Philanthropooch

HELLO everyone. Forgot about me did you?! No way, I'm so cute and anyway even if you were mad at me for not blogging for SOO long, I'll keep coming back to remind you just what you have missed!

I have been preoccupied with stuff, and I'm about to tell you what. See, I'm organising a fundraiser and I need your help to make it a success. It's called the Wilston Westie Walk and its going to be a walk for Westies and their friends on 25 June 2006. First, I have had to help Him design the website and create the flyer. Then I went on a sponsor mission with Her - it was so fun - I got to go to some of the local businesses and get prizes donated to give out on the day. I rode around in the car the whole afternoon and got to impress all the potential donors with my good behaviour. So far, I've had a fantastic response, with only one place saying No; that's OK, I don't like going there anyway and I made sure She knew it when we pulled up at the door and I went screaming off in the other direction... Anyway, we plan to go to a few other places still - I'm cleaner now (got a bath on the weekend) and so I might have some extra pulling power when I'm snowy.

Also, I went to watch the Super 14 final at my best friends Eric and Elsie. I love rugby union and the Wellington Hurricanes are my favorite side. That's because They come from there and have taught me all I need to know about the 'Canes...Bark Like Mad when the 'Canes score! Actually there wasn't much to see because there was such heavy fog over the ground (I think it was a plot by the Crusaders to help them win) so Eric, Elsie and I had a whale of a time having scrums of our own. I got taken home at half time though - She told Eric and Elsie it was because I needed to be fed, but I think I was a bit boisterous and got sent to the Sin Bin... Anyway, so here are some snaps of my pals - that's Eric the big boofy dude, and Elsie the dainty one.

Been busy

I've had a busy couple of days. On Sunday I went to the Million Paws Walk. Last year I completely freaked out at all the dogs because I was only little and thought I was the only dog in the whole world. So We had to wait for me to calm down and all the other dogs to go ahead and I walked along behind the crowd.

This year I got real excited because I'm bigger now. She had stuck the brochure on the fridge door and I was counting the days.... I was in my crate before She could say In Your Crate and the drive out there was great! I was still a bit scared because there were even more dogs than last year, but We went to stand by the beach waiting for the start and I made a new Westie friend called Salty. Salty was kinda nice - old and wise and not too fussed about all the other dogs and so I soon felt better. There were quite a few Westies there, so I felt right at home. Salty's pack was pretty impressed with me, and I turned on the charm as much as I could. They were amazed I walked about 20 kilometers in a training week!

Now I do have photos but She has been way too preoccupied to put them on the Pooter, and unfortunately I haven't learnt how yet, so you'll just have to wait to see the snaps.

Today on my walk I went past Jock's house. When I was little I thought Jock was the Best Westie friend I had, but he hardly paid me any attention because I was such a ditsy, bull in a china shop kinda puppy. Now I'm calmer, he likes to say hullo and he's got this little gap under the fence to do so. So I told Her to get a photo of Jock so you can all see my neighbourhood friends and She got a pretty good one. But Jock just kept on coming and crawled right out! It was a lot of fun - I might encourage him to do it again. But She scooped him up and took him inside.

She's decided on Chubb's Pack Leader to do the yard, so hopefully in a few weeks I'll get to spend some time with Chubbs while I supervise that pack.

I'll keep working on those photos folks - stay tuned!

How y'all?

I am learning a new trick. I pretend to be slow at picking it up, but in reality I know exactly what She wants me to do. The reason I take so long to show Her I got it, is because I get a liver bit for every time I get it done. So for example, if I make a few mistakes and then do what She wants, I get lots of pats and a liver bit for finally nailing it. So since everyone thinks dogs are Pavlovian, I can do that a gajillion times and get equal numbers of liver bits and She thinks I'm developing my conditional reflexes. He he he - I just like liver bits, nothing complicated. Anyway, it's a cool trick - She says "On your Mat" and I'm supposed to go lie down on my mat.

