Wet Days

Today is a wet and miserable day.  

Heidi and I are curled up on the couches sulking.
Mum has absolutely refused to do anything about the wet weather. Dad has absolutely refused to get out of bed.
He claims to have something called 'Man Flu'.  This is something that causes him to kick Heidi off the big bed every time she hops up there. Heidi tried to inform him that she was there in her capacity as Assistant Comfort Director, but he just snorted rudely at her.  I tried a toe lick, which he normally accepts with good grace, but was advised to remove myself from his presence immediately.
So we have joined Mum in the living room.  She coffee. We have been issued with treats, but that has not calmed our wet weather sulking.

Wet weather makes life difficult for dogs.  

One has to be extremely quick when taking care of business in the back yard.

One cannot spend a peaceful ten minutes digging around the palm trees or barking at Otto the Rat who lives on the other side of the fence.

One has to have one's paws dried every time one re-enters the house.  This is particularly vexing for HoHo.  She does not appreciate her paws being touched.

One cannot perform one's security patrols to ensure that the property is not being invaded by vicious, spitting, snarling pussycats.  Even Kahlua, our exotic Burmese feline neighbour with whom we have a mutual avoidance arrangement, has retreated to the top of a bookshelf in his lounge room.

One has to deal with cooler temperatures. This is being exaggerated for us today, as we spent yesterday being bathed and clipped by Miss Anna at the dog spa.  She cheerfully removed the woolly suits that we had been wearing for the past couple of months.  Now one is a Skinny Minnie instead of Big Blonde Dog.  Brrr.


We will continue to lie here on our couches, curled in tight, tight circles until the weather gods deign to return the sun to the sky, thus allowing normal activities to resume.


Yours Sulkily,
Skinny Minnie (aka BBD).

Deep Disgrace

Oh dear, apparently I am a disgrace.  I have been thus informed by both Mum and Dad.

Over the weekend I was on my usual patrol of the house, looking for potential threats to the well-being of my humans, when I happened upon an odd-looking thing.

It was one of these.  It was sitting on the little table beside the big bed where Mum and Dad sleep. 

I looked at it and had a sniff.  It smelled of Dad's face.  I decided it was a face-sucking- off creature. 

It seemed to be me that this was something to be either eaten or completely destroyed.....or maybe both.

So I took it outside.

And pulled it to pieces.

And chewed it up.

And ate most of it.

On Saturday Mum and Dad were very upset because they couldn't find the funny-looking thing.

They hunted all over the bedroom, all over the house, behind the palm trees and in the garage. 

I said nothing.  

  Heidi retreated to her bed while they were searching. She said I was going to be in big trouble.

That made no sense to me.  Had I not removed a deadly-dangerous, face-sucking-off gadget from the house and thereby protected my Dad?

Then, yesterday, when Mum was adding to her collection of our garden deposits, she found the remains of the plastic nose piece of the face-sucking-off gadget in amongst...well, you know where it was.

Heidi was right. I was in big trouble. There were no treats for me all day.  Pfft!

So, today, I decided to give back the bit of face-sucking-off gadget that I had put away for later. I brought it in for Mum.  She was still not pleased with me.

I am in deep disgrace.  I have been given dinner but I suspect that there will be no treats again this evening.

Sigh!

The trick to treats.

I have discovered something.

I am surprised I have not worked this out before. It is quite a simple thing really.  Heidi says she has known this for some time and has assumed that I knew too, but I didn't know and HoHo didn't tell me.

I know now though.  

What an amazing discovery!  

Here it is.

If, when one's human calls, a clever dog should come immediately (not when the clever dog feels like it) that clever dog gets treats.

Who knew?

Mum, in particular, is easily impressed by prompt response. 

I found this to be true when I was out in the garden on the weekend.  It was a slow morning. There was nobody to be barked at in the park. There was no sign of Otto the chihuahua (aka Otto the Rat) in his yard behind the fence.  There were no pigeons for Heidi to terrorise. Kahlua, our exotic feline neighbour,  was not in his usual position on top of the fence.  A quiet morning indeed. 

So when I heard Mum call, there was no need for me to dilly-dally.  I went inside right away.

Mum was so happy with me that she allowed me to make my own choice of treat.  (A rare event.)

 I chose Vegetable Tagine.  I hadn't tried those ones before.  Mum gave me one. Yum.  I dashed out to tell Heidi that treats were being served.  Mum called us again.  I came in right away again. More treats were issued.  It was fantastic. Heidi got some too, even though she had wandered in at her leisure.

I got more because I was so instantaneous in my my obedience.

I am so clever.  

My friend Tambo says he knows more tricks for getting treats.  I hope he is going to tell me every single one of them.

Post-treat nap time.

Wintery Mornings

It is winter now.  In the  mornings, when Mum comes to open the back door for us, it is still dark. We quickly zip out to check the back yard to make sure everything is just where we left it last night. Then we go back into our snug cubby beds.
With the back door open, there is a definite coolness drifting into the garage and up and around our nether portions. Brr.

We can hear Dad moving around doing his showering and face-scraping activities. So, we go into the lounge and curl up on the chairs.

And we wait,

and we wait........

until we hear the click of the front door and the noise of the car starting up. That means that Dad has gone off to work. 

