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Tuesday 31 October 2017

Play Date Mayhem!


"Guide Dogs never have fun"
"Guide Dogs never get to be real dogs"
"Guide Dogs are miserable"
Just a few of the comments that we hear often.

Well....here is the proof that none of those is true!
I have had the most fantabulous, amazing, crazyfun afternoon everrrrr......

Workywalkies to the bus stop. Workywalkies from bus to park. We found my buddy Slipper (Black Lab x Retriever working Guide Dog) waiting for us. Then along came Patience (little black Lab Brood Bitch), and Zaza (pale Golden retriever Brood Bitch), Fudge (toffee coloured Retriever puppy) and Gabby the tiny Golden Labrador puppy. A superdooper gaggle of Guide Dogs! We all had to (try to) sit still for a moment or several while one-eyed-clickyboxes did their clicking at us all, then it was harnesses off and '"Wait.....Three.....Two.....One....GO PLAY"!!
WAAAAAYYYYYYHHHHHHAAAAAYYYYYYYY! It was doggy delirium! We had an absolute blast!

Then along came a very special Black Labrador. It was Dixon, my doggydaddy! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Did we have fun!

Of course, we all brought our respective humans with us too but they didn't matter (except those who had yummies of course!). What mattered was the running and chasing and rolling and chewing and running and chasing and........ooooooh! A huge park, a whole horde of hounds and freedom!

Dad said he took a short video of us and will upload that in a moment. In the meantime, here is a collection of photos to prove that GUIDE DOGS MOST CERTAINLY DO HAVE FUN!
Pre-Play Gathering. L to R: Zaza, Patience, Fudge, Slipper (hiding behind) Gabby & Oakley.

Sitting, waiting. L-R: Patience, Zaza, Fudge, Gabby, Slipper & Oakley.

The moment of the best command any Guide Dog ever hears: "Go Play"!

The fun begins! Legs, tails and paws everywhere!

Me and my Daddy Dixon.

Daddy Dixon & Me. Great minds alike - yummies to our right!

Guess where the yummies were!

Monday 30 October 2017

Wheelieseat Fusses!


TWO impromptu meet n greets with Guide Dog colleagues. Now that is what I call a superb workywalkies!

We set off along the towpath then through the twitten and on to 'Find the bus stop'. Mission accomplished, we waited. Then along came Slipper; a Guide Dog girlie buddy that we met when we were in this Rugby place before. Of course as we were both on duty, working on harness, we had to remain professional, so a simple meet n greet was all we could get away with. I was impressed though; Slipper sniffed out Mum's treats pouch and managed to persuade Mum to demonstrate it's purpose! Yummy work Slipper! Thanks!

It was only a brief encounter because our bus came along, but I'm sure I heard Mum say 'See you tomorrow'.......I like the sound of that!

On the whole, our trip around town was a good one. I had plenty to do in keeping Mum out of trouble in the busy shoppyplace. I also had to 'Find Specsavers' yet again. I did, of course, but it was a find that kept me still for quite some time. Mum had to sit in one of those big chairs again while a ladyhuman put weird eye windows on her and then put little disks in and out of them. She also zapped Mum's eyes with a very bright stick. I leapt up to check Mum was OK after that! She told me 'It's OK. Lie down. Good boy'. I was reassured but kept a careful watch on the rest of proceedings.

After all of that, Mum seemed rather miffed. It seems that they can't make the eyewindows that she wants/needs to help. I shall just have to do my job then shan't I?

Inside that shoppyplace, I found my second meet n greet opportunity. Barney is an almost qualified Guide Dog. He still has the orange coloured flash on his lead that means he is a puppy in training, but he will graduate soon. It was great to have a bit of a kanoodle with him though. A welcome interlude in a hard work workywalkies. I may just have ever so slightly forgotten about true professionalism in the presence of such a young playful colleague. I maaaayyy have done a little bit of vocal play along with some mutual ear chewing and jowl-tugging - what Mum calls my elephant seal impression!

In all of this, and in the various shops, and on the bus home again, I got lots of fusses and admiration. I am always happy to oblige with accepting such attention. On the bus, there was a lovely ladyhuman in a wheelieseat. I had to share the space with her. This was nice! I got a lap to rest my chin on! In response, I got some lovely soothing head and ear stroking!

