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!

My hols with THAT cat...!

I mentioned last time when I had my paws on the keyboard that I thought I was going away on holiday - I was and I did!

When I got to the human's daughter's house, where I've stayed before, I lost no time at all making myself at home. 

The most interesting and annoying thing about staying at her house is her cat. I hardly ever get to see her and I don't know why. Her name is Kitty and she lives somewhere behind the big cardboard boxes their daughter puts on the stairs so I can't get past them and find her!!!

Don't why she does that. I have seen her before and chased her into a bedroom. Then she disappeared. She's a nice cat and I only want to be friends.

 Anyway, I had a great hol. I was taken out on lots of walks. One day it snowed, another day it rained so hard my dog coat got soggy and wet, and on another day we went in the car to visit a friend who has a dog called Hugo. 

I was very badly behaved (so I'm told) because I pinched some of Hugo's food from his bowl, but Hugo's owner gave me a few pieces of delicious meat to eat [Ed. it was lamb]. Although it was good to eat my tummy got all upset and their daughter had to call the humans and ask for advice.

I never had any more lamb [Ed. too fatty] but I did get chicken and rice for my meals for a few days while my tummy got better. 

Apart from the snow, rain, upset tummy and not being able to find the cat, I had a lovely holiday....I think.

So this is Christmas

Hmmmm.....look what happened last week. The humans got the tree thing from the loft and fixed it together, then they hung bobbles on it (I think they called them bobbles).

Then they found a bag with antlers on headbands and the human who feeds me put one on her head and one on MINE! Then she took a photo of me. I usually get a bit excited when I see a photo op coming up but this time I was a bit grumpy because I had this thing on my head.

To her credit, she took it off straight away after I'd posed and it's not been seen since. Thank goodness.

And of course, we had all that wet white stuff they call snow and it was blooming cold out, slippery too. They put on my warm fleecy onesie coat when we went out for walks, and they took walking poles with them as the snow had frozen and it was icy. My paws held up OK but it was nice to get back in the warm.

They took me to the Heath, which looked very white. There were other dogs there in the snow too, so that made it more interesting to run about in.

Then they went away to somewhere called Lincoln to see some family but they didn't take me as they were going to sing carils in the caffeedroll and stay overnight in a hotel. What are carils? The radio keeps playing these carils songs and yesterday I got pretty excited because the caril song said holly and I thought it was about Holly the Cat who lives near my house and sometimes comes into my garden [Ed. "The first tree in the green wood it was the holly..." was the carol and it had  

I went to stay with my Fan Club across the road, where the girls who love me live. Sometimes they come to my house for a play date and they like to groom me, so the human who feeds me packed my grooming brush and comb so they could do this while I stayed there.

I watched while their mum wrapped up presents then they played with me and we all watched something called football. No idea what it was about but people kept running about after a ball and I liked seeing them moving around in a big field. 

It was almost as good as Dog TV.

Hunkering down

I don't know about you, but this chilly weather and these dark days, I'm not very keen to leave my cosy cushion, or bed, or sofa, or lap to go out very much or very far. The humans make me go out every blooming day for a walk - seems like it's at leaaaast 5 times every day [Ed. it's not].

I have to admit that today's walk wasn't too bad. That's because they took me in the car and I didn't have to walk to the park, and of course, I really like the park - it's called Tattern or something [Ed. Tatton Park, National Trust] and we can walk there from my house, but it's a looong walk if we do that and then walk around the park and back home again. I like it best when we go in the car, not that I'm lazy or a wimp or anything. Perish the thought.

Anyway, it was all dark and gloomy and grey outside today but I did enjoy my walk and saw a few deer (got steered away from them though). It was good to go out because it's been pretty busy at my house with visitors coming to stay. All week.

The human's daughter, who I adore, came to stay with some person called a boyfriend. He made a real fuss of me and to be honest, I rather liked sitting on his lap and being walked by him. The adorable daughter was a bit miffed because I didn't give her so much attention. Must make it up to her next time she visits.

