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.

 

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.....

 
 

Things that go bang

 

Forgive me if I look a bit puzzled here, but I'd just had this scarf thing tied round my neck and I had no idea what it was for or why it was there.

Something to do with going out for the day and getting the trembles and shakes, I think.

It all started last November in my garden when the world around me suddenly erupted into loud bangs and flashes. I was very scared because this happened when I'd just gone outside to do you-know-what. I managed to hide and lodged myself behind the water butt and some garden canes and I got stuck. The humans came to find me and I was a mass of shaky, quivering jelly when I got in and needed a fair bit of TLC to calm me down.

Blooming fireworks. [Ed. the nearby fireworks were let off way ahead of Bonfire night.]

Now I pant and get quite wobbly and shaky if there are sudden strange bumps and noises on the TV. I sit near or on one of my humans laps and that helps. I do notice there's a lot of this noise in some TV programmes and my human's have noticed it too so they turn the sound down and I usually go to a safe place behind the sofa.

Blooming fireworks again. That's where it all began.

Then I started getting anxious when we were going out in the car, and worst of all, when we were setting off or an adventure in my campervan. My humans have got something to help with this though - some tablets to help me stay calm and a calming spray.

The human who feeds me sprays the bed I travel in when we go out in my campervan, and Dave the Vet told her to spray this special stuff on a scarf and put it round my neck so it would be really close to my exquisitely sensitive nose. That's why I look a bit... well... miffed in that photo.

The humans have also given me some calming tablets to help - must have been on that day earlier in the week when I was so relaxed I felt blissed out and nothing bothered me. The human who feeds me was making jokes about dogs on drugs (what are they?). Anyway, they made me feel heaps better and I've not been getting the collywobbles very much since then.

[Ed. Bosworth has symptoms which are common in many dogs who react to the sound of fireworks, but this has extended to noises from builders working on houses and he sound of guns being fired by shooting of wildlife in the surrounding countryside - not something I or anyone I know would condone. Dave the Vet has suggested Bosworth has a form of separation anxiety and to use the medication and spray when needed. Bosworth's tolerance of unexpected noises is slowly improving, with a lot of TLC to go with the meds and spray. As yet there is nothing we can do about unexpected scenes on TV, such as the singing hump-backed whales on an Attenborough programme which completely freaked him out.....]

 

I went to Whales

 

I had a great day out at a place called Bodsomething and the Orn in Whales (Bodnant Garden and Great Orme, North Wales - Ed). 

First of all we (my humans and their daughter) went to a big garden with lots of trees and grassy meadows and paths and flowers and friendly people saying hello to me. I got a fair bit of fuss. Some of the trees were very tall.

I had to stay on my lead most of the time but that was OK because there were lots of other dog on leads too.

After we'd had lunch there sitting in the sunshine, we drove to the Orn place and went right up to the top. It's a big mountain with the sea all around it, and there were plenty of places to walk and explore.

The humans liked looking at the sea and the coastline and a place called Puffin Island.

We didn't see any puffins (I think they're supposed to be birds) but a whopping great gull was sitting near the car when we got out near the top.

I wasn't very interested in it because I could see and smell something more exciting in the churchyard - sheep! They were almost hidden in the long grass. The humans had a look around the churchyard. There are some very large memorials with angels and things on them. Actually quite impressive. 

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see the goats who live in the Orn, but the humans saw them in a field as we drove up to the top.

When we got to the top of the Orn was best, as I had a good walk and sniffed the sea as well as something else....rabbits! They were nibbling grass in a field so I sat still and looked at them. They were too far away for me to chase, but along with the sheep, it was quite exciting to have some new smells that day.

Here I am enjoying my walk. I like Whales and the Orn.

A playdate with my fan club

 

My two young friends (we call them my fan club because they always make a BIG fuss of me) who live nearby came for a long playdate with me, The idea was that they could watch birds in my garden and see how many they could identify, then play with me,

They didn't do too well with the birds as they were all busy nesting, but they managed to ID some of the plants flowering in the garden (the human who feeds me had asked them to do this, with the help of a book full of plant pictures. She's a teacher and she can't stop herself doing things like this when she's with children).

There was a lot of time spent looking at a screen and taking photos. I'm a bit of a screen addict so it suited me fine, and they took heaps of pics of me. Loved it! It was a very sociable, fun playdate and I enjoyed having all that fuss, right down to when we had a grooming session at the end before they went home.

