Thursday, 3 February 2011

Just want to take a moment .....

I am way behind on the updates, but before I get into all that, I just want to take a moment to pay my respects to Mike Clarke.

You may remember Mike from Chapter 1 of my autobidography. He was the son of my first owners, and he was the person who put me and Mummy and Daddy together over 5 years ago.

Mike used to visit me (and his parents !) in Cardiff and when he visited he always made a huge fuss of me (yay) and gave me treats (yay). He would take me out for walks in the park (yay) and would give me a bath to clean me up (boo).
Mike was a lovely lovely man, and I loved seeing him. When he took me to meet Daddy for the first time, I cried and cried when Mike drove away without me. When Mummy and Daddy took me to Wales, we visited Mike and then it was my turn to make a massive fuss of him ! I jumped on his lap and covered him in kisses, and made sure to let him know that I'd missed him.

Mike was a truly lovely person, and always put others before himself, including animals ! I will miss him, and so will Mummy and Daddy, and many many others.

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Bye bye 2010....

Well December 2010 disappeared quickly.
One minute everything was quiet and routine, next thing Mummy is being scraped up off the floor after a 'work's do' (nice work by the way, AS & UD). Then one night, I nip next door and nothing..... light's off, no one home. grrrrrrrrrr, hate it when that happens.
Went home, sulked on the settee. Next day, Mummy fills the car up with all sorts of shiny bags, and boxes all packed in shiny paper with bows on them. Then she says to me "Want to go on holiday?". Do I ever! Awesome. So off we go to the doggy hotel (Mummy says kennels, yeah whatever!). Mummy was in the office talking to the bosslady, but the blokey Ian put a collar on me, so off I went. I think I forgot to say Goodbye to Mummy ! Whoops.
Anyway, I had a lovely spa break for 4 days, then Mum ruined it and came to fetch me. Something about it costing a small fortune over Christmas.... but I'm worth it Mum. Dogs have Christmas too !
A day or so later, and whilst 'on guard' at the front window I saw AS & UD were home ! Yip yip yip. I was straight round there to say Welcome back. I stayed for a few hours, well its rude not to.

New Year's Eve 2010.
I was round with AS & UD all day, looking after them. AS had the sniffles, so I had to help UD take care of her. I find that the best treatment for all human ailments, is a ruddy good doggy kiss on the chops ! Works wonders, and never fails to make them smile.
Mummy joined us at teatime. But luckily she knew not to try to sit on the armchair... that's my seat ! AS & UD got the sofa, I got the armchair (naturally), so Mummy sat on the floor. Sounds about right to me.
The 3 of them chatted and ate and drank(well, Mummy & AS anyway). Now and again they made sufficient noise to stir me from my sleep, but I pretty much managed to sleep through the whole thing, including the ruddy fireworks. I don't mind the fireworks at all, its just that they wake me up, and that's not good.

UD gave up and went to bed, leaving them too and me (help UD, help). Mummy woke me up about 3am and said it was time for bed (honestly !) She then fell home, and I helped her to bed.
I started 2011 on a high note. Woke Mummy up at 8.30am, and took her for a brisk, bracing walk to clear the cobwebs. Don't think it really worked, as she had 2 paracetamol as soon as we got home !

I nipped to AS and UD's a bit later. AS seemed to be moving very slowly, if at all. UD was fine though, and I helped him put a lovely big lamb joint in the oven, and kept an eye on it for the rest of the day. AS and Mummy ate a little bit for tea, and me and UD ate plenty ! Girls are softies, boys are tough !

I was just settling down to 2011, when Mummy says "Vets". I was in the car like a shot ! I loooooooove the vets. I get loads of attention and people coo at me. "Aaaah, he's cute". "Aaah, he looks good for his age". That sort of thing !
Anyway, Mummy drops me off at the vets and off she goes.
They put a needle in my arm to help me sleep.... like I need any help to sleep !
When I woke up, I was a bit woozy, but felt ok. My right arm was stinging a bit and when I looked at it, they'd put a girly pink bandage on it! Grrrr
Plus my mouth was a bit sore too, just the left side. However, my teeth were sparkling and all squeaky clean. Nice one.
Mummy came to get me, and fussed over me like she hadn't seen me in months ! Women!
The vet lady told Mummy that I have 'advanced arthritis' and need oily fish, and some other drugs. Plus my mouth was sore because they'd removed a cyst off my lip, and given my teeth a scale and polish !
At home, I got to have some sardines as a treat, plus some yucky stuff in a syringe. Apparently the vet lady says I have to eat a 'chewable dog antibiotic' tablet for a few days. Not a chance lady. Chewable or not, I ain't eating it.
Mummy tried to hide it in a sausage, stupid idea. How sensitive do you think my nose is ? Hmmmm, well its very sensitive. Enough to know when I'm being conned into eating something I don't want to. So I spat it out........ 5 times.
In the end Mummy grabbed my mouth, chucked it down the back of my throat and held my face shut. I always knew that was how it was going to play out! But its fun watching her think she's won a few time, then seeing her scrabbling round the floor for the bits of spat-out tablet ! Hee hee, you have to get your fun where you can these days !
Next I decided to go and get some fuss from AS. I put my 'ouch AS look what they did to me' face on. That worked, as I knew it would. Lots of fuss and cuddles and 'aaah poor little man'. And sausages, plenty of sausages !
As soon as got home again, Mummy took the bandage off and said "That's quite enough pathetic-ness from you matey". Well that sympathy was a bit short lived eh. I'm sure I got away with it much longer when I had my bladder stones operation.
I got my own back anyway, by sleeping on the end of the bed and shuffling about every 30 minutes (pretending I couldn't get comfortable with my poorly arm and lip), so Mummy had a crap night's sleep ! Ha, revenge.
I feel ok now, but Mummy is continuing to give me all the horrid medication and tablets and things. At least I can also nip next door for a bit of proper sympathy.

