Hamish is starting to like me

Woof-oh, and greetings from Ballarat.

I've been staying at Gran and Pa's place for 3 days now, and I think Hamish is starting to really like me. At lunch time when Jude have me a carrot to chew Hamish stole my carrot when I was looking away. He ran around and around the living room holding it in his mouth. Jude said he looked like Groucho Marx - smoking a huge cigar.

Eventually Hamish stopped showing off and got down to eating my carrot! What a cheek - but it's almost worth it to have him liking me. 

Hamish is not happy!

Eureka! This is Toby reporting in from Ballarat. 

I don't know what's up with Hamish - I don't understand why he keep running away from me? I'm sure he'd really enjoy playing games with me if he just tried. At the moment he just keeps running into places where I can't fit. I can't work out why. Wait for me Hamish! 

Well if Hamish won't play with me I think I might try teaching myself to knit. Not sure why, but suddently everyone got stressed and came running at me and telling me to "Drop the wool!" - maybe because it was attached to the half knitted back of a jumper?  I was just checking out the wool, an essential part of my new career as a knitter. I don't know what they are worried about - there are plenty of other balls of wool in Gran's knitting bag -  maybe I'll just go and get one of those. 

Ballarat holiday

Woofetty-woof and hello.

I'm quite excited! Good news - I'm going to see my good friend Hamish in Ballarat tomorrow. I'm staying over for a few days ... I'm sure he'll be glad to see me! I kow when we visited the beach at Christmas time that he pretended that he didn't like playing chasey with me ... but he's probably changed his mind now. 

I'll take Jude with me too - it's so much easier to get to Ballarat when she drives us, as opposed to walking. 

In the photo below I'm planning what I'll pack to take with me - so far I'm thinking: food, my bed, my favourite toy, a few treats to share with Hamish ... 

I'll report in on how things go with Hamish ... he he he

Toby

Tough day at work today

Woof - oh!

I had a hard day at work today - had to run outside and check that the washing was drying correctly about 200 times. By the way, I'd like to clarify that I am not responsible for the washing that 'falls' off the line. We live in a very windy location and I think items simply fall off when hit by particularly strong gusts of wind.. 

Anyway, I'm exhausted now - see proof here >. Now if the humans would stop waking me up by taking my photo I'd be grateful! (Jude was grumbling something about this making up for me waking her up at 11:30 PM last night when she had just got to sleep - and I was just trying to show her how much I loved her by licking her ear. You think she'd be grateful wouldn't you.)

Sleep easy, Tobes

A dog's work is never done

Woofs! Hope all is well with you. :)

Sad news - our friend Steve's much loved dog, Milly, passed away today. RIP Milly. I know you had a great life and that your human family loved you very much!

Since Jude heard about Milly she's been feeling sad - so I've been working extra hard on being cute / annoying / clever to cheer her up. I even let her have the ball to throw for me without a tug of war - that's a world record!

I am blogging today, to keep you up to date with my latest gardening achievements - in the backyard - and I think you're going to like what I've done with the place. You know that beautiful acacia cognata I showed you back in October? (see here on the right >> it used to look like the first photo) ... Well I've fashioned it into my backyard control tower come dog cave. Where the branches used to gently brush the grass I've chomped through many many small branches and fashioned a large doorway - now I can get in here easily to spy on kangaroos, magpies and cockatoos feasting on the common on the other side of our fence. I haven't quite finished yet - you'll see that there are still a few (dying) branches remaining in the doorway that I haven't finished chewing through. I'll get onto them next week.  My dog cave / control tower is now flooded with dappled sunlight, making it easier for me to find and retrieve the treasures I store here.
... One small step for Airedales, one giant leap for landscape design ... 
That reminds me, I must check the RMIT course list and see if there's a horticultural course I could sign up for - I hear they offer lots of TAFE courses!

