Waljan's Blog

Sunday afternoon dogrun!

2012-01-15T19:06:00.000Z

Hi folks,
As is was a nice day today and we had some sunshine, Mother took that camera thingy on our dogrun to take some photo's of the new arrivals. Firstly can I say we had a bit of a late start as Mum and Dad went to that thing they went to last year, called the Hunt Ball. This apparently involves drinking copius quantities of beer and wine, some live music and dancing. They then get home rather late, well after our bedtime anyway and Dad insists in taking us up the lane at 3am taking one step forward and two back! It's all quite entertaining actually and Mum didn't pass out this year till she got home and went to bed, being the correct place. Anyhow I digress, as I said we all had a lie in including Blitz who as you can see has fitted in with us all quite well, in fact it's like having a mini me!

Lucy doesn't want to be identified! But they don't mind sharing the bed.............................

Anyhow as I said, we went on our usual afternoon dogrun round the fields and as Mum had that camera thingy (you know the thing that steals your soul, ooh err) so I was dawdling a bit so she couldn't use it on me, oops, too late....................................................................

Arghh she got me, anyway she also got some of the little blighters too, they're not that good but they're quick little things. Soo here they are........................................................

I'm sure she was chewing something there, well aren't puppies always chewing things?

Ickle Blitz.....................

He's seen something interesting!

Yes its Donna!
And as all good puppies to they have to help out in whatever you are doing so here they are helping Mother by making sure the washing is really dirty before it goes in the machine!

On a sadder note, Mum took Faith, her "special" whippet to see Mrs V.E.T this week as she had a bit of a swelling on her side and they have diagnosed a large tumour on the spleen, if they operated to remove it it would only prolong her life by about six months and she would have to go through surgery with a bad heart. Sooo, they have decided to bring her home and keep her comfortable for the time she has left. i can tell you Mum was very upset but the poopies are helping to cheer us all up. so thats sll for now, catch you later.

Waj x

Our Christmas suprises

2012-01-08T16:08:00.001Z

OK, OK, I know some of you already know, but for those of you who don't Santa came this Christmas and bought us not one, but two Christmas puppies! Firstly there was one little blighter hanging off me fur, then a couple of days later there was another one, due to a curious set of circumstances which is too long to narrate here.

Anyway please welcome our Christmas puppies Donna on the left and Blitzen on the right.

Cute little blighters aren't they?

Donna's got him where she wants him in a head lock!

Checking out the duck! Luckily it's still in one piece!

Anyway they are quite good little puppies I must say and haven't made any mess in the house at all at the moment, mainly 'cos they spend a lot of time in the garden with Mum and Dad with them going "go wee wees" all the time! Oh I remember the joys of housetraining in the cold!! They both spent their first night in the bed between Mum and Dad, good job they've got a six foot bed that's all I can say!

I'll get some more photo's for you soon, so it just remains for me to wish you all a Happy New Year, it's certainly got off to an unusual start for us anyway.

The now "keeping calm and carrying on"

Waj x

Lucy's Christmas present.......

2011-12-25T11:58:00.002Z

Alooooo evriwun, Luce ere an I az ad me cwistmas wish ain't i lucki? I wuz out wiv me muvver earli dis mornin an i catchd one of dem babit fings! I tuk it ome az a speshul presant four me muvver an shi dident wan it, how rude! Shi even got daddi owt of bed to tek if orf me, he sayed he waz gonna couk it four Cwistmas dinna, ho, ho, ho! Anyways, happi cwistmas to you all! Luv ~~Tattia~~ Luce xxx

Hi folks, Waj here, I didn't see no rabbits this morning, but then I can't be bothered to chase them anyway so I stayed with me mother like a good dog! Anyway, Luce, Kish, Poppy, Faith, Phoebe and our humans would like to wish all the blog followers a merry Christmas and a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Catch you in the New Year.
Waj x

Tatia!

2011-12-11T10:32:00.004Z

Allo, Lucy ere, I az ad an owie too weaks ago. It appened loike dis. I wus owt wiv me matey Kish luking for dem babit fings to chayse. I wuz in de vallee part sniffin in de gorz booshis. Dere must av bin sum barbid wyre in de boosh cos I slit me ere rite down de miggle. Dere wuz blood evriwere so’s wen I got ome me Dad cut de end off a sokk and put it on me hed to stopp it bleeedin. Me muvver fort dat she wuld resque me ere herself, sooo shee put sum sterry stwips acros and coverred it wiv microepour taype an lef it, hand, amayzinlee enuf it staid On!!!!

Dis wuz foine until day four, wen it did start to smelle a bit………ooh err!

Bi dis tyme me muvver fort I ad a gangly greene ere soo we ad to go an sea Mr Shawn de V.E.T. Mr Shawn sayed he fort my ere wuz ok az it wuz stille pinc an to leeve it to de weakend an den tak de taype orf then. And I ad to tayke sum tablets cawled hanti bitoticals. Well wen dey tuk de bandidge orf me ere it ad heeled up a treet, but I az anover battil skar and anover nayme az I iz now cawled Tattia, shawt for Tatti Ear. Ha, ha they iz soooo funni ain’t they?

Ere it is afta the weak, gud aint it?

Dis is wat it luks loike now al heeled up!

I met a nuw fwend las weak too, he wuz an I-talien grayhownd caled Roderick, he ad free fwends wiv him too moor I-taliens ann anover whipet loike me!!! Dey all went to de pub wiv der humans inde middel of de weak as it wuz dere Muvvers birfday. i met dem in de yard wen dey cum bak an Rodders loiked mi veri much. Hear he iz down de pub wiv his sparkli coler.

kute aint he? Anyways I iz orf now as Mr P iz on is way ooh err...................... luv ~~Tatia~~ sory Luce!

Hi folks, drat that whippet, it looked better when it had that sock over it's head! Hee, hee.......

Anyway, I'm afraid I forgot to tell you that Andy's Callie had passed away a couple of months ago after a short illness, here's the great man himself.

Anyhow, Andy has been hankering for a puppy and a couple of weeks ago Radar landed! He has been called all sorts as his parentage isn't know, but Dad has called him a beagle/spaniel/foxhound well all sorts really what do you think?

We're all getting used to having him around, though I hate it when he gets under my legs!

Are all you folks ready for Christmas? It's really quiet in the cottages this week as there's no one in at all or next week either, so Mum and Dad are having a rest. It's been throwing it down this morning and all the fields are wet so we were all snoozing on the bed including Tatia who was IN the bed! Hee, hee.....

Anyway, that's all for now, will be back in a couple of weeks for me annual Christmas message!

Waj x

Comings and goings!

2011-10-30T12:46:00.000Z

Hellooooo, Waj here again, reporting back after a few comings and goings in the last few weeks.

Firstly Mum and Dad flew off on their annual holiday to Rhodes a couple of weeks ago and we were left in the semi capable hands of young Jason and Andy. As I mentioned in my last missive, poor little Faith is now on tablets, to be taken twice a day an hour before food. Normally Mum will give her her tablet at 7.30 and feed the rest of us then and Dad will give her food about 9am.
While Mum and Dad were away, Jason had to walk us in the dark (it was quite creepy) as he had to leave the house at 7.00 to get to work. Before he went, they planned that Jason would give Faith her tablet and Andy would pop in a little later to feed us all. Soooo, on the first morning we were all sat waiting for breakfast when Andy arrived. We watched him put little Faiths tablet in her food and put it down in front of her, then two seconds later snatch it away from under her nose as he suddenly realised he wasn't supposed to be giving her the tablet as Jason already had!! It was sooooo funny..............................

Anyway, Mum and Dad say they had a good time 6 days of nice weather and here's a couple of their snaps, Dad gets to watch Wales play in the hotel bar...........................................

On Monday it rained....................................

So they went shopping in Lindos....................................................

Looking happy probably after several cocktails!

This years holiday cat!

View of the pool although they didn't go in it much as they mostly swam in the sea...........................

Waiting for the coach on the last day....................................................

Mum looking a bit serious!

They did think they would be staying an extra two days because of a general strike in Greece, but as it happened it was only a 12 hour not a 48 hour strike so their flights weren't affected. Anyway it was nice to get them home and things back to normal.
Then this week Mum went away again to Cardiff on a three day course with work. She stayed at a place called the Novotel and just to celebrate Halloween, here's a really spooky picture of it taken on Mum's phone.............................................................

Oooh errr, looks haunted to me!

Hey do you remember this spooky photo from when I was a pup? Looks like all three of us are possessed as well as the TV!!!! Anyway, enjoy Halloween and I'll speak to you soon!

Waj x

Can you tell what it is yet?

2011-09-25T16:05:00.000Z

Hi folks,
Waj here again for the monthly report! Firstly as many of you know, Mum has been waiting patiently for a very long time to have our own place rebuilt. Dad has been busy with the holiday cottages so this place where we are, is slowly dropping into ruin. I personally find it ok, I've got beds to lie on and two meals a day so it doesn't matter much to me. Mum however was used to having a nice house when they first moved to the farm and this accommodation was supposed to be temporary and that was nine years ago! Anyway they finally had the plans passed earlier this year so Dad has started on the long awaited log cabin to live in while they rebuild this place.
He has built it all from scratch, not a kit, here it is taking shape...............................................................

the finished exterior................................................................................................................................

It looks like its got a roof with windows in, doesn't it? Its actually the roof of the stables behind! This will be our new garden.......................................................................................................................................

It looks a bit wild but I'm sure we'll lick it into shape! Here's the cabin from the side..................................

Anyway, that's all the cabin pictures for now, the inside isn't finished yet so will save those piccies for later!

The other news of the month is that Mum had a little "do" with Faithy whippet. Dad had gone off early to Bristol at about 6.15am to go to a funeral and young Jason had already left for work when Mum walked us round the pond where we go every morning. We had just got back to the gate when Faith keeled over on the edge of the field. As she had got one dog down and all the rest of us milling about loose, she wasn't sure what to do at first, we all realised there was a problem and followed Mum in while she carried Faith and put her in the dog bed while she phoned the vet. As the vet had to phone back Mum left Faith upstairs while waiting for the phone call. Next thing, Faith is downstairs and wanting her breakfast! by this time it was obvious it wasn't an emergency, so Mum booked her in for a mid morning appointment. Well it appears now that Faith has a grade 4 heart murmur and needs to be on tablets twice a day as the heart wasn't pumping sufficiently to take oxygen round her body which is why the legs gave out. Well the tablet situation has been very amusing to say the least. She wouldn't have them straight even though they're meat flavoured, then Mum tried hiding it in pate, which was licked off before spitting the tablet out! It now goes into some nature diet crushed (thanks to Aunty Wendy who left some for us to try, and delicious it is too, second favourite to lasagna for me!) and she eats it so long as Mum is not standing over her watching!

Well things are quieter here on the farm now the main holiday season is at an end and apparently Mum and Dad are off on their annual excursion to Rhodes in a couple of weeks time, so we get to play young Jason up again. Hee hee..............................

Anyway, that's all the news for now, just off for dinner then having a relax before watching Downton Abbey, I can just see me tripping gaily down those posh stairs! Catch you later.

Waj x

You, Me and a dog named Boo

2011-08-21T15:17:00.001Z

"Hello"........."Heh--lo--ho"........"HELLO!"

"Can't they hear me?"......."Reading? Ohhh!"

"Ahem,, Hello everyone, I'm Gyp! I'm writing this very slowly, cos if you're like me, you probably can't read very fast!

Some of you may know me and some of you may not, although I find the second part of that statement hard to believe, as I do have a rather large personality, or is that mouth?

Anyway, I've been coming to Little Dumpledale for a few years with my family and friends, for our holidays and we love it! So much so, that we come at least twice a year. Ain't we lucky?

Each year we seem to add to our numbers and share the joy of the Dumpledale experience with even more of our friends, but sadly one of us won't be coming back again. At the end of May this year, my heart broke into a million pieces when my Boo passed away after a short illness. I'm 10 now and Boo and I had been together since I was just 1 years old. I loved Boo and Boo loved me, even if he didn't tell me often enough. It's going to be really strange coming back without my Boo, but he did send me a new little friend to show all our favourite places to and to keep me company. Her name's Maddie and I'll tell you more about her another time. So I'll be bringing her next time. I'm going to show her the window Boo loved sitting in and shouting at the horses from.

I'll show her the lane, the fields and the hedgerows where Boo and I played with all of our holiday friends. Boo really has left me a lot to do, but I know I'll be able to do him proud!

So many memories of me and my Boo of our fantastic times together at Little Dumpledale."

"Whoops! Thanks Waj for letting me yak a bit! x-mwah-x"

Loverly ladies........

2011-07-14T12:34:00.001Z

Hi Folks,
It's a quiet day on the farm today as sadly Mum's Auntie Iris died yesterday at home after a few months illness. I know you will want to join me in sending thoughts and licks to Chris and Paul at this sad time. She will be sadly missed by our guests as she loved to join in all the parties, dinners and barbeques. Here she is second left enjoying a night out at the Stable Bar last year. A lovely, lovely lady who will never be forgotten.

talking about lovely ladies, look at this.....................................................

Aha, bet you thought that was me didn't you? I did give you a clue that it was a lady though, this is the lovely Layla!

This photo looks a bit like me too doesn't it, this is Layla's friend?

You can tell this isn't me either cos I'm scared of feathers.............

I was in luuurve last week when the lovely Layla came to stay with her mum Jane. It was the first deerhound that has come to stay as far as I can remember. It was strange, sort of looking in a mirror except she was slightly more sylph like than moi. Even though you couldn't see much through that big fence Dad put in the way, we found other ways of communicating with the gang!

and this pic was just soooo sweet

When she was playing she looked a bit scary though..................................

Ooh err look at those teef! Anyway, lovely as Layla was, five ladies of my own is enough for any dog to handle! Thank you Layla's mum for letting me use the photo's, perhaps she will put a link on the Fan club so you can enjoy them all? There were some stunning pictures of views from the caravan. On that note I'll finish there as it's quite hot and we'll be going on the dogrun soon. Catch you later.

Waj x

Lucy's big day out!

2011-06-05T14:09:00.003Z

Elo, Luce ere, i az bin bad, or so Mumi sayz. I wus owt wiv dad and i spotz unlce Andy in de vallee, dad howevr did not! On ocashun i haz bin nown to go off wiv de pokit rokit for a beet of a moocha after de furrie fings called babits. well we az bin owt for a tyme in de past, but dis tyme we wuz owt for free and an haf howrs. Me mum wuz worrit as she cam dowen in de vallee free tymes callin me but we wuz havin two much of a gude tyme to cum bak, alltho i herd her showtin. Mumi calls it selektiv sigh-tound defness. hanyways, i bourt dem a small preesent wen i cum bak in de form of a likkel babit wich unlce Andy gev to his ferets overwyse nown as de carpit sharcs! i allso wen to de pub las weak wiv Mr. Podge it wuz gude fun goin owt lait as ther wuz lotts of babits abowt butt i never cawt one then.
Me an Mr.P in de Pub..........

Den Mumi tuk anty Llyn to de zoooooo wear she an dad ad beeen a fuw weaks ago, anty Llyn loiked to bee abel to fead de walabees........................................................

Ders a babi wun in its pokit..........................................

Ewe cud get clows to de leeemus too....................................................

an hear arr sum pinkk berds................................................. funni aint dey?

Den Mumi and dadi wenton a steem trayne an ad a nyce dinn er wiv anty chris an ucnle andy, wha sort of a fais iz ee pullin!

oooh err hear cums Mr.P beta let hym feenesh de blog, cattch ya latur. Luce xxx

Hi folks. Waj here just caught that dratted whippet on me blog again! Well as she said we both went to the pub last week but I also got another outing to the Trim trail in Haverfordwest. It is so named as there is a circuit of outdoor training aids such as rails etc all set by the side of the river which is also a favourite picnic place. Well we had a little walk round.................................

explored the picnic area...........................................................................

Here I am camouflaged in the trees, hee hee......................................................

You all been having some nice weather? I get quite hot in my coat so enjoy my swim when we come back from the dogrun...........................................................................

Anyway, that's all the news for the mo, although Mum, Dad, Anty Jude, Bev and Mums friends, Chris, Sharon, Tracy, Anne and the children George and Gerorgina all went to a kareoke in the pub last Sunday. Mum was photographed with ANOTHER dratted whippet on her lap, called Skye, you've probably all seen the photo's on that Facebook site, we weren't allowed to go so we sulked a bit. Anyway, poor Anty Sharon got poorly while on hols and is still in hospital, so we would all like to wish her a speedy recovery from everyone on the farm.
Catch you later!
Waj x

Puffins and plants!

2011-05-02T18:52:00.002Z

Hi folks,
Waj here again with the round up of the month. Now you might think what with my last few posts it's always the humans that are having the fun and nothing out of the ordinary happens to us dogs. Normally you would be right, but a big thing happened in April "THE SUN CAME OUT". This makes our humans think of new things to try and one of them was to start walking to the pub in the village of Llangwm, called the Cottage Inn. Mum and Dad decided they were going to walk over and walk back but then realised it was quite a long way to walk up the big hill after a couple of beers. As those have you who have walked the valley know, you have to walk down the hill then up the hill the other side and the same coming back. Soooo, Mum had this bright idea of taking the quad bike down into the valley floor, climbing the hill the other side to the pub, then on the way back they'd only got to walk down the hill and they would have a lift back! "Simples" as that small furry thing on the TV says, except nothing is "simples" when our family is involved! We started off down the hill, I had to walk the whole way of course, they said it was good for my waistline, Cheek! Parked the quad at the bottom and off we trog to the pub for a couple of games of pool and a few drinky poos. Luckily this pub is dog friendly throughout, so we went in the bar and I had a bit of a rest while they played pool.......................

Well you didn't think I'd want to watch did you? Then several drinks later they decide to trog back home and made their merry way back to the Quad and guess what? Dad couldn't find the key as he'd dropped in somewhere in the field! Hee hee, I was laughing so much cos they then both had to walk home like me, all up that hill! Mum was not amused I can tell you and then Dad had to go down with a torch and look for the said key. Luckily he found it again, as he guessed it had jumped out of his pocket when he got the lead out for me.
Then we went to Marloes, ..................well Poppy and I went to Marloes, none of those naughty whippitie persons went. You probably remember the report of our last trip to the beach (after the Wag dog food) and can I say this trip was just as unsuccessful! Firstly Marloes is down a long dusty track and it was hot..............

wait for me Dad!! It's toooo hot..................................

