New Territory, New Lidl's...

HUFFFFF! Blimmin leaky sky! I most definitely heard mention of a freerun, but it didn't happen because the sky leaked. Huffffety grump!

I did my workywalkies duties - first of all to the Post Office in Westbourne, where we had to wait in a Q outside the closed door for aaaaaages before going in to give some of my calendars to the nice ladyhuman in the cage. She sticked stickers on them and promised to get them to the nice people who have ordered them. (I promise that the shinydisks will be going to my fund to sponsor another Puppy to be trained to be a lifechanger like me!)

I also did loads of other little bits and bobs of workywalkes - in between hops in and out of the car - in all sorts of different shops. One bit was on completely unfamiliar territory - I took Mum to Lidl's while Dad went to play in a one-eyed-clickybox shop. This involved a bit of a walk along a busy shoppystreet and across a bleepycrossing, then around Lidl's (this one was laid out very differently to any others we've been in). Mum couldn't work out where the checkout was so she asked me to 'find the checkout'. Well - of course I did! Sometimes she can be so slow to put her trust in me! Then I had to 'find the way back'. No problem! I even find a suitable minor diversion to the route to do a very necessary necessity! Mum burbled something about 'bone bum' and then triple wrapped my offering. She said something about not stinking out the shop as we couldn't find a bin! How rude!

Well, I may not have got my freerun but my jaws have had some good exercise - that bone is now less than half the size it was yesterday!

Now, could somebody please arrange for some non-leaky sky tomorrow so I can take Mum and Dad for that freerun......

Hmmm..... Bone.....

Forgiven! Yayy! Maybe I wasn't such a terrible ardlehead yesterday after all! Well..... even if I was, Mummy let me off today! I did do good workywalkies to my forgiveness but oh! boy! That forgiveness was good! The workywalkies was to a human yummyery in Newbury called the Corn Exchange. I strutted my stuff good and proper to get Mum there, including a 'Find the twitten' bit that we have only done once before. Then, 'find the door - right'. Once inside, I found not just Harley, my impromptu buddy from yesterday, but also Patterson the Goldie Guide Dog Puppy (who is way bigger than me and still has growing to do!). Well, we dogs left the humans to do their boring greetings, yackety-yacking and drinking of hot black/brown water in those strange tiny bowls that they lift to their mouths. We just got on with the bestest kanoodling under the table that we could get away with! At one point, Mum and Kim (Harley's humanmum) had to enlist the help of a sighted ladyhuman, Sue, to untangle our leads! They are so daft! If only they had removed our leads and let us play properly, we would never have got into such a boffle! Never mind their worries about tables and spillages and chaos!........

Next duty was a trip to the mouth-dripping shop. The one with red and white stripes everywhere. The one where heaven is kept behind a seethrough wall! My hopes rose a little when Mum asked for turkey, beef, gammon, bacon and sausages......but it seems those hopes were only to sink again. I wasn't even allowed to try to help carry the load! Then the right thing finally happened: Mr Rednwhite-stripes handed Mum a hugenormous bone! Well.... two actually - each with a knobblyend and a straight end. Of course, I still wasn't allowed to carry them but I knew they were mine! I kept that bag under close scrutiny all the way to the car!

Next stop was Bournemouth - very briefly at Granny's flat, but then into a shoppyplace called Poole. I remembered the route to take Mum straight to Boots and then upstairs to a sort of human vets place, where we went a few weeks ago. In there, we saw a nice ladyhuman called Kara again. She seems to be very interested in Mum's back paws. She checked them, along with the strange little flattish things that seem to live inside Mum's pawcovers. They did a whole load of yacketying and all seemed happy.

Now, we are finally at the flat and I have taken Daddy for an inspection of some weemail hubs locally. And I have had a chance to do some serious work on one of those bones! Yummmmmmmm!

Photo shows me - from waist forwards, head down with my nose right by a huge fresh raw beefbone.

Exhausterated.....

I am aaaaaaalllll fussded out!

It is exhausting being so adorable! It has been fun though - even with furry reindeer antlers and a santa bandana!

Oh! Errrmmmm....ahem! I maaaay just have had a momentary lapse of attention at one tiny point in the day....... well..... I had been uber good aaaaaallll week.......I hadn't attempted to wander out of the shop....... but spotting a colleague was just too much to resist! Guide Dog Harley was strutting his stuff, guiding his Mum, Kim through the indoor shoppyplace, right past our wrappyup shop. I just happened to be 'free' at just that right moment! Well..... I couldn't let him get past without a greeting, could I? Heehee! I may perhaps made a bit of a twerp of myself by wizzing around in leapy circly spins....... well.... it was just sooooooo good to find a buddy!

5 photos -
1) me lying on my back on my sofa-bed sending up some zzzzs after all the hard work of the week
2-5) various head and shoulders poses of me wearing my red furry santa bandana and furry antlers

All Wrapped Up!

Yep! 'Twas true! We have done looooooaaaads more of that wrappingshop thing today! Aaaaaallll day! My tail has never done so much wagging. My head has never been so well stroked or patted.

