walkies

At last I've got Mum to pull her finger out and sort out the photos from the Airedale Club walk. That was two weeks ago!! So it is kind of old news, but thought you might like to see some of them.

This was another outing with WESWATC (West of England and South Wales Airedale Terrier Club). A lovely lady called Jackie sorted out a route along the River Parrett in the Somerset Levels, from Langport to Muchelney Abbey. There were probably about 20 Airedales there, plus a few other dogs too. Heaven!

The fun begins in the car park



The guy steaming in from the left there is called Dylan (or is it Dillon). I've never met him before but he seemed to end up in nearly every photo Mum took that day. He was fixated on me and Poppy, a girly a little younger than me. Likes the little fillies, methinks. Mum says he's like that boy you meet at the school disco who is really nice but won't let you chat to anyone else all night and you end up trying to hide from him.

It was so funny looking at the expressions of people walking towards us down the path. They really couldn't believe their eyes to see so many Hairydales in one place.



Once we got to the fields, a lot of us were let off the lead. You won't be surprised to learn that I am one of the frontrunning pack leaders.



See the smile on my face? Oh look, there's Dylan again.



Did someone mention river?



And Willow (front left) was groomed to perfection ready for a show. Here she has a quick snack of cow poo to brighten her teeth before going for the mud therapy.

The cows on the other riverbank got in the swing and kept pace.



I suppose we were quite an arresting cavalcade.



Mummy cleans up after me. Oh, and there's Dylan supervising.



We paused by the second bridge, and Dylan was, shall we say, omnipresent. So I thought I'd show him a wrestling move or two. It takes a while to figure this picture out, but I have my jaws upside down with his left ear held in a killer grip.



Thing is, he just didn't mind. I suppose he thought it was the way to my heart. Doesn't he realise that teenage girls can be terribly cruel to nice but clingy boys?

Once at Muchelney Abbey we made ourselves comfortable in the lovely grassy courtyard.





I got to play my special trick on a few grown Dales. You know, the one where you lie down in a submissive posture, get 'em to all come in and look closely at you... then snap grab 'em.



Afterwards I apologised, of course. The smaller pup on the left of this picture is Poppy. You may remember her from the Airedale Fun Day pics I posted a while back - she was the puppy completely wrapped in toilet paper.



Poppy is a cutie, and along with my best mate Ruby, we're the youngest pupsters here. For some reason I haven't got pics of Ruby from this walk though. Very annoying, as she is looking so great. She has a great jaunty bossy walk that makes her completely adorable. Ah well, it'll have to wait till our next gathering.

So there you go. Airedale overload. What always amazes my parents is how so many feisty Airedales can be in one place without trouble. Sure, the males sometimes make a big noise at each other, but it is all showing off. I've got more pics on my Flickr account if you want.




One last thing. You may remember this pic of the lovely Nigel that I met at the Fun Day back in September:



I learnt that he has since passed away. I've only heard the details through others, but I believe he had a tumour that suddenly caused him to be desperately ill. He was such a lovely boy that I feel very sad, especially for his family. He is currently on the Wikipedia page for Airedales, so has a little posthumous fame.

be afraid. be very afraid.

I'm ready for the big birthday halloween party in Salem.
See you there to celebrate the barkdays of Koobus, Amber-Mae, Lola, Lorenza, Precious and Dewey.

Is this where I get to do a Harry Potter and drink lots of pumpkin juice?


ps I think I look really scary but my dad says my nose still looks cute. I think I'll have to punish him.

o'er hill and dale

My parents keep saying that they wanted a dog to share their walks but so far, because I'm a young pup, they haven't really taken me on a big one. Last week, though, it was Dad's birthday and a glorious warm sunny day - quite exceptional for this time of year - so off we went.

We went to a village called Lustleigh Cleave on the edge of Dartmoor. It's a very chocolate-box village, and the walk is fantastic. It is five miles, just right for a pup like me, and goes through mossy woodland, over open moorland, and back through more forest. Most of the trip is ideal for me to be off lead.

Here's the start of the woods. It's like a fairy glade, all mossy boulders and dappled light. I went nuts and just ran up and down the hill. My mum was too puffed from going up hill to call me too much.


