Tobermory's First Swimming Lesson

Last Saturday was a particularly hot day and my friends, Austin and Pumbaa kindly invited us over to cool off in their hole in the ground with water.

It’s a rite of passage of every fish retriever to learn to swim, so it was a little nostalgic taking my little brother for his first lesson at the place where I started.  Austin and Pumbaa were kind enough to leave us alone until Tobermory got his water legs.

I’m really proud of that kid.  I had human help from Austin and Pumbaa’s human brother when I learnt to swim, but Daddy just dropped Tobermory in the water and he got it straight away.  I of course had to give him a few pointers on floating frisby retrieval and most importantly some tips on diving technique but he shows all the signs of being a natural.

We finished the day with Pumbaa joining us in the water while Bowmore’s old friend, Austin gave us a few tips on formation swimming.

Talisker

They made it go to rehab and it went ...

Mummy and Daddy have had writing boxes in the past that have experimented with falling over juice and they have learnt that it really isn’t very good for them, but Daddy has always managed to stage an intervention early before the problem got too bad and got them dried out.  This is a term also used for humans who have a problem with falling over juice.

My research has shown that famous, beautiful looking humans seem to be prone to falling over juice problems which is why I was not surprised when Mummy’s new writing box fell victim to this affliction as it is particularly sleek and shiny.  It hit rock bottom last week.

Tobermory and I were relaxing with Daddy in his writing box room when we heard a shriek from Mummy.  Her writing box had consumed her entire glass of falling over juice.  I think she was annoyed because she hadn’t tried any of it herself and we all know that writing boxes just don’t appreciate good falling over juice.

Daddy leapt into action to commence the drying out process but after a couple of days decided that it needed professional help and should be sent to rehab.  It must have been feeling really sick because it showed absolutely no resistance when Mummy put it in a writing box carrier and sent it on its way.

In the meantime, Mummy went to visit the writing box retirement home in our kennel to see if one would help her out for a couple of weeks.  Quite a few of them live there.  They spend their days sleeping and reading old National Geographics’.

One writing box did volunteer for the job and I would like to say that it did it willingly, but man, is that guy causing problems.  It refuses to do anything the way we do it now and goes on strike and refuses to work at all at regular intervals.  I hope Mummy’s writing box comes back from rehab soon because my ears are starting to hurt from listening to the fights she’s having with this old dude.

Talisker

Ear Maintenance

Mummy has a sore ear. I know all about sore ears and the key to avoiding this problem is good ear maintenance.  Regular cleaning is the key and Daddy is particularly good at it.  I lie on the sofa and Mummy holds my nose still while he pours special juice in each ear and then he pulls the flap over and gives it a rub.  After this I sit up and give my head a good shake to bring the sore making stuff up to where Daddy can help little sticks with fluffy tips grab it.

The secret is definitely in the shake and this is where humans are at a disadvantage.  If Mummy lay on the sofa so that Daddy could administer the special juice and then had big flappy ears to shake, it would definately help her ear problem.  Of course, trying to hold onto a little human nose to keep her still could be a bit of an issue.

Talisker

Mr Dandy Lion

Today Mummy took a spikey stick out to our garden and started digging up plants with fluffy tops.  Talisker says she always does that when it’s warm outside and is waging war on a lion called Dandy.

I didn’t know what a lion was so did a little research on the writing box and discovered that it is a really big cat that likes to eat puppies like me, but I couldn’t find any mention of why digging up little plants with fluffy tops would scare one away.  I can only assume that Mr Dandy Lion likes them and Mummy is protecting me by removing them so that he has no reason to come here.

Tobermory