Paws For Thought

So the White House has a new resident - a Portuguese Water Dog [no I had never heard of this breed either]

Malia and Sasha have named him BO [and there was me thinking it was Dad and Mum who were called BO and MO!] The first news report I heard said he was originally called Charlie [which our family believe to be the best name for a dog!] but that fact has disappeared from the airwaves now.

Apparently PWD are wonderful, house trained animals who do not shed dog hair.

This one, although not from a Shelter [the Obama's original plan] was "pre-owned" but didn't get on at his last home! [were they Republicans?]

I have spent a fair bit of today vacuuming and also shampooing carpets. Our poor old dog does not have PWD characteristics!

Now I know that they use Sebo vacuum cleaners like mine in the White House, because that used to be stated on the adverts. And Sebos are very good at collecting dog hair. In twelve years my trusty model has never let me down.

If you go to our local Tip, they have all the discarded vacuums lined up - rank upon rank of Hoover, Dyson and Electrolux - but I have never seen a Sebo there, which must prove something about the quality of the engineering.

I do not know if Mrs O has a carpet shampooer, but I guess her Mum may have brought one with her when she moved in to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Mine is a Vax Rapide and it is very good. However wonderfully house trained Bo is, the Obamas will need one of these sometime!

I got mine when they were on offer in the Cash'nCarry and we were expecting important visitors. It worked out at half the price of hiring a Rug Doctor and it's still going strong years later.

Two useful tips if you are ever shampooing a carpet [which they do not put in the Vax handbook ]

1. Wear earplugs - it is an incredibly noisy occupation
2. Do it barefoot - it is by far the easiest way to check you have covered the whole area with shampoo and sucked it all up again!

I know that some people prefer it if visitors remove their outdoor shoes, but I am never comfortable with asking guests to do that. And I cannot imagine that when HM next drops in on Michelle, the First Lady will say "Oh Elizabeth, could you take off those shoes please? I am sure I saw you on TV last week wearing them when you were tramping round your estate at Sandringham!"