They went home and then another visitor came, a friend of the human who does school with me. He liked me and played with me and talked a lot to my humans. He seemed to have known them for a long time and they talked about things they did a long time ago at something called a yooneeversity. No idea what that is but it sounded like a lot went on there.

Now it's back to just me and my humans and keeping warm and snuggling down. Oh yes, one thing I really like at the moment is dog TV, which they put on for me to watch for a while before they watch a human TV thing. Although I have noticed they both watch the cats and dogs on dog TV too and seem to like it.

Humans are a bit odd at times, but where would we, or I, be without them?

 

Hot dog

 

What is one to do in this blooming heatwave? 

Hunker down, it's the only way, so I've got a few ways of managing the heat:

1) Sleep, snooze, doze, as long as it's in a cool quiet place, like on the wooden floor under the kitchen table.

2) Retreat to my dug out under the stone bench in the garden (they - the humans - can't always find me there but I can see them).

3) Go into the deepest parts of the garden and right into the corner where a) it's shady and b) I can keep an eye on what's going on next door through the crack in the fence.

4) Drink water.

5) Lounge around in my cool coat which they put on me during the hottest part of the day.

6) Lick the ice lolly on a plate the humans have made for me with a few bits of kibble & treats frozen into the water. Delicious and interesting.

7) Make sure I'm in the slip stream of the fan when it's on.

8) Drink more water (they remind me to do this as I can get distracted by things - like their daughter's cat who came to stay for a few days).

9) Enjoy my morning and evening walks, when it's cool and there are lots of other dogs about having walks, so we can exchange sniffs and pee-mail.

That's about it. Stay cool.....

 
 

Only cows and horses

 

 

There's nothing quite like being out with my humans and coming across another four-legged creature. Sometimes it may have more than four legs, like those insect thingys. But it's the four-legged ones who hit the spot for me and I stand and watch them for ages and stay absolutely still until my humans decide it's time to go.

It happens with cats when I'm out on one of my local walks. In fact, I get very excited when we get near the house with an old grey and white cat and a young black and white cat. Both of them roll on their backs and wave their paws at me but the human walking me won't let me run at them as they say it will scare them. 

So I stand completely still watching them, but oh my goodness, my body does twitch with excitment when I do this.

The spotty pony horse often comes to see me and say hello when we pass his field. We just stare at each other. The cows were some we saw on holiday last week. They were very young and very interested in me. We all stared at each other for ages.

Speaking of holidays, my humans have started saying things about my Pet Passport and that I can't use it any more. Something about needing to get a certificate from the vet if we go in that train under the sea to France.

More on this next time. I want to go to France!

Oooops!

 

My humans went away somewhere - don't know where it was - and they couldn't take me. Something about a wedding in France it was. And of course, now I don't have my Pet Passport because it doesn't work any more (why did they take it away from us pets who like to travel abroad with our humans?), it's more difficult to make travel arrangments.

Anyway, there was some talk about not leaving me for hours and hours inside my campervan while they were at the wedding (what's a wedding....?) so I went to stay with their daughter and her CAT!!!! Oh yes!

I love their daughter and she loves me, so we got along just fine and I had a great time at her house, being taken for walks in new places and - as ever - trying to find that darned cat. I wrote about that in my previous post.

When I'm at home, I like to sit on the windowsill and keep an eye on what's going on. I tried to do that at their daughter's house, but she doesn't have a windowsill like mine, but there's a slippery shiny sofa in front of the window. One day I thought I'd climb up on the back of that to take a look out.

Oh dear, it didn't work. I slid down (quite pleasant that was) and by the time I landed on the seat I just gave up and had a snooze instead. It was rather comfy there anyway.

I'm falling....

I've landed...

 

 

...oh that's it then. I'll just give up and have a snooze.