Poppy's hot too

We were looking forward to our dip in the sea as it was soooo hot! Nearly there, Mum cummon catch up!

But as usual, disaster befalls, as when we approached the beach we could see there wasn't one! The tide was right in and all we could see was a bit of shingle and loads of rocks. Also, the world, his wife and all their dogs were on the rocks too, obviously waiting for the tide to go out! Me being not the most social of dogs in the face of all those people, they decided not to wait around, and we had to trog all the way back up the path in the heat again! Think I'll go back to the pub next time! Phoebe did get to go to the pub once last month too, but she went in the car with Mum while Dad rode that white horse thing Fey and met her down there. My turn next then!
Now on to the human trips last month, they arranged a boat trip for Anty Llyn Chapman to see the birds on Skomer. Anty Llyn loves all birds and after living down here for some years has never been to the coast, so Mum decided to remedy that. As usual our family being very sociable all wanted to go, so in the end 10 of them went. It was raining when they first started out but then it dried up, here they are on the boat..............

A lovely sunset as they motored back, or whatever the marine technical term is!

They saw lots of seabirds, about 100 odd seals on the beach and lots of Puffins which were what Mum and Dad particularly wanted to see. Eight of them then went to the Taj Mahal and had a lovely meal, so lovely in fact that they didn't bring a doggy bag home!
Then Mum and Dad did another first and went to the National Botanical Gardens of Wales over Easter. Although everything was not in full bloom, they still had a nice day.

There were four memorable dates in April too, Faith and Kishka's birthday which I told you about in my last blog, but also my birthday which was on Wed 27th April, when I was six! Mum sang happy birthday, when I say sang, I mean the term very loosely! I had a rather nice jumbone too, as a special treat! Then Saturday night it was Mum and Dad's 17th Wedding anniversary so off they went to their usual haunt, can you guess? Yes of course they went to the Greek restaurant, Mykonos in Tenby again, they are nothing if not predictable my humans, here they are enjoying a Keo and the Retsina wine.

Anyway, that's all the news for now, catch you soon!
Waj x

C-r-u-f-t-s and things...

2011-04-03T13:03:00.003Z

Hiya folks,

Well here we are, another busy month come and gone but I'd like to start this blog by wishing all the Mum's out there a happy Mothers Day and a bit of a belated happy birthday to a couple of members of my doggie gang, firstly little Faith who was 13 on Friday 1st April.................

then also to Kishka who was 8 yesterday 2nd April, how elegant is that pose!? Hee, hee.................

Anyway, as many of you know, March means C-R-U-F-T-S! This means we get to spend some time on our own, as our humans are jiggling either travelling with the JR Whippet rescue stall, manning the stall and on the days that anty Llyn Chapman is also travelling or manning the stall, looking after her dogs too!
Anyway, here's a couple of photo's from Crufts, Chris manages to find a whippet to hug.

Dad helping set up the stall.....................................

Well it was five days of busyness but everything went according to plan, and by the Monday we were all back to normal apart from being very tired, well when I say we, I mean my humans were! Anyway, Mum bought new print which I'll show you next time as it's hung up in Wyn's Cottage and a new bed for me which I rather like as it's furry on the inside and you know I like furry things, hee, hee.......

Faith and Poppy still prefer the old duvet and Lady Lucy Locket has the whole of Mum and dad's six foot bed to recline on by herself!

Then arrive John and Wendy, who stay in Swallow's Dance. They are classed as "special" friends which mean they have a week of dinners, get togethers and shopping as Mum, Wendy and Andy do a shopping and lunch day, this time to Solva. As the weekend was so bright, they decided to hold the first barbeque of the year. Dad doing the cooking with John looking on.................................

Luckily all us dogs were invited too, here's Faith saying hello to Monica................

Then my mother got that stupid camera thing out again so I had to try and hide behind Dad on the sofa trampling all over Monica in the process.....................

Nearly there, well I'm hiding my head anyway.........

Lucy's not so shy!

Well, we were all stuffed with sossiges and beef burgers and didn't want breakfast the next morning but I did have my favourite lasagne for tea! And so a good time was had by all.............

And how funny is this lady.........................

Dig that look on Callie's face!!
Anyhow, that's all for now, will be off on the dogrun soon, catch you all later!

Waj x

February Spring Clean

2011-02-28T22:00:00.000Z

Hiya Folks,
Gosh was that February been and gone? They've all working hard and doing stuff these last few weeks, including giving me a spring clean!!! Hah! There was that woman here again, you know with the London gang who come down in February half term and again in November. Well Anty Karen is a dog groomer and I'm her holiday job! Here she is doing me nose, oooh it tickles, hee,hee

I actually had a shower first, but I still managed to get a fair bit of water on both Mum and Dad too, so I got my own back. Then after the quick trim, managed to get into the bedroom and finished drying myself off on their bed!

What do you think of the finished article then? Scuse the possessed eyes, its me mother's crap phone camera, Anty Karen got rid of all me lugs though, and I don't get so muddy in the wet!

That dratted whippet also had a spring clean after a particularly dirty dogrun down the valley and now has yet another new collar! Mum says the skull and crossbones one is too nice for her to ruin in the fields, so she's got one that makes her look almost naked, ooh err!

Then they decided to take the tree down in Dumpledale garden as it was stopping the sunlight. It was also a bit close to the power lines. Sooooo, up the tree went the monkey in the form of young Jason, don't worry about Health and Safety folks, he's a trained arboriculturalists! Blimey that's a big word for me isn't it? It means he's qualified to chop down trees basically. It was a big tree too, Mum couldn't watch, especially when he was wielding the chain saw at 20 feet up!!! Eeeek............................

Hang on there young Jason!!

I also wanted to show you the new floor in Dumpledale following the leak there just before Christmas. Nice bit of tiling by Dad, it's not so slippy to walk on as the laminate was, it was also well tested at the New Year party!

February was also Uncle Andy's birthday and they went up for a special meal at a tiny little restaurant in Cilgerran by Cardigan called the Cilgerran kitchen. They only seat twelve in the evenings and the food was apparently excellent, so excellent in fact that they didn't bring any leftovers back for us dogs!!!! Andy had a very special pudding made for him, a huge baked Alaska with Cointreau. What do you think? It reminds me of that film, Close Encounters of the third kind for some reason!

In February too, Mum, Dad and Carley went for a look see at Anna Ryder Richardson's place called Manor House wildlife park, you've probably seen it on the telly a programme called Anna's wild welsh zoo. They were having an open day to raise money to save a Rhino, I'd rather them save me one of those wallabies, they look quite tasty......................................................................................................hmm

Anyway, I digress, here's Dad feeding the wallabies

They're very tame and you can stroke them too.................................

They've even got a white one!

The lemur enclosure was pretty good too apparently!

While the London gang were down they went to a night of live music at Anty Chris's pub and had a very good night. Luckily Mum didn't pass out this time, but they all got very merry and Boo's Dad, Joe, fell out the van on his arrival back in the farmyard and landed on his back in the mud, it is quite wet this time of year! We dogs were watching out the window, it was quite funny as he was lying in the mud and laughing his head off! They all went and dragged him up, then turned him round and took photos!

The last bit of news for the month is Mum has a new car which looks a bit like this................................

Yes, you're quite right, it's not yellow! It's apparently a Subaru Impreza WRX, STI whatever that means but I guess us dogs aren't ever going to be seeing the inside of that one, so who cares anyway?

Well, that's all the news for now and it's time for me to head off on our little night time trog up the lane with Dad and those of us who are allowed out at night! Catch you all soon!

Waj x

Happy New Year and the January News!

2011-01-30T10:51:00.000Z

Morning Folks,
Happy New Year to you all, just managed to squeeze me blog in before the end of January! Cos it's been so cold and we haven't had many visitors, they have all been on the 'puter quite a bit so I haven't been able to put me paw to it as it were. Never mind better late than never as they say!
Bit of a chilly one this morning isn't it? It was a bit frosty when we went out first thing. Phoebe thinks she can see a rabbit in the bush...........I can't!

Kish is waiting to pounce on me as I was lagging behind. Mother had got that camera thingy out and I am very camera shy! Kish about to pounce.....................................

She did manage to get one of us both though, you can tell I'm not happy can't you?

Anyway, enough of those photo things of me, let me recount the funny stories of the month for you. Firstly Mum bought a small set of dog clippers to do round my face. As some of you know, I am quite hairy around the face and quite often it grows up over me eyes, so Mother bought some battery operated ones with a comb attachment to thin out me hair. All well and good, she trims me hair off then looks in the mirror at her own. Yes, you've guessed whats coming, she tries it on her own head, thins it out down one side then turns the clippers over to do the other and cuts herself a small bare patch just under her fringe! So where the parting used to go left to right, it now goes right to left to hide the offending bit. She went officially to the hair dressers yesterday and had to admit what she'd done , the hair dresser thought it was hilarious too!
Also in January me Mother went to some Ball thing and wore a full length dress!!!!!!! Now I don't know whether you know this is a first for me, but I will be six years old in April and I have never seen me Mother in a dress or a skirt!!!! I've asked the others and Faith can't remember her in a dress either and she's nearly thirteen, although you can't rely on her as Dad calls her the old senile one, I think she's just a bit deaf personally! Anyway, Mum's always either in leggings, straight black trousers for work or PJ's. Oh yes, she did wear a dress for the Halloween party but that didn't count as she had her leggings on underneath! Anyway, here to prove it, not a good photo as it was on the phone..........

They apparently all had a good time, good band, some dancing, apart from the last ten minutes! Now as many of you know, Mum likes her wine, so as this night was a special occasion, they had champagne followed by Cava! Well as Dad stood up to go about 4am, he helped Mother up, turned round for the cool box and in those few seconds, she'd keeled over and was out cold on the floor! When she came round a minute or two later, she was fine apart from the bang on the head. Me Mother has never passed out in her life before, but when she thought about it, she had had an antihistamine tablet at about five that evening and thinks it must have been that combined with the alcohol! Anyway, she's fine now, even though she gave everyone a fright!
Lastly on Wednesday they went up to Bristol for the evening as Dad's niece Betsi was off on Friday to New Zealand for a year. They went to the pub behind Barbara's house called the Priory for a meal and had a nice evening, here they all are........................

I'm sure you regular readers will recognise everyone. On the right of the table, Dad, his Mum Barbara and sisters Janet and Glenda. Left of the table, niece Betsi, Mum, nephew Perry, sister Hilary and brother in law Brian.
Anyway that's all the news for the month, just going back to bed now for a snooze, then we'll be out on the dogrun at 2.00.

Catch you later,
Waj x

Seasons Greetings!

2010-12-24T18:03:00.000Z

Hi Folks,

Firstly a big thanks to Boo for ably writing my 100^th blog, can’t believe it has been five years since I first started as a small pup, anyway on to the news.

Well there’s another month come and gone and a busy one too, for poor old Dad! Two weeks ago in the really cold weather Mum, Dad, Jay and Carley were on their weekly trip out to eat in the new Wetherspoons in Havefordwest which they tell me is really cheap! As Jay was driving them all in the Subaru, Mum opened the back door and realised that the Farmhouse bedding was in there after being returned from the laundry. As you know, Little Dumpledale Farmhouse is the house where Mum and Dad lived before they began renting it out as holiday accommodation. She asked Jay to pop the bedding in and leave it on the table, bearing in mind that we haven’t had any visitors staying since the end of Nov. In to the house pops Jay, then there was an “Oh Treeevooor” from inside. Well, I know we have always wanted an indoor pool, but it wasn’t quite what we quite had in mind! A pipe had burst in the attic, bought down the ceiling in the bedroom and was pouring through the lounge ceiling over the laminate floor, TV, DVD player sofas paintings etc! This is what it looked like.........................

Luckily Dad being such a dab hand at everything turned off the water and the electricity so no further damage was done. No pressure but we had visitors booked in at Christmas! Luckily the insurance company were on the ball, an assessor came out the next day and Dad could start the clear up. Firstly all the carpets upstairs had to be ripped up and dehumidifiers bought in to dry all the wood out. Then dad lagged all the pipes in the attic and repaired the ceiling, then we had it plastered and painted. Instead of replacing the laminate, Dad decided to tile the floor instead as a lot of dogs (me included) don’t like walking on laminate. All was finished yesterday and the house is pristine again!

We have had a couple of visitors down this month, Trev’s sister Janet came down to stay for a few days so they ate out most nights, most disappointing as no left over's. Then we had a visitor in the form of this…………………..

This is Wallace a little puppy Mum and Dad picked up from Harlech, the story is as follows;

Many years ago, Mum bred some whippet puppies and the four dogs out of the litter, went to their new homes in pairs. Wallace and Harvey went to stay with a lady called Jean in Harlech and the other two Jem and Jack went to Newport in Gwent. The respected owners very kindly kept in touch, and over the years Wallace, Jem and Jack have passed away, Harvey remains, but is very frail.

Jean thought she would be without a dog after Harvey became increasingly ill earlier this year and bought another puppy from a lady not far from where she lived. She asked them to keep him until Harvey passed away, but amazingly he rallied round and is still going strong! Time went on and the poopie named Wallace who she named after the previous Wallace, was now 7 months old. Jean had become ill herself and didn’t feel she could now cope with a puppy, so asked Mum to take him. He came here but only stayed for couple of days due to a set of curious circumstances.

Mum and Dad have some special friends called Gill and Pete who live up in the wilds on the Preseli Mountains. I went to stay with them once when Mum and Dad went off on their annual holidays, but I digress! They have three dogs; Dash a whippet who is the same age as Lucy and came from the same place, Rhosen, a Labrador and a collie spaniel cross called Rover. Rover was also very frail and Gill and Pete had to sleep downstairs with him so they had borrowed a fold up bed from Mum.

Two days after Wallace arrived, Gill phoned to see if she could bring the bed back over “as they didn’t need it anymore”, you can guess what that meant. Anyhow, she arrived with the bed, told Mum how miserable Dash and Rhosen had become without Rover, saw Wallace fell in love with him and took him straight away off in the Land rover to Brynberian! Soooo, what a lucky little dog! Living on a smallholding, by a beach, lots of walks and apparently all three are getting on like a house on fire!

Anyhow, that’s all the news for this month, not much snow here much to the disappointment of the snow dog, so on the last blog of 2010, all there is left to do is to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a peaceful, happy New Year and end with a festive view of the Preseli Mountains covered in snow!

Waj x

Hallowe'en - Waljan's Blog Edition 100

2010-11-06T21:35:00.009Z

Oi Oi! What's occuring?

Well, I'll tell ya what's occuring! My ol' mate Waj has left his 'puter in my capable paws and asked me to wag my tongue as well as my tail! And of course I'm only too happy to oblige!

Now if you ain't met me, I suppose I'd better introduce myself. The name's Boo and I've been coming to visit Waj & Co for the last few years with my l'il sis Gyp and a few of our bestest pals. I'll introduce you to them all as this chinwag goes on. Anyway, me and the gang come down from London a couple of times a year. We come down this time of year to get away from the horrible bangs of the fireworks, cos there's a lot fewer here you see. Course they don't bother me none, but my chauffeur Joe, reckons it's for the best. (P.S Don't believe a word Gyp says, she can be a bit of a fibber and reckons I'm afraid of loud noises. Hah!)

Back to what I've been tasked to do. This year we've got two cottages at Dumpledale to play in. Me and Gyp, Birdie the blind poodle and her l'il sister Edie as well as their cuz Mollie and Cameron the Scottie and his little sis Darcy the Silly Ham, Oops, I mean Sealyham Terrier are in Wyn's with our chauffeur, chef and housekeeper, aka Joe, Tessa and Karen. Across the yard in Little Dumpledale are Chevy and Jessica the loopy Lakelands with their staff, Simon and Inam.

Anyway, we arrived in time for Hallowe'en and thought it would be a good idea to throw a party for the staff, cos they do work rather hard throughout the year and well, ya gotta treat them well to get the best from them. Reward based training! Haha!

And to be even nicer, we allowed them to have a few friends in to help them have fun.

They all got rather excited and many of them dressed up in strange costumes. Carol and Trev, Waj's folks, Jennie from the Caravan, Rachel and Gary from Swallows Dance, Karen and Jeanette from up the road and Waj's Uncle Andy all looked great as witches, ghouls, vampires and other scary things.

They ate some weird food called Hungarian GHOULash and Eyeball Jelly!

LOOOOOK!! EWWWW!!

And they all had a couple of fruit based drinks to wash it down with. Then they sang alot of silly songs and danced the night away. The next morning they all looked perky enough, but by the afternoon their shenanigans seemed to have caught up with them and they were all rather delicate.

But despite their lacklustre, there was no time to rest on their laurels, as there were beaches to be played on and fields to be traipsed across.

Doogie and Charlie, our friends from up the road, who employ Karen and Jeanette had recently moved house and invited our staff to their new home for a good look around and have some more food and drinks. And what a lovely new house they have. I think Doogie and Charlie are a bit posh mind, they've got another two members of staff too. I'm not sure what their duties are, but Richard and Lizzie are lovely anyway.

Now I'm rambling!

This week's been one social occasion after another! Of course we've spent loads of time on the beach, well lots of beaches and we've had the pleasure of being joined by or other pals
Magic, Zara, Callie and Rocket, bringing along with them Uncle Andy.

Zara had a fab time digging

But Waj's dad Trev thought a bit of one-up-manship was needed and went and got one of these

I don't think they'll let him take it on the beach though!

I'll leave it to Waj to tell you what else Trev intends to do with it, but did you notice something like I did? It's not YELLOW! Hehe!

Anyway folks, I'm gonna close this blog with a huge Thank-you to Waljan for asking me to contribute.

I'm still choked up at his generosity in allowing me the honour of writing Waljan's Blog's 100th edition!
Congratulations Waj on this milestone and a huge thankyou too for being my friend!

Wags n licks

Boo

Everyone goes on holidays........and the spotty van!

2010-10-15T08:12:00.008Z

Hi folks,
Well it's that time of year again when our family thinks of holidays. Firstly Jason went on his annual holiday to Germany at the end of August and took our lovely PLAIN yellow dog van. This is how it came back.....................................spotty!
and the other side! Dad nearly had a fit I can tell you, but he must have got used to it 'cos the spots are still on it and the bullet holes too, although the "oh sh*t lions has been removed!

