Ben and Nellie

These pair are Ben and Nellie, 2 more camping dogs, and probably our oldest camping friends. At 14 they are older than even Meggie, and Meg and Haggis have known them since they've been camping.

They are brother and sister from the same litter, so look very similar, but there's a good way to tell them apart, which Dad has to use. Each has a white flash (blaze?) down their forehead and nose - Ben's is Broad, Nell's is Narrow, so that's Ben on the right of the pic, Nellie on the left.

This is one from that series we described where Dad was trying to re-create the first shoulder-to-shoulder run back to their own Dad, by means of their own Dad throwing Ben's ball much further than Nellie's. Nell , being a bit more arthriticky and slow, could then loop out gently and be back in front of the camera as Ben streaking out and back, caught up and overtook her. Kinda worked.

Last night at 01:30, we dogs are all rousted from our beds by a hedgehog in the back garden. You'd be amazed how noisy hedgehogs can be, with their unforgiving spines rustling against all the dried leaves and grass. Stealthy silent hunters they are not. Even so, although doggie ears could hear, and knew something was out there, humans sleep on oblivious, so have to be prodded into wakefulness (or at least, a kind of numb, dazed verticalness). to come down stairs and let us out.

Dad did the honours, Mum slept on. We raced off down the garden and didn't re-appear. Dad got concerned, grabbed torch and ventured out into the garden in his jocks (not a pretty sight). That's when he discovered the hedgehog, by now curled into a safe ball of prickles, surrounded by confused, frustrated westies, pawing at the gravel and wuffing. Not for us the Hector trick of grabbing a mouthful and bringing it indoors!

Ah well, Dad rounded us all up and bribed us back in with a sweetie, but it took a lot of sitting back up on the bed and whimpering before I'd settle back to sleep.

Have a great weekend

Deefer