Recycling

Our humans are always making a big deal about something they call “recycling”.  They place stuff they don’t want anymore into a big box for other humans to take away and use again.

Mummy put a chicken she didn’t want anymore into a box in the room where she makes food and since I wanted it I thought I was doing the correct thing in removing it to recycle it.  Please explain why she took it away and growled at me.

Talisker

Heat Wave

When we were watching the moving picture frame on the wall yesterday there was a man in front of a map of this land with lots of numbers on it .  He claimed the numbers indicated a heat wave.  Now, I know this to be incorrect because this is the time of year when we start to get our Winter coats.

Mummy didn’t take us out for our evening neighborhood sniff yesterday or our morning sniff today because she claimed it was too hot for an old man like me.  I of course made the natural assumption that she and the man in the moving picture frame were involved in a conspiracy to allow humans to be lazy as the temperature appeared to be just fine inside our kennel.  We pleaded all day but Mummy still wouldn’t let us out to prove her wrong.  We did eventually win and she opened the door and closed it very quickly behind us.  I have to admit to feeling very bad now for doubting her concern for my welfare … it’s hot out there!

Bowmore

Naughty Birds

Sometimes when humans come to visit I just can’t contain my excitement and jump up and kiss them all.  Mummy says this is naughty and puts me behind bars in the room where she makes food until I promise to keep all my feet on the floor at the same time.

We went with our humans to visit some of their friends who share their kennel with little birds who were already behind bars when we arrived.  I guess they must have been trying to kiss the other human visitors before we arrived, but they obviously hadn’t learnt that the key to being released is to keep quiet and promise to behave because they yelled a lot and had to stay behind bars the whole time we were there.

Talisker

Blending in with your surroundings

It’s always good to hear news of old friends and I am pleased that our humans went to visit a really cute little female called Annie at the end of their adventure.  I remember with nostalgia the last time she came to visit with her humans in their big motorized kennel.  It was just after my older brother, Cider had left us and I was feeling a little lonely so it was good to have the company of her and her sister, Ebony.  My legs worked a little better then so we went for a run at the edge of the big lake called the Pacific Ocean.

I was very sorry to hear that Ebony had to leave Annie to go and keep Cider company, but she has a new sister now called Ali.  She's a Tibetan Terrier and her ancestors were the sacred caretakers of humans in a far away land who wrap red sheets around their bodies, so she's a little wary of humans who wear trousers.

I have great admiration for Annie’s sofa restraining technique.  She sneaks up on them and then blends in with her surroundings so they don’t know they are being restrained until it’s too late.  I hope she is finding teaching her special talent to Ali as rewarding as I have in imparting my knowledge of the care of humans to Talisker.

Bowmore

The Wedding Guest

You may remember that in April I wrote about my concern for Mr Bear’s white relatives so you can imagine my surprise when a picture of one of them came out of Mummy’s picture box.

Whilst on their recent adventure, our humans went to a wedding in a place right at the top of this country where not many of them live.  Weddings are a human ritual where they put metal bands on their fingers to show that they are not a stray and shouldn’t be put up for adoption, similar to when they put a collar around our necks.  They make quite a fuss of it and all their friends and pack members come to watch.  I can only assume that Mr Bear’s relative, who I have learnt is called Icabod, must have been a guest too.  I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised at this since the wedding was closer to the land he comes from than where Mr Bear lives.

Bowmore

Mouse Catching Aristocracy

Our humans have been really busy since they got back from their recent adventures so hearing about the guys they visited has been slow.

Today, Mummy gave us the scoop on one of our relatives, a fish retriever called Bone who is chief of security for her littermate’s family.  That dude really has it tough.  The most important part of our job is barking at potential threats, but this guy can’t bark because human puppies sleep a lot and adult humans growl at him when they wake up.  The upside is they’re pretty messy eaters so he has a lot of plate cleaning to do but of course, anything in excess can be pretty tiring.

We also learnt about Minstrel who helps Bone with vermin control.  I don’t have much experience of working with cats and found this a little confusing.  We get a few squirrels in our garden which are pretty easy to chase away so I couldn’t understand how such a little dude could be useful.

Being retired and having more spare time than me, Bowmore got on the writing box to do some research.  It turns out that Bone and Minstrel have quite a challenge to deal with as their City has lots of rats and mice as well as squirrels.  Apparently, Minstrel is descended from a long line of famous mouse catchers, the most famous of which is Puss in Boots so it would appear that Bone has mouse catching aristocracy to help him.

Talisker

Dougal, the Paper Dog

Our humans have just returned to our kennel after a long adventure which has seriously hindered my writing career as Mummy insisted on taking her writing box with her.

Before joining Daddy in the far away place where he earns dog biscuits, Mummy went on a short tour of the land she comes from to visit the dogs who take care of her pack.  I would have joined her but in my advanced years I only travel first class and flying metal tubes discriminate against dogs and make us travel third class which I find very distasteful in this day and age.

Mummy’s first visit was with Dougal.  His breed have a lot of energy which he needs because he takes care of her Mummy and Daddy who are almost as old in human years as I am in dog years so they need a lot of help with daily chores like fetching the newspaper.  The land they live in is obviously not very advanced or they would read a writing box like I do to see what is going on in the world.

Bowmore