The other thing I wanted to share with y'all, is She met a lady who has an online pet-store called Pet Zympatico. It's got cool stuff and you should take a look. I might even land up persuading Her to shop there for a few items I have my eye on...although I am not the Pink Frothy type

BARF

I'm back in the good books! I have been behaving for a couple of days now with no sign of escaping when They're not looking and except for the odd bark to make sure They know I'm around, I'll keep this up for a bit to lull Them into a false sense of security...

I was allowed to potter round the yard and I found one of my bones I'd buried a while back. It was quite a while, judging by its appearance, but it was good to sink my teeth into all that dirt and some tasty little ants. Digging it up was the best part. She had to stop me trying to bury it again in my Poo Patch (you know, She's such a neat freak She can't stand it when I dig up even just a teeny tiny corner of the Patch)

Which brings me on to my diet. I get the BARF diet and it's to Die For. It was made up by an Australian doggy doctor who knows a thing or two about what dogs like to eat. I will do anything to get my food. She makes me wait all still and quiet for a time before She let's me near the bowl. It's quite hard work when you've been waiting all day or all night for something to eat to resist the excited barking and jumping up to make Her hurry up and get it ready. But no matter how much of a racquet I make, I have to wait quietly once the bowl's down on the ground, otherwise I get in trouble and I have to wait longer.

Yesterday I got new crockery. It's a cool stainless steel bowl with a rubber ring on the bottom so it doesn't move around while I lick it clean. This is the Villeroy and Boche of doggy bowls, so even though I'm always in trouble, she must love me...

I love Wednesdays and Thursdays, I get Macca's - yeah its so cool; its mackeral and it tasts SO yummy. He always complains when I get it because it smells, but I love it. I also get chicken wings and lamb flaps and chicken mince and veggies and a Whole Bunch of herbs and spices - omega oils, Brewers yeast, kelp, crushed egg shell, vit C, vit E, alfalfa. I have a really beautiful coat, Uncle Chris said, and he also said I have snowy teeth. I tell ya, bin those top end pellets, dogs in the know insist on the BARF diet. Now this isn't part of my diet (She hates bugs and reptiles and things, so she won't get it for me when She's out hunting) but this is why She gives me the BARF diet - we need to eat like dogs eat when they live in the wop wops. Personally I'm glad I don't - I like to get my stuff delivered on a platter, but if you know, something edible comes by, it's not like I'm going to pass it up, is it...

As to when I don't have a buried bone or a fresh one, I get these great rawhide bones to chew on. She calls is "reading my book" because I can get quite absorbed in the task and go on for hours. I can demolish a new one in an evening if the will grabs me. She likes me to have them to keep my teeth clean and to keep me busy so I stay out of trouble. Sometimes we have some quality time and She holds it still for me, 'cos when I get to gnawing on it hard, it gets difficult to keep it upright, especially near the middle

Oops! (that's almost poos backward...)

I got in trouble today. I got a bit excited when the landscaper came by with his design. See as he was leaving She told me to go into a down and stay which I did, but then She opened the gate and another dog walked by and I just couldn't help myself - I leapt out and ran away into the world. She almost got me, but I tossed Her one of those you'll have to catch me first looks and darted off again. She turned away, and rightly so, because if She doesn't chase after me, I usually go back after Her, but not this time. There were dogs everywhere and I wanted to go and say hullo. So I went and sat at the kerbside as I have been trained to do when I get to the road, and then zooted off ignoring the possibility of traffic to a friendly looking fluffy white thing, just the kind of friend I like playing with... Anyway She had already realised what I was about to do, so I thought I would throw that little sit in at the kerbside to appease any despair I was causing, but it didn't help. When She caught up to me trying to get the fluffy thing's owner to let her down for a play, She snaffled me and ran back across the road. I got berated and growled at.

