Honey and the balloons

I told you before how Honey loves balloons and I caught some of her playing with one this afternoon.

Fluffy dogs

I got my fluffy badge, thanks Mr Mulley. Seeing as how everyone has been taking pics of their fluffiness I then spent ages trying to get Honey to pose like John's cat. She wasn't having any of it so I ended up with about 20 pics featuring mostly fur and no fluffy.

But I did manage this one...



Then she got bored with it all...

Two-legged dog

THIS is one of the maddest things I have ever seen, the Young Wan and I were laughing heartily at this last night, more because it looks strangely mad and strangely cute. I don't know if it is cruel or not, the dog appears happy as larry and it was rescued. Sure have a look yourself.

Little fluffy dogs

AFTER the last post and before my shower, I am trying to clear my mind with lovely fluffy things, like little fluffy dogs.









What was I thinking about? Oh yeah lovely fluffy dogs.

The apple game

WE have a game in our house whilst eating apples. I'll take a bite, break a bit off from it and give it to her to eat, she just loves it, always has done. And we share this way until the apple is done. Course it means I only get half an apple but sure.

We played it again this evening and I threw (and scored) the core into the fireplace where the remains of a fire from a couple of days ago still lie.

(While the weather has been wonderful and the past weekend marked the first time I had all the windows open in the flat all day I am under no illusion that the fire will stay unlit until autumn.)

Course she thought there was more apple to be had and retrieved it out of the fire ready for more. Thinking urrghh at this I gave her another apple, though I did take a bite out of it first (hey come one she had half of mine) before throwing the eaten apple core into the little bin.

When my back was turned, she ignored the full minus one bite juicy lovely apple and took the core out of the bin and proceeded to eat the lot, ashes and all.

Seriously sometimes there is no rhyme or reason with doggies.


My two honeys out for the count.

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More YouTube fun

HE HE I have having lots of fun with my movie maker and YouTube. Here's the latest offering. Introducing the other member of our household, Honey. Let me know what you think.



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Two halves of a memory

I WAS thinking recently about how funny or poignant it can be when two people can have different memories of the same incident. It happens all the time. But I recently remembered something I hadn’t thought of in years until my father was sick and he told me how he remembered when I got my first dog.

I was about seven to eight years old and I had been promised a dog for a while. I do remember going on and on about it, I saved bones from the Sunday dinners for it when in actual fact what felt like a lifetime for me was probably only the gestation period of a dog.

Then we went to pick up the dog, my Daddy and me. I remember picking a little black and white puppy and holding her the whole time and my Dad trying to cajole me into picking another one. But I had picked her and that was that.

That’s what I remember then one day during the summer my Dad was ill he told me his memory of that day.

I had apparently decided to use a method to choose my new pup. I put my finger out and wiggled it on the ground. One little black and white pup climbed over all her brothers and sisters and made her way to my finger which she licked.

That was my mind made up; she picked me so I picked her.

My Dad passed away at the end of that summer so remembering conversations like this is particularly special.

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On the Young Wan and the doggie

I STARTED this post with the Young Wan writing random things about our doggie and then realised before I do that I should actually do it about the Young Wan and finish with the doggie. Although Honey the dog is part of the family, she is not top of the pecking order so it is over to the Young Wan;

On the Young Wan:

• She is an absolute stunner, I know all parents think this, but it is true.
• She listens to music that make my ears want to bleed.
• She has lost countless numbers of my CDs as well as scratching and ruining them.
• Her approach and easy nature with all sorts of people is something to see indeed. She is amazing.
• She makes me lovely cups of tea at the weekend.
• She is very funny.
• There is perfectly round oil stain on our high ceiling from when she threw a dollop of butter up there. I didn't find that funny at all.
  