I was so thrilled to be there I ran ahead further than usual, but I kept coming back when called so that was ok. But when we got to the top, I disappeared for a while. And came back looking troubled. I even barked over my shoulder. So they put me on the lead and continued, and this is what we found:
a wild pony! I was a bit freaked out by this and kept muttering, but we got past ok. Only to meet this young one blocking the path:

How cute is that hairdo?
Dartmoor ponies are quite small and tubby, and by the time we got past a whole herd of them I accepted that they were pretty chilled out. Dad was fretting that they would mug him for the apples in his bag.

Anyway, once past the ponies I was off again leading the way. I match the bracken, don't you think? Hurry up, you two.

We spotted these, and think they are very poisonous. Mum was kneeling in pony poo while taking this shot. Silly mummy.
Back on the lead again. They just don't trust me with livestock. How cute are those calves? They are a breed called Belted Galloway.
Taking a breather. the high moorland of Dartmoor is just visible in the distance.
The return trip through a lovely forest. Mum wanted a photo of me enjoying myself but I just kept turning round and telling her to hurry up. I had no trouble following the path, even though at times it seemed very faint to the humans.
I've realised that I am beautifully camouflaged for autumn. Everywhere was strewn with birch leaves and they were almost as golden as me.
I have to admit I was tired after this walk. In fact, I was tired for a couple of days. Apparently if I had paced myself instead of running up and down the hill for the first mile I would have been much better. But I'm up for this walking malarky any time they offer it. yippeee!

big week

Mum is getting behind with posts again. I'm going to sack her soon for being totally incompetent.

Back on Sunday we went out with a whole load of Airedales - about twenty! - and their humans for a walk. But mummy is being too slow at sorting the photos so I can't post anything yet.

Meanwhile, it was Dad's birthday this week. So Mum made him a card featuring two of his favourite things, Liverpool FC and me. Of course me. I come first!



It isn't a Photoshop trick, I did really wear this scarf. But I refused the hat and then chewed them both.

And today I am six months old. We're going over to Rooster and Sol's house for a sleepover so I am going to have a great time.

I promise to catch up once all the festivities are over.

best ever toy

look what I've got...


At last! Revenge for all the ones that run away up trees.

It's even got two squeakers in it so it screams for mercy in two tones. Not that I ever show it mercy.

Every now and then I let it rest so I can get round to killing it again.

It spooks the humans when I leave it lying somewhere unexpected as it looks so realistic. Good job our cats aren't grey or the parents would be having heart attacks.

I thought I would give you a closer look at my fantastic face fur. Tentacles 'R Us.


It's the one remaining bit of black puppy fur and Mum just can't bear to get rid of it. Plus, the eyebrows are astonishing, don't you think? Problem is, there's too much fuzz in the way and Mum says that could be why I never look her in the eye. So she's getting rid of it soon. Boo.

humans are hopeless

My Mum's dad lent us his camcorder to play with. But he has lost the firewire cable.

Mum has bought a new firewire cable. But has no firewire port on her PC.

Dad has a firewire port on his Mac. But so far can only capture files in .dv format which their software won't edit.

Humans are nice. But dumb.

I didn't give permission for summer to be over

Something odd is happening round here. Things are getting colder, there are leaves everywhere and sometimes I hesitate momentarily before I wade into the canal.

They're calling this autumn. But as I was born in April, I've got used to summer being the normal arrangement of my universe. And I want it back please.

I want the back door left open so I can wander in and out freely, instead of having to ask someone to open the door. As often as I like. Without questions about whether I really need to.

I want it to still be light past 9 o'clock so I can hang out on the patio and watch the pigeons go by, idly eating compost from the plant pots and plucking the occasional succulent snail from some shady arbor.

I want to be able to crash out on the lawn and sleep in comfort.


I wish it was still plum season so I could stuff my hairy little face under the trees in the orchard. Although those plum stones are not so comfy when they reach the end of their journey, so to speak.

I wish my parents still fell asleep sunbathing so I could Aire-bomb them without warning. They are so cute when they squeal and flail their arms around.

I might have to torture Dad to see if he'll bring summer back. I know, I'll do that thing where I pin him down and squeak my giraffe right down his ear.


Apparently autumn has only just started. And it will be followed by something called winter. They tell me it won't be fun and snowy and stuff, because here in Devon all we get is months of grey, dull, rainy days. Perhaps I should go and play with some friends instead. Mexico sounds nice - I could drop in on Lorenza for her birthday. Then hang out in Australia with Noah and his sissies. Oh yeah, and then go see Pacco in Malaysia!

