It has been a long time since I posted. Pootle Flump and Orion Pax have a new house, which is bigger and keeps me busy on my guard duties. We have however swollen the ranks of the Elephant Guard with the addition of Rescue Elephant who was a gift from sally_maria when he was going to be thrown away.

Orion Pax and Pootle Flump have recently introduced me to two little lion cubs called Brandy and Ginger. They are very tiny and are a little bit naughty but now I have shown them the ropes they are behaving themselves a bit more. Pootle Flump likes to cuddle them but they have to stay downstairs so I am not worried about my status.

This weekend we had a lovely visit to Wolverhampton. There are no wolves there, but there are some lovely people for me to get reacquainted with:



There was also a Very Small Person there. Her name is na_quis and she is about the same age as Pootle Flump was when she met. We got on very well indeed, and I was sad to leave but Orion Pax was worried about whether I would be able to come back at all! Pootle says that they might take na'quis to see some of the other lions at the safari park and I am sure she would like that.

Pootle Flump and I have our birthday today. She is one year older than me exactly. She went to see Mother and Father Flump this evening while I guarded the pretty flowers that Orion Pax sent her. When she came back she brought a new knitted toy with her.



I am not quite sure what to make of him. Pootle Flump says he will behave, but I hope he does not exterminate any of the elephants.

Pootle Flump and I went away this weekend to see some of her friends. She says the journeys both ways were fine but I wouldn't know as I was squished into a suitcase. I think I preferred it when Orion Pax rescued me from Plymouth and gave me my own seat on the train but I'm glad I wasn't left behind this time in order for him to do that.

I had to guard the room so I didn't go to the main events which were a big important meeting in which Pootle Flump says she signed away all her free time. I hope that doesn't include time she spends cuddling me. I was on guard duty right through dinner, but after that lots of people came to visit me and one of them brought carrot sticks, which are one of my Very Favourite Foods. I went and sat with some new people for a while which was fun, and Pootle Flump told everyone my story about the animals and the carrot stew. It was a fun weekend.

Yesterday I got my first ever Christmas present! Normally Pootle Flump likes to share her presents with me, and that is especially nice this year as I have been enjoying the nice new duvet that she and Orion Pax were given when they got married. Yesterday though we went to see my friend herring_le_chat (along with emperor and atreic who I like very much - atreic is especially cuddly) and Herring gave me a very lovely present of some lion erasers who were designed to look just like me. I suppose he had them made especially, the likeness is startling.

Apparently they don't know my story, so I will have to find a copy of the book to send them. Pootle says she will show them her copy when they come around here, but it's too battered to take out of the house.

On Tuesday Pootle Flump and I went to a place called Plymouth to meet Orion Pax who was coming home. We went to the nice hotel where we stayed when he went away, and Pootle didn't sleep very well so I had to stay up with her. That happens a lot and I just sleep after she gets up, but this time I was snoozing under the duvet and the next thing I knew there was a strange woman there. She picked me up and put me in a box, and I was very frightened. I thought that Pootle didn't want me now Orion was back. Then a woman came and looked at me, put a tag round my neck and went away again. I remember hearing about Paddington so I thought I would be sent away too. It was very scary.

The next day no-one came to talk to me for a while, then I heard someone asking for a lion and they came and fetched me. It was Orion Pax! I was so happy to see him and he told me that Pootle had been crying lots and was very scared that I would be gone forever. She had to make something called favours so he came to get me. Normally I travel inside a bag but Orion let me sit on the train and look out the window. It was lots of fun, although a lady called me a teddy bear which was quite insulting.

We found Pootle at the Flump House, she gave me lots of hugs and promised never to leave me behind again. I'm being a neck pillow again for her but it's nice because I know where she is and I feel safe. I thought an Adventure would be fun, but I have decided not to have any more. At least for a while.

I was very pleased today that Pootle Flump came home early, as I got extra cuddles. She says she will be at home for the next week, so I will be looking after her.

Since my surgery Pootle has been very pleased that I can sit up on my own, but now she has discovered that I make a good neck pillow for watching the TV while in bed. She's watching a scary film about soldiers and werewolves, and I am rather squashed.