Bliss.... photo shoot, fun, games, chasing, romping then their total attention while they groomed me. 

 

The Great Escape

It’s come to my notice that my human, who writes another blog, wrote something about me chewing up things and digging holes in the garden when I was a puppy. Now I’m three and have grown up a bit,  I think it’s time I put a bit of perspective on this story. I do have my reputation to consider after all, so here’s my version of things that were written about me when I was 21 months old:

I started living with my humans when I was 4 months old. I’d kind of got over the real baby stage of peeing whenever and wherever I needed to but was still in need of some guidance on getting into the garden for these tasks. I was shooed outside and told to “be busy”. No idea what that meant at all, but they always did this after I’d had a toilet trip indoors. It was a hot summer so the doors were open and the penny soon dropped. I was meant to do it outside.

I must confess that I loved my new home and my humans, maybe even more so now as we've all been together a lot during lockdown. We always get on very well, they're always kind to me and I heard them describe me as “a delightful and interactive dog” Yeah!

I know I’m good with children. I’m always very friendly to them as they’re somehow a bit like puppies and closer to my size. I adore the human’s grandchildren and allow them to play with me, cuddle me, carry me about and at Christmas they put funny sparkly things on my head. I didn’t like it much but put up with it as it made them happy.

I often make noises and speak in “dog”, which the humans don’t understand, but they like it because it’s as though I’m saying “hello” and “chatting”. I sometimes make little howls of excitement too. But when I was a puppy, with new teeth, I had to chew things, I just had to – all puppies do so it was perfectly normal as far as I’m concerned. Here’s what I chewed:

One hairdryer – left unplugged on the bedroom floor and munched to death, wires hanging out of it. They really shouldn’t have left it there; I couldn’t resist it. It was replaced by a new one, is now stored in a cupboard, and that put an end to that game.

Three duvet covers which I pulled off beds as I looked for Kitty, their daughter’s cat who’d been staying. Well I had to pull them off the beds somehow and my teeth were the only way to do this. The humans were not pleased as there were gnawed, ripped bits of fabric.

Three sheets – I confess to doing the same thing with these. Well, I was still searching for that darned cat. They were gnawed and ripped too. Humans were cross about this as well.

The garden fence –  first try. That fence was really old and rickety and was good enough to stop My Great Escape happening when I was a small puppy….but one day….aha! I went missing. I chewed a hole through the bamboo screening attached to their low trellis fence, then squeezed through. Yippee! I had the freedom of the garden backing on to mine and I went searching for Holly, the cat who lives there. But it didn’t last long as the neighbour who lives there took me back home.

There was a conversation about sharing the cost of a new fence, which didn’t sound quite so good. I had to get back into that garden and find that cat.

Some men turned up, looked at the garden and the fence, then went away. In the meantime the humans blocked off that nice hole I’d chewed and any other likely escape routes. Not only that, they supervised all my visits to the garden. That wasn’t much fun. I was being watched.

The garden fence – second try. The men came back and put up a HUGE new high fence. I sat looking intently at that fence, thinking about it, eyeing it up, sizing it up, and I eventually worked out how to get through it and into the other garden.

I dug a hole and went under it. I was very proud of myself and I went racing around that garden to find Holly the cat. It was very frustrating though as she was  sitting inside watching me  through the closed patio doors. My humans tried to get me to come back through the hole I'd dug but I wouldn’t come. One of them tried to get into the garden. But the side gate to it was locked and the neighbour was out. I was getting just a bit anxious by now because I couldn’t get at the cat and I couldn’t face squeezing though the hole I’d dug to get back into my own garden.

My humans lifted one of the bottom panels of the fence and wedged it open. One of them crawled through and got me. When I next went to inspect the hole I’d dug, it had been filled in with some hard stuff. I think it’s called concrete. I couldn’t dig it anyway.

Garden fence - third try – after that I started to stare very hard at other areas of the fence, and I kept disappearing behind the arbour seat thingy in the corner of my garden. I found a way through the corner gap where two panels of the fence meet. Yippee! Freedom! Back in that garden again to find that cat! The humans lifted the bottom fence panel again, one crawled through and got me. Then they blocked up that gap as well. Spoilsports.

