In the Doghouse for Cat-Based Crimes

Look at these two smug beggars! Felix on the left, Mississippi on the right. They are the cause of my current misfortune! Yes, the honeymoon period is over and I am in the doghouse again

I protest, Members of the Jury! It does not seem such a crime to chase Felix around and it really was great fun when he sprayed all over me and the .. um... main human bed. Not so much fun when I was discovered , but beautifully fragrant meantime.

Nor, indeed, to have a go at tidying up Mississippi's poo from the cat litter. I was only trying to be helpful, yer 'Onour, when I was seen scurrying down the hall with a great big hard "Richard the Third" in my mouth, heading for my bed

And that's another thing. I am, allegedly joint-owned by Mum and Dad, so why did Mum yell through to Dad "Your bl***y dog has git a lump of cat sh** in her mouth"

I hear on the grapevine that bro' Archie is recovering well from his leg injury and is back to all 4 cylinders. Also that, just like me, he loves to pester his Dad when same is sitting on the "throne" in the morning. Only unlike me, who tries to climb into the throne bowl - Archie's thing is apparently the bath. Dad has to lift him into the bath where he either attacks the dripping water, or curls up happily in the bottom of the bath and goes to sleep while his Dad concentrates. Also, allegedly LOVES being bathed - the water, the shower head, the splashing, the shampoo...... Are you SURE he's my brother?

Deefs

Too busy for one dog

"You're to busy for one dog!" - a fantastic turn of phrase picked up from our Deep South westie friends, describing their very active young pup, Theo. Theo is a tad more sedate now (They used to call her "Theo-Whoosh") but the too busy thing definitely fits me, according to Mum and Dad. We get fed in one room, shut out from the kitchen where the cats get fed, lest we harrass the cats away from their bowls and pirate the lot (as if!). But once the cats have finished we are let through to lick up aby tiny gleanings. Unfortunately there are 2 bowls, several feet apart, and I only have one mouth, so Dad gets a regular laugh as I am torn trying to lick both before either Meg or the H can get any. Too busy for one dog indeed

Meanwhile, today was Frontline day. We had .. um "company"... but we were trying to keep them secret, but Haggis grassed us up by scratching and licking around his tail. The humans always seem to know, perhaps by the rusty coloured saliva stains where he's been licking. So the game was up, and Dad came at us with a liquid trigger pack. We don't really mind - after all, what's a thin parrafinny stink, when you're a connoisseur of fox poo and dead seabirds? The cats got it too, much to their disgust. they sulked in the garden and wouldn't come in for supper

Deefer

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

It's a cold night, Dear

Don't you just love that (probably apocryphal) story, that the Inuit (story probably dates from when they were called eskimoes!) judge the coldness of the night by how many dogs they need to add to the bed. It's a cold night, Dear... chuck another dog on the bed! Well it's so mild here at the moment that these must be zero dog nights, but we are still allowed to sneak on board. It's a big bed!

Mum was joking with Dad that she'd be surprised if I didn't grow up thinking my name was 'K'off Deefer. The amount of times she shoo's me away with a choice expletive or two, and Dad, who likes a nice quiet sit on the "throne" in the morning (where-as I just have to try to get on his lap, or look over the side of the throne bowl to see where all the fascinating splashy noises and gorgeous (to a dog) smells are coming from) knows exactly where she's coming from.

Ah well - 'tis the weekend and I am promised a lovely walk in somewhere new, called King's Wood, if it's not tipping down tomorrow. Might even get my first ride in the 2CV

Deefer

House Arrest

Brother Archie progress report.... The vet has allowed him home today without his restricting leg bandage, but he is reported to be under "house arrest", and only allowed out into the garden for a wee on the lead! Poor little divvil. Must be driving him crazy, and probably everyone else.

We managed to persuded Dad to take us out the minute he got home from work, while there was still some daylight, so we went on a good hour's worth of off-the-lead rabbit snuffling. From our house you can be in open fields in minutes, and there's a lovely walk along the creek bank, part of the Sustrans bike-ride route, before we turn back south (inland) across more fields and through dad's allotment site back to our road. It was a bit sticky underfoot, so we're a bit grubby, and I managed to collect some huge burr-dock burrs under my chin, but we made it. I'm sooooo tired now though, I can barely beat up Haggis

:-)) - whoosh!
Deefer

Lost down the back of the sofa

At home there's a superb long sofa, which I like to jump up onto the back of and then sleep between the back-cushion and the house-wall, basically stretched out along the hard back-plank of the sofa frame. Here is a pic of what happens when you try this at Silverwood's house, where the sofa has a big gap between the cushion and the back - no "plank". I was tired, so i was fast asleep, and the rotters got a pic of me disappearing out of sight as the evening went on. I think that's my ear at the top of the picture

Meanwhile, a progress report on Archie, who is still strapped up but now apparently feeling a lot better, so has now to be limitted on his desire to charge about on 3 good legs and a strapped-rigid one, still trying to fight his Dad (Hector). His human parents can't wait till he's let out again! Driving them crazy. other sister, Ellie is off to pup-classes tonight. Her Mum and Dad are worried that without a Hector/Mollie or Megan/Haggis to play with, she'll not get properly socialised. maybe she'd like a go with ASBO ?

Deefer

Exotic smells, evocative smells and ASBO's

Happy New Year. Mum and Dad came home from the restaurant smelling of all sorts of exotic foods - stuff you'd only read about in Africa geography books - they'd been to a "Taste of Africa" night, where-at the owner and staff were all dressed in trad African gear, and the food was stuff like well spiced veg dishes, cassava, yam, rice dumplings, dried catfish - various offal-y stuff like gizzards and tripe, and either goat or lamb.

Mum and Dad were buzzing with the deliciousness of it all, and still hyper from the traditional dance/drum music. I'm tempted to post my first link, just in case you want to go see, but I need to check the web address first. Everyone, incuding "Auntie Diamond" came back to our house for a few drinks till the midnight hour, to help us through the fireworks!

While we're on evocative smells, while we were in Ireland, Dad loaded onto the car a big bag of proper peat "sods", traditional fuel when coal was hard to come by. Tonight we have a real fire in the grate (first one this year - it's been so mild), and we are wafting evocative peat-turf-fire smells across the street from our chimney

And I finally got to meet Diamond's dog "ASBO" (actually Ragworth). He is a young (2) Lakeland / Patterdale terrier in black and tan, given to wispy hair on his ears and Denis Healey eyebrows. Not used to small (cough) vulnerable dogs to play with he can be a bit rough, so we all arranged a meeting back on the beach in Reculver, as neutral territory.

Scary - he piled straight in bowling me over and making me scream like a stuck pig. So we were separated while he ran off some energy, then allowed back together in a bit more of a controlled way. Anyway - suffice to say that by the end of the walk we were getting on much better (me only squeaking a little bit when he charged too close, and him not actually beating me up), so everyone thinks it was reasonably successful and worth keeping going. By the end of the walk I was actually letting curiosity get the better of me and chasing him about (from a distance)

An interesting start to the year

Get well soon, Archie

Deefer