Where have all the squirrels gone?

I went for a walk to one of my favourite parks this week and was VERY disappointed by the lack of squirrels, despite me pretty much stalking around in a low crouch THE WHOLE WAY. So if I wasn't scaring them off, where have they gone? Well - I have two hypotheses (am trying to be more scientific B3!).

One: Squirrels are spotlight-grabbing media-loving wannabees. The BBC is filming 'Autumnwatch' locally on Brownsea Island. The island is famous for its red squirrel population. Clearly the local greys have got themselves a bad dye job and shipped off to the island to join in the fun.

Two: They have been roasted and eaten on a Portuguese Fireplace. Whilst on a walk in the New Forest last weekend I happened across some young boys skinning and roasting squirrels. I would have joined in but prefer to do the skinning myself.

Either way it is bad news for the local dog population. Perhaps now Autumnwatch is over they'll come back to their home parks. In the meantime I'm having to pretend that small fluffy dogs and birds are worth chasing, but it's not really the same.

October at Wasdale Head

I've just got back from my hols in the Lake District. The Lake District is a very beautiful place, very open and great to run about in, except for the perplexing thing that you seem to have to be on the lead all the time. Perhaps it has something to do with these woolly things on the hills?

The views from the top of the mountains were awesome, when mum let me get anywhere near enough an edge to see. You can just about make out our little white cottage in the valley below us on this pic:

It's very windy on the hills though - plays havoc with a man's jowls!

It wasn't all extreme hills though, we did find some pretty valleys and EVEN some areas where I was allowed off the lead.


The best bit of the trip was meeting the very famous Redgirls! I behaved like a true gent and even lent Berta my (spare) coat when it got a bit wet and miserable.

Berta took a real liking to my dad.

We went for a nice walk and then to a pub for lunch (appropriately called the Dog and Gun). I have corrupted the Redgirls cos it turned out to be their first pub outing. Just giving them a taste of city life. We even went into some SHOPS! In fact I'm very jealous cos they got some fab new coats and I really do want one. I'm still pretty skinny so the absence of any body fat means I do feel the cold a bit. Maybe I can get one for Christmas?

The Redgirls liked the open spaces the best and took off playing madly. I wasn't going to join in with all that female play so let them get on with it.

Here's me with my mum - turns out the latest issue of Your Dog magazine had a walk in the valley next to ours. This is me and mum on the bridge that they featured. Maybe if we send it in they will publish it!?

Here's me and my dad doing the atmospheric brooding men shot.

Birthday boy

Happy 2nd birthday to me! Sorry I've been so quiet recently. I've been poorly (again!) and I've been a bit embarrassed to tell anyone :-( I had an upset tummy and apparently have inflammatory bowel disease so have just started taking lots and lots of pills which is quite rubbish. Here's me modelling a rather fetchingly coloured bandage after my endoscopy. You can see I've gone a bit size zero again although my pills ought to fix that. I'm VERY hungry if anyone wants to send anything? Aunty Di has been great with the advice and I'm hoping to meet the Redgirls in person (YAY!) when I go up north next month.


In the meantime I've had a busy time since I last posted. I had my half bro Rufus over to play with my best buddy Radar - here is us making John stand still at the beach. Devil of a job, keeping those humans still you know. It took all our combined energy.

And best of all we went to see Aunty Kate with Dexter and, the best Vizsla in the world, Ditto! Ditto was very odd, she was playing all hard to get and kept curling her lip at me but I knew it was all for show really. We had great fun bouncing in the fields together.



So I'm back and bouncy and trying to persuade dad that getting a buddy is a really good idea. Look at Rocket! Look at Ellie! He's not so sure though. So we might have to wait a while :-(

My first rosette

Last weekend I went to my first ever show! It was a local show for the Margaret Green Foundation - an animal rescue centre. I entered the 'any variety - sporting' class with about 30 other dogs, including 3 other Vizslas! I wasn't too into this showing lark - it's pretty boring and then some weird person grabs you and then you get to run around and jump up and kiss mum before standing around being bored again. Mind you - something must have gone right cos I got picked for the 'line up'. This was also quite boring so I had a bit of a clean up whilst we stood there.

That extra bit of preening obviously paid off cos I got the fifth rosette! The guys who came higher up in the placing were obviously pros so I was quite pleased with myself!

Shame mum cut off my nose in this one though.

My buddy Radar got fourth in the 'most handsome dog' class too - after clearing up the prizes we went off and did what Vizslas do best. Ran around like mad idiots on a moor and then conked out under the table whilst the folks ate pub grub :-)

Me and Radar

On Monday I went to Radar's house to play. Mum had a busy day so I got to spend it with Radar and Juliet. We had the best time after getting over our macho manliness and played for HOURS. I'm the one with the shorter tail :-)



After all that playing we needed to cool down a bit in Radar's fab paddling pool. I'm going to need to work on the folks to buy me one of these! I was quite keen on snorkelling but secretly I was trying to pull out the plug before Juliet cottoned on to my game!

Flyball

We started flyball last night. We didn't realise we were going to, as we had just gone along to meet the group, but the organiser kindly invited us to join in and we had a blast! I had figured out the jumps by the end of the session, but the floor was just FAR too interesting to sniff in places so I didn't always retrieve the ball that quickly! It was in something called an 'indoor school' and there were loads of good smells to discover.

I had always thought of myself as a pretty fast mover, but you should see those collies. I looked positively gangly and slow in comparison! Still, it was only my first go so i've got plenty of time to improve.