Tails and Eyes...

Well, that was certainly a different day!

It started with a brief wander down the towpath - for doggy download duties - then a car ride to a HUGE humanvetplace. We have been there once before. I remembered! I found the door and the upsteps for Mum. We went upsteps - and up - and up - and up...... This was all new - we never went up that far before!

We went into a little room with a nice ladyhuman. Mum had to sit in a big chair while I looked after Dad at the other end of the room. The ladyhuman stuck tails all over Mum's head and on her eyes, then Mum had to stare at a tellybox that had loads of flickery-flashy squares on it. She then had to sit in darkness for a while before putting her head into a box which flashed megabright lights at her.

Once the tails were all removed, we were free to leave and Mum was relieved that it was not as bad as she had expected. I found the way out and straight to the car (well, via a tree!). We then went into a big townyplace. Mum says it was called Oxford. It was great to be strutting my stuff guiding Mum on new routes and dodging and weaving a way through all the crowds. I got to meet and greet a couple of doggy pals too. One was a little Staffie x Rodesian Ridgeback girlypup named Bonnie. She was great fun - I would have loved to play properly with her but, of course, I coudn't as I was on duty, but we enjoyed a bit of kanoodling. Bonnie was with a ladyhuman and a manhuman who was lying in a bedcover-with-no-bed in a doorway. They were nice humans but Bonnie was much more fun! A bit later, I found myself nose-to-nose with a chocolate labrador; another brief chance for kanoodling! OK - I know I'm not supposed to - but - a puppy and a fellow labrador..... How could I possibly resist? Ahem!

The hugenormous humanvets called John Radcliffe Hospital.

Mum with tails attached staring at the flashing tellybox.

Mum with her head inside the flashybox.

Meeting and greeting Bonnie.

Meeting and greeting choccylab.

Full of Hope!

"Stay out of the water" said Mum. I did as I was told - I stayed out of THAT bit of water. She said nothing about the next bit though - just a few paces further along the canal - the next wade-in-able bit..... Oooh! that was a good swim! It got me a good towel rub when we got back to the boat too! Heeheee!

It has been an eventful day: a lovely wander with Mum along the towpath this morning - leading to a great freerun in Padworth meadow. There I met huge GSD George and had a brief game of chase, then, a bit further on around the meadow, I found four Border Collies - Boss, Armani, Klein and Gucci. They were superb fun too!

Back aboard our floatyboatyhome, all sorts of strange things went on - Richard the boaty-mendy-man was in and out, on and off all day - bringing various noisy toys and bits of woody stuff. The warmrain room is under attack from all of his dddddrrrrrring and vvvvvrrrrrring today! I stayed curled up on the little bit of sofa I could actually get to!

We went out and left Richard to all his noisy toys and headed off in the car. We ended up in Newbury where I had to 'Find Specsavers'. This visit was most odd; I stayed in the waityseats area with Mum while DAD went off into a little room. When he came back, he put various sets of eyewindows on his face, then took one set to the ladyhuman at the desk. This was most unusual. I thought Specsavers was just for Mum!

We wandered around a bit of Newbury town before hopping back into the car. I got my picnic tea after a short drive, when Dad parked us next to a huge bus. Next, we got on that bus. It is the first bus I have ever been on that had carpet to snooze on! It didn't have many seats, but it did have a sort of kitcheny bit with a squirtyspout and a waterbowl in the worktop. It also had an upstairs with tables and seats. Dad got into the drivy seat and Mum and I went towards the back. I laid down on the carpet and Mum sat on the only seat on the lower floor level. There was another nice manhuman too. After a while of twiddling and fiddlng with things in the drivy area, Dad tworled the big wheel about and we started off. When we stopped some other nice manhumans and ladyhumans joined us, then loads and loads of big minihumans came on over the course of the evening. I got ooooooodles of fusses.

After a while of all this admiration, I had to take Mum workywalkies outside - well a dog just has to do what a dog has to do sometimes. I guided Mum around a pathway and found a suitable spot, did my necessaries and Mum wrapped my precious offering in a bag as usual. Then she asked me to find the way back. On the way, I led her to a bin, then we met up with loads more big minihumans. That meant loads more fusses and admiration while Mum got yacketying with them all, before asking me to 'Find the bus' again.

