Long Leather Pouffe

Real Mum (Mollie) is upset and bereft. My real family spend a lot of their time up on the back of the sofa where they can look out of the window, nosey-ing passers by, shouting at the local foxes strolling down the road, and keeping an eye on things. This is thought to be where I got my own love of sleeping along the backs of sofas and settees, even though ours is against a wall, and we can't see the road. Mum and Dad say Meg and the H did enough damage to the back of the old sofa when they were young and the sofa was against the window.

The back of the sofa, says First-Dad, was shot to bits, by the scrabbling actions of multiple dog feet.

Well now the entire downstairs has been re-decorated, paint, wallpaper and new furniture, with the new sofa not being in the same place, so suddenly the dogs cannot see out. Hector and Arch are apparently fairly chilled about this and just crash out on the dog-bed, but real-Mum Mollie is stressed to the max. She paces the room chuntering to herself, moaning and groaning.

First-Dad's answer to this is to buy a "long leather pouffe" to go under the window so that the dogs can all see out again. Such devotion. Don't think there's any chance of my Dad buying me any leather furniture all to myself........

Meanwhile we need another Hallowe'en. One by-product of 4 small children racing round the neighbourhood being given small parcels and bags of sweeties was, when the sweeties were stripped out into the crate, a mountain of small poo-bag sized polythene bags! Almost all used up now, Mr Silverwood, so if you could arrange for another Hallowe'en soon, that'd be great.

Deefer

8 go mad in Maidstone

After the emotional turmoil of yesterday, we needed a happy relaxing day today. We certainly got one! Today, all the family went on our annual birthday joint-walk, on this occasion around Leybourne Lakes in Maidstone - that's we three (Meggie, Haggis and (me) Deefer), plus my real-Mum Mollie, real Dad Hector, bro' Archie and sis' Ellie, plus, on this one, sis's owner's daughter's 6 month old Rottie pup, another Mollie.

Here are a couple of shots of the day. Anyone who knows Ellie will laugh at the one of her looking like a drowned rat, having just been in the lake (by mistake). Always immaculate, our Ellie is pretty much a self-cleaning dog. Her long hair seems to shed dirt, so, having got wet, and then picked up a load of dust on the wet fur she looked like a right tramp. By the time she got back to the car, she was pristine!

The one of the four westies near the chair, with Rottie, Molly is there to give you a look at Moll. She's a lovely soft, very well socialised, gentle, gangly loose-limbed babe, who regularly trips over her own feet.

And then there's the group photo. Dad had not managed to get a decent one of all 7 westies on the way round, so we were posed on this bit of grass. Even then it was difficult to get everyone to look at the camera, and this is one everybody looking, selected from among about 10 failures!

We had a fantastic day, and then many of us retreated to first-Mum's house for the humans to have a coffee. Happy Birthday everyone and we must do it all again next year! More pics soon

Deefer

Challock 6 dogs

As promised, that pic of all 6 of us amongst the bluebells in Challock Forest. I'd hesitate tio say who's who without being able to see collar colours, but I am nearest to camera, with Meggie centre right on the path and Haggis centre right front end off the path. More importantly, look at that carpet of bluebells. Another warm week and they'll be fully out and truly gorgeous.

Have a great weekend

Deefer

Good guys and villains

We dogs are on a mission today to confuse the humans, inspired by Rags's rescinded "asbo" and angelic behaviour hospital visiting.

First-Dad had been having problems with my Bro (Archie) and real-Dad (Hector) getting a bit difficult with each other - part of the reason why Archie has now been "done". As part of this, First-Dad had been seeking advice from a lady who does dog-training, partly because first-Mum was looking to make sure those boys didn't start to think they were the bosses.

Well, the trainer lady was last Friday and you'll not believe how angelic those boys decided to be. Maybe it was the "op", maybe the dogs were tired from a walk and a visit to the grooming parlour, maybe First-Mum's new get-tough approach has convinced them, but whatever the reason, training lady was both delighted and baffled, wondering why she'd been called out in the first place.....

Meanwhile, at the other end of the family, sis' Ellie is now causing concern for her Mum, Trish, by kicking off at a young Westie we've seen a couple of times, called, I think, Fleur, first shouting from the end of her lead, then growling and snarling. Most unlike her - Ellie's always as good as gold.... I'll let you know how that develops - maybe Trish will need to borrow that trainer-lady!