The final bit of workywalkies was around Tesco. Dad had left us to take bags home, so I had to strut my stuff with Mum and a wheeliecage. It was a good worky session. When Mum asked me to help her 'find the carrots', I was delighted to oblige. I even ALMOST got to help myself to a nice big juicy reward, but meanie Mummy made me wait until we got home before I actually got to enjoy it. It was a yummy big juicy carrot though! It just about sufficed to help me survive until i finally got my dinner!

2 photos:
 
Me with Slipper (black Lab x Retriever) at the bus stop, with our respective human-mums.

Me with Barney inside the shoppy centre. Barney is a reddish golden Labrador.

Sunday 29 October 2017

Special Minihuman Pal Livvy.


Neglect.....Torture......Starvation......Mum was nasty to me! She made me WAIT for my dinner! She burbled something about the clocks have changed.....Nope! The tickydisk is still there on the wall, unchanged, unmoved....not gone back in any way as she suggested. MY TUMMY was telling me it was dinner time. Mum said 'not for another hour yet'.....HOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLL! I was wasting away. I was eating myself from the inside out!

When, at last, I did get my dinner, there was not even the tiniest hint of a bigger portion to make up for the delay. Harrrrumph!

After a long 4.2 miles workywalkies to and from church this morning (with a nice little freerun on the way back!) I think I deserved better treatment!

The minihumans were far too clean at their eating thing at church; they left barely any crumbs for me to hoover. There was a nice carpet to enjoy a good face-rub on before a snooze. That was good. It was also really nice to meet up again with some long lost humanpals. It was a church we went to when we were here in Rugby before (Mum says it was three and a half years ago). There were some familiar humans there. The minihumans are less mini now though, but it was lovely to have hugs and kisses from my special minihuman pal Livvy. She is sort of like my Mummy. She is vision impaired, but she has a long white stick with a ball on the end instead of a me.

Loud Bang of a Bangybone!


It's exhausting being awesome! Mum says I have been awesome today! I got yummies to confirm it.

We set off early on a workywalkies to the train station, then had a train ride (a squishy one to start with until Dad found a better space that we could move to). This got us to that big crazy London place. So then I had to work my paws off guiding Mummy through all the gazillions of human legs and wheeliecases and minihuman-wheelieseats, as well as all the bins, bollards, posts and pillars on the pavements, to 'Find the bus stop'. A ladyhuman there at the bus stop seemed rather impressed that I did that. I was just doing my job, but I am happy to impress! Then we had a longish bus ride, then another workywalkies around another crazy train station.

Next came another train ride and finally another workywalkies in streets we have never visited before (Mum says it was called Thames Ditton). We went to a human yummyery and waited outside for a while, then two cars arrived in the car park. I recognised both of them and didn't know which way to turn first! One of them had Debbi and Ryan in it. The other had Puppa and the nice ladyhuman, Pat from the garden next to Puppa's. My tail went a bit berserk! So many of my most important humans all together - but not in the right places! I don't get that! But never mind. It was lovely to waggygreet the all.

Of course, we then went inside and I had to lie under the table and endure the smells while they all munched! It is always good to lie near Puppa when he is munching though. It seems he loves me the most! Yummy hooverings! (Shhh... don't tell!)

Slightly refuelled, I was then ready to workywalkies again. This time back along part of the route we had just done from the station, but then we turned a corner and I suddenly recognised where we were. I just gave Mum 'the look' and she just said 'OK, Smartypants. Find the way'. Yahyay! My chance to show her what I've got! I knew exactly which way to go and took Mum and Dad along the road, across crossings, around the corner and straight to the door of the little hall where we went before! Mum says it was over a year ago that we went there. I remembered though! She thinks I am dafter than she looks!