Back aboard the bus meant yet more fusses - and a few treats for being a good boy, before Dad got back in the drivyseat again and drove us back.

It is tiring receiving so much admiration. The hotbox is glowing nicely. It is cozy in here - Mum is on the sofa - that means just one sensible option - Mummysofasnuggles! Mmmmmnnnnnmmmmmmnnnnnmmmmm.......yawny-yawny-yawnzzzzzzz

Photo of me and Mum on the Bus of Hope.

Huff, huff and Triple Huff!

Sooo very close! Sooo very yummy! Sooo very should have been mine! Sooo very should have been quicker! Humph!

Mum called me a liberty-taker. I would much have preferred to have been a big-lump-of-beef-taker!

We went yummiesshopping. Mum couldn't find my noseband (heehee!) so we had to go without it. That meant that a) my mouth opened wider and b) Mum had much less control over where my nose wandered. We were by one of those cold shelf bits in the shop. Mum was searching for something she calls meat. I call it mouth-drip-overdrive! There was a delectable big lump of seriously mouthwatering red yumptiousness right at my height. I'm certain it was meant for me. I ALMOST got it. My mouth was right there - just about to open wide.......'OI! Don't you dare!' was the very rude interruption! Huffffffff!

Oh well, it was an escape from all the vvvvvvrrrrrrrring and ddddddrrrrrring and stinky-stroking-wood-with-a-whiskerstick stuff that Richard the boaty-mendy-man was doing inside our boat. He was using all sorts of very noisy toys to make holes in the wood and then other toys to twisty-stab the wood with spikes. Then he used a whiskerstick thing to stroke some very stinky stuff onto the wood. Phoooaaarrrr!

Ooohh! Poo! Dad has just found my noseband. Harrumph!

Mum - You Got it Wrong!!!!

Woohooo! Home! Proper home! To stay! Yayyyy!

We left our temporary floatyboatyhome this morning, went to church, did a good workywalkies around Newbury, then came back to the floatyboatyvets yard. We came straight aboard our floatyboaty. We didn't go to the temporary one. Well....I didn't. I stayed with Mum aboard our home while Dad went too and fro fetching everything off the temporary one. All is now back home. Yippeeeeee!

On the workywalkies, Mum made a very serious mistake: She allowed me to guide her along the busy streets, down through the tunnels under the road, then along to the 'find the button' crossing. That was all fine. When we got to the other side of all the crossings though, she told me to 'find left'. I stopped dead in my tracks and gave her my bestest 'No. That's wrong. We need to go right' glare. I even tried to steer her right. She was most insistent though; 'Not today. Find left'.

 

But....but....but....Pets at Home is RIGHT! Instead, we had to go left and carry on walking until we reached that blimmin Dullelm place! Huffffff! Then we went to Tesco's and she wouldn't let me lead her to the doggy aisle either! The injustice! Huff, Huffety Huffpuff!

At least, I got some recompense in the form of a yummy cowtail to munch on my bed before settling down for sofasnuggles. Now, the hotbox is glowing all cozy and Mum seems to be using my head as a desk for her tippetytappetytoy!

'Out is this way!' me sitting on top step leading to doors on temporary floatyboatyhome.

Me lying on my bed (the end of the sofa) on our floatyboatyhome, munching a cowtail. Mega Ted is by my shoulder.

Deskhead. Me curled up for sofasnuggles on Mum's lap. She has her minilaptop tippetytappetytoy resting on my head while she tippetytappeties on it with her pawpointers. It is yatterying away in my ear.

Home. Well, Briefly...

We went home! Proper home! Our floatyboatyhome! Yayyyyy! I got to snooze for a while on MY bed (well...my end of the sofa!).

Mum and Dad didn't do any snoozing there though - Dad was busy twiddling and vvvvrrrvvvvrrrrring with a noisy monster with a long nose that sucked everything up. Mum was doing ooooooodles of her stroking-everything-with-a-wet-cloth stuff. She also did a whole load of vvvvrrrvvvvrrrrring too. Some bits inside our floatyboaty home are slightly different from before and the warmrainroom is in bits, but it is HOME! After all the stroking and vvvvrrrvvvvrrrrring, and a load of putting things in cupboards, Mum and Dad did finally sit down on the sofa with me. They seemed to enjoy that - with mugs of that hot brown stinky water stuff of course. I enjoyed the opportunity for a bit of a sofasnuggle with Mum. Don't tell her that meant I wasn't quite on 'my' bed. Well.....I think my tail was still on it so that makes it OK.....right?!!!

