Two Years On

I can't pretend otherwise.... I am a good looking boy!  This is to celebrate TWO years with Mum and Dad - where has the time gone???

New family member!

In the autumn the humans kept talking about a baby.   Not sure what one of those is - thought I was Mum's baby, so I must have got it wrong.   Anyway, things all got somewhat fraught on the 5th of December.   Apparently, on January 22nd 2017,  a new little human called Holly was supposed to go to live with Dee and my playmate Mike (is he my brother??  He says my Mum and Dad are his Mum and Dad too).  Holly, however, decided to arrive early on 5th Dec.   This seemed to cause quite a lot of concern but all seems fine.  It was a long time before I got to meet her though and she didn't want to play with me. because she was really tiny and too weak.  I thought she smelled nice though and I whispered in her ear that we'd play when she was bigger and stronger.

Mike seems to love Holly like he loves me! He's great!  I can't wait till she's big enough to be my new playmate!

New home

We got back from the funny narrow boat and I was totally confused.  We didn't go home.  We went to a different house.  Mum said this is now "home".   I explored. It smelled funny (need to find some fox poo to rectify that!).  Oh well. I'm happy wherever Mum and Dad are.

Actually it's not bad, cos I have my own room with the boiler in it - cosy!  This is it before it got decorated and my bed went in that corner.

Dad's been gardening - I offered to help but he declined.  No idea why.

A funny shaped boat!

So, it's September, Mum mentioned the "B" word.... another boat trip, yippee!!  This was an extra, she said and it'd be different. Yeah, ok, whatever, I'm up for it!

We arrived and I couldn't believe it, oh my.... how marvellous, my mate Oscar Baxter was there with his Mum and Dad!

It sure was a funny shaped boat, all long and narrow ... that must be why mum said it was a narrow boat.  She's good at stating the blinking obvious!  

This is me with Dad and Ros, Oscar B's mum.   His dad was driving the boat right from the back, outside.  I don't know why but we dogs weren't allowed up there with him.

Have you ever seen blackberries like it?  Mum and I picked loads on our morning walk one day.  She put hers in a bag, I just ate mine. Some were a bit prickly.

Ok, so this is the Llangollen canal, it's at a place called Chirk.  What you can see in the background is an aquaduct - bit scary I must say.

There was a very sad bit of this holiday. Partway through Dad had to go home because of his work.  Mum walked him to the train (I wanted to go too, but she said it wasn't a steam train so I wouldn't be interested).   Then when she came back Mum's eyes kept leaking so I kept close to her and hugged her. I missed Dad so much too.

Eventually we got up to Llangollen and in the very early morning Mum and I walked all the way on up to Horseshoe Falls.  She read out the information so I could remember it and write it down here.

This is where the canal starts!  It's really the River Dee, but the falls were created to divert some river water down a man-made channel called a canal - clever stuff!

Summer highs and lows

I told you about the Haxey Trial, didn't I??? I am a clever boy and that is official!

Mum had to spend lots of time away from home working - not so good.  Me and Dad had some fun times but we did miss her.

A tip for hot dogs

At the Rally Trial in Haxey it was really hot - fine for the humans but we poor dogs cannot remove our fur coats.  One of the other people gave me a tip - lie in the shade covered with a wet towel!  I quite liked lying half on and half under it.

Mum was really pleased with me because I can now settle politely with other dogs - see the evidence!

More holiday!

Mum tells me loads of things and expects me to understand them all.    She explained to me that she keeps going missing to do this stuff called work because it provides dog food.   Sounds a good plan to me.  She also said it gives money (can I eat that?) for holidays, but she has to go lots of days to earn days off.  Then it got complicated.  Seems last year she could have had two more weeks off but didn't (Why?  I don't really understand).  The bonus is this year she can have extra time and more holidays.   YAY!

"So, Oz, fancy another boat trip?" she asks
"Are you crazy - hell yeah!!"

"Got you a new life jacket for it...."
"WHAT?  Why do I have to have one of them?  Makes me look a right ....."

"Okay okay, enough!   It's because your common sense isn't always functioning and you might fall in the blinking water young man!" comes the patronising answer.
"Yeah right, but I can swim, and it's fun".

"Look", she says a bit more patiently, "rivers are dangerous, they move fast, they have weeds in, they have bits of gawd knows what hiding under water.  Some poor little doggies have drowned 'cos they had no lifejacket - they slipped, fell in and got carried away all on their own and got more and more tired and couldn't get to the bank to get out.   Life jackets help you stay afloat, let people see you and also help people lift you out of the water.  Got it?   Oh and if you want to mess about in the water where it's safe, if you wear the jacket I'll let you!"

Ah, light dawns - she loves me and wants me safe....ok!