Then it was Mum and Dad's annual trip to Rhodes, while they were away Lucy and Phoebe played double-decker-dogs hee, hee!
They couldn't get a package this year to stay in the Matina apartments where they usually go, so had to stay in the next apartments along called the Lindia Thalassa. Apparently there was a hole in the fence between the two so they spent most of their time catching up with their friends in the Matina bar. Mum also wanted me to say Hi to Anthea and Martin who they met there one night, so Hi to you two! Anyway, back to the photo's here they are looking chilled outside their apartment.

This was the view of the sea from the apartment....................................
and this is literally how close it was from their apartment to the beach, just down those steps....
No holiday dog for them this year, but they did have a Felix look alike join them instead..............
and a little lizard they found on the rock every morning, cute isn't he for a reptile that is! Not keen on them myself, I imagine they would be a bit crunchy........................
They did an evening trip to Rhodes Town and a bit of sightseeing................................
These are the Medieval cobbled streets of the old Rhodes town, apparently it is a world heritage site as being the best preserved Medieval town in the world.....................................
Then they went to a Taverna for supper as part of the trip and met Sarah and Paul. The trip also included a short cruise round the harbour which was a bit chilly to say the least. Sarah hadn't brought a cardi, so she borrowed Dad's shirt....................................
Here they are posing under the Greek flag!
Anyway, we were all good while they were away, apart from Luce, who was the usual little baggage, but it's good to have them back and be back to our usual routine.
Well, that's all the news for now, catch you later!

Waj x

Revenge of the Igloo!

2010-09-01T15:43:00.006Z

Hi Folks,

I know some of you will have seen the whippitie igloo that we have. Lucy, Faith, Poppy and the cat all use it and this is what it looks like.....

Anyhow, when the whippities are in there, they quite often scratch around as most dogs do in their beds, to get it just so! As this particular igloo is made of three layers, the outside fake fur, a layer of foam and a thinner lining on the inside, after years of scratching, the inside layer is now shredded. A couple of weeks ago, Dad was up in Bristol moving Anty Hilary into her new house, Lucy was asleep in the igloo where she quite often stays until about 5am when she manages to creep into Mum's side of the bed (Dad doesn't like the dogs in the bed!) About 4am there was this horrible screaming coming from the lounge! We all shoot out of bed barking and Mum, Jason and Carley all arrive in the lounge together, to see Luce at full screech being eaten by the igloo! She had somehow managed to get the shredded inside lining wrapped around her back leg three times! As she was pulling it was getting tighter and tighter and cutting into her leg! It took two of them to hold the hysterical whippet, while Carley cut through the lining to free the leg. Honestly, she made so much noise you'd have thought she was being murdered! I personally thought it was soooo funny!

Huh, ewe wood fink it wuz funni Mr. P. Wodge, mi litel leggy waz hurtin a lot befor me muvver reskewed mi! I doant likes dat igyloo now, I finks I wil leeve it for de Kat! Luv Luce x

Always got something to say that Luce! Anyway that's enough of the revenge of the Igloo apart from that in the melee, in the dark, poor little Poppy got bitten on the head! That then came up in an abscess and she has also damaged her eye somehow and has now got an ulcer in it, so she is on eye drops every couple of hours and not feeling very good. Sooo, she would appreciate some "get better eye thoughts" if you could send her some.

Onto the rest of the news, Mum and Dad went to the County show, Mum loves the carriage horses and knowing their penchant for yellow and black would love to add these to their stable!

Life is very busy on the farm at the moment, as we have had a lot of what Mum terms as "Gappers" down, which usually means a barbeque, copies amounts of drinks, a midnight dip then 13 people all trying to get in the jacuzzi to warm up! It's been good fun though ,and as it was Anty Lisa's birthday yesterday, Mum did lasagne, which as you know is my favorite dish! Soooo, I have had lasagne for breakfast this morning and we have some for tea tonight, hurrah!!

Finally, can you guess what this is? Some strange creature from outer space? Noooo, it's Gizmo in his new anti sun outfit so he doesn't get sunburned again! The hood is actually supposed to stop midges as some horses are allergic to the bites and get what they call "sweet itch". It's supposed to fit securely on the head and protect the skin but this was obviously too big and he was trying to scratch it off. Mum found him like that in the field as she was on her way to work. He couldn't see a thing but was perfectly calm, hee hee he looks soooo funny!

Anyway, that's all for now folks, catch you later.

From a "so looking forward to my lasagne for tea"

Waljan x

A disappointing Sunday!

2010-08-08T15:12:00.009Z

Hi Folks,

Well what can I say? Last Sunday was a disaster, I even got brushed!! Urgh it makes me go all quivery everytime I think about it!

Anyhow, let me explain. Mum decided she was going to take a certain few of us to an event called “Paws in the Park” at the local Country Park called Scolton Manor. Sooo, with fluffy fur after my brushing, and Lucy and Phoebe in new collars, off we go in the van to the show.

Now, this journey is not far really, about 11 miles but as Lucy (also nicknamed Putrid Pugh by Dad, you know rhymes with Lucy Lou?) is always sick, she was put in a dog crate on a blanket. When we arrive at the aforementioned dog show, Lucy had puked up her breakfast so was then re-nick named Putrid Puke! Not only that, she had somehow managed to get it all over her tail, so our first destination was into the wooded area to get a dock leaf or something similar to remove the offending material. One sycamore leaf later and she is almost pristine again (apart from a damp patch!) and ready to go! Next, we head over to the dog show area and then Lucy decides she needs to poo. One doggy bag full later of poo of a reasonable consistency and we are again on our way to the dog ring.

At this point in the story I must digress and tell you why I mention the poo, and about our dog food. Our pet shop in Pembroke Dock that we used to use has closed down, so Mum couldn’t get our regular Greyhound and Lurcher Supadog biscuits. Sooo, while in Tesco’s on Saturday (as we were completely out of biscuits), there was a long discussion between Mum and Dad on what to get for us. Usually if we run out and were in between sacks, Mum used to get either Bakers or the Tesco own brand just to last a couple of days. But, now we were without our regular stockist, Dad wanted to put us on the cheap stuff. Mum said no to start, with but got overruled. Sooo, home came a cheap bag of Wagg active, £8.99 for a 17kg bag. Bargain thought Dad, Mum was not convinced! Well, it wasn’t the best I’ve tasted, but food is food when you’re hungry, so we all had our Wagg for Saturday night dinner, and Wagg for breakfast Sunday morning.

Now back to the dog show! When we get to the ring, it is just after two and there’s the usual classes, best trick, junior handler, prettiest eyes, waggiest tail etc. Well there was not many classes Mum could enter us for as non of us can do tricks, whippeties do NOT do waggiest tails so there wasn’t a lot left. Anyway, when she finally went over to enter she was told it was too late as all entries had to be in by 2pm! Thus thwarted and to our relief as we were totally bored by this time, they decided to call it a day.

Back at the van, there was further discussion on what to do next. Mum was going to take us home and do our usual walk round the fields, Dad said he was bored with that and fancied an ice cream so they agreed to go to Newgale and go for an ice cream in the café after. Sooo, back in the pukey cage goes Luce at which point she stops being sick and does her salivating drool. Now I’ve never had a problem in the car but poor Luce hates it, so off we go again with drooling Luce to Newgale for a run on the beach.

Great we thought until we got there, there were HUNDREDS of people and dogs on the beach as it was quite a nice day. Not being the most sociable of dogs, Luce, Phoebs and I were put on leads to get to the far side of the beach were there were less people. Just before we exited the car park though, the Wagg started to work and I just HAD to go. Well one huge donkey size pool of poo later, Dad was still struggling with the poo bags and sand to try and pick it up! Two full poo bags later we are ready to attempt the beach.

We get past the usual throng and over towards the far side of Newgale, when Phoebe decided the Wagg was better out than in and went on the sand which was a darn sight easier to get up than in the car park, even though it was runny like mine! Then she went again, and again and again, so another three poo bags later we were ready to go again. By this time, all three of us were totally bored of the whole day, so when they eventually let us off the lead we all just trailed behind them!! No one had a run, no one went in the sea and no one wanted to play. Sooo, we all had our leads put on again, and we all went home. Then the Cafe was too busy to get an ice cream, so they had to make do with one of those soft ice creams from the ice cream van, which Mum didn't enjoy very much.

Anyway, as soon as we got back we went our usual little walk round the horse field with Faith and Poppy this time, and I had a nice dip in the pond instead. Needless to say, the Wagg has now been shelved and we are back on our Greyhound and Lurcher food again!

I expect you'd like to see Lucy's new collar which Mum bid on in an auction? Very suitable for her too, I must say!

Hee, hee love the skull and crossbones! Did you know that eating crisps makes you sleepy?

We have also had this crashing around the house for a week!
Kish went off to see Mrs. V.E.T last Tuesday, Mum said to have her bits out, whatever bits they were, I don't know! I'm sure I went to the V.E.T once and left something behind..................or did I dream it? Anyhow, this was the lethal weapon that knocked whippies out the way, got caught on the stairs, through the doors.......you get the picture. Anyway, she's ok now and out of the hat!

On Tuesday Mum and Dad went here..........................................
Here being Snowdonia, I think Mum said. They sold the little boat we had and had to deliver it to just past Dolgellau. Sooo, they decided to make a night of it and stayed up in Aberyswyth and had a great dinner in the local Greek restaurant. We kept young Jason company!
Anyhow, that's all for now folks, it's just about dinner time and definately not Wagg time!!
Catch you all later.

Waj x

Welcome to Fey and Dyson Island!

2010-07-11T12:02:00.006Z

Hiya Folks and welcome to me July blog,

It's been a bit long in coming as she's been here for 6 weeks now, so I guess she's staying! but for all you horsey lovers, please welcome Dad's new addition, Fey. Her passport name is Tempest Mothers Day, was previously called Day, but is now Fey and sometimes Faery Fey, we all have nick names as well as our real names! I think Dad fancies himself as Gandalf personally, being a huge Lord of the Rings fan. Anyway, Fey is a Dutch Warmblood, 16.3, six years old and is from a long line of dressage horses including Fuego and Uniform. Thanks to her last Mum Holly for letting us have her.
As you know, I'm not a great horse lover, I'm a bit scared of them and would prefer them as a steak but Fey has been fine with all us dogs, including Kish who has given her an eyeball to eyeball when she was lying down in the field. Here she is ..........................
She loves Dad already and nickers to him when he's in the field but totally ignores Mother, Oh well, she wasn't for Mum to ride anyway! Here's a couple more pics.

All the horses get on really well which is a good thing, as they have all been in the last few weeks as it has been so hot. Well it's not the only reason they have been in! A couple of weeks ago, Andy had Gizmo clipped and left him out in the field uncovered. Although it wasn't that warm as there was a breeze blowing, he got sunburned all down his neck and shoulders and is now losing his hair and has several bald patches. Sooo, Andy has not been able to ride at all while he is recovering. He is on the mend now but they are staying in while the suns out, in fact they're like three vampires 'cos they only come out at night!

Anyway to the rest of the news, it's moulting time for the husky. This is just off one side! The vacuum has been in use every day and it still looks like somethings died!
Talking about vacuums, our vacuum is a Dyson. Mum loves them, and has one in each of the cottages and they are good for husky fluff too! What a lot of people don't know is if your Dyson goes wrong, the repair man will come out and fix it for a one off charge of £69.95, this includes all the parts you might need including a possible new motor! So good as new! Well as Mum had got a lot, she arranged for the Dyson man, Brian, to come out and service all the Dyson's together. When he arrived, there was seven all lined up for him. He was there most of the day and replaced lots of bits and serviced them all. When he'd finished, he lined them up against the wall in front of me Mother's mural, some of you will have seen it! It was a bit like "Dyson through the ages." He then took a photo with his phone which looked a bit like this.....................
and put it on as his screen saver as "Dyson Island." I liked Brian, he's funny and he likes dogs, which I think is a good thing for a vacuum repair man!

Lastly little Poppy would like to thank Anty Heather and Uncle Chris who came down to Dumpledale a few weeks ago and left her some toys! Perhaps they didn't mean to leave them but Poppy says she will look after them until they come back again. I'm not saying they will have any stuffing left in them though!
That's all for now folks, time for some chillin in the garden before the afternoon dogrun.
Catch you later,
Waj x

Waj's big nite out!

2010-06-07T15:36:00.000Z

Aloe, Lucy ere, I az bean assed to tell youz all abowt Waljan’s big nite out, well it wazn’t so gud for him!
Everi nite dad taks Mr. P Wodge, az he calls him, Anty Faith and Poppy doodle out four a lait nite wallk use-ualy abowt 11.30. Feebs and I ar not aloud to go az we mayks the wyld life reely wyld! Well Dad cums in throo the gait wiv Mr. P and Poppy but Anty Faith (whoo iz goin a bit seen-ile) waz dawderling az usual. Soo, Dad goez to shut the chikens in ther little howse. When he cums bak, Anty Faith iz just cumin in threw the gait so he closes it behynd her and trotts off into the howse and potterz off too bed.
Wat he dident know waz that Mr. P had wonderd off bak into the farmyard threw the opan gait and waz moochin rownd the carrs. Everi one then gows off to bed and Mr. P iz left in the yard! Abowt 4.30 Mum getz up too go too the loo and herez sumone whynin outside, she chekks the rest of uz and realizes than Mr. P iz not in hiz bed. Ohh deer! Dad dident halve get a telling off I can tellz yoo! The wurst of it waz it waz raynin catz an dogz and Waj waz absolluterly drench-ed and shiverin so Mum had to dri him off befor he culd go to bed! Norty Dad did it to Anty Faith too sum tyme ago, you reguler reederz will probabbli remember.
Aniway, he iz non the wurse for hiz nite out, but wee thort it wuz funny!

Love Luce xxx

Hi folks,
I see that dratted whippet is on me blog again.
I am still shuddering from the shock of my outdoor experience I can tell you, I couldn’t believe it when he shut the gate on me! I tried to make them hear me too! Carley did apparently hear me about 2.00am, as I was doing my best “let me in you barstewards” whine as I was too polite to bark and wake the guests. She however just thought it was the dogs who were staying in the caravan, so didn’t come to investigate! So there I was, left standing in the rain for four and a half hours, not a pleasant experience I can tell you. Anyway, after I was let back in and got towelled dry by Mum, I snuck off to bed sulking. I am now first back at night, just in case!

Yours from a previously very sodden deerhound!

Waj x

And then we were six...

2010-05-23T08:37:00.009Z

Hi folks,

You may guess from the title, that what I have to tell you that is that Bear went to see Mrs. V.E.T last week and sadly came home wrapped in a blanket. She had been going downhill for the past couple of weeks as the cancer progressed, and the open sore on her side was making her very uncomfortable and unlike her, grouchy! Of course us dogs could smell what was wrong and knew that it was nearly her time, so on Friday 14th May we all went on a short dogrun round the valley and Dad left on the final journey. He took her for a last amble on the beach and she gently and peacefully passed away in the van, as he didn't want to take her into the V.E.T's itself. When he came back it was all very tearful for Mum and Dad, then we were all allowed to say goodbye with a last sniff. It took Dad three hours to dig the hole (as the ground was so hard and stony!) and she is now at rest with my predecessor Wallace, and Leo and Hestia.

Some photo memories, dressed for the snow.............................

The only one allowed in the open top Sports thingy!

The favourite sofa............................................

Mum told me that Bear, or Beryl as she is properly called, was always a star! She was born at home, her Mum was a 7/8 blue greyhound called Tally and Dad was the lurcher on the farm next door, of whom Bear was the dead spit! She was always the adventurous one and being the first one out of the whelping box, was nicknamed Beryl the Peril! She always had a pack around to play with, was never norty like Luce and one of her highlights was starring as Horrid, King Pellinor's questing hound, in Camelot at the Torch Theatre.

Her newspaper coverage!

.............with the Pages! Anyone spot a young looking Jason second from left?

The whole cast..........................

sorry about the picture quality but I'm not much good at this scanning malarky with me paws! Anyhow, I'm off to lie in the sun a bit, Dad is out in the boiling sun tiling the sides of the swimming pool, rather him than me I can tell you!

Waj x

My Mother is CRUEL!

2010-05-14T14:09:00.003Z

Just to explain, as some of you will know, I have four dogruns a day. Some of the lesser favoured (as in nortiness) only get three!
The first one, always with Mum, is our morning dogrun at about 7am, where we go down the public path and round the front field past the pond and back through the gate. We then have breakfast.
Our second and main dogrun is between 2pm and 4pm (dependant on what Dad is up to during the day) as this is normally his duty. However over the last seven weeks this walk was put back to after 4pm as Dad was working at the Oil Refinery, so this meant Mum had to do this walk as well!
Our third dogrun is just a quick one before we have our dinner at about 7pm, round the back field by the caravan and back through the yard where “that man” used to be, which is another one of Mother’s jobs too!
The last walk is about 11pm which only I, Bear, Poppy and Faith are allowed to go on as the norty younger ones go looking for wild life and if they weren’t wild before, they certainly are after Luce and Phoebe have found them!
Anyway, I digress, as the point of the story is that while Dad was working a ten hour day, six days a week on the refinery, Mum was doing everything else including three out of the four dogrun’s.
Soooo, at the end of his contract, they decided to have a weekend away and went to Bluestone again for a bit of R and R (whatever that is!). They went twice to the Well Spa, had a couple of “treatments” obviously not beauty ones ‘cos Mum still looks the same!
They had dinner in the Kookaba restaurant with Carley and Jason on the Friday night (30th April) which was their 16th Wedding anniversary . This is an Australian themed restaurant which has great food, including Kangaroo and Ostrich! Carley tried the Ostrich which was very nice and Mum had a Wagga Wagga which was basically a surf and turf with steak and spicy prawns. Saturday and Sunday they ate in the Bluestone restaurant called Carreg Las which was excellent too and Mum had only the third lobster she had ever had in her life, cooked to perfection by Duncan the Chef.
Anyway, back to the story of my cruel mother! As Mum had been doing the three walks a day and was now back to doing the two short ones, she thought to keep fit, she would extend the 7pm one by going right round the valley again, after we had only been round there a couple of hours ago with Dad! Well she might have said!
We got over to the yard, where we normally turn in to go back for dinner and she walks right past. I stop, Faith stops, but the younger whippities are keen to carry on. We get to the first corner and Faith decides to go home on her own, as by now we are heading down the valley! I dawdle, stop, look back, stop again, and she is STILL not getting the hint that we should be getting back for dinner. By now, she is at the bottom of the valley, I am about half the field behind and it’s a BIG field! I then realise she isn’t going to stop, so have to make an effort to catch up. I then drag behind again, giving her very reproachful looks from under me eyebrows, but to no avail. Finally we are going up the other side on the way home, so I leg it out in front to be first back for tea! Thankfully the next few nights they were going out, so she couldn’t do the full walk.
Luckily, they are now back to cycling every night, so we have a reprieve for a while!
An update for you on Bear, talking about dogrun’s, is that she does not do any of the longer walks now, as the cancer has spread all along her chest. Although she is still walking, she is very slow, but she is still eating and doesn’t seem to be in too much pain as she is on painkillers. We are taking each day as it comes and hope she will let Mum and Dad know when the time is right.
On a holiday front this week it appears to be Collie Week! We have collies in the farmhouse, collies in Wyn’s Cottage, collies in the caravan, collie crosses in Four Acres and spaniels in Swallow’s Dance! Well it would have been too much of a coincidence to have a collie full house!
Apologies for no piccies as the internet has been down for a week and I am sitting here twiddling my paws.
Anyway, it’s time to shoot off now for the hopefully shorter style pre dinner walk!