I did, of course, get to take Mum workywalkies a few times throughout the day too. Well....a dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do sometimes! And, it seems, Mum has to sometimes too, so I had to take her to the human spending pen!

At the end of all the wrapping stuff today, a whole lot of humans turned up all wrapped up themselves - in red and white floaty fursubstitutes. They all stood inside the shop and did a load of human howling! There were no toot-toot parp-parps like the other day in town though, so I didn' t join in this time!

Me, wearing my red jingly Santa bandana and reindeer antlers, sitting on the mat in front of the shop. Immediately behind me on the floor is a pile of giant presents wrapped in green and gold paper with ribbons and bows. In the background can be seen tables and chairs with humans sitting wrapping presents. By the door, is a sign saying Free Gift Wrapping.

A closeup of me sitting in front of the giant parcels.

Me sitting outside the shop on the shiny lino floor. Behind me is the choir of red and white robed people.

Wagged out Well and Truly...

Zzzzzzzz..... I am totally meeted and greeted and fussded and admireded out!

We have been in that meeting-greeting-wrapping shop all afternoon. It was fab getting soooo many fusses! I'm not complaining!

And apparently we will be doing more of it tomorrow. My tail will be all wagged out! 

Closeup of my sleepy nose on my blue and white stripey blanket.

Blimmin Dull-Elm....

Daddy abandoned us again this morning, so I took Mummy workywalkies. She actually obeyed my directions! We went into Pets at Home! Yippeee! Not only that, but she accepted my guiding straight to the yummy aisle! AND she actually scooped some yummies from one of those boxes into a rustlybag! She didn't let me get away with much hoovering though. She conned me. She told me to 'Sit', which I very obediently did, thinking I would be getting a yummy for doing so. All I got was a 'Good boy', a quick ear tickle and a 'Find the checkout' command! Hufff! All that time I was sitted I could have been hoovering the floor and shelves! The ladyhuman at the checkout was nice to me. She gave me a biccie!

On our way along the busy road where the pavement is also a wheeliewizzerway, a ladyhuman was coming towards us on her wheeliewizzer. (She was only wizzing quite slowly!). She kind of slowed right down and then wobbled and then went whump sideways. I speeded us to her and rushed in to check her out. Mum held out her paw and helped her get up again. She assured Mum she was OK and got back on her wheeliwizzer and rode off. Another big vroomvroom-wheeliewizzer then appeared on the pavement with a strange alien on it. This alien was all green with a huge round green head. It sounded like a muffled manhuman when Mum yacketyyacked with it. It was asking if everything was OK. Mum said yes and thanked the alien for stopping to check. Then the green wheeliewizzer went vroom again and the alien wizzed off on it.

We carried on our walk and ended up at that blimmin Dull-elm place. Mum got some funny looking blobs of multicoloured wound-up fluffy megalong-whiskers and two sharp sticks. I'm not too sure what she plans to do with them but I hope she keeps them away from me!

We returned home along the towpath and arrived back on our floatyboatyhome a little while before Dad returned.

The next workywalkies was to the shop in town where we spent the evening and where I got a picnic dinner!

Apparently time is fast running out for ordering calendars in time for Christmas so, if you haven't ordered yours yet to help raise funds to train another pup to do a lifechanging job like me, then NOW is the time!

Just click this link and place your orders, then I get my staff straight onto the job of dispatching them.

www.guidedogoakley.org.uk/shop.html

FreeRun. Yay, I gotta FreeRunnnn!

YEEEAAAAAYYYYYY! Back to normal! Well, actually, perhaps better than normal!

I got to take a much better Mummy and Daddy for a fantabulous FREERUN on Snelsmore Common! Oooooooh! That was just sooooo good after the last few days of staying in so much.

I found some great fun pals to play chase with - and a few who didn't want to play, but it was still nice to meet n greet them anyway. I also got to water just about every tree along the way! It is a weemail superhub! Mum and Dad really enjoyed their relaxing version of a free wander too. They are sooooo slow! And they only walk in lines along the pathways. Humans just don't know how to do these things properly! It is so much more fun to run and zoom and leap about in zig-zags and random circles!

My jaws got some further exercise working on my latest bone when we got back to our floatyboatyhome. Then I had to take out of the way for a while so Mum could stroke everything with whiskersticks, cloths and squirtyniffystuff. Home now smells most peculiar but Mum seems to prefer it that way. I can handle this on an ongoing basis as it means I get more walkies!

Four photos from today's freerun:

The most handsome, happy dog in the woods today! A closeup portrait of me with my smiley face looking to the left.

An Irish Wolfhound who didn't want to play but was happy to greet in true doggy style. I did have to stretch up a bit to sniff though! 

A wild pony - not for playing with! Mum steered me away while Dad did his one-eyed-clickybox thing here.

Me and a fellow black lab. She and I enjoyed a fab game of chase - she kept pinching my ball so I had to chase her to get it back! In this pic, it is my turn to get her to chase me. I have the ball in my mouth and she is looking straight at me. We are both poised to run, tails high and very waggy.