Everything's Relative

A day for mixing it with the rels, if only via our sense of smell. Dad was working today, but First-Dad not. However, FD had come into work in the car to do a small job, and still had my Real-Mum, Real-Dad and Bro in the car (Mollie, Hector and Archie), so Dad came home smelling very much of them, where he'd made a fuss of them all through the car window.

Do you mind if we now dispense with all this "first Dad" stuff? From now on I will call First Dad "Steve" and First-Mum "Jean", for no better reason than those are their names (!).

But then on our good walk round the boat yard and back through town, we came upon my Sister Ellie, out with her Mum ('Trish'). Dad had his camera as we'd been out to photo the sailing barge Cambria, so here are some pics of Ellie to enjoy.

Ellie is easy to identify in all these as she is bright white (always!) and long haired, still not having had a Spring cut. She also has a rather smart be-jewelled red collar, but I don'r think my Parisian Emelio Pucci one is that far short, do you?

Pic 1) Me, grubby, tail up, left, Ellie Right

Pic 2) Ellie alone, sniffing ground

Pic 3) Meggie left, Ellie centre, Trish's leg right.....

...at least, that's how I think they'll appear.

Have a great weekend

Deefer

Sol from Porthcawl

A Welsh connection tonight. the Rec is choca-bloc full tonight with dog walkers - it's like Crufts out there. Definite "new kid" though a very smart, clean, groomed young boy westie called Sol. Originally from Carmarthen, but now living in Porthcawl.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/porthcawl/

...he was up with his humans visiting their family here-abouts, and always use the Rec, apparently, to let the dog let off steam before they descend on the relatives. Sol was delighted to meet we three.

But the "choca-bloc" thing - oh we met EVERYONE.....

Ruby the shaggy, tiny black terrier - only 4 months old and full of beans.
Bindy - young Jack Russell who's a regular and we've had many a post about her. She and I have a great run-around, but occasionally a shout at each other when the ol' "green eye" cuts in.
Patch - JR of more autumnal years, rather stout and given to a waddling gait.
Bailey - gorgeous shiny Red Setter who bounces around avoiding Bindy
Hogan - another new one - lovely brown German Short-Haired Pointer who made Megan, normally the stand-offish 'Dowager Duchess', turn into a skittish, bouncy, coquette - all sniffing of undercarriages and batting of eye-lashes - Floozy!
Bugsy - rather yappy Bichon
plus many more dogs we didn't get to know more thoroughly, uincluding a very fast greyhound who dashed through our "mob" at one stage with a rush of wind but didn't stop to introduce himself to anyone, and was gone again in a blur of brindled coat.

And on top of that, Crufts tonight too! My cup runneth over!
Deefs

Spoilt for Choice....

A girl should, I suppose, always keep her options open. Hot on the heels of my Leap Year Day proposal of wedlock from Asbo (Rags), I get an email from the direction of Mrs Silverwood in the Irish Midlands. Chance and Sam are also marking my card. They do, though, say keep it quiet from the new pup, Samoyed x Labrador, "Dancer" of whom (hint hint Silverwoods) I do not yet have a picture.

If a Labradoodle is a lab x poodle, then what is a lab x samoyed? Laboyed? Sambrador?

Must rush - I have to hold Mum and Dad's hands in case they get scared watching Torchwood!

Deefs

She's Back!

OK, I can hear you asking, why am I looking at a picture of some blurry Iris foetidissima in fruit and some ground? Look more closely - almost central in the frame, just to the right of the Iris is the shoulders and back of head of our female sparrowhawk, leaning down to pluck a freshly killed sparrow.

Mum worked from home today, and about the same time as Dad was texting to say he was on the way, Mum had strolled down to the kitchen to make coffee, and was gazing out of the kitchen window waiting while the kettle boiled. Suddenly she noticed that the brown bird on the ground just down the steps from the bird-feeder was our old friend!

She raced back up stairs, scattering amazed dogs in all directions, and scrabbled in the case for Dad's good camera, feverishly slapping the 300mm lens on the front, then grabbing a chair and dragging it onto the bathroom, the better to get a photo-angle vantage point. She sqeezed off 4 shots before she was busted by the hawk, who shot off nervously, like they do, taking what remained of the prey with her. She left behind, for Dad to find, just the sad spread of feathers. Sometimes they leave you an upper mandible and a bit of forehead-bone too, but not always.

Mum and Dad are thrilled to know that she is still with us, despite all the building works going on behind us and Bruce's merry men in their Hi-Vis jackets. Mum and Dad are mad keen wildlife gardeners, feeding the local birds all year round with a good variety of food - they have been for years - so as a result we have a very healthy population of songbirds around the garden, and the sparrowhawk gets a very good serving off this pub-grub on a regular basis.

Deefs

Sign here

We surprised Mum by getting her a treat on Mothers' Day and by all signing it, as per the picture. Dad had us all queue up by the terrace table so he could "finger print" us one by one with a rubber-stamp pad. Now I guess, if we are bad, he will be able to identify the culprit.

Why the terrace table? Oh, we learned the hard way not to fingerprint an animal and then immediately give them free run of the laminated floors, while the ink was still wet on their paws! That year, Mum nearly got the wrong kind of surprise!

Deefs

Charlie and Jake

Met 2 superb dogs in the Rec this morning, being walked by an old guy who stopped and talked to us all. Based broadly on Jack Russells, these 2 chaps were covered with wisps of long silky hair, like haloes around them. You saw the Jack Russell "skew-balled" colours through this haze as if through a fog, so they looked like JR's in pastel shades.

One was as big as a springer, so Heaven knows what he was a cross with, the other was just short and stout, and given that he (Jake) was 14, very nippy and agile. We had a good run-around with them.

Also went round to Diamonds so the humans could all eat together and therefore met my "fiancee" Ragworth. Naturally we took to squabbling and arguing "like a proper married couple" but at least now I can hold my own, and give him some back, unlike when I was tiny and he used to over-awe me and reduce me to drama queen sqealing mode.

Deefs

Engaged!

Ahhhh .... sigh

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Will You Marry Me?": Ragworth says YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Does that mean I'm engaged, or do I still have to ask Mum and Dad if it's alright?

A Westerly gale blasts through this in the early hours of morning bringing some almost-horizontal rain and , scarily, banging the side gate open where it wedged in the fence. We could have run out into the road (admittedly not very busy early on a Saturday morning), but we are sensible dogs, and know that we cannot go out there without leads on, so we stand in a line at the threshold, waiting to be hooked up. Dad is amazed and delighted.....

The wind is still there at walk time and we go for a very windswept one round the boatyard and back through town. The wind is screaming in the rigging of the moored and landed boats and bits of tree are blowing about on the ground. Our game of "thrown away plastic bottle" on the Rec on the way back is extra lively as Dad lobs it with the wind, and the bottle sails away ten times the normal distance. I have to chase after it, nail it, and then scamper back up-wind to Dad.

Off to Hastings today, and the Pud-Lady. Have a great weekend

I love you, my fiancee, Rag-bag

Deefer