Catch you later,
Waj x

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2010-04-28T16:32:00.001Z

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Sunday chilling!

2010-04-18T12:16:00.002Z

Hi Folks,
Are you chilling out this Sunday? It's been great weather hasn't it? We were all out chilling in the garden this morning, then me mother goes and spoils it all, by fetching that camera thingy! Now my regular readers will know that I hate that camera thingy with a vengeance and every time it comes out, I leg it!
I'm sure it's stealing part of my soul away.....................but anyway, I digress! Phoebe was quite happy to be photoed, but then she was fast asleep at the time!
Kish prefers to chill indoors on my bed, while I was in the garden. She doesn't mind the sun though, her coat is double insulated so it keeps out the cold and the heat. I find my coat a bit hot this weather!

Anyway after I legged it from the garden, there she was coming after me with that darn thing again, so I hid behind the washing pile!

First I had to leg it off the bed as she caught me there first!

Oooh errrr, do you think she can see me? Oi, who called me a wuss? Just because I'm scared of feathers!

Did I ever tell you that I was scared of feathers? If I see one, I go to sniff it then it makes me go all shivery, so I jump back away from it and if it blows at me I run away. It's just one of those scary things, bet most of you are scared of something like spiders or mice or even snakes, I just don't like feathers!

Anyway back to the news, last weekend Andy took Giz into his first ever dressage competition, don't know exactly what that is but apparently he had to be clean so he had a bath, hee hee........

Looks like Andy's wetter than Giz!

Don't know why I'm laughing, cos this week I got caught up to the knees in some really smelly mud in the back sheds. They had been washing off what smelt like rotting beets, and I didn't realise the mud was a deep as it was, soooo in I went! I obviously then got the same treatment as poor old Gizmo!

As for the competition, he performed well apparently and Andy got a rosette for 3rd place and one for 6th place (this is where I tactfully don't mention there were only 3 and 6 in each class!).

Thanks for those who enquired after the Hairy Bear, she is still with us, still eating well and still going on walks although obvioulsy not so fast these days! Will keep you all posted!

Well I'm off to chill out some more as the sun is still shining, then it will be time for the afternoon dogrun with young Jason.

Catch you later,

Waj x

A weekend away and some sad news.

2010-02-28T09:08:00.003Z

Good day Folks, how are you all, it's lashing down with rain here so thought I'd spend a bit of time on the 'puter and update you with the news!

Mum and Dad went away last weekend for a birthday party in the Cotswolds. For those of you who don't know the family, Mum has six cousins, the eldest of whom is Bob. As Bob was 60 last weekend, his wife Lynne organised a weekend away for all the family to get together. She booked this place called Wellacre House near Moreton-in-Marsh. It is a HUGE house with 7 bedrooms and a huge kitchen and a table seating 16.

Here they all are on the steps........

On the Saturday night they had caterers in to cook a three course meal, so as it was a special occasion, they all dressed for dinner........................................

They scrub up well, don't they?

Now Bob is very keen on sailing, some of you may have seen his yacht Jabberwocky in the farmyard, where he stores it in the winter months, hence the very apt cake!

Nice isn't it? Their little dog Max went too, we weren't allowed!

Still we had more fun playing Jason up, hee, hee.............................

While they were there, they went to see this little tower that Mum says was built as a folly, what's a folly? Looks like a little castle to me!

Then Mum and Dad went to Warwick Castle. Mum's been there before but Dad hadn't. She knew he'd like it. Here's a horse in full armour, must have been very heavy in those days.......................

This one's funny, well Dad thinks so!

Be careful with that thing Mr. Davies...........................................

Don't quite like the way he's standing with it either, Mum thinks it's hilarious!

Finally the man with a castle on his head hee, hee.......................................

Well that's all from the weekend, but on a sadder note poor Bear was booked in to see Mr. V.E.T on Monday as she was going to have some more mammary tumours removed. However when they put her under and took an x ray, they found it had spread into her chest and they couldn't operate, so Dad bought her home. She is still feeling ok at the moment though, eating well and going on all the dogruns so they are going to see how it goes.

Anyway, that's all the news for now, catch you later!

Waj x

Snow, bowls and other things!

2010-02-14T16:22:00.004Z

Hiya Folks,

Happy New Year to you all, hope you're having a good one so far! Sorry it's been so long since me last blog, but we have been waiting for this.............................

No, not the terrier, the new computer! Who would have thought that little black box would make such a difference! I don't have to struggle now with that stoopid little finger mouse thing on the laptop. It plays havoc with me nails! Mum is pleased too, as she didn't like using the laptop either.
She spends hours playing a silly word game called Bookworm, can't see the point myself I like surfing for other dog blogs and dog toys. Anyway she tried to download it onto the new 'puter and it wasn't Windows 7 compatible....................shock horror!!!!! Anyway, she was about three days without then managed to get a download from another site, so all's well.
Now onto my New Year story for you, here is a picture of a bowl...........

Now why are you thinking have I showed you a picture of a bowl? Well, just after New Year, mother was making one of my favourite lasagne's. She fried off the mince, drained the fat and put it into the glass bowl, voila hence the photo!

Some time in the night, the glass bowl was removed from the work surface and carried through into the conservatory, promptly licked clean and left on the sofa! That was some feat carrying it through two rooms with tiled floors without dropping it and how did she get it off the work surface in the first place? My monies on Phoebe personally, but I am impressed with how she gets away with it!!!

What's the weather been like with you? Had some snow? We enjoyed it apart from the snow clots on me legs. Dad was throwing snow balls for me, it was great fun.

The Snow dog in the snow.............................................

Faith wasn't impressed she would rather be in the warm...................................

Another great start Dad had to the New Year, was a water leak in the caravan. It flooded the lounge so he had to replace the floor. While he was doing the floor they decided (that is Mum decided and Dad had to do it!) that they would completely revamp it instead of getting a new one. Soooo, gone is the old carpet, seating, curtains etc and it now looks like this...............................

The bedroom.

Lounge...............................

other end..................

Big difference eh? Dad was struggling to get it finished as it was booked for this week, half term and was in there a couple of nights till 2am. Still, it's now laminate floor all through apart from the bathroom and a good job he's made of it too. There's also a lot larger deck area which he finished last year.

I'll just end up with my photo choice of the month in case you're missing Lululucy! She's not done anything naughty for a while, think she must be sickening for something.

Think Phoebe's taken over as mischief maker for the moment!

Anyway, that's all for now as it's nearly dinner time. Catch you later!

Waj x

Merry Christmas to you all!

2009-12-25T09:00:00.004Z

Good morning folks and a merry Christmas to you all!

I bet some of you were up at the crack of dawn with children opening Santa's presents, if they've been good that is. Mum was up at the crack of dawn as I wanted to change beds from the bedroom to the settee. I find the whole opening doors thing a bit awkward with paws. Another thing I find hard with paws is the mouse on the laptop, our main computer gave up the ghost during a storm in November so we have been forced onto the laptop which Mum hates and I can see why!

Anyway, I digress, I was telling you what happened at the crack of dawn, besides me waking everyone up! Santa had been to us in the form of dog treats which were in a box on the table, we all had one yesterday evening, which was very nice but the rest had been saved for today. Needless to say as Mum was pulling the throw straight on the sofa she found an almost empty packet of dog treats, there were three left. Of course by then there was no one with them but my money is on Phoebe, as the two whippeties were in the bedroom. Kish and I find it a bit hard to get on the table these days!

Anyway, what's the weather been like where you are? We have had rain, snow, well a little bit and freezing temperatures. So what does Mother do? Put stupid coats on us that's what! I get my own back by refusing to go to to the loo while I'm wearing it, so she has to take it off anyway! I can see the point of the old ladies wearing them, but not us younger ones, Lucy has already lost one in the bushes last month. Anyway, here are some photo's, don't look at mine I look like a big poof!

Jason taking us for the afternoon dogrun, notice I managed to get out of wearing mine on that occasion, hee hee..............................
Kishka wears her own!
Lucy prefers pink................................

Bear goes in green......................................

Phoebe boings in beige.............................not quite her colour but all they'd got in her size!

Ok, look away now! Here's me in my reversible blue, light or dark. I'm in the dark side.............................................................

Faith shows off the light side, as she's got the same one as me, in a lot smaller size of course!

and finally quite unrelatedly, here's a picture of one of Mother's other whippets that she dog sits for. When Anty Llyn Chapman goes off to the dog shows with the JR whippet Rescue stall (that's who Mum goes to Crufts with), she looks after five of her dogs. Two geriatrics's Moth and Gigi and three younger ones Whisper, Snow White and Domino. This is Domino,I just liked the photo!

Anyway, guess where Mum's gone this morning? Over to Wyn's Cottage to do the cleaning as young Jason had friends to stay and they've left the place filthy so Mum and Dad are not best pleased. On the plus side, they don't have to cook today as they are going to Uncle Paul's for dinner, then back in time to make sure we get ours! No doubt we'll all be watching that Strictly Come Dancing program later as me mother is a big fan. Ho hum......

Hope you all enjoy your day and we'd like to wish all our friends and guests a very merry Christmas and a prosperous, happy and healthy New Year.

Love from Waj, Bear, Faith, Poppy, Kish, Phoebe and not forgetting Lucy Lulu (as if we could!)

and of course our humans! xxx

It's that time of year again!

2009-11-09T13:46:00.005Z

Hi folks, it's that time of year again already when these people come on holidays. Mum calls them the November gang! For those of you who haven't met them before, Joe is on the right and that woman in the middle! I assume you will all know Andy on the left!

Anyway, about THAT woman, her name is Anty Karen, but she is a nasty person as she does this to me every time she comes.............

Argh mind me bits, Anty Karen!

I hate this time of year...........................

Anyway, they had a new dog with them this time as Anty Tessa has got a Sealyham Terrier called Darcey, here she is with Bird the blind poodle....................................

As some of you might know, Sealyham Terriers originated from just outside of Haverfordwest at a place called Sealyham Mansion and here's Darcey going back to her roots........

Here are some nice beach shots stolen from Anty Karen's album on Facebook!

Edie, with Magic and Callie in the background.............................

Andy and Joe do the rocks....................................

Anty Karen with Molly and Edie..............................

and finally Andy the Pied Piper!

Now last time Joe and Karen came to Wales, they bought Karen's sister Lisa. She really enjoyed her last visit and was very sad she wasn't coming this time, so Joe and Karen bought her with them in the form of a cardboard cutout and took her everywhere with them! (They're all maaad!)

She went to quite a lot of places and had her photo taken with nearly everyone. At Karen and Jeanette's.

In the window at Wyn's Cottage.............................
Anyway by Thursday which was bonfire night, Dad had built a big fire in the bottom paddock and made a Guy, which they then put poor Lisa's head on! What are they like?

They were going to rescue the head but it got a bit hot.............................

Oh no, there she goes....................................

Oops! Anyway luckily she saw the funny side and is threatening revenge for when she comes down next in February! Watch out Dad!

On the down side I have to report that Mum has been quite poorly over the last couple of weeks and had a really bad asthma attack on top of a virus, ending up in Casualty a week last Wednesday. They put her on oxygen and some other stuff to make her better, but it gave Dad a bit of a fright I can tell you. Anyway, she's a lot better than she was and back to work tomorrow! Shame really, as we have all taken turns on the bed making sure she recovered!

That's all the news for now then and it's nearly time for our afternoon dogrun.

Catch you later, Waj x

Mum and Dad's hols again!

2009-10-25T14:02:00.003Z

Hi folks, thanks to all who enquired after Luce, the little baggage is back to normal and her "hye" is all better! As I mentioned last time Mum and Dad were going on holidays to Greece and we were again ably looked after by Jason and Carley. Mum said they had a great time 'cos she didn't have to get up every morning and walk the dogs! Cheek! They did a lot of swimming and snorkeling and saw some different things this year like a live starfish, a sea slug, (urgh sounds gross!) and a lobster. Anyway here are some photo's:

This is Mum with Stergos who runs the bar and remembers everybody's name apparently! He speaks excellent English and is a lot of fun..........

As is Kostas! He has only been at the Matina this year but has a good sense of humour too, he does the weekly quiz ......................

Here they are eating in the new restaurant at the Matina.......................

Another night they ate in a rooftop restaurant

Dad looking relaxed....................................

and Mum too!

They watched the sun set over the island.....................................

On the Monday they hired a car and went down to the very southernmost part of the island called Prasonisi. Here the Mediterranean sea meets the Aegean sea. If you look closely you can see the thin sandbank about 100ft across which separates the two seas, leading to the headland at the end. There you can jump into the Med, then walk across the bank of sand and hey presto you're in the Aegean!

They went in the Aegean first, there was no fish to be seen at all, it was cold, full of seaweed and you had to wade in for about 20ft before it was deep enough to even get submerged! Sooo, they skipped across the beach and went into the Med, it was at least two degrees warmer, full of fish and great for snorkeling! Isn't that strange?

Here they are on the beach with the hire car. Although it wasn't in yellow, it did have a yellow wheel cover! For those of you not in the know about yellow, Mum and Dad have three yellow vehicles! They're maaaad, or maybe just like yellow :-)!

Anyway, that's all the news for a bit, Beryl did have a birthday on September 29th when she was 13 years young! Happy birthday Bear ...........

Catch you all later, as we're off for the afternoon dogrun, an hour late due to the clocks going back, hope you all remembered!

Waj x

Woe is me and a photo catchup!

2009-09-29T16:41:00.006Z

Ooooh, woe iz mee! We, that iz all of uz went to see Mrs. V.E.T yesturdy az we all got stunged by a sworm of waspies in de vally! I wuz especily hinjured az I got stunged in the hye and I az to go bak ans see Mrs. V.E.T again toomorow to mak sure my hye is ok. Every one had a hinjection to stop de swellin and I iz almost bak to me normal sellf tooday, hexcept I iz a bit winkie still wiv me hye. I will let yous nows how I git on wiv de V.E.T soon. Luv Luce xxx

Here iz me bein me norty self, hee hee........I izn't reely on de tabil after de Bonio's!Hi all, Waj here again!

Yes, Luce is right we all went to the V.E.T apart from Kish (who is hard!) and also legged it under the jacuzzi when we came back from our waspy dogrun. Poor Jason and Carley both got stung too, but Lucy's was definitely the worst! We were right down in the valley, minding our own business when someone, I don't know who, must have disturbed a nest. They followed us up the field buzzing and stinging and then we finally got away from them, it was very frightening for us all I can tell you! Then of course Mum got in a flap when we got back never having taken all of us to the vet at the same time, she couldn't find the leads, then everyone's collar ('cos not everyone wears one in the country!) but we got there ok, all got bundled in through the back doors and everyone had a jab to bring the swellings down. Dad has been down since and made sure they had all gone, luckily it wasn't on the main public path it was in the hedge where we sometimes do a short cut but I'm sure we won't be going there again!

Anyway, as I haven't been able to post photo's for some time due to the stupid 'pooter being on the blink, I thought I would run you through a quick photo diary since March starting out with Jason and Carley all shopped out at Crufts........April, Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary, as usual held in Mykonos, the Greek restaurant in Tenby!Dad likes his Keo!

May, they went to Picton Castle for the first time ever and Mum's only lived here 31 years!! They said it was really nice, but then again Mum likes old things!

June, Anty Ann came to stay with her international dog pack, some from Ireland, Greece and Spain!! While she was here she went out in the sports car. We are not allowed in the sports car apart from Luce who went to the V.E.T in it once to see if it would stop her being travel sick - it didn't!!
The same month a group of them also went to the new Welsh race track at Ffos Las for Ladies Day. Mum had to get another hat from that place she got one before. Luckily this one went back unmolested by Luce!!July we did woods...............................

Did you spot the husky in that photo? It's well camouflaged and so am I! Jason took us out on the quad too..

We also went to the estuary as it was hot...................................... Phoebe liked to paddle.......

Some of us like to go right in! What do you think to the Loch Ness Waj shot?

Kish loves the beach.......

Lucy did what Lucy does best, gets down and dirty!

August, Jason goes to Germany, his Scooby safely driven by his friend Dan. As you regular bloggers will know, young Jase in banned from driving till Jan 2010. However he still drove the Nurburgring as he's not banned abroad....................

September, Mum and Dad do the County Car run. Dad in the MGZS and Mum took the Scooby much to Jason's disgust! How do you like the new graphic's job? Waka Waka, Pac-man and the ghost!

Anyway, that's about all to update you on at the moment. Mum and Dad are off to Greece on holiday next Wednesday so we're looking forward to playing Jason up! Will report back on Luce hoping her eye gets better soon.

Catch you later, Waj x

"The man has gone!!!!"

2009-08-09T08:02:00.003Z

Well folks, the most exciting news of the last two weeks is "The man has gone!" Some of you will know exactly what I mean and what good news it is! Basically for those not in the know, for the past five years we have had a "neighbour" in the form of a man who rented the sheds to the left of our farm as you come down the lane. As he had cats and other stock we weren't allowed anywhere near there and neither were our visitors. During the last year he didn't pay his rent, went a bit strange and ended up living in a caravan up the back.

The farmer who rented him the sheds, had been trying to get him out for months but he just squatted there. Anyway, about a fortnight ago we all got up, Mum went to work and the caravan was gone, complete with collies! They had been causing a nuisance too, as they were barking all the time. Sooo, after five years of sticking to one side of the farm we can now go where we like and often go over that side of the farm for our morning dogrun. I now do my evening constitutional with Dad back up the lane. We had stopped going up there because it just used to set the collies off again, but now it's just sooo peaceful again, it's blissss!