We know that about Ellie because we all met at the Rec at the end of our walks, along with a lovely soft, fluffy 4 month collie pup called "Molly" - you know that age when collies are still all rounded, and short-faced, without the sharp-pointed snout. Haggis, Ellie and I had a good romp about, chasing in circles.

I get the worst of this, because normally I chase Haggis and give him grief, but when Ellie's about, and I chase Ellie, H takes his chance to ambush me and unbalance my back end. I end up with two attackers on my case - one at each end. Ellie never tries to batter Haggis, nor Haggis to batter Ellie. It's like they're ganging up on me, referee!

Deefer.... from a dodgy family...

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

A Dog Too Far

Town Carnival last night and a good time was had by all. The carnival forms up outside our house and we, Mum and Dad always go out to chat to the people on the floats as they finish their displays and assemble their troops, occasionally helping out with lends of scissors, string, cups of tea or use-of-the-loo-for-the-little-ones before the "off". Last night it was a small army of Brownies dressed as Grannies, and their leaders, plus the Beauty Queens of a village "on the island"

We were allowed out too, on leads and milled about at the end of the drive, fascinated by all the lights and noise, music, chatter and the thrum of diesel generators, toffee apple sellers and bizarre-ly dressed humans. Plenty of them made a fuss of us as they went by or stopped to stroke us.

Then, once carnival had set off and our own evening-guests had arrived, we all adjourned indoors, and from here it got interesting. First, little Norfolk, Dylan decided to have a pop at the cats, so they had to be separated and the cats moved upstairs. Then, later my raeal Dad (Hector) and brother (Archie) decided to have a go at Dylan, so they had to be separated.

There were , briefly, two separate parties going on. Dad, First dad and First Mum plus we six westies were all out on the terrace (luckily warm, windless and dry), the other guests with Dylan in the front of the house, with people mingling between the two, carefully shutting the child-gate behind them as they came and went. I had a great time at this - made a big fuss of First-Mum and messed around with Archie who (someone has to do it) took a quick swim in the pond at one point.

Later, once the other westies had gone, we all moved indoors and fell asleep exhausted while the humans chatted and then, once Dylan had gone too, the cats were let back out and nornmality waas restored. Mum and Dad say we need to re-think the animal guest lists. These 7-dog do's sound great fun in theory, but probably we need to have Mollie, Archie and Hector over when they are the only dogs, and likewise Dylan. Maybe also, that old trick of a big long walk on neutral territory to wear everybody out and get them all used to each other, before we come back to one of the houses.

Deefer

Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to meee

Happy Birthday to meee

Happy Birthday Dear Deefer

Happy Birthday to Me (and Ellie and Archie)

One Year old today, and we celebrate with a joint walk at Leybourne Lakes in Maidstone, which is a venue big enough to cope with 6 mad charging westies and still allow space for a few walkers and cyclists. Once we'd caused enough chaos there we adjourned back to First Dad's (the place of my birth) for a romp about in the house and garden, and for the humans to eat.)

My pics are of , variously

1) Me with birthday present chew-toy (I also got 2 cards)

2) We 6 in the kitchen getting left over roast lamb - how to get the undivided attention of 6 westies, who are suddenly all on their best behaviour

3) Myself and brother / litter-mate, Archie. He was smallest when we were pups - now he's as big as Mollie and I'm still smaller than my Hector

4) Carpark shot, left to right - Me, Haggis, Hector's ears, Meggie, Archie and Mollie

5) In the lake. Meggie's the furthest in. I'm dancing around on the bank.

We had a whale of a time. When first released from the leads Archie dived straight into a patch of burr-dock and got covered, while the rest of made sure all water-birds were safely on the water (geese, ducks, swans, grebes, coots etc - some of them had leaked onto the land, which will never do.)

We charged around the lake, all well behaved much to everyone's amazement and Archie and me fell in love all over again. Just wish he'd keep it "brotherly" - gets a bit over excited that boy! Most of us managed to stay out of the goose-poo, didn't we Arch'. Dad says getting pics of all 6 was a bit o a mare because dogs were heading in all directions, hence the cop-out ones in the carpark on leads.

Back at the house we carried on chasing each other about, and I rediscovered the hidey hole under the easy chair which we all used as pups, but now only I can fit in. Handy to escape from too much attention. Everyone much amused by me fussing up to real-Mum Mollie, trying to get under her, upside down so she could lick my belly. Very odd, they all said, It's a dog thing, Mum and Daughter

By home time we were all, like the best endings to childrens' party stories, exhausted and 2 minutes into the car journey home we are all flaked out on the back seat of the car.

Happy Birthday Archie

Happy Birthday Ellie - shame you couldn't make it.