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Blimey, I've not dogblogged for nearly 3 weeks !

What has been happening with you lovely people over the last couple of weeks ?
(ooooo, look at me engaging with my audience !).

After the excitement of AS & UD's lounge shinanigans, things have settled down again. I like routine. It makes me feel safe.
Mummy's new work routine is nice. Not that it makes much difference to me when she is in or out. If she is working from home, I curl up on the settee and have a dog-nap. And as soon as she leaves the house for work, I curl up on the settee and have a little dog-nap. So long as she is home nice and early so I can pop round to say Hello and check up on AS & UD.
UD bought me a lovely new rug for me to wipe my little feet on when I go in and out of the house. Nice idea UD, but you know I'm just going to jump straight over it! Mummy does the same thing, and you can still see my pawprints all over the kitchen floor ! ha ha ha, I'm a dog, its what I do !

I moved in with AS & UD last weekend, which was cool. Mummy muttered something about 'seeing me in a few days', and drove off. Hurrrumphhhhh. I'd just settled down on the settee for a little dog-nap, when AS/UD came to get me, my food bowl, my water bowl, my lead , and my bed !! Yippeeeee, that means a sleep-over. Fantastic !
I'd just settled down on AS & UD's settee . . . . .when it started snowing outside. UD said "Nice timing, getting out of snow walks". I think he must have been talking to someone else, because there's no way I'm going without a walk just because it snowed ! I love the snow, and just don't care if my little belly and legs get cold and wet ! Its great fun. And its easier to find the places all the other doggies have peed in, you just look for yellow snow.
So AS & UD had to come with me for a couple of cold and snowy walks. I think they enjoy it though, because they happily tag along a couple of times a day.
They went out on Saturday evening, so I stayed in to guard their house for them. I must have fallen asleep (unusual )because they didn't seem to be out for long. And when they came back, I smelt lamb bones ! Uncle Les had given them a bag of lamb bones for me, but AS said I had to wait til Mummy came home to have them. Not fair !
I think its because last time I ate one my butt exploded !

By Sunday morning most of the snow had gone, so not so cold or wet. UD went out to the rugby in the afternoon, and I stayed to keep an eye on AS. I must have fallen asleep, because UD seemed to come back quite soon. And he had Mr B with him ! I gave them a really good welcome, man to man .. . well dog to man !
A short while later AS said 'lets go home', and so we popped back to my house. Mummy was there ! Hello Mummy !! She said she'd been back for a while, but of course I was busy watching AS. So I said a quick hello to her, and took her for a walk. Then I popped back next door to see AS & UD again (Mummy wasn't cooking, but AS was !!).
Once I got a bit tired, I went back to see Mum, and she let me have a small bit of the lamb. Whoop whoop. And with that full belly, I went to bed.

On Monday evening, Mummy shouted 'Jack, car'. I love love love the car, and got really excited and jumped about like a puppy. We drove to Mummy's office, and I went inside and ran up the stairs. Claire was there. Mummy said she had been looking forward to meeting me for ages. We got back in the car, and drove to a totally new place I'd never been too. I think it might have been Claire's house, because she made us Spaghetti Carbonara, which was scrummy ! I just had the meat, and a bit of the cream ! I settled down on Claire's settee until Mummy said it was time to go home. Then we drove home, and I went to see AS & UD !
Well, its rude not to check on them every day !

Mummy says that tomorrow my 'Grandad Keith' is coming to see us. That will be lovely, as I haven't seen him for ages. I hope he's forgiven me for peeing in his bathroom ! Whooops