We went inside and found everyone again along with lots of other people too. I had to lie down for ages through a whole load of human howling and yacketying from up on the high floor at the front. Debbi was tickling the black and white teeth thing all the way through it all. I got a bit scared every time a manhuman started yacketying up there. He always ended each bit of yipping with a loud bang of a bangybone on his little table. That made me shake every time! I tried to hide under legs and chairs but it didn't help. After a while, Mum and I went and stood by the door. That was a little better but I was glad when it was over. I don't mind when humans all bang their paws together (I think they call it Appaws), but I am really scared by single loud bangs like that!

After all of that, I got my picnic tea in that hall, before getting lots of 'goodbye' fusses from everyone. Then we set off for the return journeys. Mum was super pleased with my working today and I got TWO yummies when we got back to our floatyboatyhome!

Now, though, if you will excuse me, it seems that HUMPhrey teddy needs me to cuddle him to slee......zzzzzz

2 photos:
Mum and me posing outside the Thames Ditton Village Hall when we arrived.

Me cuddling pale brown noseless HUMPhrey teddy on my bed.

Saturday 28 October 2017

Checking out the New Neighbourhood!

Houndini! My new name! I'm not sure if this is a compliment.....

It seems that grabbing an opportunity for a quick sniff around our new mooring, when Dad left the front door open, earns me this title. I was only checking out the new neighbourhood and next door floatyboat was part of the neighbourhood! I was only introducing myself!

Friday 27 October 2017

Donations.


Elephant! Mum says I must be an elephant! Errrmmmm.....Huh??

She says it was three years ago when we were last here in this place called Hillmorton. It is familiar! I remember it. Mum says she can tell because I get all squeaky when we arrive at a familiar place. I may have inadvertently let out a waggy happy squeal of excitement as we moored up today!

What IS an elephant? Does it squeak and wag its tail?

Oooh! Thank you to the people who have made donations recently on my JustGiving page. We are still trying to raise another £5000 to sponsor another puppy in memory of Granny. Mum says we might need to find a way to boost it. I propose that we go someplace with lots of people and they all have to pay a shinydisk to give me a yummy......
 

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Lots of Miles, Lots of Locks



HUMPhrey! My poor poor teddybear! He got fed to the frothmonster, as did my bed mat. I had just got them smelling good! Now, the frothmonster has finished chewing them and they are all hanging up by the hotbox. Poor HUMPhrey is hanging by his ears! Mum used nasty biting things to attach him to the hangyrail thing. I can't reach to rescue him.

Today has been great! It started with a lovely leisurely walkies along the towpath. This was just for the pleasure of going for a walk. I discovered a kind of white cuddly toy thing floating in the canal. I tried to paw it in to within reach, but it stayed bobbing about just out of reach. I tried squeaking to it but that didn't work either. Mum then asked a passing floatyboatyperson if he could see a farmer on the field opposite. The answer was 'no'. It seems that Mum wanted to tell this farmer about his sheep.....

When we got back to floatyboatyhome we had a visitor. A manhuman was using a funny long wagglystick that sometimes disappeared into the little box in his paw. He was stretching it out along the sofa/my bed, which was naked! All the soft squishy comfies were removed and stood along the floor. I got out of the way. There was a warm back deck available for a snooze!

After he left, we set off for the day's work. It was lovely! No cars. No roads. No wheeliewizzers. A couple of passing humans (who stopped to fuss me!), but otherwise, just Mum and me and mud! (and Dad coming along on floatyboatyhome too of course!). We walked a lot of miles, worked a lot of locks and just enjoyed the glorious day with the fireball in the sky.

Now, I'm not sure who is more tired, but this sofa is comfy again......


Photo shows my bed mat (pale blue/grey bath mat) and my poor HUMPhrey bear (large tan coloured teddy with missing nose) pegged up on the drying hanging rack.

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Huffy Puffy, Wiggly Jiggly!


Team Towpath. In Action. Aaaaaalllll day.

About 5 miles in total. Lots of locks. Lots of waiting and to-ing and fro-ing between lockbeams. At most of the locks, Mum did all the windy-uppy-windy-downy-pushy-pully stuff over and over again for lots of other floatyboats before Dad finally arrived with ours.