Garden fence - fourth try – they didn’t block it enough. Yippee! I  escaped again. Still no sign of the cat, but I have a feeling she was at an upstairs window watching me. The humans did the fence thing and the crawl through thing again and then a barricade appeared in the gap. Not good.

Garden side gate – I discovered this other place around the side of the house and sat looking  at the  side gate (locked) with my nose down on the small gap beneath it. I started to dig. I dug up plants and soil by the gate and the fence next to it. Very quickly bricks and concrete slabs appeared where I’d been digging, but I still sit and look at the gate and fence, ever hopeful, even though I can’t dig there any more.

Garden bench – it wasn’t long before they noticed I’d started digging a hole underneath the seat of the stone bench on the lawn. I heared one of them say “Oh what the hell – he’s a terrier – let him have a bit of fun! And to be honest, we did need a new fence anyway…..”

 

 You can read her version of this story here.

 

Dog napping

 

There has been a lot of focus on pet theft recently, and apparently (so my humans say) it's good practise to stay vigilant when at home and when out with us dogs.

It seems that dog napping has increased since we've had the lockdowns, and personally, as a dog, I can think of nothing worse than being stolen and separated from my beloved, besotted humans. Unthinkable. What might happen if we were stolen, sold on to a new home, or taken to a puppy farm for breeding? Horrible.

The Kennel Club (I think they must be specialists of some kind) have some good suggestions about making sure we pooches are kept safe - you can read about it here. There's some useful info.

But common sense is a wonderful thing too, so make sure we're always in sight or on our leads when we're out (it's always safest on leads actually, especially if there are sheep or other animals about).

Please don't tie us up outside a shop and leave us while you go inside. The human who feeds me witnessed a dog theft a few years ago. The dog had been tied up outside the local Co-op. She was walking past and noticed two women untie the dog and start walking along the street. At that moment, the owner fortunately emerged from the shop, saw what was happening, shouted, gave chase and got her dog back. Nasty experience.

Make sure, if you have a garden, that it's secure and that the gate is locked. My humans had to make my garden secure because I started digging my way out under the fence and escaping to the next door garden to find their cat......but that's another story and we don't refer to it very often.

Make sure, too, that we're microchipped. That's an important one.

By the way, my use of the word "napping" definitely refers to kidnapping, and is nothing whatsoever to do with having a nap in the sun, in spite of the picture my owner has chosen to go with this blog post.

A dog's eye view of 2020

2020 was quite a year wasn't it? Made me remember what I'd been up and how it was for me - dog's eye view and all that. The humans seemed OK but I do recall times of them saying they were getting a bit fed up, but the mood passed when they hoisted me up on to the sofa or their laps for a bit of fuss and a cuddle. I think (hope) I've been doing all I can just by being there. I do love the fuss too....

January

Visiting family from other places (one of them is in somewhere called the US), with grandchildren who adore me, return home so it's just me and the 2 humans again. We go to watch birds and it's very cold. Another dog there is as bored as I am. We go in my campervan for a couple of nights to a place by the sea. It's still cold but I get lots of walks, so it's more interesting.

February

We go away for a few nights in my campervan to a place called Rutland. The humans watch birds again. It's very, very wet and muddy, cold too. We go for a VERY cold walk in a big country estate. I liked that because it wasn't raining. Then we had to go home because there was a big storm on the way.

March

The humans go to stay with the family in that US place and leave me behind. I stay with Uncle Steve and Auntie Donna and have a whale of a time but the humans come back early, so I go back to my home. The humans have to rush home before all flights (in plane things that fly) were cancelled. I think everywhere was starting to close down very fast because of this coronavirus thing that suddenly everyone was talking about. Hmmmm. Well, now we know what that was all about. It's not gone away yet either. Everywhere goes into lockdown just after we all get home. My humans sort of keep themselves to themselves and don't see anyone for a couple of weeks in case they've got this virus thing. We go out for one walk a day (all we're allowed) but we go very late at night when no-one is about and there are owls hooting, foxes barking, and we see lots of hedgehogs. I try to sniff one and it rolls into a big spiky ball. There are no cars about, or planes. It's very quiet, I like it.

April 

More of the same. The human who feeds me has her choir sessions on something called Zoom (don't ask) and does lots of singing and laughing.

May

The weather is warm and I spend a lot of time in my garden patrolling the borders, sniffing in the corners to check if I can see Holly the Cat from next door, and I enjoy lying in the sunshine. The human who does "school" with me does lots of gardening and I spend chill out time with him.