We are back aboard our temporary floatyboatyhome now but there has been loads of yacketying going on between Mum and Dad, and the nice manhuman Dave from the boatyard. For now though - I shall simply enjoy Mum's sofasnuggles here. I don't really mind which sofa it is .....but...... home was super nice for that while.

I'm a Star!

It would seem that I am sooooo very many different things!

OK. Im a dog - I know that.

Apparently I am also a Labrador. That's clear.

And a Guide Dog. Yeah....

I have been called a pickle, a little wotsit, a tinker, a monkey, buggalugs, sodchops, toerag, smartRs, cleverclogs, good boy, clever boy, amazing, fantastic, astounding.......to name but a few.

Now, it seems, I am also a STAR! Well, call me Twinkle then!

We have spent the last couple of days in a house with a hissing furball AND Microhuman Hallie! I almost managed to clean up the yummies foolishly left by the hissing furball, but Rosie was a meanie - she put it upstairs and closed the cage thing across the stairs - the smell was torture and there was no way I could get to the source of the torture. The hissing furball himself was also trapped the other side of the cage thing so there was no way I could sort him out either!

Little Hallie has very inquisitive front paws - and now she doesn't seem to be staying so safely in one place anymore (she seems very proficient in moving on all fours - proof that it is betterthan the big humans' way of getting up on two paws!). I wasn't safe anywhere - she keep coming to find me! I rolled over and surrendered - she poked and prodded all areas! She does seem to be worth learning to tolerate though, especially when she is in her little chair on sticks. There is a good supply of yummies to be hoovered from underneath her! I got quite a feast - especially when she discovered that it was fun to shower me with nosh!

Yesterday, Mum and I were left to look after Hallie. Dad disappeared in a big box on wheels, and Rosie and James went to London. Mum decided that, as it was a nice afternoon, we should go out. Well, I was certainly not disappointed at that idea! She put Hallie in her wheelieseatbed, harnessed me up and off we set. I had to guide Mum in the same way as I do when we go to a foodyshop and she gets one of the cages on wheels: She takes the handle off my harness, but leaves the white and yellow bra bit on me, then she holds my lead in her left front paw - whilst also holding the handle. Then we walk slower than usual, she gives me the usual commands of things like 'find left', 'find right', 'straight on' etc and she follows me. Yesterday, I did all of this as well as slowing down carefully on approach to kerbs, then stopping when we got to it. I was actually walking so that my head was just in front of the wheelieseatbed, so I stopped so that Mum didn't push Hallie out into the road. I've got used to allowing extra width when I walk on Mum's left and Dad is on her right, and when we used to walk around with Granny in her wheelieseat, I learned to give extra space, so working with Hallie's wheelieseatbed was easy.

Mum was super impressed with me and that was why she called me a star!

It seems that stars get to guide their charges into a park and then enjoy a freerun and a play with the local pooches too! I think I like being a star! One of the local pooches was a yellow labrador called Poppy, and there was a GSD called Sacha. We had a fantabulous game of chase together.

The star duty continued on a trip to the huge Tesco's. Going around there was a doddle! It is familiar territory and Hallie's wheelieseatbed was smaller than one of the foodcagewheelies.

Missions accomplished, we went back to Rosie and James's house and I enjoyed a bit of a snooze in the garden. I think I deserved the sausages that Hallie showered me with! Yummmmmmyyyyy!

Now, after a human yummyery trip with Papa, a long workywalkies with Mum on a completely new route, a trip to meet a manhuman Mum says is called a Sillysociter or something (I just snoozed on the carpet while the inevitable yachetying went on), and, of course, the long car ride, we are back aboard our temporary floatyboatyhome. Time for this star to enjoy sofasnuggles with Mummy!

Towel Rubs are the Greatest!

Heehee! I snuck in a swim! I don't think I was supposed to but the water just dragged me in! I simply couldn't resist! It meant a good towel rub when I got back. That was lovely!

Then the sky leaked on me next time out - so - another good towel rub! This time though, I managed to get in a good muddy big shake first! Nicely redecorated cupboard doors and floor! Heeeheeee!