I made some humanfriends during all the waiting time. I also got to meet and greet a few pooch pals too. One was a little border terrier who worked several locks with us. As soon as I got an opportunity, I paid a quick visit aboard his floatyboatyhome. I did a good deed; I cleared up the food that he had carelessly left in his bowl. I mean, what is this 'leaving food' thing? Why would a good self-respecting dog leave food lying around? He must have made a mistake. I sorted that mistake for him. I left his bowl beautifully spotless! When I got back out onto his back deck I found myself trapped! I had to ride up in the lock with his humandad (he was nice. It was OK). My Mummy was up above me doing the lockystuff without me!

For some reason, when I did get to 'hup' onto the lockside to reunite with her, she didn't seem too impressed with me. She kept saying 'I'm so sorry' to the ladyhuman and manhuman. Why on earth was she saying sorry for my good deed?

Tonight we are moored in the middle of nowhere and the air outside is very huffy fuffy. The trees are wagging very hard and floatyboatyhome is a bit wigglyjiggly. We are all cozy inside though. The hotbox is glowing and Mum's lap is comfy.

Monday 23 October 2017

Hunt the Floatyboatyhome!

Unappreciated artist! That's me! Huff!

A few days ago, all my lovely nose art was removed from the windows and doors. This evening I took Daddy out for our usual evening leisure walkies. When we returned, all my paw art had disappeared from the floor! I put a lot of hard work into that masterpiece! Lots of muddy towpath, locks, digging, paw-wiping after a download (Mum thinks it is paw-wiping, but actually it is reloading of my artistic kit), a few muddy puddles...... all carefully gathered and stored in the fur between my pads. The floor was super designer decorated after all that effort. Now is is back to boring oak. And it pongs all wrong again!

So unappreciated! And after all my hard work workywalkiesing Mum around town this morning too! It was our last trip around that Banbury place. The first request stop was 'Find Specsavers' (AGAIN!). Well, of course I did! No problem. In we went, Mummy all excited and hopeful about getting her new eye-windows. There was much yacketying and then some of that strange little plastic rectangle thing, then Mum was miffed! Apparently they can't do her new eye-windows the way she wants/needs them so they did something called a refund on her little plastic rectangle.

Next stop was the shop next door. Mum called it something like Bone Munchay. It was one of those shops full of fursubstitutes. Usually, these are really boring, but I like this Bone Munchay; it had nice ladyworkyhumans in it. They all gave me lovely fusses and they had a box of doggy-yummies behind the checkout! They said my tail was a good floor sweeper!

We then went on a trek around various other shops and streets, including 'Find Wilko' and 'Find Boots' before returning to floatyboatyhome. Except, it wasn't exactly a return; it was in a different place; the other side of town! I sure have to keep my wits about me making sure I get Mum to the right places!

The rest of the day has been a mixture of cruisy-snoozing on the back deck, working locks with Mum and enjoying a little bit of freedom fun along the way.

Now, I shall have to think on my next bit of interior design work.....

Sunday 22 October 2017

Snoozeday


Church this morning was a 6 mile round workywalkies! That is not a complaint! It was great! Especially as I managed to will Mum into the park on the way back for a little freerun! Well, actually, by then, it was a freewander really. We were tired after all that walkiesing. It was great to be at that church again, not only because we were with humanfriends, but also, because it is a little room where I got to just chill out - wherever I fancied! I had the whole room to choose from, and it was all carpeted! I managed to find the perfect spot - right in the middle!

Daddy was doing his thing with stroking up and down on the thin whiskers on his noisebox-with-a-long-stick, and Mum did some yacketying at the front too. Me? I just zzzzzzd through it all! I needed to rebuild my energies for the return trek!


Photo of me lying snoozing on the pale golden-labrador coloured carpet. Mum's back paws are in the background.

Saturday 21 October 2017

Poshed Up!

Woohoo! We did it again! We went on a train back to the Enee See place again today. We checked out a few more of those shiny home-box-on-wheels things but much more importantly, we found oodles of Guide Dog pals to meet N greet N kanoodle with!

Today's train rides were nicer than yesterday's. We got poshed-up to Furst Class! (Well, that was what Mum said it was anyway). I had a bit more room there - and carpet to snooze on! I think I like being poshed-up!