Thanks fior the cards and the present

Deefer zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Happy Birthday, Mum

Happy Birthday, Mum!!! Even as I type she's out on the hot sunny terrace chillin' with a glass of Moet with a few fresh raspberries floating in the top. A purist would probably say "ruination of good Moet" and a pedant would say "Should be strawberries" but when it's your birthday, you get to choose.

News comes that bro' Archie and Real-Dad (Hector) are in the dwang again. On an early walk this morning (fortunately) they took agin' a small Yorkie in the park when they were all off the leads. They said a pleasant "Hello" apparently, but then the growling started, and the Yorkie fled. H and A took off in pursuit, and the Yorkie dashed under the park gate into the road, with H+A in full cry behind, and First-Dad charging along behind yelling!

Eventually the running stopped, and 1st-D caught up, grabbing westies under arms and on leads and Yorkie under the other arm ,returning to the Park and a very upset Yorkie-owner (with good reason!) Who should be sitting at the park gate, tail wagging and an expression that said "Please note, I was not involved in that show of unseemly behavior" but Real-Mum, Mollie, now known as "Miss Goody Two-Shoes".

Luckily (says 1st Dad) it was early becuause that road is quite a busy one.

This week the green Picasso goes back at the end of it's lease, so Dad has been today to try out one of those American-style car washes that are springing up, these days almost entirely staffed by non-English-speaking Eastern Europeans. Dad came back singing their praises - what a fantastic job. the car went in a real state - 4 years of dog transporting with very little cleaning (Dad's not a one for the Sunday morning homage to the God of Chammy Leather and Autoglym)

8 young lads descended on it in quick succession, soaked it, jetwashed it, soaped it and jetwashed it again, cleaned the wheels, hoovered it, polished windows inside and out, cleaned the dash, took out the rubber mats to jetwash them, swabbed them dry and even splashed some shiny stuff on the tyres. The list price for all that, in about half an hour was only £12 (though admittedly, Dad thought that deserved a reasonable tip). It's like a new car all over again. Shame to hand it in!

If any of my readers live in Canterbury - it's the one on the Ashford road out of town - highly reccommended.

Best go check on Mum before she dozes off!

Deefer

Digger Land

It's like Digger Land out the back of ours at the moment. A great big caterpillar tracked digger is screeching and rattling up and down just the other side of the beech hedge flattening a mini-mountain of crushed rubble to make a temporary carpark for the builders' cars, while they lay some road through the bit they're using at the moment. We are now so used to this racket and the dust (all the cars in our road are permanently pale brown!) that we don't even bother to race down the garden to shout at them any more. They should use some grease on those tracks though.

Meanwhile, excitement at Real-Dad's last night. Real dad (Hector) and bro Archie have been up to their old tricks hedgehog wrangling again. First-Dad reports that there was a real cacophony going on in the dark, and H+A charging around in the back garden with a hedgehog between them. They were barking and yelling, covered in mud and spattered with blood. First-Mum was having a fit trying to separate dogs and hedgehog with a broom

She eventually got the dogs inside (and the hedgehog outside), got everybody calmed down, and washed the dogs clean of blood and mud. Neither dog seemed to be at all injured, so she guesses that it was, in fact the hedgehog which had been wounded. But search the garden as they might they can find no sign of injured hogs, so they are hoping the injuries were more bloody than serious, and that hog skulked off to lick his wounds and fight another day.

What is it with those 2 and hogs? I've never met one, but Haggis tells me "we" just shout at them from 2 feet away. They are spiny, as every school boy knows, and not anything you'd want near your soft lips and tongue.

And, back at the ranch, although Meg is still licking her poorly foot, it's nearly back to normal flesh pink and she's putting a bit of weight onto it. Dad bathes it, and she promptly licks all the salty water off, but she is on the mend.

Have a great weekend
Deefer

Steer-able nose

Thought you might like this gorgeous picture taken by First-Dad of my brother Archie (front), Real-Dad Hector (left) and Real-Mum Mollie (right). These guys love a game of footie. The boys especially do a fine line in running themselves ragged (hence the lolling, hot tongues) dribbling the ball about. Mollie not so much, but she sometimes either runs at the boys shouting, or even runs to the ball, trapping it professionally under a forepaw and stopping the game till either First Dad boots it away, or the boys just start up again. Nice photo, I think you'll agree.

