Such a Hard Life!

Wooohoooo! What a day! Sooooo much admiration! So much fuss! So many humans to meet and greet! A long lost human from my puppyhood to reunite with! And, most importantly, two Guide Dog Puppies to kanoodle with!

Ooooh! It is such a hard life being me! Heehee!

It all started with workywalkies with Mum and Dad through town and up a steep hill (Mum was panting doing that - I have no idea what the problem is... I could have whizzed up there in moments!) We went to a big building that Mum says is called the BeeTee Talkybone Exchange, here in Bournemouth. We met a nice lady there who was wearing a blue Guide Dogs fursubstitute top. She took us into a huge room with lots and lots of clicketyfingerstoys in it - and lots of humans sitting playing with them. After a little while, a couple of Guide Dog Puppies, Bewley  the 11 month old Golden Retriever, and Doug the 11 week old Black Labrador. Oh....and, of course, they brought their humans with them too! Bewley was with his Puppymummy, Pat and Doug was with Myra, who was my short-term Puppymummy when I was poorly with kennelcough when I was a little lad.

Of course it was wonderful to meet up with Myra again after all these years, but I have to be honest and admit that the puppies were much more fun! There was some serious kanoodling to be got on with. Sorry Mummy Myra - I love you really!

Oh....I guess I should explain that we were all there to help to raise shinydisks and floppyrectangles for Guide Dogs UK. The lady, Elaine, who took us in there, works in this huge room and she had organised this big day. We canines had the important job of being admired and loved by all the clicketyfingers-worky-people there. I think that, between us, we did a good job of it.

I was glad of a little freerun on the way back to Granny's - a lovely unwind before warming up the sofa!

Ten photos of today's fun and stardom - captioned seperately.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some serious zzzzing to do - it is hard work being so admired!

Me in harness, sitting between Mum and Elaine Leach, who has purple headfur and is wearing blue Guide Dogs fursubstitute top. We are inside the huge room where we did our fundraising today.

Mum and me standing between two long desks all adorned with lots and lots of prizes and goodies for the raffle and for sale to raise shinydisks and floppyrectangles.

Me enjoying a lovely ear-rub from a humanman.

Three adoring admirers fussing me. Mum is sitting on a chair and three humanladies are around me stroking and loving me. I am still in my harness at this point - Mum hasn't had chance to take it off yet!

Pooch party! Me in the middle with little 11 week old Doug (black lab) and 11 month old Bewley (Goldie) meeting and greeting in proper doggy fashion!

Oooooooh! Don't stop! 
Me absolutely adoring a fuss from a lovely humanlady. I am lying on my back on the carpet, displaying all my glory, and with a blissful smile on my face while the humanlady kneels beside me giving me the most delectable chest scratch and all over wonderful fuss.

Kisses! This humanman crouched down and demanded that I give him big cuddles and kisses - allll over! He had delicious ears and head! In this photo, I have my front paws wrapped over his shoulders and am kissing his head liberally!

A quieter moment - me standing enjoying a bit of a bum-scratch (above the tail!) from a humanman, while Mum is yackety-yacking with him and two other humanmans who are sitting near their clicketyfingerstoys.

Guess who has treats in her paw!
from left to right; Elaine, Pat, Mum and Myra, standing in a row, then, below; Bewley, me and Doug - all with our gaze totally fixed on Myra's right front paw!

Me, in harness, lying down beside Mum while she yackety-yacks to lots of humans in the room nearly at the end of the day. She was telling them all how amazing I am! Ahem!

Lots of Workywalkies and Snoozes.

Big Teddy is much more comfy than the carpet I had to lie down on for aaaaaages this morning. I took Mum workywalkies first and then we went to a 'find the door' in Poole. There was a nice humanman in there and I enjoyed his ear-rubs, but the non-stop yackety-yacking went on forever! They were talking about Granny and her few nurul or something. I just snoozed under the table! At least it was a nice carpet to snooze on!

I've done various other little bits of workywalkies throughout the day - including one very short one up to the humankennelblock where we used to take Granny for hot brown waters. Again here, the yacking was about this few nurul thing. Food was in this yacketying though - much more interesting and hopeful-sounding!

We had two visitors - nice humanmans who went around all of Granny's flat and then talked about big numbers. Mum says they were a state ajunts and they were telling us how many shinydisks the flat has so that Granny's a state can be sorted out. I didn't know Granny had or was a state but it was nice to have visitors anyway.

