Farewell Gigot

The coldest night of the year so far, with temperatures down in the minus 7 and 8 area. A beautiful frost, turns the garden and the Rec trees into a Winter Wonderland.

We meet Gigot's family, whom we first met in Oct 2007 - look back at posts for details. Poor Gigot, a young Bedlington, had not had a very good start in life in an abusive family, and when he was rescued and re-housed by the RSPCA and Police he was in a very sorry state. But for once in his life he got lucky, landing up with a very lovely family, and joining the family dogs, Storm (a long haired chihuahua) and Truffles (a chocolate Lab).

With these people we saw him improve in leaps and bounds, learning to play and be a sociable dog, and lapping up the love of his family, building up trust. Sadly, his bad start and an ongoing genetic problem meant that despite all this, he became really ill and had to be put down in Autumn 2008, so he is no more. We hadn't met the family lately - it's always more difficult on these short evenings, when lack of day-light or poor weather squeezes you off normal walking schedules.

Farewell Gigot - you'll be missed. Welcome aboard Tali. The family were firmly converted to Bedlingtons by Gigot, so have now bought a new Bedlington pup, Tali. She is 13 weeks old now and was out on the frosty Rec today in a very natty red puffa-jacket style coat, with black elasticated "waist" and "cuffs", and a smart pink leather collar. She was dashing about everywhere and we played with her for quite a while.

There is someone in the world now who may be even more of a drama queen than me! She bounced at me one time and I shouted "RAFFF!" at her. She ran away behind Haggis squealing as if I'd hurt her. I never touched her, honest!

Who said "Dear kettle, Thank you for your message... signed Pot"

Deefer
Still the original Drama Queen

Penny, Bobby and Mollie

The snow didn't arrive (well, not this far down south anyway) so we woke up to a frost - the Rec as hard as concrete and the pond frozen over, all be it thinly.

The Rec was a-buzz with dogs, so that I barely got time to play with my yellow frisbee. We also made a new freind, Bobby the rescue Jack Russell whose Mum is despairing of ever curing him of jumping up at exciting new people. Dad doesn't mind but we can see that it'd be a trial.

Then we met Penny the small black poodle - extremely smart in a very recent, but not too pom-pom-ish cut. More of a "standard road-going" clip. Also Mollie the soft-pale long haired retriever who must take hours of brushing as she always looks like she's just been groomed. Immaculate.

Even we had a tidy up today - ears, eyes and bums, and toe-nails. Plus we live worryingly near to the Wahl (clippers) factory shop, which is in Herne Bay, and Dad dropped in today to pick up an 8mm comb to give us a bit of a long winter clip. Normally we wait till March and get buzzed quite short, but we are (allegedly) looking exceptionally scruffy just now and I think there'll be an interim cut. Dad is wondering if Asbo, too, might fancy one....

Deefer

Penny

Our thoughts today are with Dad's friend Shirley, whose 12 year old Westie, Penny, passed away last night from kidney failure. Penny was a very sweet dog and Shirley loved her dearly. She'll be sorely missed. She had a lovely life and died very elegantly, with no suffering.

We are all just back from an excellent walk all round the boat yard. It had finally stopped raining (but looks like starting again now) - we are all wondering when Summer will come. Out in the fields, Meg never fails to amuse with her hand-stand peeing technique. Not for Megs the bitch-squat. She quite often takes all the weight on her front legs and lifts her back end clear of the ground, like a 2-legged cock-the-leg. At the edge of a path, if she fancies weeing in the long grass, for better scent retention, she can even lift her back end, then swing it round to the side, over the longer grass with a cantilever action, wee from height onto the grass, then swing her bum back round before lowering her back legs back to the ground.

I need to brush up these gymnast skills. I just squat.

Deefs