Seasalter

Bank Holiday Monday, and Dad only has to work till 10 am. Then we are FREE to go an enormous walk. Mum drops us of at the Old Sportsman pub in Seasalter, and we walk back home along the sea wall. 2 and a half hours nice and flat to suit poor aul' Meggie's tired old legs. She ambles along with a rolling gait, like a slow rolling run which she's favoured, I gather, since she went through the Cushings episode and her hips got a bit weak. She's Ok now on the daily Vetoryl, but never got back into that loping dog-trot that the rest of us use.

Dad took the binoculars to see what sea birds we could see, and watched 4 marsh harriers wheeling and soaring over the fields in the thermals, 2 pairs apparently squabbling over territory. Nice

Back at the ranch our old friend Cyril the Squirrel is back. He (or possibly she) sneaks up the fence line and launches himself into the Albertine rose growing all over the back of our house. We go mad at the scritching and scratching noises but to no avail. He's 10 feet off the deck and well surrounded by Albertine's wicked thorns. Megan can wheedle and plead all she likes but he will not come down for a game of chase.

He tends to stay there, once cornered till it's nearly dark, and then scurry off back to the old railway bank and the thick tangled sycamore woods. he's almost stopped coming once the building work started out the back of us, presumably put off by the diggers and cleared ground, but now he's back. The humans sometimes see him first, and whisper to each other "The "squ**" (pronounced "skwuh") is here", but we suss it fairly quickly anyway

We have foxes too, out the back, screaming their yowling-yappy bark at 2 in the morning and sending us racing downstairs to be let out to repel boarders.

Hope you had a good Easter

Deefer

Climbing Feet, Climbing Feat

Mum and Dad are getting used to the fact that they have a climbing dog about the place, achieving remarkable feats of climbing which neither Capt. Haggis nor The Lady Megan ever tried. Tonight Dad was just back from a post-work, post-walk session up at the allotment (He's enjoying the late evenings now we're on BST, and the warm dry digging weather; Makes a nice change. says he) and was in the kitchen briefly to make a coffee. He came back to find me on the dining room table, just about to explore a re-sealable sachet of dog-sweets. He's sussed that I can sprong onto the chairs from the floor, and from there onto the table top

They've already got used to seeing me on the patio table - even quite young I could leap from the flower bed onto the shelf beneath the table, from there to the chair and from there to the table top. Piece of cake. Climbing Westies. A new breed? Mind you, both real-Mum (Mollie) and real-Dad (Hector) are great ones for lying along the backs of sofas, and all 3 of us kids must have that in our blood (or we saw it enough times when we were pups and it stayed in our heads).

Archie now always joins Moll+Hector along the back of the sofa, looking out of the big living room window, it's my favourite place when the humans are sat watching TV, and (we learned a couple of days back) that it is also Ellie's favourite perch, especially as her new-Dad loves eating his supper sitting on the sofa. He is forever battling off Ellie, who sneaks round the back of his neck and sneaks a wet nose round his collar, past his ear and onwards to try to intercept food en route from plate to mouth....

Think I'd probably die if I tried that. Discretion is the better part of cowardice

Deefs

Westie Sextet

Fantastic Day! As well as our normal early morning, dug-Dad-out-of-bed-at-7 walk, and once Dad had got his spuds into the allotment, the humans arranged for we 3 dogs to meet up with my first family - Mollie, Hector and Archie, for a chase about round Leybourne Lakes, down by Maidstone. What a cracking venue for a dog walk - hard tracks for the humans to walk on and big lakes to house the swans and geese that we can chase (oops).

We all got on like a house on fire and quickly formed a good pack. I got lots of chasing in with brother Archie (that's him chasing me in the 2-dog photo). Doesn't he look all groomed and smart. He always was a short/smoothe coated boy, where I was (and still am to some degree) a silky blow-away mop head. He's also now a bit bigger and more muscly than me, but I am quick and manouvreable so we had a great run around.

The 6-dog photo's are superb, aren't they. One is a tribute to talking too soon. Although the park was mainly dry, there are the odd mud-wallow scattered about, and we found this one just as Dad was saying "they're keeping quite clean, aren't they". That's me in the middle of the wallow, Mollie, Hector and Arch' top of picture, and Megan and H behind me.

The lake-side pic is also fun becuase seconds later some swans swam close to the bank and I launched myself 2 feet into the water. Instead of swimming off, they hissed and came closer. I now hold the world Westie record for learning how to a) swim, b) turn 180 degrees in mid-stroke and c) beat it to the bank and scrabble out. Never mind Crufts - show me the Olympics!

We adjourned back to "their place" for more chasing about and for the humans to have a coffee.