Pootle Flump took me to Oxonmoot this year, like she always does, but this time she was sharing a room with her friend sally_maria I got to see some people as well as doing my usual duty of guarding the room. It was nice to meet some of her friends and I got to wear a very good hat. I didn't go to her party because she was worried about me being too tired the next day and also of getting hurt but in the end it was Pootle Flump who was too tired the next day and I had to look after her. Sally_maria helped, she's very nice. Pootle is very tired now too but can't sleep, which is making her a bit silly. She is a much happier Flump than she has been though, which means I am a very happy Lion. I hope Orion Pax is pleased that I have done my guard duty properly.

Pootle is getting very excited because Orion Pax is coming home soon. I am also excited because I like him, although he posts me with the oliphaunt guard in their base camp on top of the wardrobe sometimes. I was a bit confused though because if Pootle Flump is going to marry Orion Pax then will she become Pootle Pax? And then she told me that he has been given a medal, which is a special shiny thing that goes on his chest, which I thought might mean that he has become Optimus Prime, in which case she will be Pootle Prime and he will be much taller. Pootle said I was being silly though and I could keep calling her Pootle Flump, which is good because that's what I've always called her and I am very easily confused. I thought he might like to be Orion Flump but Pootle just laughed and cuddled me, which I think is a nice way of saying no he wouldn't.

Pootle Flump has been crying a lot recently. Sometimes she cries because Orion Pax isn't here, and I understand that and know how to fix it, and sometimes she cries because of sad things in the news, and sometimes she cries for no reason and then she gets very cross with herself for being a wuss. I'm not sure how to fix it when that happens. She said she has been crying a lot at work, and she saw Mother Flump yesterday and cried then, and she cried after she saw Posie Flump last week and she sometimes cries for no reason at all. Pootle gets especially cross when she cries at work, although she has told them that it's a symptom and can they please not be bothered about it. I didn't understand what she meant, exactly, but Pootle told me that some people have things happen that make them cry, and then they can get sick and it looks like the same way Pootle is sick. Someone at work is sick like that at the moment, because she has had too much to cry about. Pootle says it's the other way around for her, and she cries because she is sick and it's the sickness making her cry, although it looks like the other things might be making her cry. I don't know if some things a long time ago made her cry and that made her sick, or if she just got sick and that's what started her crying. It's all a bit confusing really, although I think that makes Pootle cry sometimes as well because she knows why she cries and when the things she is thinking are wrong, but she can't make it right. I think last year it was a bit different and she couldn't see that things were wrong, but she says when that happened she had something that people call a breakdown where her head wasn't working properly and everything was a bit wonky. I can understand that because before my surgery last year I didn't have enough stuffing left to hold my head up so I was wonky all the time. Although that might not be what she means.

Pootle is going to bed now so I will go and look after her for a bit. I am a bit worried about being usurped because Olly is already there - Pootle microwaved him so he is warming up the bed, and when he's microwaved he smells of lavender which will help her sleep. I am still a bit suspicious of penguins that you can put in the microwave, so I will stay on guard duty tonight, just in case.

Welcome back to the New Adventures of Tawny Scrawny and Pootle Flump. The old adventures are gone, which is a bit sad but Pootle Flump said she would like for the last few months to be put behind us so maybe that's a good thing. We meant to bring them back but Orion Pax kept coming back and going away and coming back and going away and confusing me exceedingly, but anyway we forgot to rebuild the page. Now it is shiny and new though and I will have fun making new posts.

Pootle Flump is doing better than she was when I last posted. She has been put on a waiting list for some therapy which is sadly going to be about six months. In the meantime she is taking pills that make her a bit better. She's not keen on pills but I growl every time she thinks about not taking them and so far it is working. She also has a book about the therapy that she will have which will help tide her over. Unfortunately at the moment she is more interested in reading the three new books she got at the weekend about hobbits and someone called Tolkien, but at least if she's reading those she should be happy. Orion Pax has gone away for a long time on the Ark but he left me in charge of looking after Pootle and the Oliphaunt Guard are a great help. I'm sure things will be fine.