(New) Dad was taking the mick at the weekend, about my highly manouvre-able nose. He swears he has never seen a dog so able to twitch the black "button" bit of the nose, so far from side to side. By tightening muscles down eitgher side of my snout, he says, I can pull the nose so far round the cartilage septum up the middle must nearly break (or has already!). It looks like I am aiming the nose left or right to smell round corners without moving my head.

And why not?
Just part of my cunning plan
Deefer-of-the-Aim-able-Nose

I Blame the Parents

News comes our way of Old-Dad sitting on the sofa watching Doctor Who, and being handed a real-beef burger in a bun, cooked by First-Mum. OD takes the burger on its plate, using his left hand to steady the burger while he opens the lid of the bun, reaching out with his right hand for the sauce bottle on the coffee table. To do this he momentarily takes his eye off the burger, and when he looks back, having grabbed the bottle, the meat is gone. It is running at 50 mph down the lounge, in the teeth of Real-Dad Hector

OD leaps up and roars, charging down the lounge in pursuit of the escaping meal, but FM lep's up even faster and stands, arms out, barring OD's way. "Don't you touch him!" she yells - "I'll make you another one!". So Real Dad lives to fight another day, and I can blame the parents for my propensity for nicking toothbrush heads

My pic is of Meggie (right) and I looking out of the back door at an impressive thunderstorm, raging in the skies over the M2. Haggis is out there shouting at the thunder (How dare it!), but we girls are keeping dry.

Deefs

Hector and the Hedgehog

Asbo is grounded for crimes against Mississippi - the cat, not the US State. She (Missi) suffered no lasting damage. It was noisy but not damaging, and we three westies are not popular for our part in it, which was to gather round like school kids in the playground yelling "Fight! Fight! Fight! .... Gooooo-orn my son!" etc

Meanwhile, Hector (Real Dad) has amazed my first human family by carrying indoors a rolled up hedgehog, large as life and twice as natural (twice as flea and mite infested too!). Arghhhh! Humans leppin' about and panicking in all directions.... "Get it out, the filthy thing!" etc.

Now, I don't want to upset the sensibilities of hedgehog sympathisers but any realistic hedgehog fancier will accept that they are not the most vermin free creatures (how do you groom and scratch yourself when you are covered in spines?) - indeed, we have read somewhere that the population of "parasites" is actually a symbiotic thing, the wee beasties cleaning the skin layer rather like pilot fish on a shark.

What ever, a fed up hedgehog is not the thing you want uncurling on the shag-pile and taking off at a trot for the nearest dark indoor corner.

More to the point, given that hedgehogs are indeed well covered in spines, how does a westie pick one up and carry it indoors without getting a lacerated mouth?

That one, you'll have to ask me Dad. He's just Magic!

Deefs

Soggy Bluebell Walk

Fun weekend. Mum does a "Eurovision Song Contest Party" in which the humans seem to assemble to rip the mick out of the contest and worship at the throne of the TogMeister. At one stage it looked like there might be 9 dogs - we three, Old Dad's three (Hector, Mollie and Archie), Diamond's "Asbo", 2CV P+J's "Janey" and a cairn owned by ace guitarist chum of Mum and Dad, "Dylan". In the event (probably a good thing) we just had Janey, so mayhem didn't happen and the cats survived. Arguable whether they would have done had Hector and Mollie arrived (real Mum and Real Dad) - they like a good cat apparently !!

My pics today though, are of the Bluebell Walk in Challock Forest that finally happened. The bluebells were just about clinging on in places but definitely past their best. Best thing ever though was Old-Dad turning up with Hector, Mollie and the amazing Archie, my brother and litter-mate. I just stress that one because of how huge Archie has grown. Look at the pic of just the three (on leads) before we started. Mollie is left, Arch' in the middle and Hector (Dad) on the right. Arch is bigger than Hector already and about one and a half times the size of me!

What a time we had. It was chucking it down and the bluebells were disappearing rapidly as bramble grows up through and beech leaves expand to close up the canopy. But Archie and I had a whale of a time charging round and round. He may be bigger and more powerful but I am nippy and manouvre-able, and we're closely matched in straight line speed.

The other pics are of us out in the forest, one down by the abandonned riding school, and the other in a narrow path with still a few bluebells. Finally there are all 6 of us back at the cars, lathered up with mud and wet. From left to right we are (Front left Mollie (Mum), behind left Hector (Dad), Front centre Archie (look how big he is), behind him partly obscured, Haggis, then me and finally Meggie. We can't wait to get towelled off and home so that we can crash out. That was midday - it's now nearly 3 and we haven't stirred yet!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend

Deefs