for pester power.. and Ned and I have spent a lot of quality time together lately.

Anyway, with my first day at work looming, this afternoon we were off to Doggie Day Care; a renowned centre of Canine Learning, run by South African Ned (a human Ned? the omens are good). And here we are again. First Day Visiting the New School and Macy doing her best to sell this idea to new recruit.

My youngest gets to see the institution's facilities, the dog run, the agility training yard, and the pen where the other 30 of his classmates are kept.
He is intimidated.
He cowers.

Ned is introduced to a couple of the less noisy dogs - Misty and Fern are let out of the pen to "make friends". He's coping dogfully, but still prefers to cling to my side. This is bringing back painful memories.
There are a couple of dog toys around. Look Ned! Toys! I throw one of the balls, and create a scrum of fur and teeth at the other side of the pen.
Ned goes off the idea of toys.....

We then introduce Ned to a couple of the other dogs. Oh here's Bruno, here's Fritz! Let's meet them...
Ah wait....my dog is not meeting his new friends: he's - well he's crapping in the corner.

THAT never happened last time round with Cherub!

Look I took him up Craigie hill to make up for it... at least with his limited verbal skills, I don't have to explain to him that he's going back for half a day tomorrow.