We creep down the hall to the bedroom where Mum and Dad sleep.  They have a lovely big bed and, when Dad has left, Mum goes back to sleep for a while.  There is a whole side of that really big bed unoccupied. So we have decided that it would be very helpful thing if we were to keep that side warm for Mum. We wouldn't want her to feel lonely in that really big bed.

Heidi goes to check on Mum. She snuffles her face up as high as she can to touch Mum's hand or face or whatever she can reach.  If Mum is still awake, we have to be content to lie on the floor next to the really big bed and wait a bit longer.

But if Mum is asleep, we ever so quietly and gently hop up onto the bed beside her.  

Hee hee.

Heidi goes up near Dad's pillow, because she is lighter and can step more gently than me. I have big paws and I tend to be heavy footed (according to Heidi) no matter how careful I am.

I settle down at the bottom of the really big bed.  

It is so comfortable and so snuggly. We curl up and go to sleep until Mum wakes up.

It is the perfect crime.  

There is only one thing that can go wrong.  

Sometimes a particularly putrid odour wafts around the room.  Where it comes from, I am not sure...but when that happens, Mum becomes aware of our presence. We are then requested, none too politely, to leave the bedroom and return to our own beds.  Pfft!

However, in my opinion, winter mornings are rather pleasant when one can share a comfy bed with one's human.

Invasion of the Tree Snatchers.

My after treats morning nap was rudely interrupted by a very loud noise.
As I am an expert and highly-experienced guard dog, I was instantly on the alert. I rushed outside to check the backyard.  The noise was coming from our next-door neighbour's yard - where Kahlua lives.
Kahlua is a cat of the Burmese variety.  Heidi and I have an arrangement with Kahlua.  He stays on his side of the fence and we stay on ours.  He sits on top of his shed and gazes in our direction. We give a cursory bark and proceed to ignore him.  He sings his catty songs at night when the moon is full. We join in.  All is in order between Kahlua and us.

This morning, however, Kahlua's humans were up to no good.  Not content with cutting down two trees in their own garden, they were stealing our tree as well.

 I gave them a jolly good barking.  They kept attacking our tree.  I rushed back in to wake Heidi up so that she could add weight to the barking assault.  Even then they worked on.

I hurried to find Mum.  She was having a shower and was not interested in  my knocking on the bathroom door. So I resorted to finding Dad.

He was reading his newspaper and did not show any interest in my concern about the tree snatchers.

Things were getting desperate.  They had already taken all the leafy part of the tree.

Mum emerged from her shower and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to cease and desist my barking.  She was perfectly content to allow these humans to steal our tree.
This, I suppose, should not have been a surprise to me. Mum has a thing about leaves. She is forever sweeping them up and putting them in the garden bag.
I assumed a pose of complete desolation at the door and watched as the tree was cut down.

They even came into our yard....MY YARD...to get the last bits.  I was horrified.

So now, the tree is gone.  Mum and Dad are happy.  Dad says he won't have to worry so much about cleaning out the gutters and Mum is happy about fewer leaves to clear up.

Heidi and I were given soothing bones to ease our injured guard dog pride.

I have made a formal request to be advised in advance if there are to be any further instances of tree snatching so that I can prepare myself for the shock.

After all,  as you all know, I am a very sensitive (and very beautiful) dog.  

The Waiting Game

Today I have been waiting....

   

and pacing....

and waiting.

Why?  Because Mum said that our prize should come today.  

We were very excited about our prize and we could hardly wait for the postman to come by.

But, when he came, he didn't bring anything for Heidi and me, just a couple of letters for Mum.

I couldn't believe it.  

Where was our prize?  Surely the lovely people at Kanine Dog Treats hadn't forgotten us.

Mum said we might just have to wait another day.  (Sigh.)  Waiting is very hard for me.

So when dad arrived home with a package under his arm, we were  really excited.  

We jumped around and barked and tried to help Mum unpack everything.

Look what we got!!!

Four packets of goodies.  

Heidi inspected them with me. She said they are not the same as the ones we had before...ham and cheese flavour and not the breath fresh ones either.  These ones are different.  

We have Chicken, Apple, Burgundy beef and a Mixed pack.  Wow!

I chose to start with the chicken ones because there were little ones, just right for Heidi's delicate little mouth, and big ones for my big gob. 

Dad made us sit down and remember our manners before we tried a biscuit each. 

We were only allowed to have one each...pfft!   Mum said our bellies were already full because we had just had our dinner.  Boo!  

I am quite sure I could have eaten a whole packet without any trouble at all. 

Now all our yummy treats are in the cupboard.  We will be having some more tomorrow.

Mum says there are no nasty chemicals in these treats and that is why they are so delicious.

Kanine Homemade Dog Treats

Our Rating:  Two tails up!

We Are Winners

Do you remember what I wrote about treats a few days ago?
We had received some of the really yummy treats that our other humans buy for us at the markets.  We really like these treats.

Well, as a result of my attempts to treat myself, we have won a competition.

Mum sent a picture of us with the treat packet to the folks over at Kanine Homemade Dog Treats for their competition and...

WE WON!!

They are going to send us a month's worth of their delicious dog treats.

I am just wondering what the people at Kanine think a month's worth of treats looks like.

I wonder if their ideas and mine match.  Mum says probably not.

Got to go....have to wait for the postman to come.