Have a great weekend

Deefer Webb

The Squirrels

Spring is definitely with us, and even the Forest is drying out. We went a lovely long walk, the reverse of the Friends of Kingswood "Deer walk" - Dad was out with the telephoto again trying to get that prized Fallow Deer picture; and no, he won't sneak off to the deer park in Sevenoaks and blag one. This has to be (apparently) a real Challock Forest deer in Challock Forest. It's an obsession. He had to make do yesterday though with this charmer of Meggie at one of the Friends' ponds, with me in the background.

Out on the Rec the squirrels are out and about in force, and I am getting to really enjoy the hunt. Used to be Meggie's thing, but lately she's feeling her age and can't run them down like she used to, so she looks on proudly while I charge about.

The second pic is me on one of the patio chairs. Definitely in need of a hair cut!

Snow on the way, apparently, Sunday

Deefer

If you go down to the woods today

Everyone feeling in need of exercise today, after a lunch yesterday which featured (for humans, not for dogs!) sticky toffee pudding, so all the guilty parties (including Diamond and John) rendezvous'd at Challock Forest at 10 am. The frost was all gone, so it was a bit skiddy underfoot.

This is a pic of the 4 of us (l to r, Meggie, moi, the H-Man and Asbo (aka Rags). Mirror mirror on the wall etc.... I wish that, for a laugh, I could show you the shots surrounding this one on the memory card - dogs looking in the wrong direction, me leppin' off the bench. Maybe I'll put one up tomorrow.

Not all of us understand fully commands like "sit" and "stay" (or, for that matter - "WILL you keep STILL you little perishers?!!!". Rags (shame on him) is on a lead in this one, just while he was on the bench, because the dunce has solid bone between his ears and couldn't get the concept of posing at all...

Ne'er mind. All adds to the fun

Deefs

Levee and the Creek

Great walk tonight, and a first for me. What Dad calls the levee-loop. About an hour and a bit North from here through the Abbey Fields to the Creek bank, which is a small levee - most of the fields round here are below sea level at high tide! The eastward along the levee and back inland, through Dad's allotment site, home. Rabbits a-plenty to sniff and chase. Bit sticky underfoot but drying out since the really wet weather

Mum and Dad having a laugh. You know how most people create the odd recipe from stuff left over in the fridge. M+D call theirs "Bottom of the Fridge Suppers". Only our fridge seems to be weirder than most. We have a fantastic local fishmonger (called Herman's Plaice - what a brilliant name!) which always has an impressive range, and Dad is on a mission, when ever he goes there, to get, as well as the usual stuff, something we've never had before - swordfish, barramundi, red tilapia, you name it, and this time a tub of baby octopusses preserved in oil. (Octopi?).

So we had some of them in the fridge, plus some cold roast pheasant, and some thawed frozen prawns. So, would you believe we had "Pheasant, Octopus and Prawn Risotto". How many people d'you reckon were eating that on Tuesday night? Indeed, how many freezers do you think have a portion of it left over in them tonight?

Good ol' beef stew tonight though, and we got some gravy. Yum

Deefer

German Bight, Humber, Thames

GERMAN BIGHT HUMBER THAMES DOVER WIGHT WESTERLY BACKING SOUTHWESTERLY VIOLENT STORM 11 DECREASING 5 OR 6. ROUGH OR VERY ROUGH OCCASIONALLY HIGH. SQUALLY SHOWERS. MODERATE OR POOR BECOMING GOOD

Coo! There are whole big limbs of trees coming down on the Rec. Bigger than a pup can pee against. We went for a walk but we came back very "windswept and interesting". Dad has the day off tomorrow, so we are promised a walk, finally in "the forest" - Kings Wood in Challock, near Ashford, in Kent. 6 or so square miles of Chestnut coppice (well coppice up to 2006, but now the paper recycling has been so successful that the last remaining pulp mill taking chestnut (in Wales) has now shut, so Kingswood no longer has an outlet for it's chestnut, and the poor old coppicers have all been laid off. One man's green success story, is another man's unemployment)

More tomorrow, when I've been to this mythical wonderland. Dad promises to take the camera

Deefer

Who you callin' "Gobby"?

Wow! For January 14th, amazing warm breezes, clear blue skies, sunshine. We arrange to meet Auntie Diamond and ASBO at reculver at 10 o'clock. That is, WE think we're meeting them at 10. They think we're picking them up from their front door at 10 to give them a lift to Reculver. 3 Humans and 4 dogs in a car (especially with 2 of them being Asbo and me), now that WOULD have been interesting! Ah well, we all got good walks, just not together.