After supervising Mum and Dad's dinnertime - just in case they dropped anything that needed to be hoovered (which they failed dismally to do!), I then took Mum for a lovely long workywalkies down the steep slope of Durley Chine and left along the pawmenade to Boscombe over-the-sploshystuff-platform, where Dad picked us up. It was a good walkies - I had to strut my stuff as it was really dark, with very few glowpoles working, so Mum could see absolutely nothing. I kept her on the right track though. I may perhaps have snuck in a couple of crafty 'drifts' to one side - just to check on some very important weemails in key places! Mum told me off for doing that and told me to 'get on. Do you job'. Huff!

Photo of me using a huge ginger coloured teddy as a squishy pillow, lying on the beige patterned carpet of Granny's lounge floor.

Me. A Mouse Mat. How DARE She......

Today seems to have been largely about in-and-out, up-and-down, there-and-back-again...... I have had to work hard for Mum with lots of 'find the door' and 'upsteps' and 'downsteps' and 'find the way out', then 'in the car' ..... then a short drive and repeat it all over again. 

Mum says it has all been about Granny and sorting out what has to be sorted out now that she has gone on to a better place. For me, it was all about strutting my stuff and meeting and greeting lots of people in the process. Well, it would be rude to ignore the admirers wouldn't it?!!

It all started off with a visit to a huuuuuuuge and very grand building where we had to wait for someone to sort out the door before we could go in. It was one of those nasty doors that twirls around and around. I don't like them... they bite my tail! A nice lady came and kind of folded back a bit of it so it didn't need to twirl around to let us through. Then we went up some steps and through some very grand doors into a room where a lady did loads of clicketyfingersing. Mum says she was called a Registrar. She had a comfy carpet to snooze on!

After we had negotiated out way out again via the twirly door that had to be de-twirled again, I took Mum on a lovely long workywalkies through the Upper Gardens from Bournemouth town centre into the shoppy area in Westbourne. Here the streetwork began again with lots of door-finding and inning and outing of various different shoppy places.

There were several more car rides and several more bits of workywalkies to do in various places, some of which we've been to once or twice before and some that were completely new. We did good though! We achieved it all.

Now, after taking Daddy for a nice leisure walkies while Mum was occupied doing choppy stuff in the kitchen, I am happy to provide another useful service: It is a tough one: I have to lie still next to Mum on the sofa while she uses me as a 'mat' to wiggle a little clickytoy about on. Apparently it is called a mouse - it doesn't seem to have ears or legs or a tail......

Photo of me lying next to Mum on the cream leather sofa. She is holding a little red computer mouse on my back/side and using it to move a little pointer around on her clicketyfingerstoy.

Reunited with Teddy!

Back at Granny's flat now.

Last night in the humankennelblock was nice but familiar is better, even if it is not really where we truly belong.

Today has been a little more leisurely than yesterday but not entirely lazy. It got off to a good start - after taking Mum and Dad for humanyummies in the human yummeryery next door to the humankennelblock, I got to take them into the fieldy area behind the big buildings. As soon as we got to the field I plonked my bum down hard and pleaded for Mum to remove my harness. She did! And she told me to 'Go play'. Well, I wouldn't want to disobey that command! So off I ran for a good old romp around and sniffing session. I found a little buddy to play with too - a tiny 11 week old Daschund puppy called Bonny. She was weeeeeeny, but she chased me and even nipped my back leg - cheeky little imp!

Next came a bit of a drive ending at the hole in the ground that has swallowed our floatyboatyhome. I got left to snooze in the car while Mum and Dad went to yacketyyack with Yummy-ears Pete and Chrissie. I did get a few minutes to hop out of the car and meet and greet Shadow and Tizzy, before another short drive. This time, we parked somewhere that made me squeak! Northcroft Park in Newbury! Wooooohooooooo! That meant another freerun! Well, I couldn't possibly upset Mum by declining this offer could I? Heehee! It seems that Mum and Dad wanted to 'chill out a bit' too. I was glad to assist in this! We explored all the uphill bit of the park and then wandered off along a track and into some woods. Dad did my job of looking after Mum (bad eyes day today) so I was able to enjoy a superb time of running and sniffing and munching the long green strands (Mum calls me Daisy when I do that and she says it should be making me moo!).

All this fun got me nicely ready for a snooze on the carpet inside a church while 7 humans got dunked in a giant bath, plus of course there was human howling and yackety yacking to snooze through too. It was a nice comfy cosy carpet!

After a bit of hoovering duty (mini humans are delightfully messy when they eat that stuff they call cake!) we hopped back into the car yet again and zoomed off along the fast tracks to Bournemouth. Now, after a brief trip to a shop, I am reunited with my giant teddy. Time for some zzzzzs...

What a Busy Day!

Woohoo! Huuuuge bed!

Oh but....Muuuuum..... Daaaaaad.......Surely it is big enough to share? OooooooOOOOooooohhh....meanies!
OK....I'll make do with MY new big bed then!