Anyway, Jason's very talented girlfriend Carley has done a cartoon drawing of us dogs, what do you think? Got us all off to a tee hasn't she? Don't know if it will come out looking a bit blue, it's probably just the way it copied. The original is perfect!

They are hoping to start a little business off Carley doing the drawings and Jason printing them onto tee shirts, mugs, mouse mats etc. Also Gemi who I mentioned in my last post has left portfolio's in all the cottages for guests to have their dogs photo's taken while on holiday, that's a good idea too as Jason can then put the photo on the tee shirts etc. Here's a link to GLK photography on Facebook for those of you that are joined up, there's some nice shots of the Dumpledale dogs on their including a particularly nice one of ickle Faith and the horses.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Haverfordwest-United-Kingdom/GLK-Photography/132377726549

Talking about young Jason, apparently he was in Court last month on a speeding charge, Mum went with him. For his offence the Magistrates sentencing guidelines were 3 to 6 points or a 7 to 28 day ban. If he'd been given the maximum the ban would have expired just before he was due to leave the UK on a driving holiday to Germany on 25th August. Bearing in mind young Jase had already got 6 points on his license, the Magistrates decided to give him six points and then ban him for six months as he had totted up to 12! We all thought that was quite harsh, so he and Carley are now trying to find other ways to get there as it has already been paid for. Hopefully there's a group of them going so they may be able to get a lift.

Anyway, that's all the goss for now, were still celebrating the departure, fingers crossed everyone that he don't come back. Hoping to get the computer fixed for next time as Mum has some funny photo's on her phone from when we went to the estuary a few weeks ago and there's one of me rising out of the sea like the Loch Ness monster, but not quite cos that don't exist does it? :-)

Catch you all later,

Waj x

Robin Hood the photofest!

2009-07-09T18:05:00.005Z

Hi there folks, well here we are with a picture fest after uncle Matthew sorted out some permissions, don't know exactly what he was on about I can only put paw to keyboard, I'm no good at all this technical malarky! I still can't show you any photo's of Crufts, Mum and Dad's anniversary or me at the film set of Robin Hood as it appears the bit of the computer where you plug things in has blown as well. Oh well, I'll just have to rely on me friend Gemi who has taken some awesum photos on the filmset of Robin Hood, hope she don't sue me for using them! Way to go Gemi! Shall I tell you more? Oh course I can see you're dying to ask what a star like me was doing on the Robin Hood set without taking a leading role! Anyway, it happened like this.......

Now Dad is an ardent Robin Hood fan, has all the old films, the different series on DVD and never missed an episode of the recent series. Now after the recent filming of the new Harry Potter film on our local Freshwater West beach, along came another company to film a new Robin Hood film starring Russell Crowe and Kate Blanchett. They advertised for extras so along went Dad, Jason and Jason's mate Lance who some of you might have met. Gemi and Lance got married recently and all our mob went so the rest of us hairy crew who stayed at home would like to wish them all the best for their future, here's a photo of the wedding day. Beautiful dress..

Soooo, there is Lance, Jason and Dad who is DESPERATE to be in the film, all got shortlisted and only Lance and Jason got picked.........oooh dear! Anyway they started filming in June it lasted about three weeks and they both finished on Friday. Here's Jason in part of his kit...

Here's Lance in his........

Jason was a French soldier landing on the beach from the longboats.......

Oooh err, looks a bit choppy doesn't it?

Some fighting on the beach.........

Some dead bodies...................hee,hee

More fighting on the beach...................

Horses just about to charge..............................

Russell's on the white horse at the front..........

Yea, here they go...........

Some soldiers...............................

the horses taking a breather and a well earned drink............................

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the photo's, I certainly enjoyed the trips to the beach even though Russell never got to meet me!

Must shoot off as dinner's ready, catch you later!

Waj x

The News and no photos!

2009-05-05T17:54:00.002Z

Well, it appears this will be my first ever blog without photo’s! Me muvver and I have been trying for weeks to be able to load up photo’s onto blogger. Every time we try and it looks like it’s going to happen, then we get the old error message! It even threw Uncle Chris (of the Beastly Beasts) who was down in April. We can’t even find a number to contact Google on to see if it’s something to do with my blog, as we’ve now tried it from three different computers, so it isn’t the software! Looks like we may have to wait till end of May for Uncle Matt!

This of course means I can’t show you the photo’s from Crufts! Mum, Dad and Jason all took their turns this year, mum doing the Friday and Saturday and from there going straight to Coventry to a 50th birthday which was the last of the three cousins. See me muvvers, muvver had two sisters and they were all pregnant at the same time, each one having a baby girl a couple of months after the other. My muvver Carol is the eldest as she had her 50th in October, Anty Chris was next in January and Anty Caron was the last one in March. It was held in a pub called the Oak in Baggington, which is important to note as it is DOG FRIENDLY! There were a few people staying there who were attending Crufts and their dogs were allowed in the bedrooms, sooo civilised! Dogs were even allowed in the restaurant, the food for the humans was good too! This is a link to the website http://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/the-oak-coventry.en.html?aid=311076;label=the-oak-coventry-x*ErfmsM3uAMvs2u1z296QS3368418810;ws=&gclid=CIDQ7LrgpZoCFQdN5QodvkYN8w

Then Easter came and went and in between had friends/new guests down including Anty Lisa from Gap. In true Gap spirit they all celebrated to excess and as usual decided it was a good time to go for a midnight swim. The photo’s had to be taken in double quick time just to prove they were brave, no stupid enough to get in as it was less than 19 degrees, then a couple more leisurely snaps in the hot top curing their hyperthermia with another bottle of wine. They’re all maaaad! Perhaps it’s as well you missed those photos but they are on Face book, so the rest of the country already has!

After months of not going to the beach cos it’s too cold, we’re too busy, its winter etc yours truly has now been to the beach twice in two weeks! I went a week last Monday on me own as Dad is trying to get me weight down. It appears since I went to sleep at the vets last year, I have become very porky. Dad keeps poking me in the ribs, well at least the place where he could normally feel the ribs and calling me fat! What a cheek! Anyway, it has meant I have been going out and having more exercise. Sooo, after going out on my own last week to the beach (cos dad can’t manage seven, he’s a wimp), this morning I went with the Hairy Bear and we had a good play in the sea!

Mum and Dad’s wedding Anniversary came and went too, they took the usual snaps at Mykonos, the Greek restaurant in Tenby and had a fantastic meal, while we had to make do with the leftovers from the weekly dinner, it was ok though ‘cos I had my favourite lasagne! They then went for a pamper day at a place called Lamphey Court Hotel, which included entry to the spa, pool and sauna, followed by lunch, followed by a “treatment”. Not sure that I would personally care for a “treatment” myself, last time I had one it was at the vets! Dad had a neck, back and shoulder massage (I probably wouldn’t have minded that) but Mum had an Indian head massage, lucky they didn’t scalp her then, hee hee. The therapist said it might make her feel drowsy afterwards; well it must have cos she lay on the bed with those dratted whippets at about 4pm and slept for two hours!!

On a sadder note, I lost some of me fevery angels this morning as we suffered a fox attack in the night. It appeared to get in under a tiny bit of wire by the end of the stable where the ducks sleep and of course the ducks that night happened to be out in the garden, as Dad had forgot to lock them in! Cos it was raining so hard, no one heard a thing, not even us dogs, but the fox had managed to kill three, attack a fourth and managed to drag one of the carcasses off completely , which is no mean feat as those Aylesbury ducks are HUGE! So from so from six we are down to three and one of them might not make it, will keep you posted! It’s such a shame as they were all laying well and we dogs were having a couple of eggs a day in with our meat, even though it probably wasn’t helping my waistline cos they were delicious!

Anyway, that’s bought you all up to date folks and sending luurve to me black minxy Bella, who came to dinner on Sunday and the piratical Florence O’Sossidge who I wasn’t allowed to meet, but could look longing down on from the window while she was meeting Pasha the JRT in our yard. What a vision of hairyness she was too! :-)Hi to all the humans that have bin too, nice to meet you all and thank you for the scraps! Speak soon.

Love Waj x

It's a horse of course!

2009-03-10T17:35:00.004Z

Hiya folks,

As promised, here are some pictures of our new arrival! Some of you will already recognise Gizmo who is Andy's sports horse, otherwise known as Traveller's Tale, here he is.......

He lives permanently on the farm, but last winter he had a companion from the local riding school who loan out their ponies, she was called Queen Bee and here she is, being ridden by Lisa's son Jack!

Here's Gizmo with Andy and Queen Bee with Jack's friend Josh going for it down the lane!.

Anyway, Queen Bee had to go back to the riding school at East Nolton where she lives, and Gizmo got very upset, so we had to find him another friend. Soooo, along came Callie who is on permanent loan and also has the same name as Andy's dog! Here she is with Dad aboard and Mum getting on a horse for the first time in about a year and a half. Took a bit of pushing and pulling to get her up there but once she was up, she was ok!

Callie is a Irish draught cross thoroughbred whatever that means, not really being into horses myself apart from eyeing them up as potential dinner!

Anyhow, they are out of my way at the moment as they are holidaying in the Four Acre paddock for a short time, that means that Andy has to go down twice a day to check rugs and feed etc. Well last week there was a lady called Cheryl there whose birthday it was, she had two dogs Charlie and Dexter who came to dinner. I wasn't allowed to growl at them and had to stay upstairs out of the way, spoilsports!! Anyway, Andy managed to cadge some meals as Cheryl was really nice and fed him. He's a lucky so and so!

Talking about visitors, here are the half term lot who all went to the Chinese, there was Donna, Steve and their five kids, yoo hoo, thanks for the photo!! Towards the end of the photo there's Gary and Karen who were in the caravan, they bought seven dogs, two cats, a rabbit, a hamster and a goldfish! Good job I didn't see the rabbit or the cats, although I gets on with our cat, that's because it is part of our pack, I don't like other peoples and neither do the whippeties!

Then there was Lisa, Joe and Karen, Karen being my dog groomer didn't have to do much this time as I had been "done" in November when they came before. Just a facial trim this time and me undercarriage was left well alone! Good! Then there's Andy, Alaistair, Liz and Malcolm who were in Dumpledale. Liz took some absolutely fab-uuu-lous photo's while she was down here's a link to them (I hope!)

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Flizrodgers%2Fsets%2F72157614338458139%2F&h=eb3f6c5f31e0d79d1a8eec08020b2aa9

Good job the weather's getting better as it's a bit of a squeeze on the bed to lie in the sun at the moment!
Anyway, that's all for now, catch up with you soon.

Waj x

Mud, glorious mud!

2009-02-01T15:49:00.002Z

Well, g'day folks,

In the words of the great Rolf Harris, can ya tell what it is yet? Yes, you're right it's mud and this weeks funny tale comes from the great valley of mud, which I'll recount in a bit!
Anyway, due to the recent inclement weather our normal dogrun path looks a bit like this..........

We dogs do try and hop round the side, we're not so keen in wading in cold murky water unless the weathers warm, yuk!

Of course the whippets don't do water either, Phoebe counts as an honorary whippet now, as she don't like it either! "Let's sneak round the edge of it Faith!"

Lucy looks aghast at the thought of dirtying her paws as she knows they will have to be washed before she's allowed in the bed again! "Oh woe is me!"

Anyway, onto the funny story of the week which happened yesterday when Mum took us out on the Dogrun. Now in the last few months, Dad has been walking us, as he is now home being officially "self employed." Yesterday though, he went with Uncle Paul to the official opening game of the Llanelli Scarlets in their new stadium, rugby being one of his passions. This meant that Mum had to do the Dogrun!

So, she puts on her new snowboots, welly at the bottom and all fur lined and off we all trot down the valley. Well the valley is in a worse state than the footpath and as we traversing one of the paths down goes the welly into the mud, not far from the place where Anty Lisa lost her Croc's by sinking in the mud and had to wash them off in the stream, but that's another story!

Anyway, there she is cursing and hopping but couldn't get a purchase with the other foot to pull the other one out. If dogs could laugh out loud, we'd have been crying it was sooo funny! Eventually after about ten minutes (which is a long time when you're stuck) with a bit of ingenuity and the help of a stone she managed to free herself without taking a mudbath!

I must say roll on the summer it will be great to have things dry again. Things are very quiet here at the moment as we haven't had any visitors in over the last three weeks, so Mum and Dad decided to have an away day in Bridgend and go shopping. Following recommendations from a couple of workmates, they stayed in this place..........it's called Bryn Garw Country Park.

Looks nice doesn't it? Well they are doing special offers £32.50 each for a midweek stay or £35.00 for a Friday and Saturday, this includes a three course meal which if you include the appetiser and palate cleansing sorbet in the middle was actually a five course, overnight stay, and full welsh breakfast! Well, apparently it was fantastic, great food and extremely good value. Think they may go again.

Anyway, that's all for now, will try and get some photo's of the new four legged arrival and post them next time and no, it's not another dog. Keep guessing!

Catch you later, Waj x

Catching up at Christmas!

2008-12-26T14:14:00.004Z

Hello folks and a merry Christmas to you all, hope it was a good one for you! Oikes, has it really been that long since I posted? Well a lot's been happening since they came back off hols. Some more of our favourite guests came down, here they are on the beach! That's Karen front left, Tessa behind, Joe to the right and Simon at the back. You remember that in August Mum and Andy went to stay in London to go to Karen's wedding.

Here's Tessa at our place for dinner, meeting the other dinner party guest...............hee hee

that'll be Kish then!

Then, right out of the blue Mum and Dad swanned off on holiday AGAIN! There was nobody in any of the cottages week commencing 13th December, so they were thinking of going to a place called Centre Parcs which only caters for two dogs so no good for our gang then! As it happens a new place like Centre Parcs has opened up just outside of Haverfordwest, so as she was scanning the website saw they were doing special offers in December Monday to Friday for £99 for a one bedroom cottage! Keen to pick up a bargain they booked, so off they went on Monday 15th December to Bluestone all of 15 miles away! Here's Dad relaxing in the lounge.......

Here's the cottage they stayed in, the blue one facing Dad......................

Here's some of the houses in the village, you can see the lodges in the background. The accommodation apparently was fantastic, they swam in the blue lagoon every day and went to the health spa and did the thermal rooms. So all in all they had a very relaxing time while young Jason got up early and walked us in the mornings then went to work! However, by the Thursday he didn't have to get up as early as his firm made him redundant! Poor Jay is now one of the victims of the credit crunch they're all talking about, good job it hasn't affected us dogs yet!

Anyway, today being Boxing day, what would be on the top of your agenda? Go for a walk, watch a film, have a nice relaxing day? Not in this household as young Jason does the Boxing day swim! Who would want to go out in a chilly December day and throw yourself in the sea, they're all maaaad! Mum and Dad went to watch this time, but lost Jason in the crowds as they must have been over a thousand people there. Anyway here's the crowd on the beach.......................

Wow, that looks chilly.........Counting down to the run in!

The man in the middle of the photo behind the finger is Nick, who runs the Job centre where Mum works!

It was a nice sunny day though as the crowd dispersed!

Mum then decided she was going to get a new piccie of me for the blog so sneaked up and surprise me, don't I look surprised? Well I wasn't very impressed! ;-)

Finally my favourite Christmas piccie, which is now the screen saver on the computer! Hee, hee

What does she look like?

Anyway, that's all for now folks. Happy New Year to you all and look forward to seeing old friends and new in 2009!

Waj x

Sirius Dog Blog: Sirius visits West wales

2008-11-16T17:39:00.001Z

I'm sure that some of you will know about the travels of Sirius, he goes around visiting places and raising money for the Dogstar Foundation. Well, he visited Dumpledale in September courtesy of Annie and Gary, and here are his photo's!
Waj

Sirius Dog Blog: Sirius visits West wales

Mum and Dad's holidaze.

2008-10-21T15:36:00.003Z

Hi all,
Waj here again, I suppose you've all been wondering how we got on while Mum, Dad and Jason went away on holidays? Well, we were all a bit subdued to start with and Phoebe wouldn't go out at all with Uncle Andy until the Friday after they had left on the Wednesday. Anyway, we all ate our dinners and behaved, but were pleased to see them arrive back late the following Wednesday night. Me and the girls would also like to thank everyone else who helped walk and feed us including Uncle Gary, Uncle Chris and Uncle Matthew who all seemed to have a good time, even though Mum and Dad were away! Anyway, she has shown us some holiday photo's and I dare say you would like to share my maaad humans too! They (the whole family) went to the Pefkos in Rhodes, the same place as Mum and Dad went last year, but unfortuately didn't see HD (holiday dog). They were told that all the stray dogs are now taken to a place where they are rehomed, so hopefully he will have a nice new home this year. There certainly wasn't any stray dogs running around there this year so Mum said!
Anyway, here are the photo's some are rather funny.
The apartments from the front with the mountains in the background...........
looks lovely!

Granny Barbara and Anty Iris enjoying a beer.....

Back of the apartments while the sun was setting.............Jason's idea of unpacking!

They went on a boat trip.

and swam off the boat.

They visited Lindos.

and Lindos Bay.

They ate out every night. From left to right, Barbara, Janet, Chris, Iris, Dad, Mum and Jason. Hilary was taking the photo but I've got a funny one of her later, hee hee!
Anty Iris pulled the waiter!

Then night fell in Pefkos............................................

Then came out ............................................. the cocktails! Mum says these are a mixture of different alcoholic beverages that make you do silly things. Well you can see that! Ha, Ha Hilary!

Jason manages two at once.

Amazing what you can do with a blow up killer whale!

Ooohh Jason.......................

Mum and Dad have a go.......................

Go on, go on, go on ..............guess the caption? Go on, you've seen the film!!

Yes...............you've got it! Free Willy! Hee, hee, hee ............

Just a couple more 'cos I like these shots, the cat fight stand off! Oooh, I love a good catfight.

and the little doggie in a hole. Don't think that this was a stray dog, as Mum says it was in a garden with two others and they had dog beds and everything, but it was obviously cooler in the earth.
Anyway, you're probably photoed out now, I'll still laughing over Dad with the whale.

Speak to you soon,

Waj x

Mum's 50th birfday

2008-10-06T15:11:00.002Z

Afternoo all, Waj back again!

I went to the V.E.T last week, went to sleep for a short while and when I woke up Mum and Dad fetched me home. Not too sure what they did while I was asleep but I was a bit stiff for a couple of days but am now back to normal, galloping round and kicking up the grass again! Anyway, glad to get back to blogging again and hear that Phoebe kept you up to speed while I was away. A few weeks ago I did promise you a picture of the wedding hat, so now it's been downloaded from the phone, here it is.........................................................

