Farewell to my Dogfather

My adored dogfather is moving overseas for an uncertain length of time and already I miss him.I heard that he's going to a place called Paris,I get the impression that it more than a short drive away. Merde!! ( WOW I'M BILINGUAL!)

In our last time together he told M and me about the book "A Dog's Life" by Peter Mayle and together we read his "Advice to the Young Dog". He also talked to me about my responsibilities as an almost adult dog - I turn one very soon - scary to admit but it is time for me to step up.

Dog pie

It's Not what you think!

Kangaroos and barbed wire fences

Lets faces facts I’m an urban dog, I make no pretence of having rural aspirations, but now I found myself on a farm and it was early and I was going to make the most of this new situation. G flung the door open the air was fresh and laden with the smell of, well lets just say it was overloaded. Whilst taking it all in, a mob of those kangaroo creatures appeared along the horizon line – all I can say is that they are lucky that they were on the other side of the wire fence.

Farm Weekend 1

It started as just another Friday afternoon in August, G took me around to play with pudding but then after dinner everything shifted. Instead of heading home with M and G, Pudding and his humans got in the car as well and we headed out of the city.

After a lot of dozing on M's lap (in between bouts of mutual sniffing and licking with Pudding) the car pulled off the bitumen road and N got out of the car to open a gate. We all tried to peer through the darkness as the car bounced across grass and rocks towards a small cottage.

As we piled out of the car, a flock of strange leaping creature bounded past - M tells me they are kangaroos. There were so many new smells and so many new sorts of droppings on the ground - it was exhilarating and Pudding I were looking forward to the morning!

This is the view I saw out the window when I woke up - waking up M and G as well. Soon they were also up and it was time to explore...

Mountains Weekend 2

This is me on my first bushwalk - well obviously I am not walking in this photo but this is because G has lifted me up so I can see the view. We found a walk to 'Bushranger's cave' which was not part of the National Park which meant it was ok for me tag along. (We won't go into the whole dog ban, national park thing. I am not quite sure how I feel about all of that!)

The walk started at the top of a huge valley - it was quite beautiful and M and G assured me the view out over the valley was just as good as at the tourist traps in the National Park near Katoomba.

Mountains Weekend 1

Way back at the end of July we went up to the Blue Mountains for the weekend. Not just M and G, but also M's Mum, Dad and Brother and then her friends from Canberra the next day. It was very exciting to have so many of my favorite humans around.

At first I was a little worried about the climate - as we got out of the car when we arrived I began to shiver quite violently - I reluctantly agreed to get into a polar fleece jumpsuit. It was bitingly cold but in the house we had smokey fires to curl up in front of and as long as you kept moving when outside it was actually quite refreshing. The sky was blue and the air was clean. The grass was also all white and crunchy in the mornings - when I relieved myself steam rose up from the ground!

But really it was the fires that excited me the most. They have more personality the the grey heater back at home. They snap and crackle, the warmth has an ebb and flow - they almost seem to breathe. I must say that I like the smell as well - they were wood fires and I could still smell the smoke on when we went outside - it was a comforting reminder of what we had to look forward to when we went back in.

M's mother took the photo of me on the left - apparently it is now on her fridge and she thinks I am looking pleading. But I want her to know it is not my pleading look - it is my interested one - it was nice to spend more time with M's parents and to get to know them better.