At the Guide Dogs Colleague Kanoodle Club, I got to demonstrate 'professional camaraderie' with lots of pals. I had never met any of them before, but that didn't matter. It never matters with us; we are one big family anyway. There were, to name just a few; Jenny and Oxford, both black lab x retriever, A GSD girlie whose name I can't remember, along with her very old retired housemate, there was a stud dog (Guide Dog Daddy), there was Youssef the big labradoodle and there was a mahoohoohoosive Leonberger Guide Dog. He was like a walking sofa!

It was all great fun and, of course, it was all about being fussed and admired too. Apparently, this helps to spread the word about how we Guide Dogs do good stuff like change the lives of people like Mummy. It is all part of the job!

Photos:

Me on the right and Jenny on the left sitting posing.

Me trying to work out why Jenny hasn't got what I've got!

Keeping Mum under close supervision while she eats.

Kanoodling with Stud Dog.

Me upside down.

Greeting Youseff the Labradoodle.

Me with the walking sofa Leonberger boy.

Friday 20 October 2017

Kanoodling Duties!

Ambassador.....that's what Mum said I was supposed to be today. Well...I have absolutely no idea how to be one of them, so I had a fantastic fun day of kanoodling instead! Oh, with a lot of fusses and admiration too!

We set off early to the train station, via the little park for my essential ablutions. The train took us to some place called Buminham Inter-gnasher-nul station. Then we went outside and found a bus stop. There, we met a colleague of mine called Twinkle, a girlie lab x retriever Guide Dog. It was nice to ride on a bus with a buddy! The bus took us to a mahhooooosive building that Mum says is called the Enny See. Inside there was a gazillion of those home-box on wheels things. Some of them had drivey seats like a car and some had a sort of harness thing sticking out at the front. They were all very shiny! They were also surrounded by lots of humans.

Most importantly though, in the middle of it all, there was a Guide Dogs area. That had lots of Guide Dogs humans but most importantly of all, loads of my colleagues!

Yayyhayyy! The bestest day of kanoodling for aaaaaaages! Of course, the humans all did loads of yacketying - endless yacketying! From time to time, I had to do my bit and be all appealing and admirable too, but that was a minor interruption in the kanoodling! Twinkle and I were the only black dogs. All the others were blondies - but that didn't matter - there is no racism in doggyworld! We don't care what colour or size we are - we just play!

Now, we are back home and I have to admit I am a tad tired! Sofa.....Mum......leg-for-pillow......zzzzzzzzzzzzz........

4 photos:

Twinkle and me, with our Mums at the bus stop. Twinkle's harness has a red and white checked chest flash to show that her Mum is deaf as well as blind.

Me and a blond lab x retriever on the stand amidst lots of humans.

Errrrmmmmm......Only playing! Honest! Humans might see this and think I was some vicious demonic maniac! I am lying on the ground showing my teeth to a blondie dog. We really were playing very nicely!

Zonked on the sofa with Mum's leg as a pillow.

Thursday 19 October 2017

King Kong!


It worked! Mummy got my message! She must've understood my wwrrrfffffs and hhmmmms and quiet little mmmwwwwffffs while I was lying on her lap last night. She thought I was dreaming but really I was transmitting my requirements......

Anyway....she got the message .... and more besides!

I got a new toy. I got a freerun in the park to play with my new toy. I got yummies (Pepperami) for being a good boy and coming running back when Mummy whistled me back. Then I got a new juicy bone from the white chilly cupboard when we got back! What more could a Happy Oakley ask for? Well.....OK.... I could ask to have been spared the attack with the bowl of froth and flannel when we got back.....but, actually, it was worth it. If I'm really honest, I rather enjoyed the all-over massage!




4 photos;
1&2 me playing tug with Mum with my new toy; an orange Kong on a rope.
3 running back to Mum with the orange Kong in my mouth and the rope wrapped up and over my head
4 on the rug inside our floatyboatyhome getting stuck into my big juicy beef knuckle bone

Wednesday 18 October 2017

Bone Attack!


What - no crunchy clouds?!!! Howwwwlllll! That is just not right!