As you are aware, it was Mum's 50th birthday at the weekend and we had lots of friends come to stay for a big party. Well, the party was going to be held in the marquee, but due to the inclement weather and the gale force winds (which would have bought the marquee down before we'd even started!) at the last minute it was decided to have it in the bottom barn where Gizmo the horse lives.

Well, this barn had not been touched for about 7 years since Mum and Dad moved to the farm and to say it was filthy and full of rubbish was a bit of an understatement. If you'd have seen the cobwebs, they were about 10 foot thick! So off they go clearing the rubbish out. They were there all day Friday had a huge fire and loaded the trailer and the van to go to the tip. Chris (Mr Yeti with the Beastly Beasts) helped out and at the end of the day they were all knackered! Luckily for them, Gill, Chris's partner had cooked them dinner. Thanks Anty Gill!

Saturday was the same, more clearing and shovelling gravel this time assisted by some of Mum's friends, Eddie, Gary, Chris again, Andy and Jason and his girlfriend Carly. The barn was then very ablely decorated by Hilary and Bev so thanks to all who helped. The band was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT we dogs could hear the festivities from the house and I can tell you they were good!I'm sure you'll want to see some pictures so here they are.

Unwrapping the biggest present from Gill and Chris...... can you see what it is yet?

Can't get in it, so employs a penknife...................................................

Ahhhh, it's a weathervane!

Another present, this time from cousin Pete and Phil. You can tell she hasn't had one before cos she's got it back to front!!

Dad stuffing his face.........................

The highlight of the evening, Uncle Andy suggestively riding the horse to the tune of Mustang Sally, closely followed by Gill and Granny Barbara, with her dodgy hips!!!!

They had a bubble machine.................................

The band were great.................................. and stayed the night!

Kerry and David who travelled all the way from Sheffield for the weekend on a big yellow motorbike in all the wind and rain...............................they must be maaaad!

Mum and Chris.....................................dig the suit and bowtie!

Mum, Chris and Chris, confused? You may recognise Anty Chris from the holiday in Cornwall post when Faith the whippet went to Lands End.

Mum and her friend Anty Sue who has Grace and Paddy whippet having a bump and grind.........

Andy being Andy!!!!!!!!!!!!

So all in all it was a great night as we dogs had a late night run round the paddock as they were up till 3am chatting with the band. Only casualty of the evening was Phoebe who got locked outside the bottom gate when everyone eventually went to bed so had to spend the night in the barn!! My humans are daft!!

Well that's enough for now, I hear we are to be looked after by Uncle Andy next week as Mum and Dad are going on hols. I'm sure we can liven his week up somehow.............hee, hee.

Catch you later, Waj x

Feebee fings!

2008-09-22T17:14:00.002Z

Allo, Feebs here. I knows I haven't blogged before, but I az been findin my feet as it were since I moved here to me new home. I az been here nearly two years now and I must say I am a lot happyer than when I wuz livin in a kennel. As sum of you know, I first lived in a pound in Eireland and when I wuz about six munfs old, I came to live in sum kennels in Wales. I wuz supposed to be found a home, but I wuz there for over a year. I loiked the lady that looked after me, but I didn't loike the kennels much, as I lived on my own and only had two runs a day so wuz on me own a lot of de time.
Dere were 16 uvver dogs in de kennels and when de lady took ill, we wuz all taken away to find new homes. I wuz very fritened to start wiv and dey had to carry me to de car and put me in a cage, when we got to dis place they carried me out in de cage and put me inside de house and left de door open for me come out when I wanted. I didn't come out for about two hours as I was still fritened but after a whoile I comes out and starts makin friends wiv de uvver dogs.
Now I luv's my new Mum and Dad too and since I came to de farm it az been a roight laff as we get to lie on de beds, chase bunnies in de fields and I got lotz of new doggie friends too. We also get toys and treats and I plays a lot wiv Luce and we opens fings loike these bin liners.................

Dad wuzn't very impressed, so I gave him my best "it wuzn't me" look.............................So's to do somefink to impress him, Luce decided to do a bit of shreddin.....................

but soon gets worn out and drops off to sleep........................................

It's very tirin work you know.................................................

If I cover the face, no one will know it wuz me.....................................

Anyways, I fort I would write this week as Waj is goin to be off de line for a bit, as Uncle Andy says he is goin to be nuked tomorrow, I don't quite know what it means, but it is somefink to do wiv the V.E.T and losin his man bits. Poor Waj! I'm shure you'd all loike to wish him some get well soon forts and hope it isn't long before he's back on de line again.

I'm shure you'd all loike to hear de funny story of de week? Well somtimes when Mum gets home from de work she has a loie down on de bed and Luce and I snuggles up under de doovey wiv her. Now Faith comes to de uvver side of de bed and also want to get in, so Mum bein half asleep just lifts de doovey and Faith sloides in de uvver side. When she wakes up half an hour later, it is to find de whippet az the Channel de fox poo spashed on all over and she hadn't noticed when she let her under de doovey. Hee, hee..........

We iz all very hexcited 'cos in the next two weeks we are havin lots of friends and family down az it is Mummy's 50th birfday, includin our friends the Beastly Beasts who Waj haz menshioned before. Will keep yous all posted and hopefully Waj will be back soon.

Luv from Feebee x

The three hats!

2008-09-03T17:55:00.002Z

Hello dear readers,

I am about to tell you a tale of three hats. I can guess a lot of you will already see where this is going but patience...... and wait for the whole story! Last year while trawling through TK Max, Mum spots this rather nifty purple hat, suitable for Ascot (as you know they went there last June). Rather than buy the outfit and get the hat to match, Mum decides it is such a bargain, she may as well have it! Well, trying to match it in colour (as it was a sort of aubergine purple) turned out to be rather tricky, so she ended up going to Ascot in a yellow and black outfit, with a yellow hat from the Red Cross shop. Nothing, if not a cheapskate, our mother! So, the purple hat stayed forgotten in a box at Anty Pat's house to keep it safe.

Anyway, Anty Karen (Bonniebird on the Refuge for those internet readers), who also does my coiffure when she comes to stay in the holiday cottages, asked Mum, Dad and Andy, if they would like to go to her wedding which was on 29th August. Well someone had to stay at home and look after us dogs, so Mum went with Andy and left 10 dogs, two ferrets, three cats, five chickens, the ducks and Gizmo the horse for Dad to look after. Hmmm............wonder who got the better deal?

Back to the hat. Mum is now determined to find an outfit to match the hat so asks Anty Pat to bring it out of storage to match it up for colours. The hat now spends a couple of months safely in the car while it is matched with a blouse and some snazzy silk type trousers (from the Red Cross shop again). Outfit all ready and it is all bought into the bedroom to await the big day. The hat is placed securely on top of a chest of drawers inside a plastic bag and inside a cardboard box so it doesn't get squashed. Whilst everyone was out of the house, Lucy and Phoebe take the box off the chest, shred the box then find the prize inside! Inside the carrier bag (which was made short work of), a lovely straw type hat. Well, after a few tug of war games, removing the ribbon and finding out how far it will stretch between two mouths, it didn't much resemble a hat anymore! Well not one that you could wear on your head anyway!

Back to another shop search, this time to find a hat to match the outfit! Again she traversed all the town shops and finally found the right colour, this time in another charity shop. Even better, there was now a choice, as they had a rather nice green colour to match the blouse, as well as another purple one. The nice lady in the charity shop said they rented them out for a donation, so she could take the two and try them to see which she like best. She was very amused when she heard the story of the first hat! So, home again came another two hats.

Not to be caught out by that old trick again, i.e. taking them in the house to be destroyed by the phantom hat eaters, Mum leaves the hats on the back seat of the big yellow car where they will be safe. You're all probably ahead of me now! Every Saturday when the cleaners finish cleaning the cottages they put the dirty laundry in the back of the yellow car ready to take to the launderette on the Monday. Not realising the bag on the back seat contained two hats, the laundry bags were shoved in either side, neatly squashing the hats in the middle! Mum realises that she is probably destined not to wear a hat at all, but luckily there wasn't as much damage as first thought, well anyway nothing that a cool iron and some starch couldn't sort out!

Anyway, the wedding was a big success and Mum would like to thank Karen and Gilbert for inviting them and for such a lovely day. Joe for showing her round the park! Scott for a lovely meal on the Thurday night and a special thank you to Tessa for putting her up! She also adopted a dog while she was away as Tessa had broken her hand and damaged her foot just before the wedding, so Mum had the pleasure of escorting Cameron the Scottish Terrier around the park each day. They are all coming to stay on hols soon, so we will get to meet him too. I'm sure you will want to see some photo's, so here are a couple. At this point can I say my dingbat mother forgot to take the memory card for the camera so she could only take about 7 on the internal memory which is why there are so few and none of the bridegroom.........sorry Gilbert!

Karen and Tessa who Mum stayed with..............................
Uncle Joe with Edie and Bird....................the bridesmaids!
Edie....................

Bird....................

I'm sure you'll all want to see the hat, but Mum took some on her mobile phone and can't download them till young Jason comes home from Germany and shows her how! So sorry, you'll have to wait!

Just to round off the weekend they arrive at Paddington 14.45, train leaving at 15.00. Board says train delayed so Andy gets a magazine while Mum gets a burger. When Andy returns he goes for a burger too. Time now is 14.58 and all of a sudden train delayed disappears off the board. Joe and Mum shout to andy that the train is going, and shoot over to Platform 3. By now the guard is shutting the doors so Mum shoots onto the train shouting to the guard that Andy is coming. He basically replies "tough" as the train starts pulling away while Andy is still at the burger bar! Tickets were flung at the guard as Mum had his seat reservations still and off the train went without him! Now, the best thing was that the tickets they had were for that specific train and were not transferable so Andy had to pay another £61.00 for the privilege of getting as far as Swansea (60 miles from home), then getting someone to fetch him as there were no connections! Expensive burger or what??

Anyway, that's all for now, nearly time for bed methinks.

Catch you later, Waj x

Well, it's finished at last!

2008-08-05T22:19:00.003Z

Hi all,

Well, its finished! What can I say but what a relief! More so as when Anty Lisa arrived early on 19/7/08, she was told to naf off as they hadn't finished and were still carrying furniture in! Mum and Dad had put soooo many hours in that last week, we dogs had almost forgotten what they looked like! So Lisa and co. took the pack for a run around the fields.

Anyway, after the mad scrabble to put the dining table and chairs in and put the patio table and chairs up in the garden and finish off fastening the garden gate and put the curtains up........ you get the idea, they were ready. There were copious bottles of sparking wine in the fridge and a lovely buffet prepared by Anty Iris to welcome the new guests and a bottle of champagne for our first guests!.

The other holidays guests were invited and a pleasant couple of hours was spent toasting the new cottage. Then they they dragged Anty Lisa outside for a surprise, this was it....

She was very surprised I can tell you, but we all thought it was great as Gap do a lot of good work rescuing dogs from being put to sleep, I'm sure I've mentioned them before in my missives but the web site is www.greyhoundgap.com
Here's Mum and Dad with Lisa enjoying the wine, note Anty Lisa hasn't got any!
The opening gang from left to right, Anty Iris, Andy, Mum, Trish, Jack, Dad, Mark and Carl.

Ok, I'm sure you all want to know what it looks like so here's s few piccies.........

The main bedroom which is ensuite with toilet and shower.

The smaller upstairs bedroom with two single beds.

The second upstairs bathroom.

The upstairs lilac room with two single beds.

and again.

The lounge sunroom area.

Outside enclosed garden and patio.

and again.

The downstairs main bedroom.

and again.

Downstairs bathroom with roll top bath and huge double shower.

Ultra modern kitchen with gas range.

Lounge dining area.

Well, that was that! They didn't know what to do with themselves the Sunday morning and stayed in bed till ten which is unheard of in our household! In case you think we'd been forgotten, Mum did walk us and feed us at just after seven but then we all went back to sleep, worn out!!

A fabulous fortnight followed of nice weather, barbeques, parties in a power cut and Mum went on a visit with the girls to Folly Farm and a good time was had by all!

Anyway, I think that's all that needs to be said for the time being.

Catch you later, Waj x

"The Stick"

2008-07-01T15:58:00.003Z

Hello dear readers,

Firstly I hear you thinking doesn’t he mean "The Stig?” As you are probably all aware, a new series of Top Gear has started. This means that all the car mad members of our household are glued in front of the screen at 8pm on Sunday, well...actually ....... that’s all of them then!

Just to keep you up to date with our own pimped up rides, here is Mum's new purchase, again off Ebay which looks like this.....................
Mum's MGF Trophy.

Not quite big enough to take the doggie gang out in you may think and you'd be right, as it's only got two seats! However, Lucy managed to get a ride in it, but unfortunately only to the vets! They thought the open top and subsequent fresh air would help her travel sickness, but it didn’t work and luckily they had a towel to catch the vomit in! It turned out to be a scratched eye ball and after a few drops she was as right as rain (though why rain should be right, I don't know, not that keen on it myself actually!).

As you already know from the post hospital drive post, they have another yellow car which looks like this...................

Dad's MGZS 180.

and last week ended with a full complement of yellow as Dad bought a yellow van off Ebay to take us all out in! Here is our new dog mobile.............

and from the rear..................................

Trendy or what? Dig the blacked out windows personally, so that us famous bloggers can go places incognito! What actually happened and the reason we got the van in the first place, was that it was time for the Mitsubishi Pajero to get it’s yearly MOT. The Pajero is ok to go out in, but it is a bit cramped with seven (now we have Phoebe) as it is only a short wheel base.

Dad thought it couldn’t possibly pass the MOT without spending a grand or so on it, so he found this nice van on Ebay and bid for it . He left the Pajero down at the local garage for an estimate on how much it would be to get it through the MOT, within two days it was back with another years MOT total cost £272 a fraction of what they thought it would cost so that was not at all bad! So we are sitting here at the moment with Jason's car, and two vehicles each for Mum and Dad! The yard looks like a car mart!

Anyway, I can hear you all thinking what about this stick? Well here is the stick!

Notice the loosely tied string round it and you can guess from this, that it didn’t start out in life as a stick! Can you tell what it is yet? Loosely may also give you a clue to the chief suspect. Let me give you a clue…………I'll let her tell you herself!

Oooo me?

Ello Lucy ere, I az bin norty and so az Feebs! Mumi bort dis fing home what she wuz goin to get de cobwebs down wiv. It lookid like a chickin so we fort we ad beter av a gude look at it. Feebs fetchid it off de tabel and we ad a bit ofa game wiv it!

it wuz a gude game until Dadi cum in an cawt us, it wuz diffycult to deeny 'cuz we ad fevvers in de bed! In fact dere wer fevvers everiwere!

Anty Bear wuz NOT impresed, aniwun wuld fink shes never dun anythin norty!

I also ad a smak de uver day as Keo was playin on de bed an I wuz sleepin under de doovey. I growels at her cos I is tyred and want to sleep, but she keept boverin me so's I leeps out of de bed groweling an snappin loike a turtel at her and foun it wuz Dad playin wiv me insted, lukily I just missd is nose! Gude job I wuznt in de dawg hawse for long! Nice to tawk to you's all for a chainge, Lucy x

I think that's all we need to hear from that dratted whippet, just about time to have a lay down before tea time.

Catch you later, (the now driven in style) Waljan x

Bears says "fanks" and Jason the racing driver!

2008-06-15T07:51:00.003Z

Hi All,
Firstly Bear would like to say "Fank you" to all who sent emails and texts to see how she was doing. I am glad to report that the op went well, her x rays were clear so the nasty bits on one side were removed. This was how it looked when she came home. The rubbery thing sticking out is apparently called a drain to let all the gunky bits out. As it happens, it all healed up well.

Unfortunately, she has got to go back and have the other side done as apparently they can only do one mammary strip at a time.

Latest news on the new cottage is that all bathrooms and floors are now done. Waste system is in and that was a palaver I can tell you! Dad had to dig the whole roadway up, while making a trench over to the horses field at the front. It rained, there was mud everywhere and then he had to leave it open four days until the building inspector could get down to inspect it! We dogs just leap frogged the trench, but Uncle Andy was faffing about the horses falling down it, surely they wouldn't be that stupid? They've got eyes haven't they? Just to be on the safe side, they cordoned off the holes, but no one fell down it and it's all filled in now! Work is progressing on the garden which at the moment is quite open plan! The fence is due to be finished off next week along with the patio area.

Bit of news on the Jason front for you, he took part in the Llys y Fran hill climb a few weeks ago in his Subaru. For the uninitiated of you, basically it's a race against the clock from one point in the park, round some squiggly bends, across a bridge, and up the hill to the finish. The winner is the one with the fastest time, with the various categories of car. Mum and Dad went to watch with some trepidation, as this car is Jason's main form of transport and if he mangled it he wouldn't be insured! Luckily he managed to keep it in one piece and did a practice time of 55 seconds which apparently was pretty good. Here's a few pictures of the boy racer and his car!

In the pits...............

Actually racing...........................

Looking pleased with himself..............................

All in all, they said it was a good day out and looks like he'll be taking part again shortly.

Well I think that wraps it up for today, Mum and Dad are back over the cottage, so I think I'll have a lay out in the sun as it's a nice day.

Catch you later, Waj x

April came and went!

2008-05-16T15:58:00.005Z

Well, there was April come and gone! Apologies to all you folks out there who have eagerly been awaiting my next missive. Truth is Mum and Dad spend all their spare time over in that dratted new cottage and forget to put the computer on for me. How selfish is that? I'll be glad when they finish it and I suspect they will be glad when they finish it too! Did you have any snow? We didn't have much, but there was a bit on the Preseli Mountains, here's a photo of our place with the snowy mountains in the background, very artistic don't you think?

Amongst our visitors we welcomed the Beastly Beasts and their humans Gill and Chris they wrote about their holiday here on Beastblog http://thebeastlybeasts.co.uk/beastblog/index.php You may have to scroll down a bit as it was back in April now!
Sophie, who came from the same kennel as our Phoebe and who is also Zara's half sister, came down in April with her pack and their humans, Dave and Fee. We also had lots of birthdays and other celebrations! Kishka's birthday was on 2nd April and she was five, Aunty Gill from the Beastly Beasts also had her birthday here that was on the 24th April, but I'm not allowed to say how old she was! More importantly , it was MY birthday on 27th April and I was three! It was also Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary on 30th April, they did what they do every year and that's go to the Greek Restaurant in Tenby, here they are enjoying the squid and the Keo beer!

