Remembering Bowmore

Tobermory will be coming home next week, but I will never forget my older brother, Bowmore who taught me everything.  I want to make sure that I can tell my little brother what a cool dude he was and I don’t mean just in his athletic accomplishments but his intellectual side too.  Last night Mummy helped me search through all the pictures of him on her writing box so that I can put a story board together.

I only knew Bowmore in his later years.  When I first came to this kennel he was still an expert Frisbee catcher but was beginning to slow down a little and concentrate more on the ancient art of sofa restraint.  I had always assumed that Frisbees had been the main focus of his life and that he had not pursued his writing ambitions until handing over the job of Chief of Security to me.  However, it would appear that he started at really quite a young age.  This is a picture of him sitting at the writing box.  He was about the same age as I am now and Mummy said he was already quite an accomplished writer and used to often help her out when she was busy.  I guess I have even more to live up to than I realized.

Talisker

Human Insecurities

I admit defeat.  I really need help with security around here.  The more humans there are in our kennel, the harder work it is because after all, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I wasn’t keeping watch over all them.

It started on Wednesday when Daddy’s Mummy arrived from the far away land she comes from in a flying metal tube; a little extra work but nothing I can’t handle.  The next day one of his litter mates turned up from an even farther away land.   He just wanted to hold the sofa down and watch humans trying to play fetch on the moving picture frame on the wall so this was still well within the scope of my skill set.  On Friday Daddy’s other litter mate stopped by and I have to admit that at this point I was getting a little confused.  I’ve never before seen his whole pack hanging out in our kennel together.

On Saturday it all became clear.  It was Daddy’s Birthday.  He’s really old and humans like to celebrate getting old.  Of course, I expected a few more of his friends to arrive at some point to drink falling over juice with him.  After all, I invite my friends over to play fetch on my Birthday.

First, a few humans dressed in the same body covers arrived with lots of food and then a lot more came to eat it.  Now, it was getting pretty hectic but I was still on top of it until some of them started to pull strings on funny shaped boards, bang on big boxes and howl really loudly.  The other humans started jumping up and down and running around in between eating little colored human treats and I just couldn’t keep track of them anymore.  This was no longer a job for one dog.  When I saw the entrance to our kennel was open I thought it would be a good idea to go down the road and get my BFF, Truman to come and help out.

You’d think that with that many humans they’d be able to take care of each other but they are obviously even more helpless than I had previously thought.  I had just got to Truman’s kennel when I heard lots of humans yelling my name.  There was obviously something bad going on so I ran back as fast as I could to find Daddy and a bunch of them running around looking quite distressed.  Man, those guys are insecure.  Apparently the cause of their distress was that they noticed that I wasn’t watching over them.  Can’t a dog even leave for a few minutes to get back-up?

The number of humans all weekend in our kennel has been pretty high which has seriously eaten into my required 20 hours of sleep a day and I have finally decided that they are now on their own.  I need to take a good, long sleep and boy, do I need some help here.

Talisker

My Kid Brothers

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me.  At the beginning I just thought I was going on one of our usual outings with my humans.  They didn’t appear to be putting bags of human stuff in the back of the motorized dog carrier (my coat is much more practical and I only need one), but I could sense a higher level of excitement than usual.

We drove for a really long time, almost as long as it takes to get to the white slippy stuff that my older brother, Bowmore and I used to go and play in when we had our winter coats.  It started to look a little familiar when we stopped on a piece of floating road that helped us across water.  It would appear that motorized dog carriers don’t swim well.

Not long after we reached the other side, there was a sign, “Diamond P Labs”.  Mummy said this was the place I came from.  I got a little worried at first because this could mean one of two things; either my humans were dissatisfied with my security performance and were bringing me back, or we were there to meet my kid brothers.  Thankfully it was the latter.

I am pleased to say that Mummy was correct and they do now have teeth and seem to show some potential as athletes.  Now the hard part started for them as this was the big interview that would determine their future and when they would both be given names, a monumental day in any dog’s life.

Let me now introduce Tobermory and Kihei.  Their lives will be a little different.  Tobermory is going to be my security intern and I look forward to showing him the ropes and teaching him the art of sofa restraint.  I have not been able to spend enough time on this ancient art since becoming the solo dog responsible for security in this kennel and look forward to spending more time practicing it once the duties are shared a little.

Kihei is going to be thrown a little more into the deep end.  He will be taking care of friends of my humans, and their kennel has been running with no security for a while so I’m sure it’s a little chaotic.  He won’t have a big brother to guide him but he’s a bright kid so I’m sure he’ll work it out.  He also gets the advantage of having human puppies in his kennel which I have always found to be a constant source of amusement and sometimes they can really be quite cute.  I also predict that he may also have a great modeling carreer.

In a couple of weeks my kid brothers will be starting their new lives.  In the meantime they have a little more growing to do and of course have to complete kindergarten.

Talisker

Chasing Tail

Last weekend my humans went to a human gathering at a falling over juice kennel called Sarah’s Vineyard.  They get together to eat and listen to howling humans to celebrate the separation of bunches of little round things used to make falling over juice from their plants.  I don’t really understand this as the little round things must miss their plants.  After all, I miss my humans if you separate me from them and it definitely isn’t something to celebrate.  However, they obviously don’t suffer from separation anxiety as my humans drink a lot of the falling over juice they make which means it must be good and they couldn't produce tasty stuff if they were feeling depressed.

Now, you do have to understand that I only went along to chase a little tail.  This is a human expression I’ve heard used on the moving picture frame on the wall and I think it means they are missing canine companionship and are going out looking for some.  Life is a little lonely without someone of your own kind to talk to and I know dogs help out at Sarah’s.  Unfortunately they thought the humans howled too loudly so had decided to have an early night.

There was an upside.  I got to further my gastronomic research and tasted a human delicacy called bread pudding.  It was pretty good but as a bread connoisseur I think I prefer fresh, untouched artisan sourdough.

Talisker

Tasty Dead Sheep

Can you believe that humans leave food in their feeding bowls?  The best part is that I get to eat it.  I’ve always been a bit of a gourmand so getting the opportunity to sample different flavors is particularly exciting for me.  Tonight it was dead sheep that Daddy put on the cooking box with fire.  It was covered in really tasty yellow cream, sweet crunchy stuff and part of a plant in the garden that I like to scratch my back on.  Mummy says it makes me smell good, but who knew it would be good on dead sheep too?

Talisker