Workywalkies to one of those big places with lots of seats and a wall of huge flat humans and other things moving, and lots of loud noise. The place where there is usually plenty of little crunchy yummies on the floor that just have to be hoovered. The place was spotless! Not a morsel to be found! I just had to lie there and endure watching the flat poochpal on the big wall who got to munch loads of things - and they were huge too! Bits of bacon, ginormous sausages........oooh! So not fair!

When we got back to floatyboatyhome I just had to console myself with a carrot and then a good bone-attacking session.

Now, to make up for it, how do I get Mum's mind working right? How do I get to be thinking tomorrow needs to be freerun day and treats and yummies and bacon and sausages and....and....hmmmm.....how can I achieve this?.......

Tuesday 17 October 2017

Space Invaders!


Ooh! That was a confuddling workywalkies! Much more confuddling for Mum than for me, but I have to admit that I was a tad unsure.

Mum woke up all blurry today. Her first really bad-eyes- day for some time. She didn't even bother putting on her eye windows because, she says, they made no difference. This always means I get to step up and really strut my stuff looking after her. So, that was what I did! We set off along the towpath and into town. I should confess that I did maybe go just a smidgen sulkified cos I thought it was going to be a boring trip to the same places as yesterday. It was a trip to some of the same places, but it certainly wasn't the same old plod! The town had changed. It had been invaded by huge lorries and rumbly trucks and bright coloured twirly things and all sorts of strange machines. Nothing seemed the same at all. All landmarks had changed. All reference points were hidden!
Mum wanted to find the little shop again where we went yesterday (I didn't tell you about that one coz it wasn't worth sniffing!) It had lots and lots and lots of all colours of those strange wound-up blobs of that long whisker that Mum seems to enjoy twisting and twiddling about with a shiny hookstick. That shop was really hard to find with all the invaders. We ended up walking around other parts of the town that we didn't visit yesterday. In the end, Mum said 'Nope! Not this way Oaks. About turn'. We did. Then we went another wrong way....then another.....eventually we found it! Yayy! I got fusses in there from the nice ladyhumanworkyperson. Mum got her blob of long whisker and we set off again. This time, it was a 'Find Specsavers' command. Once again, it was harder to find through all the invaders, but I did found it! More fusses from nice workyhumans!
When we came out of there, we turned along the street. We met Daddy. It seems this was a good job we did find him. We turned straight around and went back the other way!

Then we found humanfriends Peter and Fran, and went to a human yummyery. Under the table I waited patiently for a dropped morsel. NOTHING! Not an atom fell my way! Harrrrumph! I guess that this Tie food must be too good to drop! I may never know......

After enduring that looooooong torture (actually I snoozed quite happily but don't tell Mum that - she needs to know that I am starved!), we set off again through the bewildering invading beasties but then we found a park! Yayyyyy! Daddy was able to look after Mum so I got a freerun! Oooooooh! That was good!

Monday 16 October 2017

Chopped Short!


Home moved while we were out!

I took Mum workywalkies into town and had a shorter walk back. Dad had moved our floatyboatyhome! We are now our from under trees and in the open. Apparently this has something to do with all the huffyfuffy air that is making the trees wag lots. It is better for Mum too as it is lighter and brighter here.

The workywalkies was a great challenge;
'Under the bridge'
'Find upsteps'
'Over the bridge'
'Downsteps'
'Find right'
'Find the way in'

All done - no problem. Then began the mooching. This way in led to a big indoor shoppyplace......

'Straight on.....no....hang on a minute.....find the door left. Good boy' Sloooooooow plod around while she does that browsing thing.
'Find the door' Yayyyy! but not for long.....
'Find the door right'......and on and on it went.....
Finally, it was 'Find the door outside' .....Aaaahhhh! A tree! Then a bit of a walkies around some streets......then....'Find Specsavers'. Well, I can sniff out one of those, no problem! I did. We went in. Yackety-yackety-yack-yack-yack. Then MORE browsing! Really? They ONLY have eyewindows to search for! Just how much browsing is there to possibly be got ?

Then a snooze on the carpet under the little deskything, while a nice manhuman did some clicketyfingersing stuff and, of course, more yacketying. At least I got some fusses and admirations and Mum's mouth was up at the corners by the time we left.