Dad with his Keo!

Talking about Keo, we have a regular visitor at the moment called Keo. She comes down most days with her Dad, Stuart, who is helping with the building of the new cottage. She got right under my feet at first, but now I think she's OK. Lucy's not looking too convinced though, but she does play with her sometimes!
Lucy not looking convinced........

Keo, she's a Jack Russell........

Jason also bought his friends dog over to go for a walk with us, she is a Malamute called China, what do you think? Certainly matches the carpet!

Now some time ago, Mum sent away for a thing called an Anderson indoor kennel. They are available on Ebay and are meant for little lurchery and whippety types, here's Lucy inside as is supposed to be.

As Poppy, Faith and the cat had already spent some time in it, Kish decided that what was good for the whippets was good for her too. She dives into this igloo shaped kennel, the sides bulging all over the place as she attempts to turn round in it. It then overbalances as she puts all her weight down one side and rolls right over twice! She then manages to poke her head out and voila! It doesn't quite fit, but at least no one else can get into it!

We have had plenty of activity in May too, but will catch you all up with that shortly. Finally a few good wishes to Bear as she has developed some lumps in her mammary glands and is going to the vets on Monday. She is going to have a chest x ray to make sure there are no other lumps elsewhere, and if all is OK, she is going to have her ladies bits out and take the nasty lumps away. So from all of us here, good luck Bear and hope all goes well Monday.
Here's Bear..............

Must shoot off now as it's time for tea, catch you all later.
Waj x

Happy birthday Faith!

2008-04-01T20:02:00.007Z

Hi Folks,

Dropped in specially to wish whuppety Faith a happy birthday as she is ten today! Well someone had to be born on April fool's day! Anyway, Mum has been practising with one of them montage things so here is one for Faith on her birthday!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com<'>http://
Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com<

Can't believe Mum actually made it! Must be dead easy if a computer idiot like her can do it, must have a go myself next time!

Well Anty Lisa and Anty Trish went home on Saturday and now Mum and Dad have a full empties bin after they only emptied it the previous Saturday morning! Young Scarlett came to dinner and I must say behaved impeccably. I have taken quite a fancy to black bitches after I had a bit of a fling with Bella who was here the week before last. Mind you they had some old Lady over there who smelt very sexy and no I don't mean Lisa, hee hee.

While Mum was working out how to do this montage thing, she was showing me some video that she took when Lucy was a pup, and Kish and I were playing with her in the garden. Don't worry, no animals were hurt in the making of this film!

Anyway, I think that's enough modern technology in one post, it's made me quite dizzy! Better go and have a lie down before bedtime!

Catch you later,

Waj x

Crufts again!

2008-03-17T20:56:00.003Z

Hello all!

Goodness gracious, has it been that long since I last posted? It's been so busy here, we haven't known whether we've been coming or going! It has been that time of year where all that was mentioned was Crufts! We dogs did manage to watch a bit of it on TV, but all our human family away went to the actual thing as some point over the four days.

Firstly Dad goes up with Anty Llyn Chapman on the Wednesday to set up the Whippet Rescue stall, reckon that dratted Lucy could do with rescuing ........................................................... from the food bag! Hee, hee.Anyway, as I was saying, Dad went up Wednesday and Mum looked after Llyn's dogs, so both got back late. Anty Pauline and Anty Olga who were staying in Swallows Dance kept an eye on us while they were both away.

Thursday, Dad is home, Mum goes up to the Crufts and stays Friday and Saturday coming home Saturday night. Dad then has to look after Llyns dogs on the Friday then cope with the change over in the cottages Saturday . Sunday Mum looks after both sets of dogs and Dad gets back at 4am in the morning after a catalogue of disasters! This included having to unload the van by candlelight as the power was off due to the violent storms! Then coming along the narrow single track road from Wiston, finding a garden shed in the middle of the road that they couldn't get past! So, he and Jason had to knock the owner out of bed to help them move the shed and pick up all the contents which were strewn over the road! We were all glad to get back to normal on the Monday I can tell you!

Anyway, as you know, Mum always does shopping at this Crufts but luckily didn't find any orange coats to bring home this time! However, she did manage to find a rather fine limited edition print of your truly, what do you think? Like me or what?!?

I have been in the wars a little bit this week as I have had a swollen foot and been limping quite badly. I am feeling better now though, as I have been on antibiotics and it's gone down quite a bit. Lucy has also been in the wars as she had a badger bite under the chin. That was quite badly swollen too but has been on the same tablets and she is better now too, even though she will probably have a scar.

As usual Mum had the guests over last night, this week we have Penny, who is a lurcher. The beautiful Bella who loves her Dad so much she was trying to eat him!

Bella and I took a fancy to each other and she was flirting with me in the garden trying to make me run, but unfortunately my foot was too bad at the time so I couldn't oblige!

Then there is Jasper who just curled up quietly all evening, I think Bella was just checking that he was still asleep!

Anyway they all had a good night, but as usual the wine affected the general photo quality! I keep telling her that wine and cameras don't mix, but she doesn't listen! Their humans, Richard and Margaret came to dinner too with their friends Karen and Mary. Some of you may know Margaret who is Bradpak on Greyhound Gap. Talking about Gap, Anty Lisa and Anty Trish are down next week, so we have some serious drinking practice to do before then hee, hee, hee. More importantly, I got some lasagne left which as you know is my favourite!

Better shoot off now as it is time for my post dinner walk.

Speak soon,

Waj x

Four Acres and the snowing camel!

2008-01-13T15:06:00.000Z

Hi folks, Waj back again,

Here's some good news on the holiday front. Dad's sister, Janet, has recently bought a lovely house about a mile from Dumpledale. 'Cos she doesn't want to move down from Sussex just yet, she has asked Mum and Dad if they will holiday let it for her starting this year. They are also going to donate the first week to Greyhound Gap to raise money in their auction. Link to the auction thread http://greyhoundgap.proboards35.com/index.cgi?board=1012008
A Calendar showing weeks available will be on our main website at www.littledumpledale.co.uk hopefully by the end of the week, when Uncle Matthew, our web manager, gets his finger out!

Let me tell you about the house. It is in a little place called Port Lion and has four acres of land, complete with fruit orchard. It will have about 1/2 acre of enclosed garden, but there is also use of a two acre paddock to the back and right of the garden (not shown in the photo's). Prices will range from £400 off season to £800 July/August. It has five bedrooms 3 king size and two sets of singles, one bedroon is ensuite with toilet and wash hand basin and there will be two sitting rooms, ideal for two families to share. Here are some photo's, sorry about the quality of some but it was peeing down with rain when they were taken!
Four Acres itself...........................

The patio area..........................which will be gaining a barbeque and hopefully some sun!

The gardens............ The enclosed bit will be to the post and rail fence at the back and the second line of trees to the right.

The lounge with gas fire.......................

The kitchen diner.............................

Bathroom with bath and seperate shower.........................

French doors from the master bedroom opening out onto the patio........

This will be the master bedroom, but they haven't furnished it yet.........

2nd bedroom downstairs.....................................

also with view onto the patio area...................................

The third downstairs bedroom will have two single beds but Mum ran out of memory, so couldn't take a photo of it. Anyway to the upstairs, the main bedroom which is ensuite............................

and finally the other upstairs room.....................................

As you can see it's a beautiful place and is also only five minutes walk to the nearest stony beach which has access to a public footpath ranging over 30 acres of forestry.

Now, bet you're wondering about the camel aren't you? Well, Luce has taken to rummaging round in young Jason's bedroom to find things to play with while everyone is at work. A couple of years ago, he was bought a stuffed camel from Egypt. So Lucy extracts the camel by standing on the bed and reaching onto his shelf, then proceeds to have a tug of war with Pheebs and Poppy and guess what it was filled with?

Yes, it was snow! So we had snow in January after all! Notice the three devil dogs who did the damage, including the one trying to hide on the bed at the end of the corridor!

Anyway that's all from me for now, lets hope we have lots of bids on the donated week to raise money for the Gap dogs.

Catch you later, Waj x

Faith's Holidaze!

2007-12-26T18:56:00.000Z

Hello, Faith here agin, I haz been on hoilidaze! This iz how it happened. For a start there was no one in eiver of the holiday cottiges from Saturday 15th to Saturdiy 22nd December. Mum wanted Dad to go to Centreparcs, but he wuz too busy wiv the new cottige. So, she happened to mention this to Antie Chris Mawr (who bort Luce her squirrel bandana) when they were emailing each uvver. Chris said she wuz going to a place called Sennen Cove in Cornwall wiv her son Rudy, friend Chuf (they tells me that's a nickname!) and would Mum like to go wiv them as they had a spare bedroom. Well Mum has not been on holidaze wiv any of the dogs for some years, so decided she would take me to meet up wiv my grandchildren, Ellie and Poppy. Now I hav not been a long distance in the car for a long time and Jason took us up as far as Bristol in his Subaru and Chuf met Mum at Gordano and we went the rest of the way in his car. Unfortuately I threw up in the back of Jason's car, and then later threw up in the back of Chuf's car. Luckily I threw up on me blankit and it was only a hire car anyways. So if you're hiring a car from the Doncaster area .....................it waznt me!

Anyways, once we got there I felt better, then I met my new pack for the week.

This is Logan hiding his face and Ellie my granddaughter on top. Pippin and my other granddaughter Poppy on top, doesn't she look so much like Hestia?

Little lurcher Alfie who is only seven months old...................

William the eldest, he is 14 1/2 and once broke his neck, hard to believe now as he walked just as far as the rest of us!

Here they are all together..................................

We went to the beach and I did a bit of sunbathing.

Alfie dug a nole....................................................

I pretended to be in Colditz..................................

We all loved the beach.......................................

I went to the pub with Alfie...................................

We had some nice food there...............................

I slept in a different bed.............................

We went on the coast path..................................

We saw some nise views....................................

and an old shipwreck.......................................

then we wuz nearly there...................................

we ran out of land!

then we got to the end of the World!!!!

we found the last howse in de World........................

Good job I had me coat on cuz it wuz a bit chilly. Anyways we came back on Satiday and we wood like to fank Antie Chris, Rudy and Chuf for a brill holidaze.

I also want to fank Antie Ali who I haz never met but she was my secrit Santa on Greyhound Gap and Poppy and I had a luvverly bandana wiv our names on, a chewy and a toy each. Here's my bandana..................

Izn't it great? Waljan, Kish,Lucy, Phobe and Beryl would also like to thank their Secret Santa's Marcelle and family (Yummy on Gap) and Jen (JDG on Gap) and also Lucy's still anonymus Secret Santa as ther wuz no card in the parcil! Thank you all. That enuf for now better let Waj have hiz blog back.

Luff from the muchly travilled Faith x

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T10:10:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to one and all! No, we haven't got snow but I thought you would like a semi festive photo for the Christmas blog!

We the gang that is Kishka, Beryl, Poppy, Faith, Lucy and Phoebe and our humans Carol, Trevor and Jason would like to wish our readers, family, friends and visitors a very Happy Christmas, have a great day!

Waj x

Daddy's in the Doghowse!

2007-12-06T14:28:00.000Z

Helo Faith here,

I know I have not posted before, but I have to tell you that Daddy has been in the doghowse, as he did a really norty thing to me on Saturdiy night! He and Mum went to a party at Auntie Caroline and Uncle Paul's and had lots of alcy frol. Mum went straight to bed when she got in and Dad did the nightime dogrun.

All of us go on the nightime dogrun as we hav to wee before bedtime. Sometimes I dawdle a bit because of all the luverly smells that are about at that time of night, so I was a bit slow in gettin back to the gate. When I got back, he had let all the uvver dogs in, forgot I wuz still out and shut me outside the gate in the yard!

In fact, I got leftid out all night and Mummy wuz very VERY cross wiv him in the morning as I was all cold and wet and shiverin! I had to spend hours in the bed warming up and bein hand fed my breakfast. (I actually spent most of the night in the new cottage what is bein built, but I didn't tell them that! Just need them to make them feel guilty!). So really I wasn't THAT cold, but it wuz gale force winds, rain and hail all night. I was a bit stiff from standin outside the gate first thing in the mornin, but I iz feelin better now and don't fink that will EVER happen agin as Mummy is STILL cross 5 days later!

Also I wanted to say Fank you as I have a secret Santa on Greyhound Gap who has sent me and Poppy a present but Mummy haz put it away for Christmas. I am soo hexcited it haz almost made up for bein out all Saturdiy night!

Luff from Faith x

Awards night.

2007-11-25T16:15:00.000Z

Hi folks,

Well, the awards night came and went and they didn't win! Never mind, apparently they had a good night anyway. Here's a few of the photo's!

From left to right (for those new blog readers!). Jason, Andy (Dad's uncle), Mum (the hobbit in the group!), Janet (Dad's sister), Barbara Dad's mum, and finally Dad, looking very serious I might add! This was apparently taken before the awards were announced and I think he was a tad nervous!

Here they are having fun on the carousel, thay also went on the dodgems and the waltzer! Big kids! Mum and Dad looking smart for a change!

Mum and Andy, don't know why he's balancing on one leg, he looks like a heron!

Anyway, Mum wanted me to say a big thank you to all those who wrote in on our behalf, those who starred in the short film and those that gave up their time to stay in when the judges came round and of course all our visitors who support us year after year! Thank you all!!!!

Waj x

De jujiz hav bin an me new banddana!

2007-11-15T22:13:00.000Z

'Elo lucy ear agin,

We girlz wur lukin out of de windoow last weak and saw Mumi in de farmyarde wiv de jujiz for dat award witch she iz up four. Well, Mumi had staid off wurk in de mornin to tidi de howse four when dey came, but, dey dident cum in to see uz dogs at all! Instead dey wen to Dumpledale and sore Cherry and Stuart den dey wen to Swallowz danse and spok to Sue an her fwend Ian. Dey den wen to de carivan an tawked to Joe, who iz reali Boozboss! I wuz reali dissipointe az I wanted to jump up theyer nize cleen close to show em how fwendly I wuz!

Tawkin abowt Boo, he came four a dogrun wiv uz on de Satiday an had a gud tyme apart from wontin to go ome haf way rowned. Well, at leest Kish an Waj dident eat im, hee, hee………………………………….

Mumi and Jayson went to a car show on Satiday an took de bloo car an de yelow car. I iz NOT alowed to go cuz I alwiz frows up in de back seet!

Did I tells yoo I hav a new banddana frum Anty Chris Mawr? She wen to Amerika earliyer in de yeer and bowrt it bak for mi! Hear is Anty Faith modeling it four me as wen Mumi took de pikture, I wuz havin a sleep! Don’t it luk veri fetchin? Yelow is DEFINITLY mi color!

Aniways, I hav to go now cuz Waj wants de puter bak.

Luv from Lucy x (now bak to bein de onli wun agin!)

That radio thing and someone put the clocks back!

2007-11-01T21:26:00.000Z

Hi folks,
Before we start, that dratted whippet was complaining that she hasn't been in any posts lately so just to remind you, here's Lucy........................
Looking very naughty I might add! Anyway, onto that radio thing. Well,

what a big disappointment! It was today that Mum was on the radio, but no one knew it was going to be on! She had emailed radio Pembrokeshire on Monday, asking when it was going to be on and didn't have a reply. She emailed again yesterday and no reply again. Today she happens to be in the car going to work, only by chance having the radio on, to hear that Carol Davies from Little Dumpledale was going to be on in a couple of minutes! Stopping the car she frantically phones everyone she can think of who wanted to listen, and heads on to work. No chance to record it or anything, so that was that!

Anyway, somebody put the clocks back but didn't tell us dogs! Yesterday morning it is 7.30am, we go out for our morning dogrun at 7.00am so I thought I would wake them up! Firstly I scratch on the door, so Dad lets me in to go and lie on the dogbed in the bedroom. Mum is complaining that it's only half past six. She's silly, doesn't she think I know EXACTLY what time it is?

No one makes any move to get up, so I jump on the bed in between them. They think I am just getting comfortable to go back to sleep for another half hour. However this is NOT what I have in mind, hee, hee. Being on the large and heavy side I parks my back against Mum, flex my legs against Dad's back and push! Mum shoots out of bed and onto the floor! It was soooo funny! Of course as soon as she's out of bed I jump off and am ready to go, so as she's up she has to take us! I love the morning dogrun, in fact I love ALL our dogruns!!

Anyway, better scoot off now as it's nearly time for the evening dogrun, usually lots of exciting smells on that one!

Catch you later, Waj x

Mum's on the radio!

2007-10-28T12:27:00.000Z

Well, apparently Mum is going to be famous again this week! She was briefly famous once some years ago when she was job shadowed by the BBC and was in the "Money Programme!"

Anyway, because our business has reached the finals of the Pembrokeshire Business Awards, Tourism Category, she was interviewed for radio on Monday and was filmed on Tuesday! They also filmed some of the guests including Penny the lurcher who came with her humans Clive and Raynah and also Linus and gang from the caravan who came with their humans, Colin, Lynne and Jackie.

The radio interview is going to be on one morning next week between 9am to 10am on the At work network on Radio Pembrokeshire, here is the link http://www.radiopembrokeshire.com/ Some of you may be able to listen to it over the Internet if you want to! There is also going to be a piece in the local paper! The winners of the category will be announced at a presentation ceremony on 22nd November at Folly Farm. I think I should go, as I'm definitely the star that everyone comes here to see, now what did I do with that black tie?......................................... Anyway fingers crossed for them as it's a £500 first prize and Mum has promised us some pigs ears if we win!

We had our usual dinner last week, I took a bit of a fancy to Lynne and gave her the old eyeball first....................................................

Ooooh, I love it when she tickles me there...................................................

We also had Lucky and gang in Dumpledale with their humans, their Mum is Annyetta who is Agilitymad on the Refuge. Anyway, that's all the news for now, if we find out which day Mums going to be on, we'll let you now.

Waj x

Holiday-Dog Blog

2007-10-23T07:33:00.000Z

Hello, my name for Waj's blog purposes is HD short for Holiday-Dog. I have many names and different Mum's and Dad's, for last week I borrowed Waljan's who I called WM (Waljan's Mum) and WD (Waljan's Dad. Here I am..........................................
This is the beach where I go most days, this is in Pefkos in Rhodes..........

These are the Martina apartments I visit............................. This is the diary that I kept last week.

Wednesday: WM and WD arrived. I was outside in the gardens sleeping off a dinner and they made a fuss of me and told me about Waljan and his friends back home in Britain. Sounds very cold to me. Brrrrr....