• She also talks a lot of teen rambling nonsense.
• Sometimes her make up is too heavy and then other times I think WOW I can’t let her out of this flat.
• Her room is currently the biggest kip in the world, seriously it really is.
• When she was three she emptied our bean-bag and pushed the polystyrene balls around every corner and nook and cranny of the living room, I kept finding them for months.
• She could say I love you from she was under a year old.
• She has always been an affectionate and loving child.
• She is silently stubborn.
• She thinks I am a pain in the arse.
• She is a great reader except for the fact she often reads Harry Potter over and over and over again.
• At the age of 7 to 8 she had a reading capacity which matched 12 year olds according to school tests.
• She is very quick minded and smart.
• She is a wanna-be goth.
• She hates me saying that, which makes me say it all the more.
• She is a lot of fun.
• She is a great travelling companion.
• She has travelled much more than I have.
• She has two boyfriends on the go at the moment.
• She speaks Irish, I don’t.
• She loves YouTube.
• She is growing up too fast.
  

On the Doggie

• When we are having dinner she does this mad roll around the floor bending about the place move while making all sorts of doggie noises, she stops and then looks at you as if to say ‘aren’t I really cute?
• When she wants to get up on a Saturday morning as you are trying to have a lie-in, she will sit right up at/on your head touching your nose with her nose.
• Sometimes she has a complete small dog syndrome and barks like crazy at big dogs walking past.
• She has regular wars with our cushions and pillows, I think she wins.
• She knows a couple of tricks including roll-over, walking on two legs, burling, give me five and we are working on more.
• When she thinks she is going to get a lovely treat and you say ‘sit’ she gets all excited and does all her tricks at once in record speed, it is so funny.
• She will sit and let kids pat her too hard, pull her tail, slobber over her because she loves being loved by wee people.
• She loses all rhyme and reason around footballs. When she sees people playing with one she will howl, pull away hard, go mental to play too.
• She has burst every ball belonging to my pal’s kids and I should say a couple of pal’s kids. Once again sorry!

• She can’t swim but she kinda likes the sea.
• When I am not home she apparently runs to the window with every bus that passes.
• She recognises suitcases being packed and does not like it.
• She isn’t too fond of her travel backpack but associates it with going to a beach sometimes.
• She loves the beach.
• She can get travel sick.
• We get the best welcome home in the world ever, every night.
• She loves apples and will play with it like a football, take a bite and play some more.
• She would play all night and all day if you let her.
• She loves chasing pigeons.
• When she is allowed to sleep with me she will force me somehow away from my side of the bed while I am sleeping.
• Sometimes I wake up in the morning and she is lying with her head on the pillow beside me.
• Her hair/fur is everywhere, everywhere.
  

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Give me your ball...

'Give me your ball. Give me your ball and I'll throw it' was what the young fella walking past our house last night thought I was saying to him.

Because there is a hedge separating the garden from the road and because it is five foot tall, the fella did not notice the little doggie playing with a squeaky ball below him in the garden.

No, he only saw me sitting at the front step and so he smiled at me before moving [swiftly] onwards.

Thought I would share that embarassing moment with you while checking out Blogger beta which I was able to upgrade to last night. I have lost most of my buttons and links, but I saved a copy of my old template so I still have them. The only trouble is you cannot edit the template html yet which is a pain in the a*se. Though it says this will be available in the future.

But hopefully all the interface thingies are easy enough to use. I think I'll be springcleaning the site all weekend.

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Bears mauled - dog goes beserk

I SENT a link to TCAL today a story in the Guardian about a guard dog that mauled a very expensive teddy bear collection which was only allowed on display IF there was a dog to guard them.

Barney the doberman guard dog stands over the remains of the soft toys he mauled. Photograph: Jon Mills/SWNS

Brilliantly written with lots of laughs, I roared out loud when I read the last line

"We have asked the security firm not to send us that dog again," Mr Medley said. "I really don't want to see anything bigger than a Jack Russell."

Well my doggie is no bigger than a Jack Russel and I dread to think what damage she could do in there. From my experience with dogs, they are not the ones to mind/watch/guard teddies.


In cold blood


The aftermath


Soft toy minus its innards


Wasn't me

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Howling dogs and lovely neighbours

MY little baby went away on holiday this week and I am missing her already. It is a bit ridiculous because up until the night before she left when we discovered that there were seats available on a flight where people we knew were flying; we were both looking forward to her holiday.