June

More of the same, but now we can go out for awaydays in my campervan but not stay overight, so we go to the local nature park for walks and meet up one day with human friends and have a picnic under the van's awning and all stay apart from each other. I'm in the shade under the chair. It was a hot day and I wore my cool coat when we walked.

July

More of the same again, but the lockdown rukes eased off and campsites were open, so we took my campervan away to stay in it, and went to the campsite near beaches on the Wirral, and then to a place called Chirk. Brilliant! Sleeping in my van again. Lots of walks on beaches, in woods and by a canal, Loved it!

 

August

The human's daughter came to stay and as I love being with her - and she brings her cat - it's always interesting when she's around. And we went out for awaydays in the van so I was happy.

September

We had a great time as campsites were open, so we went for a proper longer holiday trip in my campervan to Devon. Lots of walks on the cliff paths, lots of beaches. Bliss.

October

Uh-oh. Things not looking quite so good as the virus cases begin to rise, but yes, we take the opportunity of still being able to go away in my van and travel to Norfolk, where there are huge empty beaches. Loved it. You can read about it here. I even had a hair do on the way, which I sort of enjoyed - see here for more.

November

Yep, things go dodgy again with lots more people getting the virus, so we had another lockdown - only it wasn't quite like the first one in March as we could do more things. But it was back to the awayday trips to the nature park for some good walks as a lot of campsites had to close again....

December

 ....but the one not far away, at a place called Southport, was still open so we went to stay for two nights (chilly but still bliss in my van, which gets toasty warm). Then suddenly it was out with the Christmas tree thing they have, daughter and cat came to stay, there were lots of presents around and I got a blue flashing light collar to wear in the dark. And what's more, it snowed!!

Most of the year I've enjoyed - I'm easy to please and easy to get along with - but one thing I've HATED is fireworks.

In November the world around me suddenly erupted into loud bangs and flashes. I was very scared because this happened when I'd just gone into the garden to do you-know-what. I managed to hide and lodged myself behind the water butt and some garden canes and I got stuck. The humans came to find me and I was a mass of shaky, quivering jelly when I got in and needed a fair bit of TLC to calm me down. It happened so suddenly as it was very quiet when I went out. 

Then in December the same thing happened twice on the same night, first at 11pm when there were bangs and flashes to mark this crazy Brexit thing, which means I can no longer use my wonderful Pet Passport when we take my campervan abroad. And then again at midnight when it became 2021. I quivered and panted and the humans helped me through it.

I do sometimes wonder about some of the other humans around though, and if they're all quite there in the head.

 

 

Hare of the Dog

 

What is this?

You may well ask, as I did, when this THING arrived in a big box and was unpacked by the human who writes my blog for me (she feeds me too). It was in a big tall box and when she stuck her hands inside to see what it was, she started laughing, especially when she felt its ears (she didn't know what they were, all covered in that bubbly wrap stuff that pops).

When it emerged, she was delighted (uh?) as it was a birthday present and apparently she'd asked for a HARE to go in the garden. Oh yes. They're a bit weird are my humans, but there you go, they love me to bits and really the feeling's mutual. And to be honest I don't mind the odd statue (I think that's what it is) in my garden, as long as it doesn't get in the way of my patrol areas along the borders with next door.

I don't really know what a hare is, but it's an animal for certain. It wasn't in the least bit interested when I touched noses with it and tbh it looks a bit on the big side (especially its ears), and a bit - well - static.

It lives in the garden now, on the patio. It sits behind some pots, peeping through the leaves and flowers that are still out, but apart from that it does NOTHING. Boring.

There was talk of moving it somewhere else when the weather gets nice again (it's all a bit wet, chilly and nasty out there at the moment as far as I'm concerned, and it's much better chilling out near a radiator thing). So maybe this hare object that she's named Hilary (don't ask...) will eventually move? When it warms up again?

Apparently hares have boxing matches and dance by the light of the moon. Must be mad!

Editorial note: Hares are supposed to be able to shape shift and are creatures of the moon and the night. They symbolically represent intuition and they nest close to the ground in a shallow "form". They are associated with rebirth, with being able to cope in times of change, and are sacred to the earth Goddess, bringing luck, fertility, transformation and healing. They have - and still continue to be (illegally) - persecuted by hare coursing.