York, a pub lunch, and cats!

 

The humans and I went away in my campervan last week, even though it was a bit cold and sometimes very wet. But we were fed up with the wet and all that rain we keep getting, so we stayed at a campsite in York on what they call a hard standing (I think it means the van is not on grass which would be blooming wet and muddy and we could get stuck).

The York campsite is a great place for walks along by the river (think it's called the OOooze) but the humans learned that the campsite, just across the road from the river, had been closed 4 times this year because of flooding, so everywhere we walked (on paths whenever we could) was wet and sloshy. I was allowed to go on some of the grass, but only for a quick sniff and pee, as it was so muddy I might have sunk into it. With short legs that could be a problem. 

The park next door to the campsite, where I've been taken before, was closed and the tennis courts were under water. I made the best of it and liked my walk by the river on the puddly paths, but the best day was when there was no rain and some friends of the humans came to visit.

We walked into York and we had a map of the Cat Trail all ready to follow once we'd been for lunch in a pub. Now, sitting under the table in eating places is really quite good as I know when to behave myself, and this often means I get an odd titbit from someone's plate. A very large bowl of water was brought for me too.

What I was interested in was this Cat Trail thing the humans kept talking about. After lunch and lots of chatting (boring...) we set off with the map to find these cats. Would you believe - there's even a cat shop!! in York but it doesn't have real cats in it, just models and pretend cats. Boring.

We followed the trail for a while, but it looked like it was going to rain (again) so everyone decided to cut the walk short and get back to my campervan before we all got wet. The humans only found 4 cats on the way back, using the map. And I didn't get to see any of them at all because they were climbing up the sides of buildings and sitting on windowsills.

And in any case, they weren't real. Otherwise my behaviour might have been a bit different!

Addicted? Moi?

Oh it's been a while again since I shared my thoughts with you. What a l-o-n-g winter it's been and today, no blooming let up as it rained and snowed and did nasty things so I had to get togged up in my cosy onesie when I went out.

Not that I wanted to go - please tell me there are other Norfolks out there who dig their paws in when they see what the weather's like? And then behave like a bag of heavy wet washing when we're out instead of walking properly with the human.

On the whole, my humans are pretty good when it comes to taking me for walks and they know what I like:

Park! Yes, country park with deer. It's good

Car! Yes again, that means we're not going on pavements near home but somewhere a bit more interesting.

Horses! Oh yes - that means we're are going on some pavements to a lane which leads to a field where there are 3 horses, and I'm very happy to watch them and sniff them when they come over to the fence to say hello. 

Cows! Yes - had forgotten we sometimes go on a longish walk which takes us to a farm where there are big cows and baby cows, which are the nicest to watch.

Of course, it's been such a wet winter with masses of soggy ground and it's not always been good to walk far, so the humans keep me happy with a few fetch games in the house (fetching badger and squeaky squirrel) and watching a bit of Dog TV in the evening before they watch their programmes (not very interesting those).

But yes to Dog TV, birds, squirrels and - nearly forgot - Winterwatch! I loved that, Better than Dog TV and what's more, the humans like it too.

You could say I'm a bit of an addict (not sure what that means but one of my humans uses that word when I want to look at her tablet screen). I like it best when she lets me have the screen to myself, but I don't complain if she lets me sit and watch her do a funny thing with boxes and words [Ed. on-line crossword].

Roll on the good weather so I can enjoy sitting out in my garden, watching the squirrels and taking the air in the sunshine. Paws crossed it won't be long to wait for that now.

 

Barkitecture

 

 

The human who feeds me was talking the other day about something she was reading (they do this thing where they go very quiet and look at these books - no idea what they see in them, I'm a screen fan myself). Anyway, she was talking  about something called barkitecture and she seemed to think it was a bit funny.

 

All I could make out was that some houses in the Younited States have special homes built in their houses for their dogs. Funny....I've already got a home and it's lovely. It's mine. I've also got a campervan, but that's another story.

 

So these houzis for dogs are like real ones, but smaller, sort of dog size, and they have  couches and sofas and shelves and pictures on the walls and some even have a tv.

 

These houzis are built under the stairs (we have a cupard there and it's too full for me to even try to get inside it), and they have a proper door. I reckon I'm lucky as I have my own special tabel house in the living room, and I go there to snooze and snuggle down.

 

I get a good view of the TV screen from there too, but if there's anything interesting on, like cats, squirrels, sheep, cows and horses, I don't stay there and watch, I get up close to the screen and balance on my back legs with my paws on the TV table.

 

I don't need any special barkitecture. I do very nicely with that table and it gives me a roof over my head and space just for me.

 

[Ed - Bosworth is occasionally in trouble, but never "in the doghouse"!]

 

 

Long time no postings

 

 

Bosworth here....long time no news from me, but you do know it's all down to the human who feeds me to get the words out, and she's been pretty busy. Well, I have too. A few snippets to update you:

The humans took me away with them to France in my campervan,and we stayed at their favourite campsite place for a few weeks. I like it there too, been a few times, know my way around and which walks I like best. And it's not bad at all sitting outside my campervan watching the world go by.

Only trouble was, if someone came a bit too close to where were (think it's called a pitch?) I had to tell them not to come too close, so I did get a bit told off for barking, and when I made that low quiet growly noise, the humans said "No growling!" to me. And all I was doing was keeping guard on my territory (or should that be terriertory?!).

Lots of other odds and ends of exciting things have happened. We all went to visit their daughter - the one with the cat - as she's moved to a new house. And would you believe it...? That cat was there too! And I still never really got to find her as there are lots of new hiding places in the new house.

A few days ago, when it got sunny (oh it's been SO wet, I've had to go out in the rain quite often, and I don't like it) we went out for the day in my campervan to the sea and beach. I had a great run on the beach with some other dogs who were taking their humans out for a walk.

I was tired out and needed a good snooze after that. I slept all the way home but did like being back in my campervan again, only though it was only for the day.