Then it was 'Find the way home'. That meant going back through the indoor shoppyplace but it was just a straight through - no stopping mission this time. Phew! So, retrace pawprints upsteps, over bridge, downsteps and along the towpath again. That's when I discovered my workywalkies was chopped short! Home was closer! Oh well....that meant that my bone time was sooner too!

Sunday 15 October 2017

Bone for Pudding!


Cor! That bone is hard work! It is yummy though and I am determined to get through it. Shame I didn't take it with me today. I could have spent most of the day doing it some serious damage. Mum says that wouldn't have been appropriate though. She says that bone crumbs on someone else's carpet would not be welcome. Huffff! So, I simply had to snooze my way through all the yacketying and human noshing. This was at our humanfriends Peter and Fran's home, along with new humanfriends John and Gill, and Leon, (Peter and Fran's grown up humanpuppy). We found them first at church, where I had another carpet to snooze on. It was nice there. There were only 10 humans there and they all sat on chairs in a ring around the room. That meant I got to snooze right in the middle of them all!

I did enjoy the workywalkies back from the church service to Peter and Fran's home. It was partly on never-been-before streets and partly through a woody area. THAT bit was wonderful! The path was far too narrow and lumpy-bumpy and wiggly for Mum to manage to follow my guiding, so I got to enjoy a little freerun while Dad helped Mum. I think it was Dad's talkybone that was telling him to go go that way. Well! I think I need to find a way to have a chat with that talkybone and persuade it to find that kind of route more often!

The workywalkies back home to our floatyboatyhome was a lot easier, although it was on harness all the way. It was simply a leisurely wander along the towpath. A nice gentle end to my working day, then home for dinner! Now - bone for pudding I think will do nicely!

Friday 13 October 2017

Honkypig!


Roxy the Staffie was my playmate of today. A great finale to a day of cruising, lock working, towpath workywalkiesing and freerunning. Hmmm....I think that all adds up to a rather good day!

Roxy was at the last lock we did and I got quite a good time of playing chase with her because there was a big queue of floatyboats going up and down the lock. Mum helped with all the windy-uppy-windy-downy-pushy-pully stuff and that gave me chance to entertain my little doggybuddy. She was great fun; little but fast and a good match for romping around. Once our floatyboatyhome reached the top of the lock, I nipped aboard to fetch a toy to share with Roxy - only to come back out to find her gone! Humph! I just had to play with honkypig on my own! Well....Ok....with Mum but she doesn't really know how to play dog properly!


Photo shows me holding a pink fluffy pig in my mouth. I am looking kind of cheekily slightly sideways at the camera. The grassy lock side is in the background.

Thursday 12 October 2017

Tall Fuzzy Lurcher!


Guiding Mummy around in a new area is always a good challenge. Today it was even more of a challenge because we went workywalkies all around the village and there are no pavements! I find this very difficult because I am hardwired to keep Mum on a pavement. It was a good walkies though - not least because, when we reached a busy road with no pavements, Mum decided that was not a good route to take, so we did an about-turn and she stopped and asked a manhuman for directions. He directed us to a park! Yippppeeeee! That meant I got a little impromptu freerun! It was only a little one - just across this little park, which took us back to the towpath. We then had a nice wander along there to get back to floatyboatyhome.

A nice surprise awaited us on our return; a visitor! A manhuman that was sitting on the bowdeck yacketying with Dad. Well....that meant he was at my level! That meant he simply had to have an ear-wash! It seems though, that this is an inappropriate greeting for a stranger. Mum 'removed' me from reach! Spoilsport!

He didn't stay for long, but another visitor arrived soon afterwards. He disappeared down the big hole in the back deck though! It seems there is some big toy down there that manhumans like to play with. This visitor was joining Dad in playing with it. It is a very noisy toy! It makes a constant growling noise when we are cruising along. At least then, though, it is a bit quieter with its lid on!

After that, we set off for a cruise. Well....Dad cruised. Mum and I workywalkiesded along the towpath again. We reached the liftybridge and then waited....and waited....and waited...for Dad. He took forever to catch up with us! While we were waiting, Mum used her pawpointer to press buttons to lift the bridge three times, and then put it back down again, for OTHER floatyboats to go through. I just squeaked my protest at aaaaallll the waiting!

