NOVEMBER 2025

 

A dog can dream……of strange playmates, friendly girlfriends, exciting ball games, chewy bones, delicious dinners, golden horses…..Wait…Horses?  It’s funny what can suddenly pop up in your dreams – even daydreams. I dreamt of heavy horses being walked past our house dressed in all their finery; of seeing them in nearby fields on our walks, grazing or chasing each other in play.  I am snoozing and dreaming of running through the green grass with my friends, my paws hitting the turf in a rhythm that makes my limbs twitch and my dream seems so real that my bark lets out little chirps and grumbles.  This is when I usually get a prod from the Mrs and my full on gambol through the field stumbles into the reality of laying on the floor in the living room interfering with the hearing ability of the Boss watching his favourite sport on the TV.  “Quiet” says the Mrs with a calming stroke, “you were dreaming, making noises and twitching”.  I roll over, sleepily semi-conscious and find a cool place to rest my muzzle falling back into my dream while thinking to myself, no, I was running with golden horses, streaming through the air, flying in the wind, my ears flapping in the breeze as I chase across the grass………I open one eye as the Boss suddenly shouts “Yes” as the little white ball on the TV rolls over the green, bypassing the guy holding the flag, and falls neatly into the hole…..

OCTOBER 2025

I hope you all had a good summer.  I traveled a lot and swam a lot.  This summer I also sunbathed and as you can see – I have a lovely tan….

It was good to explore my second home again, sniffing all the boundaries and playing with my other toys that I had forgotten about.  I did slip away once as I picked up an enticing scent on the air which my instincts told me belonged to a lady dog who might welcome a bit of company. However, I was not successful and my escapade ended with an impromptu meeting of all the French neighbours in our little hamlet, instead of my dream of a romantic interlude. After travelling around the immediate area with my nose in the air trying to catch that scent I hadn’t gone very far when I heard voices calling. Unfortunately my French is a bit limited and I didn’t understand that they were calling me.   When I was eventually collared by Monsieur Louis and his wife Yvonne who trotted me towards home we came across all the neighbours who had been out looking for me – I didn’t realise I was so popular!  The Boss and the Mrs were relieved to see me and I had to sit and wait while they all had a jolly good chinwag.   Alas I never did find the lady dog with the enticing perfume – that’s why I probably look a bit sad in this photo…….

 

SEPTEMBER 2025

Football – one of my favourite games.  I am very attached to my football, so much so that even when the Mrs plays footy with me I don’t willingly let go of the ball.  She has tried to tackle me when she thinks I am not looking only to be disappointed when I pounce quickly and snatch the ball from her carefully aimed kick just before it makes contact.  Once clenched in my jaws she finds it very difficult to get it off me with the normal rules of football and often has to resort to devious means with another ball to play with, a chance to retrieve teddy from where he has been lobbed or, on the rare occasion, with a biscuit treat……….I must admit I have fallen for the latter on the odd occasion….

Having watched football many times on the TV with the Boss, among every other game involving a ball that he watches, I have learnt some mean moves.  Keepy Uppy is a trifle difficult sometimes but I have finessed the art of throwing the ball in the air.  Sometimes I can catch it and occasionally score a volley, but with others I chase it madly around the garden until I can clamp it with my paw and throw it up again.  The Boss will pass me an assist but then calls me a poacher or fox in the box when I retrieve the ball from the penalty area, namely the Mrs’s flower beds.  Mostly I play defender to stop the Mrs from getting the ball and making a chip shot over my head.  Sometimes she does a dummy run to try and fool me but I’ve yet to see her do a bicycle kick……. 
 

AUGUST 2025

Me enjoying a swim and retrieving my stick.
 

JULY 2025

Just call me a water baby.  I love the water and I love retrieving.  Most mornings include a trip to the lake.  Before my dip I enjoy helping to feed the fish.  I do this by finding and eating all the morsels dropped by the Mrs as she throws it into the water.  For a second I feel empathy with the fish as they go berserk, so excited by the thought of food.  Back on dry land I suspect she purposely drops bits for me to find on the grassy bank so I don’t try to jump in and wrestle the fish for it.  Then we walk round the lake looking at flora and fauna and I wait patiently while she keeps stopping to take photos.  Eventually we return to a quiet section away from the fish feeding station and again I wait patiently while the Mrs does a search for a suitably sized stick and lobs it into the water for me to retrieve. 

If you’ve seen my blog on the square box thingy you’ll have seen a shot of my spectacular diving technique.   Once launched and the enormous splash fades I lift my head above water checking to see where the stick landed, then I strike out to retrieve it.  With my paws extended I boost the webbing between my toes giving me extra pulling power, snatch it from the surface and swim back to shore.  This is the part where the Mrs will stand well back from me.  All I want to do is give her the stick so she can throw it in again but the more I advance, the more she retreats.  Eventually I give up and drop the stick to do my whole body shimmer shake which rids my coat of most of the excess water giving me a lighter running weight.  I look round to find the Mrs and give her the stick but she is standing well away from the droplet flying zone.  What is it with her and water – she’s exactly the same when it falls from the sky.  Me, I love it, the wetter the better……

 

JUNE 2025

Helping with the hydrangeas.   I thought I was just being helpful but the Mrs did not share the same feelings.  She was busy dead heading all the hydrangeas.  Apparently, it is advisable to leave the old blooms on until old Jack Frost has stopped visiting as they protect the tender new shoots, or in this case when you return to the garden they are growing in and have the time and energy to remove them.  That is what is happening now, the Mrs moves among the many hydrangea plants and systematically removes the old blooms and placing them in the wheelbarrow behind her.  I secretly assist by delicately lifting each bloom in my mouth and removing them to a pile nearby thus emptying the wheelbarrow to allow her to add more old blooms.  After a while she becomes suspicious that she is able to add so many to the wheelbarrow without filling it.  At this point she looks behind her to find my helpful emptying technique has resulted in a pile of blooms with me in the middle.  She was a little exasperated but managed to smile at my help, however I was banned from removing anything further from the wheelbarrow, no matter how helpful I thought I was being.  Sometimes my assistance is just not required!
 

APRIL

Smelling the flowers.  The Mrs is trying to educate me as to what smells nice in the hope that I can improve my hygiene which will in turn improve my aroma.  The Boss thinks she is far too fussy and he says my aroma is fine. 

This aroma teaching thing could take a while because there are a lot of flowers blooming as the garden is bursting into flower due to the sunny days we have been having.  The grass has also been cut and I am discovering where a lot of my toys have been hiding in the secret corners of the garden.  I have taken to rolling on the newly cut grass to get that lovely mown grass smell into my coat. 

My coat….that’s another minor thing the Mrs keeps on about.   As soon as the sun came out my coat seems to be diminishing, in fact much of it is coating the floor instead of me.  That noisy suction machine which the Mrs loves so much follows me around nearly every day pinching all my fur.  I have to vacate the room in search of a safe haven in case I eventually disappear inside it.  Goodness knows what it wants all my fur for…..it will soon have the same aroma as me, he he.