Phew it was hot last week. It didn't really bother me - I quite liked being given ice cubes and lying near the air conditioner vent. But it really slowed the humans down and they weren't keen to go for long walks. It was a great relief therefore, that the weather has changed and it's much cooler now. I've been for long walks both Saturday and today and have found much to sniff, investigate and in some instances, pee on. Did I mention that I've taught myself to cock my leg when I pee? I'm very proud of my achievement. Being able to lift my leg allows me much more accuracy in securing my scent on desirable targets, plus it means I get much less pee on my own feet! That's a good thing because Jude used to say that I was gross when my paws got messy.

One bad thing about the hot days - I was 'helping' Craig water the outside plants (this involves jumping into the stream of water coming from the hose and biting it) when he decided that it would be a good idea to get me wet all over so I could cool down. I didn't like that one bit - the water was cold, plus it messed up my curls! Don't worry, I thought of a way to train Craig so he wouldn't do it again - as soon as we went inside I ran around the house wiping my wet sides along the walls - he he he! I'll leave you imagining how he reacted. Woof-oh!
Toby

Visitor Alert: Aunty Sandy

I LURVE visitors!

Woof, and pant pant pant. Sorry about that unusual greeting - you might have heard the humans complaining about the heat lately, and to be totally honest I have been feeling it myself, puffing and panting a bit (I've learned to lie near the air conditioner vents - so that's nice) but I just don't understand why they don't want to hgo outside and play games or go for a nice long walk just because it's 44 degrees. What a bunch of whimps!

We had a visitor, we had a visitor! It was fabulous fun. Aunty Sandy came to stay overnight and I love-love-loved meeting her. I'm not sure that she loved me quite as much back, cos she says she generally doesn't like dogs that much, as you might be able to tell from the nervous way she gave me a cuddle (see the photo >>). But she did say I was cute (no surprise about that) and volunteer to have her photo taken with me, so I think I had an impact. It was a bit tiring having Aunty Sandy staying over though because:

• she and the humans stayed up late chatting, and
• because I had to go downstairs and check that she was OK about 200 times during the night - unfortunately Aunty Sandy had her bedroom door closed everytime I went down so I couldn't get in and give her a big kiss like I wanted to. 

What I learned from meeting Aunty Sandy is that I just love meeting new people, even if I do need to sleep the whole next days to get over the excitement. If I was a human I think I'd look for a job in PR, maybe for a beer company? If you're reading this could you come and visit me please - I need more people to play with ...

Now, I'm off to crunch up an ice-block in my dog cave (that is under the dining room table in the air conditioning) - life is tough!

Woofs.

What the Christmas ...?

Woof-oh (or should that be woof-ho ho ho?). Sorry I haven't posted for a while - I was getting over the shock of the back of our house being vandalised! Well what else would you call it when a human attaches strings with hundreds (maybe thousands?) of lights to the house for no apparent reason? But wait, it gets even worse - as soon as it begins to get dark each evening, the humans turn on said lights, which fills my eyes with a cacophony of blinking, flashing, strobing lights!!! I'm horrified. I just hope none of the other dogs who live in the Valley realise that it's my house that is making such a show of itself each night.
(Extra info: I noticed last night that some of the other houses across the valley are getting similar lights on their rooves too - maybe it's a trend? Good to know that it's not just my humans that are going mental ... )
I'm not quite sure what all this Christmas fuss is about - stay posted and I'll let you know if I approve.

Now in important news, this week Craig took me to get another haircut. As you can see, I'm looking fine ...
This haircut was from a lady based in Moonee Ponds who has had lots of practice of doing Airedale haircuts - now I look like one of those flashy show dogs!  The shop was a long way from home - and Craig had to drive me there in peak hour traffic. I don't think he enjoyed the peak hour driving, but I'm not sure because I was so busy looking out the windows as we drove along, checking out whether people were noticing me and how cute I am.

The lady in the shop was good at haircuts, but not so good at diplomacy - she told Craig that I was overweight - can you imagine that?

So now I'm all set for a long hot summer - nice short coat to beat the heat. The day after my haircut was the coldest December day recorded in Victoria in about a billion years - there was even snow on the mountains a bit north of us I heard! I think Craig needs to work on his timing.

I'm please to report that I don't look like I am wearing cowboy pants after this haircut. I'm sure you'll agree - I do look super cute now.