Finally, Dad arrived, but then he had to wait for us! A pooch pal had come along with his ladyhuman. He was a very tall fuzzy lurcher and he wasn't interested in playing but it was nice to meet n greet.

The rest of the afternoon was a pleasant cruise with a good few locks to work along the way. Some of the locks were very deep. I had to peer over the edge to make sure Daddy was OK all the way down in the depths! I got a bit more of Mummy's yummy 'recall practice' in while we waited for the water to get bigger and bring Dad and floatyboatyhome up to the top.

Tonight's garden is rather nice! No roads, no trains, no houses anywhere to be seen! Just grass. Lots of grass - all around!

3 photos:
 
Just my face - peering down into the lock, checking on Daddy.

Me surveying tonight's garden from the back deck as we moored up.

A view of tonight's garden - lots of grass, a golden tree and big expanse of evening sky - oh! and a black bum wandering off into the distance!

Noisy, Roary Trains!


Towath workywalkies - slippy slidy muddy jaggedy rocky towpath so Mum struggled with it. I took care of her though. We made it!

Lots of locks. That included lots of what Mum calls 'Recall practice'. I call it yummy good fun! It means I get to wander off, sniff about, exchange lots of weemails, and generally just do what a dog likes to do. Mum, from time to time, does a peep-peep-peep on the whistle and I come galloping back to her, my bum bounces as it hits the ground and I get a yummy! Today's yummies were well worth racing back for - little bits of delectable Pepperami! MmmmmMMMMMMmmmmmm......

Tonight, we are moored in a place Dad says is called Lower Heyford. Just the other side of the towpath is a track with lots and lots very noisy roary trains whizzing past! We are all cozy inside our floatyboatyhome but these roaring beasties make things rattle as they go by. I'm getting used to it now but it was a bit scary the first few times!

Monday 9 October 2017

Good Fuss Times!

Mummy's face was a bit like a bulldog's! I don't understand why she went all screwed up like that. It was her choice to do a peculiar thing with her pawcovers.

It all started with a lovely game of ball-launcher fetch in that little park beside our mooring. That was great! Then we had a cruise to the squirtysnake place. So far, so good. It seemed that our floatyboatyhome needed a drink, and the bins there needed to be fed with a couple of bags from our deck. There was also a sort of big bowl thing with a hole in the bottom and a squirtysnake beside it. It seemed that needed to be fed with the contents of the grey box things that go underneath the human spending bowl. All this was fine. I just enjoyed a pleasant liedown on the grass while all this odd stuff went on.

Then I got the chance to go for a little wander. (Mum said I was a tinker of an opportunist - I have no idea what she meant by that!). I followed my nose. There was a very interesting smell coming from among the trees. Mum blew my recall whistle but, on balance I decided that the smell was more enticing than the little treats Mum gives me when I run back to her. My nose led me to discover a sort of human bed and all sorts of interesting yummies. Mum says it was a homeless person's home.....errr....what??? Anyway. It seems Mum was less than impressed with my discovery and she squelched in after me and hoiked me out with a 'Get back to the boat....Grrrr'. I did as bid.....well....I may have just tried to scoot back for another little investigation of my discovery.....I didn't get away with it though! Harrumph!

Very soon after this, Mum removed her paw covers and that is when her face went all squiffy. This squiffiness got worse when she started to use water, froth and a little whiskerstick thing to groom the bottoms of her pawcovers. This peculiar behaviour then extended to squirting the floor with smellystuff and then stroking it all over with a wet cloth. She then turned her strangeness of attention to MY paws! She almost attacked me with a wet cloth but, after sniffing first (Oi! Sniffing is MY job!) she obviously decided that I could be spared that indignity. Phew!

The rest of the day has been generally fairly sedate - cruising and working locks and meeting and greeting doggypals along the way. I think Mummy still loves me. We had some good fuss times while waiting for the water to do its filling up thing in the locks.

Photo shows me with my front paws up on a lock beam.. Mum is sitting on the beam and we are enjoying some fuss time.