I’ve needed a break; my Mum-stress has been at a constant level of 9.9 out of 10 for quite some time and because of that AND because of the effects of this Mum-stress on the poor Young Wan she has also needed a break.

And now she’s away and I’m all sad.

I can’t hear Nirvana drifting in from her window into the living room as well as through the walls, the dog has been going to the window every five minutes and it is just so quiet.

There are no dishes in the sink, no strewn pyjamas in the living room in the mornings and no glasses everywhere in the flat but in the kitchen cupboards.

The poor doggie was absolutely traumatised by her leaving, it is mad how much they cop onto that is going on around them.

She saw me pull out the suitcase to pack and from then on she was slightly more derangedly cute and playful until she saw the Young Wan lift her suitcase out of the flat and downstairs and the doggie howled like she was being beaten.

She isn’t a barker really so this was a bit ‘ach the poor wee doggie what is she thinking?’

I recently made my first purchase on ebay, a backpack small dog carrier with ventilation bits and the rest, only we haven’t taken it for a spin yet though we have forced the doggie inside and I mean forced.

If the bag had been pulled out that morning, I reckon the doggie would have jumped into it and strapped herself in.

Then we left and she didn’t howl at first then we got outside and oh my god the dog was distraught.

She obviously recognises the suitcase, in the past we have gone away without her and gone with her but she has never howled like that. It was heart wrenching in a morning which was already a bit fraught.

We walked down the road to the sounds of the dog looking at each other. So I had no other course of action other than to phone the house, go onto the answer machine and leave a message to the house saying ‘ach Honey its okay, I’m coming back later, and I’ll be home in a bit. I’m not going away’.

I don’t know if it made the doggie feel any better but off we went to the station.

So now I am sitting here and there is no one telling me long-winded stories about things I can’t follow, there is no one asking me if I have seen her black eyeliner, no one has broken into the box of meringues and stolen half; as Bjork sang ‘its oh so quiet’. Oh and I don’t have to put the phone lock on the phone, though at this stage it feels wrong, very wrong. I might just put it on to make myself feel better.

What on earth am I going to do with myself?

In fairness there are plans, hopefully a weekend with a pal who now lives in the States and the old gang as it were, another weekend in Donegal not to mention the ability to just go for a pint after work without rushing home.

One other thing happened tonight which was just too much. I got home to a very happy doggie who wouldn’t stop kissing me, ach. So I brought her downstairs to the garden with her new squeaky steak and as we went into the garden the door slammed shut behind me. Shit.

Locked out and no keys and no phone and no honeybunches daughter, just Honey the doggie, me and a squeaky steak in the garden.

Seeing as how it was less than 10 minutes since I got home, and seeing as how I heard two out of the other three flat residents in residence I rang one of the occupied flat’s bells.

No answer.

So I rang again. And again. And again. Not in quick succession you understand, intermittently between throwing the squeaky steak and running around the garden like a mad thing.

Then I rang another bell, no answer and the same situation repeated itself.

I finally hauled myself into the back garden which contains all manners of shit and a lot more since the last time I was there and threw stones up at the other top flats kitchen window shouting nearly desperately hello.

Finally someone answered and I explained that I had locked myself out. And they said ‘and you want me to open the door?’.

‘Ehm well yes, if you could, that would be great!’ What an understatement?!?
They came down and I was all ‘oh thank you, thank you’ and as I moved in to put the chub on the door she said ‘are you leaving the dog out!!!

So I waved the squeaky steak in front of her and threw it saying no I just do not want to be locked out again. Then she said ‘is your daughter not in?

I said no but I wished I had said ‘she is watching MTV and I didn’t want to disturb her.”

What a stupid question and what lovely neighbours.

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Galway Abú

I’ve just spent a wonderful couple of days with an old pal in the west of Ireland with the most magnificent weather so far this year.

Spending time with my pal reminded me how it is so important to spend time with friends, how important it is to recharge the auld batteries, not to mention the soul and no where better than the west of Ireland with someone wonderful and their family. Life can be soo busy that we forget all this and before you know it too much time has passed since spending time with important people.