Thursday:doing my afternoon rounds, they offered me some biscuits, which I buried for later on in the year, biscuits are not my favourite! I then followed them in and had a sleep on the sofa........................
And a little roach..................apparently hound dogs do this WM tells me.
They then went out for dinner here they are................ so I waited for them on the patio............... When they came back WD bought a meat kebab which he shared with me. During the night I slept on the patio again and in the morning the airer with WM's washing was all over the floor. She thought I had run into the airer in the dark and being frightened ran away with it. That was until the note was pushed under the door.

Hi, Sorry to trouble you. The dog attacked your washing line and ran off with a top. I have put them back outside you room, everything has been on the floor. Am in the room above you, regards Wendy. Oh dear caught out! Hee, hee it was fun though!

Friday: We had breakfast and I walked to the beach with them, as soon as they went in the sea I went off on my rounds. I came back later and followed them back to the apartments but got sidetracked by a woman feeding those darned cats.

I then adopted that couple for the evening............................

Saturday: I didn't visit at all which is a shame 'cos they'd saved me some kebab.

Sunday: I had Saturday's kebab with some milk for breakfast.

Monday: they saw me briefly but I went off on my rounds again after being given a biscuits by another couple in the snack bar which I left. Told you I wasn't keen on biscuits!

Tuesday and Wednesday: Sadly I didn't see them again as our going out times crossed so thank you Waj for letting me post on your blog and lending me your Mum and Dad briefly.

WM hopes I have a home somewhere and I will get looked after during the winter, but that is my secret. I am a friendly fellow and have stashed food around just in case. WM told Sergios to look after me and she will come and see me next year. He said "no problem" so we shall see.

All the best to you all, HD

Gallivanting again!

2007-10-02T17:42:00.000Z

Well, here we are again with another month gone by! Mum and Dad have been gallivanting off to the Midlands this time as it was Grace and Paddy's human's 50th birthday party. Sorry for publishing your age Auntie Sue! Hee hee! Apparently, Mum embarrassed herself performing on the stage and Uncle Matthew filmed it all on his phone and threatened to put it on the blog so we can all have a laugh, I can't wait! While we are waiting for the incriminating video, here are some photo's of my humans in Rome, taken on Dad's phone as Mum left the camera at home, silly woman!
Dad in one of the churches.............................
That ceiling is certainly tall enough for him!

Dad's fountain (you remember, the Trevi fountain hee hee!)

As you can see, Mum actually went this time 'cos here's her photo by another fountain but she can't remember what it was called!

Anyway, less of them traipsing about all over the place, lets get back to the visitors. We have met lots more nice people since my last post, but the wildest week has to go to Auntie Lisa from Gap! During that week, there was a couple of nights Mum can't even remember getting to bed apparently!

On the last night before Auntie Lisa went home it was her birthday. We (that's me and the girls) were all sitting on our window ledge watching the antics. Firstly they all go over to Swallow's Dance and sink copius amounts of cider, wine and beer. Then they all decide to have a midnight swim and end up absolutely paraletic in the jacuzzi at about half past one! There were seven of them all together getting into the jacuzzi and from where we were, we could hear all the water plopping out over the top as they all got in together! They're a mad lot!

We currently have the Beastly Beasts staying and if you want to read their holiday file, Beastbreak at Swallow's Dance, click this link: http://thebeastlybeasts.co.uk/beastblog/index.php I hope that'll work!

I am waiting to be properly introduced to Lucy, she's soooo gorgeous. Rosie looks nice too and just my size! Anyway, hopefully we'll have some more pictures by the end of the week as it is Mum's birfday Thursday and we're partying again, oh well at least we get the leftovers!

Catch you all later then, it's about time for supper!

Waj x

Greyhounds in Furberry

2007-08-28T16:36:00.000Z

Hi folks,

How are you all? Can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last posted. Things are really busy on the farm in the summer and Dad is working hard to finish off our new cottage which we'll be letting next year.

Of course what do they do then in the middle of the summer hols? Take a midweek break to somewhere called Rome where Dad owns a fountain. I think he must own it 'cos it's called the Trevi fountain! Apparently if you chuck a coin in, it ensures you go back to Rome one day, silly waste of money if you ask me. Dad had the right idea, he gave Mum all of 20p to throw in, perhaps she'll get as far as Haverfordwest next time!

Anyway, thanks to Kerry and Dave for looking after the jacuzzi, Jason for looking after us, Andy for doing the birds and all the visitors who looked after themselves while they were away!
Talking about visitors, our friends Star and Molly came down to stay in Swallow's Dance again. Their Mum, Ceri went to America earlier on in the year and bought them some Furberry caps (that's Burberry for dogs!). Star wasn't too keen to be photographed in his, can see your point mate, it's not a boy thing! Molly however was happy to pose and looked quite stylish in pink!

What do you think then?

Also been meaning to show you part of our dogrun where we go everyday. This is the field at the back where we start off. Mostly together to start with as you can see.......................

Then some of us have a race down, thats us, the tiny dots at the bottom of the picture! Faith and Poppy are a bit slower these days!

Then the path gets a bit narrower...............................................

Then Mum runs out of memory in the camera, so will have show you the rest another time!

Have also got to report that I injured my leg in the week and was a bit lame so Mum brought me breakfast in bed.

I'm feeling better now though and back on the dogrun. That's all for now then as it's nearly teatime.

Catch you later,

Waj

Waj haz a trym and de three Lucy's!

2007-07-30T08:37:00.000Z

'Ello Luce ear,

Waj iz sulkin at de mowment as he had iz fur cliped by Anty Karen oo cam dowen to stai in Swallow's Danze wiv her dogs Edie and Bird and Jo's dogiz Boo and Gyp. Karen is Bonniebird on the Refhuge and Joe is Boosboss.They allso bowrt anova dog, Molly, wiv them as a treet. Hear ar sum pikturs of Waj's trimm and owr dogi gests. We allso ad sum coleze in Dumpledale and a novi scoshi duck tolin reetreever, I fink dats how yoo spel it, wiv there Mum and Dad, Jane and Rob.

Hear is Edie. She is an inglish toy terror. I fink thas wot Mum said.

This is Bird who is blynd. .

Hear is Gyp havin a swim.

This is Molly at de frunt and Boo behind playin in de see.

Hear is Waj havin is trym. dont fink he wanted to luk!

Down't luk veri impresed does he?

Anty Karen and he luks loike they fell owt in dis one! Heee, hee.................

When dey'd all finished he luked veri hansum so he felt beter then!

We all ad a barbee q on de satiday nite, then on sundi Mumi waz veri poowerly and had dire ear four four dayze (nofin too do wiv de barbee q I mite add as everi one els wuz ok)! As she wuz off wurk, we hellped her to get beter by lieing on the bed and keepin her warme, even tho she had a tempurature. Us nursin staf tuk owr dutize veri seeriusli and tuk it in shiffts to git on de bedd, useulee five at a tyme, but Waj allwais taks up too plaices so sumtims there wuz onli rume four four! By frydai she wuz betta so they went too de pub four dinna, here they are.

I az also bean woonded, Feebs and I wer play fite ing agin and I got bitted cos she wuz too ruff wiv mee. Oh woe me poowerely side! Anty Jane, Waj sais sorri he culdnt put de collee pikturs in de blog as Mumi aksidently delited them, if yoo culd send them agin, Waj wil put dem on again.

Last weak we ad three Lucy whipets! Karen, Stewart and Charlotte bowrt there Lucy and her fwends and Becki who iz Palm on Gap bowrt there Lucy and her fwend Paddy. We missd de first Lucy az she ad to go earli but hear are piktures of de other lucy's.

I'm luking in a miror, i fink............................. Hears Paddy wiv the too Lucy's..............................

Havin me bum snifed..............................................it's a dog fing!

Hi too de uver gests who av bin too! Ad better let Waj get bak on de blog next tyme now hes finishd sulkin over hiz trym! Sees yoo soon.

Lucy Lu 3,

xxx

Horses, dogs and cats!

2007-07-01T13:37:00.000Z

Hi folks how are you all?

Before we get to the news stories this week, I must say we have had some talented photographers in the last few weeks. Here are a few taken by Glen's Mum, Sandra, when they came to stay in the caravan recently. From left to right, my mate Glen who also reads the blog, Tia in the middle and Keira. Don't collies love their toys? Glen's toy is in fact Tia!

This is one of our horses, Bea who is retired from riding but is a companion to Gizmo. She is an Irish Draught Cob cross.

A baby swallow waiting for food on the garden fence

and a lovely photo of Gizmo otherwise known as Travellers Tale. He is an Irish Sports horse, whatever that means, haven't seen him throwing the javelin, playing football or anything, perhaps he's better at jumping?

Thanks to Sandra for sending the photo's.

Now, lets catch up on the latest news from the farm. Talking about Gizmo, the big news is that Mum has started horse riding again! She has been out on him twice in the last two weeks and is now walking about like John Wayne! Apparently she used to do a lot of it years ago, but hasn't been on now for about 4/5 years. I couldn't believe it when she went out the bottom gate and got on that huge hairy animal! I personally prefer them as steaks!

This is Giz with Andy, who previously had him on loan, but has bought him this week! So, he is now officially a full time resident Dumpledale horse. Andy, as many of you will know is Dad's uncle, but as Granny had him very late in life, he isn't much older than Dad. He also spends a lot of time on the farm with his dogs and comes to all the barbeques. I have been meaning for some time to post some photo's of the Pocket Rocket and gang, so here they are courtesy of Stephanie. Stephanie came down a few weeks ago and stayed with two lots of people from the Refuge over two weeks! She could be a professional holiday cadger as well as a professional photographer, 'cos her photo's were brilliant too.

This is Hugo otherwise known as Hugo Bossonova..............................

Calvin, Cally for short, full title Calvin Canine the designer dog!

Magic, Madge for short, full title Black Magic...........................................

Zara, full name Princess Zara
The gang all together with the Pocket Rocket at the front...................................
Well I think I'm all photo-ed out for the time being! Hope it stops raining soon, I can't get my fur dry!

Oh err, nearly forgot about the cat bit! Just to let you know that the greycatwotlivsonthewindowsill has gone to the Cats Protection league to find him a nice home where he won't get mauled by the big-ginga-cat or those pesky whippets. He had been limping for a few days, (wasn't us this time!) so he went to the vets and on to be rehomed. They say he won't be waiting long as he is a beautiful blue colour which is very popular so that's good news for him anyway.

Catch you later, Waj x

Ascot and Aliens

2007-06-22T16:40:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to another edition of the blog. We have had lots more visitors since the last blog but one I especially wanted to say hi to is Trixter! Here he is..............................
Trixter was a racing greyhound until he retired recently, but what was more he was a good racing greyhound which means he still finds small furry things very exciting. Kate and Gareth (his humans) are experienced sighthound people and last time they came on hols, they bought Mr. Mac and Sophie their greyhounds with them. Sadly, they lost them both within a short space of time last year and in the meantime had a human puppy called Scarlett! This means that now some rescues won't home dogs with them, as they have a child under 4. Luckily, the rescue they had their last greys from made an exception (very wise too), so Trixter is now in his forever home. He tells me he hadn't done much socialising when he was racing, so everything was a bit new to him. He came to dinner with his Mum and Dad but got a tiny bit excitable with Poppy (the Jack Russell) so we put her in the bedroom and he was fine with everyone else and luurved the ladieees! All the humans were very pleased with him, so keep it up mate!

Anyway, the big story of the week is that Mum went to Ascot yesterday and upset our routine entirely! Dad was supposed to be going too, but he did his back in at the weekend lifting lintels onto the scaffolding and didn't feel he could sit on a coach for 5 hours at a stretch. So, young Jason went instead. Here they are...

The rest of the gang who went................................

Jason knocking back the champagne about 11 am!!

What it meant for us at home, was that we had to get up for a walk at 4 in the morning, as Mum and Jay had to get on the coach at 5am!! Yikes!! It felt like we'd only just gone to bed! Luce of course was up for it, streaking about looking for badgers that hadn't quite made it back to bed. I'm not THAT active first thing, I have to say! Anyway, once we'd been out, that meant we could have a lay in till 10am. A lot more civilised!

Talking about sleep, that reminds me I must tell you about a strange dream I had last week. I dreamed I was out in the garden and surrounded by little white feathery aliens...................weird!It was very scary. Then there were more of them, they seemed to be multiplying.........................

Then there was more.......they were all around me..................even some black ones behind bars..

EEEkk, I was sooooo scared......................................

Then, they all just seemed to vanish, even the very last one.................What a monster!

Anyone else get weird dreams like that? No? Perhaps it was just me then!

Phoebe? No she's far too sensible................................I think?

Anyway, must be off then, got another couple of hours kip in the sun before tea!

Catch you later, Waj x

What do you do on holiday?

2007-06-01T15:48:00.000Z

Well, as some of you may know, Mum and Dad are building a new holiday cottage so that more of my doggie pals can stay on their holidays. Last week the roof trusses arrived (yes, I'm getting very knowledgeable about building materials these days, I even have breeze blocks to pee up!). So here are some of the roof trusses in place...............................
Trev and Andy lifting the trusses and who's that in the middle?

Would you rope your current holiday guests in to help you lift the said trusses onto the wall plate? Oh yes they would!! The one in the middle is Paul who came to stay in Dumpledale last week! They have no shame!............

There was only 38 of the things and they were very heavy I can tell you, 'cos later in the afternoon once they had all been lifted into place and battened together, a huge big gust of wind came and blew them all down like a pack of domino's! The air was blue! Luckily they didn't fall on anyone though and they stayed up on the roofspace so they didn't have to be lifted up again.

Dad would like to say a big thanks to Paul and Andrea (for those people on the Refuge, that's Safneo) for helping out. Paul for doing the lifting and Andrea for letting him, when they would probably rather been doing something more pleasant! So, if you're coming on hols this summer, don't forget your hard hat and work boots!

Back to doggie things, Kish has got a poorly paw at the moment so wasn't let on the dogrun today. I didn't realise she wasn't going till we were out in the backfield and she wasn't there for me to chase, so I had to make do with lunging at Bear instead who wasn't impressed! These two had a good run though, do you think they've bonded?

One last one of that dratted whippet in the bed, she's a right diva!

Hi to all our new blog readers from Dogs with blogs linky thing here http://www.dogswithblogs.com.au/ I looked through and I think I am the only deerhound with a blog and Luce is the only whippet contributor although Bella has a whippet sister, hi Bella!

Anyway, must be nearly time for tea so I'll have a quick nap before then. It's about time Mum cut my fringe, what do you think?

Catch you later, Waj x

Belated birfday blog

2007-05-14T07:29:00.000Z

Hi folks, Waj here again, dash it, that whippets spelling gets worse every day!
Well, I missed doing my birthday blog on my birthday as we had a party instead, but, I did have a good, well, two birthdays actually! Mum originally thought my birthday was the 25th of April, but on my vaccination card it says the 27th, so what's a fellow to do but to celebrate twice! As it happens, my first birthday was shared by one of our visitors, John. I was two, and John and I had a birthday cake between us with two candles on, he looked a bit older than that mind, but I let him blow the candles out anyway!
We have had lots of visitors since my last blog and have had some people from a dog rescue and chat site called the Refuge, Mum says they are called Fugees, strange name if you ask me! One of the ladies who is called Stephanees (I think that's what they called her) took some luurverly photos of us and here's a really nice one of me, just after I had finished counter surfing the table for any stray food!
What do you think then, I see I left a couple of crumbs! She also took some nice shots of Andy's dogs which I will post next time, we haven't had a proper photo of Rocket yet!

We also had some SOL people too, that's sighthounds on line to those uninitiated http://www.sighthoundsonline.org.uk/ if you want to take a look. Mum has just given them a week in the caravan to auction, to raise money to help dogs who are not as well off as we are. So, off you go folks and place your bids, there's bound to be lots to choose from!
Better shoot off now and have a doze until the main dogrun.
Catch you later, Waj x

'ello from Luce.

2007-04-23T17:56:00.000Z

'Ello, as Anty Corin says, Lucy heer agin!

Waljan haz bean puting sum reely norty pikturs of me on the blog. Just beecaws I liks mi food, I downt see that he haz to put mi piktur in wiv mi hed in the bag! Not that won wiv the fox poo on mi hed, I am not speekin to im now! It downt mater thow, cos i hav a new fwend in Feebee. We goes everiwear together and mak lots of nois wen we play fite. You wood thinks we realy hait each over, but we downt and we runs together veri fast. Mi cosin Gracie cam to stay last weak, wiv Paddy her fwend who is a cosin of Faith so we wuz all cosins together! We also had sum EENORMOOSE dogs in the farmhaws, Waljan sais they are called Grate Drains or perhaps thats wot Dadi calls them. Hear is a piktur of them wiv there Dad on the beach, they wuz called Frankie and Neko.
Cumon Dad giv us the ball!

They bort there humans too who wer called Susannah and Fred, and Gracie and Paddy bort theirs to, Sue and Bry. Funni how we dogs hav to tak owr humans everiwere!
Grace and Paddy hav bean down lots of times now and Gracie rites to Waj on the blog and sumtims speeks to me to! Heer is my cosin Grace, she's neerly as pretti as me!

Heer is Paddy who is Faith's cosin.........................

We herd last weak that one of owr Beastly Beast fwends had died, we ar all veri sad as we enjoid goin for walks wiv them last yeer. All owr pac sends owr gud thorts to owr fwends the Beastly Beasts and ther humans, Chris and Gill.
Yoo mai want to now what we hav bean mowstly eating in the last month, besids the dog food. Well, we has had sum nois wireing from Jasons compewter, a modem cabel, a BIG cardbawd box wich went into lots of peeces in the gardin, an hole pacit of chewin gum and sum dry weetibics wich Mumi was goin to giv to the chickins but me and Feebs had it furst! it didnt harf stick roun the teef thow, we wus tryin for ages to get it off!
Anyways, hear are sum of my favorit photos of our gang and a current who's who, by the wai it is Waljan's birfday next weak. He will be 2, I supose he will do a birfday blog.

Waljan...........................................lookin harey

A Bear in the corn....................................

Kishka in the grass............................

Faith in the bed.....................................so am I useualy!

Me lying on my favorit blankit...................................

Phoebe in the feeld...........................................

and Poppy of the pies.................downt now what it meens but Mum and Dad call her that!

I fink that wuz seven of us wasint it? Anyways better go befour Waj catchis me, it wuz nois to talk to youz all four a chainge.

Lucy Lu x