We seem to be in a humankennelblock. A very welcome touch of relaxation after an insane day!

It all started with a fantabulous time in the clifftop park, near Granny's. There, I met up with long missed buddies; Lucy and Lola the whippets, Doofus the Cockerpoo and Sid the Pug. We had a fabulous reunion with oodles of running and chasing and rolling and chasing. Oooh! I have missed them. I wasn't too happy about the Akita who came along and wasn't nice to me when I tried to play, but he was put on lead and led away by his human, so we buddies could all get on with our funtime again! It all came to an end though when Mum's talkybone squawked and we had to go to the other end of the park to meet up with Dad and get into the car.

A longish drive brought us to somewhere Mum says is called Thatcham Garden Centre. This was for another Guide Dogs gathering to collect shinydisks. This meant, of course, other Guide Dogs and Puppies in training to meet and greet - and we got away with a bit of kanoodling too! Heehee! It is hard work being good and glamorous and appealing all day though. I think I should have earned some kind of yummy reward.....well, I suppose I did get to hoover up a couple of crumbs that Mum dropped but that was all. Huff.

Next was another car ride - this time to a funny house with no walls and big hole in the floor. Inside that hole in the floor was our floatyboatyhome! It looked very tiny down there - especially as it wasn't floating - it was sitting on big sticks across the bottom of the hole! But......my humanbuddies were there - Pete and Chrissie! yayyyyyy! Yummy-ears Pete! It has been a loooooong time since I got to clean those ears out! It was fab to meet up again with doggybuddies Shadow and Tizzy too - albeit only for meeting and greeting coz we weren't allowed off lead to play. Oooooh! I have missed them all! Pete and Chrissie were kind of smeared with pongy black gloopy stuff - the stuff that they are apparently stroking all over the bottom of our floatyboatyhome for us. Chrissie had a blob of it on her nose and it made her look like a Jack Russell! Heehee!

After this brief reunion, we headed off once again in the car. This time we ended up at Debbi and Ryan's house in Hounslow. There were oooodles of humans inside the house - including Rosie and James and little minihumanpuppy Hallie. There was also oooodles of humanyummies but I only got my usual dinner. Well, and maybe some carrot bits that Ryan (ahem) dropped on the floor! At one point, the glowblob on the ceiling went off and Ryan brought in a huge yummy covered in lots of little bright flickersticks. This seemed to provoke some human howling. Something about Happy Burfday Debbi.......

A couple of chances to explore that wonderful huge garden were appreciated, even if I didn't get any appreciation for trying to help empty the bin! Then it was time for hugs and goodbyes and back into the car again! That was the final journey of the day and it brought us to this humankennelblock in Reading. A very pleasant wander around the outside areas was most welcome before checking out this huge bed. Now, if you will excuse me, I think I rather need to surrender to my very heavy eyelids.......zzzzzzz

Seven photos: six of various scenes form today's shinydisks collecting session, meeting and greeting guidedogcolleagues, one of them is soooooo embarrassing! It is of me, sitting in front of a funny little red carthing containing a non_moving little blue man and a black & white hissing furball. As if this isn't bad enough, i had to wear a band on my head with floppy yellow ears on it. My street cred is ruined! The final photo is of our floatyboatyhome in its hole in the ground.

Lots of Leaking Eyes.

Leaky eyes day.

I took Mummy workywalkies to Tesco, then back along the pawmenade. Shortly after we got back to Granny's flat, Daddy came back. That was a very tailwaggy moment. I was very glad to get my Daddy back. Then we all went out to visit Granny. When we arrived at Granny's seniorhumanvetkennel, lots of the nice people there came to greet us. I knew something wasn't right. Then we went up to Granny's room and Mum and Dad shut the door and their eyes started very leaking. They clicked the bedside squidgy wallthing and it went down so I could check Granny out. She didn't move and she wasn't doing any rumblynose either. I gave her a big kiss on the paw and then turned my loves to Mummy and Daddy. They needed me to be a bit of a goof to make their mouths turn up a bit. It worked.....a bit.

After a while, we left a Granny's room and Mum and Dad did some yacketyyack-yacking with the nice workypeople there, then we left and I took them over the road for a freerun on the golf course. They enjoyed the walkies in the fresh air and, of course, I did my best to entertain them by finding pals to play with. There were plenty of them today so I did a good job!

The First Guide Dogs.

85 years ago the first Guide Dogs, who were German Shepherds, Flash, Folly, Judy and Meta, were handed over to their new owners, 3 were veterans blinded in World War I, on 6 October 1931.

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/adorable-images-show-uks-first-11984601.