Between magnificent sunsets, stunning sandy beaches, old friendly company, laughing and crying babies, beautiful food, we all had a ball – the teenager, the doggie and me.

During one of our leisurely afternoons on one of the many beaches, we discovered that doggies do not know instinctively how to swim. The young wan headed off to the water with a very excited and delighted doggie and the dog’s squeaky bottle. Once the bottle was hurled into the sea, off the dog bounded and I mean bounded.

bounding…

But once in the water up to her neck, she just froze looking absolutely petrified and no amount of cajoling would budge her, none at all. She hadn’t a clue what to make of all this water and looked absolutely petrified.

After much shouting at the doggie, hearty laughs, clapping (don’t know why we thought that would work) laughing some more, the young wan went in to rescue the dog (I was wearing linen and had no intention of trying to hitch them up my legs). After a futile attempt to jump up on the young wan, the doggie was pushed by the bum back onto dry land.

I don’t think that the doggie was traumatised…. well much anyway.

And just because I have nothing left to say, I’ll let these pix taken from the weekend do all the talking.

My little doggie has a stalker…

WE have our little bundle of joy for just more than a year now and our new doggie, cos she is still new-ish, is the baby of the house. She is more demanding than my own child ever was, except of course now that they are a teenage monster, and to say we spoil the dog probably doesn’t go far enough. Well due to the cost I haven’t brought her to be fixed and had planned to go any day now to have her ‘done’ and get her booster shots.

Unfortunately she has come into heat again before I could do that and this will be the second time. The first time wasn’t so bad, apart from a bit of a mess, we weren’t hassled by dogs, we were able to take her for her walks without the fear of little puppies – but not this time, my little baby is now a woman… dog.

She has been in heat now for about two and a half weeks, and over the last three days a neighbouring dog has taken to whining and camping out the front of our house; my poor baby has a stalker and a very determined one at that.

At first it wasn’t so bad, you could sneaky our doggie out, let her do her business, have a quick run-a-round before heading back in, not now… Everytime I look out my window, he is there, sniffing around and whining. I have lost count of the amount of people who have checked this dog’s collar to see where it comes from and who it belongs to because it looks to them to be lost and dejected. Dejected maybe, lost certainly not, and definitely a little too amorous for my liking. People have rang my doorbell to say ‘yer dog wants in, he’s whining!’. So much for me hiding the dog from the landlord! If he calls by this weekend, he will find this border collie encamped on our front step...

In the morning, the young wan will bring the doggie out for a quickie run when the friends call to walk to school and then again when home from school. But at the moment, the other dog has been stalking, hiding and ready, really ready to pounce. Bear in mind, my doggie is a mixed-breed miniature snauzzer, she is really a cute terrier look to her and this mutt is a big dirty, hairy collie. And not that I have any intention of letting her get with puppy, I am annoyed with myself that she has come into heat before we visited the vet, the mix of those two wouldn’t be pretty at all. And not to mention that my doggie could nearly comfortably walk right under this dog without touching its underbelly – and I mean that figuratively.

Then once the young wan has gone to bed I keep a lookout to see if the dog is about before bringing her out again. I can’t tell you how many times I have been just about to head out the door when I notice the big swishy, bushy tail of this collie-in-waiting. In fact last night, I couldn’t see the collie, took out the lead, was followed round the flat by a prancing and delighted doggie. I brought her down to the front door only to have the collie leap into the garden with much delightedness, he nearly went ‘welllll hellllllloooooo…’ only to have to bring the poor baby back into the house having only had half a pee.

Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Running down the road with his big bushy tail between his legs, that’s where!

Back upstairs I went to the flat with the doggie, dejectedly walking behind me, not at all happy. I kept watch for another 20 minutes before deciding that I wanted to go to bed and opened the window and threw a teapot full of cold water down over the step and over the dog. Wow, did he run fast, back down the road and away. So back out we went and a delighted puppy got to do her business.

I tested out this theory again this morning and yet again it worked, off the collie ran down the road, never looking back. I told the puppy ‘see, that’s men for ya! one spot of bad weather and off they run’. She understood as well.