Just imagine if we could all do a world tour of everyone we knew to follow the best weather. We could use the member list on Dogs With Blogs to discover new friends to drop in on. Want to visit Argentina? Let's go see Gorda. New Zealand sounds fabulous. Let's go play with Burbon.

Sounds like a great tag game, don't you think?

hmmmm

I was over at the wonderful Sophie's blog, and saw her post about keyword searches. It seems that someone found her blog by Googling for "blind squirrel rum", which is about as weird as you can get.

Or so I thought.

Want to know what keyword combinations have led folks here to my blog? Here are my favourite oddities:

In third place: "Airedales and seaweed"

It's odd, but not unfeasable

In second place: "baa baa sheep mug"

Ok, that is mighty strange. Why would someone end up at my blog for that? What is a baa baa sheep mug? And does it have any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three mugs full.

But in first place of surreality: "bambi go baa"

Someone needs to help me on this. Why??? Why this??? Why me???

got my mojo working

Stanley made the comment that I know how to work the camera, and I thought I should share a few of my techniques.

First lesson:
know where the camera is at all times. In this shot I wasn't paying attention.

(Please note that Dad has started to pull Airedale frowns even when he is perfectly happy. heh heh.)

I quickly corrected my error and stood closer to the camera in this shot, thereby making my Dad look tiny and myself look grand. Note the noble stare into the distance to show off my profile. (Please ignore my curly tail. If you call me a pug I'll steal your dinner for the next week.)


Second lesson:
Wide angle is good. See here where I am destroying the sports section of the Sunday paper that Dad is trying to read? How big do I look. Positively huuuge.


Whereas here I look like a normal sized pup again. Of course, it helps having a plump mum because she always makes me look good.


There's another story behind these shots. Mum is holding the remote control for her camera to have a practice with it. And the train station pics are her heading off to Exeter for the day to go to the museum. Someone noticed some of her old photos on Flickr and has invited her to take part in a photographic exhibition. Wow was she excited. She's a complete amateur and has never done anything like this before. It's one of a few things planned to happen while the museum closes for refurbishment. Anyway, she has been taking lots of shots today and is going back on Friday. The curators are kindly unlocking some of the cases too. She's like a kid let loose in a sweetie shop!

Of course, I was less than impressed by her leaving me for the day, even if I did have Dad at home. When we picked her up from the train station I ignored her all the way home in the car. But then once inside I went nuts! I suppose I ought to show her a bit of affection now and then.

Anyway, I digress.

Camera lessons.

One day soon I am going to show you my Blurpup collection. They are splendid. I also have a collection called Terrier Butt, which I should arrange in chronological order; let's call it Terrier Butts Through the Ages. And I have a special technique called Headless Pup which is great for winding up the photographer.

Watch this space.

thanks and apologies

I just want to say thanks to everyone for all their comments recently. It's absolutely fantastic to hear from you all. Here's my apology, though. I just haven't had chance to catch up with everyone this last week. I feel really bad about it as it looks so rude, and you are all so much fun to hang out with.

I blame Mum who is a bit distracted of late. She invited her dad down to stay, and then Dad invited his mum and dad down too. So it has been really mad in here recently and no-one is going near the computer. Which means I'm neglecting you all. Sorry!

Oddly enough, I don't have any photos of me with any of my grandparents. Mum is losing her touch, I think. But I've had a great time. Grandpa P has a fabulous beard so I felt somehow strangely connected to him somehow. And he's an absolute pushover as far as dog discipline is concerned, so I loved him lots. It only took a puppy stare to get a donation of his food. And he let me climb on the sofa so I could stand on his shoulders and munch the top of his head. Fabulous! Sadly he has that fragile old person skin so my careless tooth activity made him bleed lots. Wherever Grandpa P went, I wanted to be. So for the first time ever I whined when put in my crate for the night, and come morning time I totally ignored Mum and Dad to hang out with Grandpa. Ha! That'll serve them right for trying to exert discipline on me.

Grandpa T and Grandma S were much more switched on about puppies, so I was much better behaved. Although knocking over Grandma's walking stick was lots of fun.

When they all left, I was so miserable.

Especially as Mum now thinks she should continue with that hair-pulling thing she started last week.

Here's a pic of me as a woolly mammoth a few weeks ago. This is my 'I want a walk but I don't like my harness' look.
And this is me trying to get really close to Grandma's buttered toast. See my silly naked ears? Now you can see how one is all perky and one is all floppy. How undignified.
There's a long way to go yet on this grooming thing. Apparently I'll get a lot more naked yet. Uh oh.