For some reason I was in one this morning and decided to shout at a couple of people, in an attempt to preserve the westie's reputation for being "yappy dogs". Mum and Dad had other ideas. They prefer preserving the westie's reputation for being calm, well socialised dogs who don't yap and don't bark at anyone (see smug Megan and Haggis for details). Even so I had a try

One was an angler wheeling a great trolley of fishing gear and lugging umpteen fishing rods over his shoulder. No problem when he was behind us catching us up, or indeed as he overtook. It was when he was about 10 yards in front (safe distance?) I suddenly started shouting at him. Even when I was shut up I still wuffed and chuffed as we climbed onto the sea-wall and he dived into the bullrushes to find his fishing position, 100 yards away

A little later we came a cross 2 guys in hi-vis jackets, by a car, apparently waiting to marshall a 400-person run along the sea wall from Minnis Bay to Reculver. The one by the car was OK, but this other guy stood 30 yards off suddenly looked dangerous to me so I had a shout at him too. I got shut up, and stomped off huffing and gruffing, then looked across the sea wall at the other guy, who smiled and said "Yeah? What's up with you, Gobby?". Mum and Dad cracked up laughing. Gobby? I ask you. Dad said, "If the cap fits....."

Gobby

For Chow read "Samoyed"

Now we've had a chance to look in dad's dog book, we see that Tammy (see 30th Dec) is not in fact a Chow. Chows have that squished in face, like they've been chasing parked cars. We now think (but are still willing to be corrected) that Tammy is probably a Samoyed, one of those spitz type things

Well, we got our first 2CV ride today, but didn't get to the forest - it's been raining all day, and the forest gets very sloppy underfoot, so rather than bring home 3 plastered dogs, Dad opted for the open close-cut grass of the Bishopstone cliff tops. This is the next dog-walk west from Reculver, and comes with the advantage that parking is free! Dire graphic notice boards depict humans falling to their deaths as bits of the cliff top peel away "Unstable Cliffs. Keep away from cliff edge!"

So - we got a lovely fast run-around, met yet more nice dogs and stayed relatively clean

The 2CV is Dad's pride and joy project car, recently tarted up and sprayed beautifully back to factory finish. We prefer it to the "real car" because the back seat is nice and high up relative to the rear windows, so we can see out. Luxurious smooth quiet motoring it is definitely not - all squeaks, rattles, lurches and wind noise. Proper driving! Mind you, Dad was not so sure me leppin' up onto the narrow eadge of the rear seat back was such a good plan. He drove very carefully for a while so I didn't plummet into the boot, or fall forward onto Megan or the H, and was very releived when I eventually decided to hop back down to safety. Wuss!

Deefer

Fred Basset

A quick pic of me out on my first ever walk, taken by Angel-B with Haggis in the background getting up close and personal with my posterior. Snazzy lead and harness huh?

Talking of walks, had agreat one yesterday evening, as dusk fell. Out across the Rec again where there are acres of space, was chasing Haggis around. 50 yards away, Megan who had been doing "stand-off-ish" was suddenly swept away by her inner tart, when a 9 month old Basset hound appeared on the scene. Aloof? Huh - she was soon romping around like a pup herself, chatting up this new talent

Before long the two had moved over close enough to us that we all suddenly merged into one mad scrum of playing dogs. The Basset (I admit, almost as cute as me!) was called Fred (Dad says that's compulsory for male Bassets), and he was great. I'm told the more of these good social meetings I get during my "formative" weeks, the better, and off the lead is better than on. So far so good - loads of meetings and nobody has actually beaten me up yet! I may come out of this a half way sensible Westie

Maximum stairs descent now 6

Success at peeing on paper or outdoors, rather than carpet; approx 70%

Success at pooing as above.... hmmm... we'll draw a veil over that one

Pricked-up ear count 1 (unless facing into wind)

(Good luck Theo-whoosh)

Love

Deefer

Now that's what I call a bone!

2nd walk today, despite the gales and rain (we nipped out between 2 showers), and I get to meet 4 lovely dogs - an elderly westie, a young Irish Setter, a very bouncy black labrador and a nervous Springer. So surprised I woofed at the first one and ran away, but pretty soon got into the swing of it and by the end was pretty blase. Great fun anyway charging about through the autumn leaves and helping Meggie and Haggis chase squirrels. To be honest, havn't got a clue what a squirrel is; never seen one, but there must me some reason Meg suddenly charges off straight at a tree and then looks up it

The picture - me with a bit of a beast I managed to bring down single handedly while hunting on the savannah..... well, OK, there's a butcher in town who brought it down while hunting in the savannah. He promptly whipped all the meat off for the humans and was left with this huge shank, which he quickly split into three, two knobbly ends for the grown-up dogs and this tubular shanky bit for me. Great fun ripping all the membrane-y bits off and found my little jaws could do a good job of nibbling up the ends to get at the marrow.

Dad was laughing. When Meggie and Haggis were young, Dad was regularly in contact with some westie owners from the US of A who swore by something called the ARF diet - that is (Species-) appropriate raw food diet. The idea was that you fed your dogs on raw meat and bones only, with all the health benefits, you can imaging from that. Sounds "appropriate" to me - westie pup, dead cow. Just the sort of thing a dog my size would eat in the wild! :-))

Deef-the-full-bellied