A walk with 51 dogs!

After last week's disaster with Lily in the pond, it was nice to go for a successful walk.
We met up with Southern Lurcher Link who had organised a walk in Trent Park.
51 dogs and their owners attended.


Lily was really confident and enjoyed her walk and even did a little run. She was wary, but not psychotically terrified like she might have been in the past.



Dizzy was his normal confident self, hassling people for cuddles and singing at them if they didn't give him a cuddle. We let him off the lead, thinking he might stay with the group. He did for about 5 minutes, and did a little dance to try and shake his muzzle off.

Shortly after that, he just ran away, not interested in the group or us calling him and Steve went off and found his head in a pram hassling a baby. It was all terrifying for the father holding the pram, as Dizzy looks like a monster with a muzzle on. He was not amused. We put Dizzy back on the lead, decided the experiment was a disaster so we will have to keep him on the lead next time. A shame, if only he realised how his behaviour was restricting his freedom.

Valentine's Day

As is traditional, the pups gave Daddy a Valentine's Card especially from them, and had a few word to add in a little ditty to try and compete for Daddy's love.

Here is what they said

Lily: "I know Daddy Loves me more
You see we have a special bond
He saved me from an icy pond!"

Dizzy: "Yeah but I know Daddy loves me too
Cos it makes his heart swell when I roo"

Lily: "But Daddy smacks my baldy tum
And I love him loads more than Mum"

Dizzy: "No, Daddy smacks my rib cage too
We have more sofa cuddles than you"

Both Lily & Dizzy: "We don't care who Daddy loves more
'Cos we both love 'im back times four!!"

PS: "Sorry we can't use scissors
And we didn't have any glue
But it really doesn't mean
That we don't love you!"

(this is re the 'homemade' qualities of this particular card, as I didn't have the right materials....next year I will leave it to Zazzle and get some professional ones done!

Poor Lily! & Poor Stevie
This post is on my other blog too and I don't normally cross post, but thought this might be a warning to any other dog walkers in this icy weather we are having in the UK at the moment.

You have probably heard some awful stories this week about people falling into freezing water, mainly ponds and some poor families who have lost both children and pets to hypothermia. We have a sad tale of our own, but luckily with a happy ending.

Yesterday we were walking around a local fishing lake/pond and giving it a wide berth as it is deep in places and although the ice looks thick, there was a thaw going on at the edges. There was also a fair amount of debris around the edges and a dog might not know what is land and what is water. However, that was not our problem. Around one of the edges the path goes over some banks with a small bridge. The banks are not terribly steep however Lily went too near the edge and lost her footing and slipped into the pond with an almight splash and then floundered around trying to stand on the debris or walk on water (she has never been swimming before).

She was in difficulty as the wool lined coat she was wearing was absorbing a lot of water and she wasn't going anywhere near a bank to be able to get out. We were worried she was going to get hypothermia however without any discussion within seconds Steve had gone to help her and just dived into the water regardless for his own safety. What a hero, he did get water right up to his neck and swam Lily to the bank and hoisted her out.

Then there was soggy walk to the car followed by blasts from the heaters and we were home within a short drive. Steve was fine, Lily got away with a few bruises and scratches. Dizzy was a complete anti-hero, he saw the two of them splashing in the freezing water and though, I'm not having any of that and started to sprint backwards pulling me on his lead. He loves a bit of self preservation and wanted to be as far away from cold water as possible!



Here is little Lillipegs snoozing in her blankets, without a care in the World. She would expect nothing less from her Royal subjects and she already assumed her Daddy was a hero.