She was humiliated in front of the landscaper who watched all this developing with an initial bemused and then amused expression on his face. Meanwhile, his dog Chubbs was calmly sitting in the front seat of the truck as all well behaved dogs on the job with their owners are trained to do. Maybe one day I'll be that good. Anyway, I know I'm still in trouble because I got dragged around the neighborhood at high speed for my walk after that and was made to wait long periods of time at the kerbside for absolutely NO cars to be seen in either direction and She hardly said a word except barking commands at me. She did give me some grapes later, but I can tell I'm still in trouble. Once at school (see photo) I embarrassed Him so much when I barked my head off the whole lesson and made the teacher so mad He had to take me out the class and watch from the sidelines.
Anyway the good news is the garden design is kinda cool, but the water feature needs a little work. I might find myself learning to dog paddle and chase fish if it doesn't get altered, but They're on to that already and I'm sure it will be amended if They go with that plan.

TGIF

Well, yesterday was a long day. He was still out of town and so the 'Pooter was off and She was at work the entire day until even after he got back. I got fed late and after a good play that exhausted both of them, I just went to bed without even getting close to the 'Pooter. So be it; I guess it won't always be possible to blog everday.
Today was fun though. Another landscaping man came with his friend and they both loved me. The one man said he could see who was going to be site supervisor and boy, did I confirm that position as my own. See that's me hard at work on site at a previous job and me after a good day at the office. So you can be sure I'll be supervising - hope they factored my consulting fees into the quote....

They had some good suggestions for my yard though, so its going to be a tough call for Her. She kinda likes both of the teams vying for the job and since they are both nice to me, I'm not going to help with that decision. Anyway, after She decides, it will be His job to break the news because She won't be able to.

Pooped!

Hello

Today I had a Big Day Out. It started early. The landscaper came to measure up my yard which is currently just dirt but hides heaps of lizards.

He was supposed to have a whole plan like 2 weeks ago but had a whole bunch of excuses and then said he lost the original measurements and so he had to come back and take them all again. She wasn't impressed with the whole performance, but he is supposed to be an award winning landscaper and so She is giving him another chance and he apologised. Plus he's kinda cute, so he got cut a bit more slack than the other No-Hopers who have come along and not been up to to the job. The main criteria are whether they are nice to me and if they call back and they get bonus points if they have their own dog. He might get the job because he's cute and he likes me and he came back and he has a dog called Chubbs who sits in his car while he works. I hope he does it, because he lets me sniff his shoes and once the yard's finished up, I will have plenty of adventures in it!

Anyway so after he got done, She packed me in my crate and took me next door to my best friends Eric and Elsie. He is out of town for a couple of days and She may have to work late, so I went to Eric and Elsie's in case it was time to eat and noone could give me my dinner. We had a blast. At Eric and Elsie's I can run around wherever I like whenever I like and there are No Rules except those I make up. I try to behave so that She will always take me there when I need extra looking after. She got home at a reasonable hour though, and although I Did Not want to go for a walk, She dragged me round the short route and I did make a poo. In the end it wasn't so bad, I sniffed a bit, got smiled at and sat at the pedestrian crossing looking cute to stop the traffic. It works pretty well. By the end of it I was exhausted, but I did perk up to get my dinner down the hatch. Now I am just ready to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Uncle Chris and Poo Bags

Uncle Chris is my vet. He's very clever and very nice too. He's a Westie man and he has always had Westie friends in his house. That's why She chose him, becaue he knows all there is to know about Westies. I love going to visit Uncle Chris. Last time I went because I had to get my shots. I turned 1 then. He was very gentle with that, didn't feel a thing, but then She asked him to do my nails. Now I don't get acrylics or anything fancy, just a trim, but jeez I hate it. I gave quite a performance for that part of of the visit. But I got lots of liver bits and I stopped as soon as it was over. It doesn't really hurt, but it's good to let Them know when I don't like something....

Anyway at that visit, Uncle Chris said I was in excellent condition. I am really, and I glowed with pride. He said I could even live until I was 17. She nearly passed out. 17! She exclaimed, thinking of all the nail clippings to come and the gajillions of meals to prepare to keep me in excellent condition... She told me She loves me really, but She is wondering how They'll last without a holiday for 17 years. I mean, I can't go stay just anywhere, I stay at home with a Friend. And then there's the poo bags. I mean, I use like 2 a day and over 17 years, that's at least 12 410 poo bags, which is approximately $2358.00 if you buy them on special on line.