Must be Close

It must be getting close to Christmas now - we noticed that even the Regular dog walkers on the Rec are starting to say "Ah well, if I don't see you again before Christmas, have a good one, now" as they part company.

Dad is doing some long crazy hours too, and only twice because he was stuck in the snow. Snow's all gone now although it's very cold and there is more white stuff forecast. The gang had a load of Mum's friends and colleagues over Friday night for a major meal and party. We love all that - plenty of extra people to make a fuss of dogs!

From there Mum and Dad headed for Isleworth to visit another of Mum's friends, and forgot to come home that night. Must be their ages. There were rumours of lots of walking around Richmond by the Thames looking at the big-scale weirs and locks , Thames stylee, the occasional beer in riverside pubs and then on Sunday an extended walk round Kew Gardens. In the latter case Mum armed Dad with the birthday present video camera, so there may be some footage to check out soon, on You Tube.

We were left behind because the friend, Maisie Lou is a dyed in the wool cat person, having a very fluffy black boy-cat by the name of Beau. Normally quite chilled, he does not take to dogs apparently, and especially fast chasing type dogs, so we were abandonned to the tender mercies of the Angel B and Uncle Jim.

Then it was back to the grind stone with, for Dad at least, an extra quick night shift on Monday night where a server needed re-booting which couldn't be done while it was powering the day job at the 'New Shed'.

Enough for now
Deefs

Cat and Mouse

We had to smile at this one - Mississippi getting up close and personal with Mum's "working from home" laptop while she'd nipped off for a quick coffee. Mum had being doing website design, so perhaps Missi felt some feline input was required. I expect the web page is all the better for that, when Mum can find where she's clicked.

Severe weather warning tonight for us - strong winds and heavy rain. We are all home though, safe and warm, and will be glued to the last day (Terrier Day) and evening of Crufts.

It was 1988 the last time a Westie won Best in Show, with Derek Tattersall's "Olac Moonpilot". The only Olac in this family is in Haggis, and it's a good 4 generations ago. He's mainly "Famecheck". Megan is a good bit "Sarmac". Me, I'm not even registered because neither of my parents were.

Enjoy Crufts - see you tomorrow

Deefer

Mississippi the Cat

I am going to try something a bit different today - more than one picture in a posting, see if I can wrap the text around the photo's no matter whether they're right or left justified. Cool....

This is a pic of Mississippi the brindled half tail cat, who I landed on a couple of days back when I fell down a few stairs. I think she is the MacBeth cat who lived with the 3 witches - as in "Thrice the brinded cat has mewed" etc. She (and her brother the same) has only half a tail. The end finishes with a little raggedy stump where the end bones didn't form properly, and she kind of swooshes it around downwards, instead of being able to sway it delicately upwards like "We are Siamese if you plee-ease". Doesn't seem to worry her though. More worried about pesky pups falling from the sky I guess.. (ahem)

Now for the 2nd picture..... (oops - it has shot to the top. Wonder how you get them to come down with the relevant text. Will have to consult the help screens) A pic of me asleep after a particularly exhausting walk in the Rec.

Had a lovely walk today, by the way. I met the beautifully groomed and shampoo'd westies of our dapper friend Mike. The dogs are called Misha (a lady, who made a big fuss of me) and Jack, who totally ignored me. Mike says he "doesn't do pups" And just when I thought there wasn't a dog in the world who wouldn't submit to my charms....

And finally another picture, this time of the three of us, and I'll see if I can persuade it to stay down here. You'll see the results, and how successful I was, but i guess I won't know till I look back on the blog after publication.

I have no idea how that happened - anyway, you'll see it's a shot of Megan (left), Haggis (right) and me (centre), being cunningly distracted by Mum holding a treat just out of shot!

More soon - although I face eviction according to Mum if i don't soon learn to control my bowels

What ever that means

Deefs

You couldn't make it up

Today, what I want to tell you about, and what my Dad says I should write are poles apart.

Me First! Another lovely walk today, in the gathering gloom where we met a lovely lady and her gentleman westie, Barney. All neatly groomed, clipped and washed, he was very spruce, but was up for a game, and the four of us joined up for a nice stroll round the park

But dad thinks we should have called this blog entry "Free-Style Cat Jumping", or "Snared in a laundry basket"

Cat Jumping? You know those accidents where humans say "It all happened so fast! I could only watch helplessly!"There I was leppin' down the stairs, 5 or 6 from the bottom, when I was distracted by Haggis in the hall, swerved right, and lost my footing. The big ol' soft brindled cat (Mississippi) was asleep at the foot of the stairs, over by the bannister. I rolled and bounced side over side down the last few treads, luckily well padded with soft carpet, the last bounce bringing me side-down splat on top of the cat's sleeping form. She screamed and shot up the stairs, I got up all dazed and shook myself off, and I'm sure I saw Haggis sniggering with his hand over his mouth. Dad nearly peed himself laughing (once he'd dusted me down and was sure I was OK)

Tonight, Dad's doing "domesticated man". Our laundry basket is like a plastic crate, about 2'6" long, 1'6" wide and a foot high, with slatted sides. Dad had carried all the laundry downstairs, loaded the machine once, then stuck the basket, right way up, on the pile of clothes waiting to be the 2nd load. Mum and Dad had returned to watch telly. They heard a scrabbling in the kitchen and Dad went to investigate. Trying to climb up the side of the basket to see what was on top, I had put my weight on the front edge. the basket flipped over fight on top of me, making a very effective cage which I was running around inside trying to find the exit and, in so doing, was shuffling the crate about the kitchen floor. Dad was laughing again, saying "Have you seen this muppet?". Mum just said "Now THERE's a bloomin' good idea! Perhaps we could leave her like that?"

Humans! No sympathy

Deefer