season's greetings

Best wishes to you all, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. I hope you all have been well, happy and surrounded by warm hearts.

Here in Mojo Towers things were a bit quiet. Both sets of grandparents are visiting soon but not on Christmas Day, my Dad's brother lives in Canada and my Mum's brother lives in Australia. So we decided to have fun with just us.

Things started great - while Mum and Dad sat in bed drinking coffee, I was allowed into the bedroom and even allowed on the bed. To stop me bothering the cats I was fed morsels of dry cat food. Imagine, lying there like the Queen of Sheba, being handfed while the cats glare from a distance.

We decided to go for a walk up on the north coast at a place called Braunton Burrows. I think it should be renamed Dog Heaven actually. It's the largest sand dune ecosystem in England, and is renowned as a place of ecological interest and as a prime dog walking site.

As soon as I arrived I got to mug some Border Terriers.

Every dog I met was in a state of happiness, which got infectious. I started tuck-butt-running almost immediately. Then I spotted this sand dune...
... which got me charging around...

...and charging around some more.

Tomorrow I'll post some videos of this but I don't want you to get too bored in one day!

We were still a long way from the sea at this point and had a good walk through grassy hollows and grown-over dunes. Then we finally got to the sea.


I spotted some dogs in the distance...

Then went and joined their pack.


As you can see, the clouds were really odd. One half of the sky was blue and the other half dark grey. Gorgeous.

I never ran out of energy. Here I am racing up a dune just so I can race down again.
Incidentally, the Burrows are called Burrows because they are full of rabbits. So I got to stick my nose in hundreds of rabbit holes.

I've made the humans promise to take me there again soon. They readily agreed - apparently they have never seen me so happy.

Once back, they cracked open the bottle of champagne but didn't give me even a single drop. Humph!


Still, they did give me a great present, which I unwrapped by myself:


A Wubba! I was so tired I could barely keep my head up, but I still managed to break one of the squeaks in it fairly soon. Yep, Wubbas are the best!

I hope you all had a great day yesterday too. Hairy Christmas hugs to all of you!

from the doghouse

Dad is still going on about his iPod.

I know I was wrong to munch it. I know it was expensive. But hey!!! Get over it already! I've tried to point out that it was his fault for leaving it within reach, but that went down like a lead balloon.

It's not that he's being horrible to me or anything - he's the same pushover for a goofy face as he ever was. It's just that he manages to mention it in so many conversations and I'm sick of feeling guilty. And I'm also worried that he's going to let Santa know, which would be a tragedy.

So anyway, I'm practising my guilty face. Do you think this will work?


There's a perception that I'm the naughty one in this house. But this morning something happened that can't be blamed on me. Mum was gathering up her clothes to put in the wash, and reached under the chair in the bedroom to pick up what she thought was one of her brown hiking socks. It was a dead rat.

Despite both cats, Newt and Possum, being curled up tightly in a deep snoring sleep there's no doubt it was one of them. The bedroom is a cat safety zone protected by a dog gate. So no-one can blame me.

Guest blogger

My dad has been wanting to do a guest post on my blog for a while. Today I thought I had no choice but to give him what he wants. As you will see, I owe him.


Mojo ate my iPod

Today I'd like to discuss the thorny topic of Airedales and expensive electronic gadgets.

It appears to me, the two don't mix.

Not at all. In fact, Mojo and I are experiencing something of a strained relationship at the moment. You see, mum's out at work all day (that's why posting has been a bit slow), but I work from home, which means lots of quality time with my Airedale.

But today I got distracted by work and forgot to think 'where's the dog' for about five minutes. And that's all it took.

One ex-iPod. Deceased. Gone. Unrepairable.

And covered in teeth marks. Glad it wasn't my hand in those jaws. Quite impressive dents in the metal backing.

But the screen has a kind of blue blood stain all over it. And it makes nasty whining noises then dies completely.

And you know the thing that really hurts? The only reason it was on the dining room table in the first place was because I'd just been wearing it while I took her out for a run. There's gratitude for you.

So, Mojo's grounded. No more blogging for her. Not until she gets me a new iPod. Or at least says she's really, really sorry.


...


Oops

oh my oh my

Gosh I've been far too quiet for far too long. Many thanks to my wonderful friends who worried where I had disappeared to.

It's all Mum's fault as usual. First she got sidetracked sorting out photos to submit to an exhibition (if you want to take a peek, they are on her Flickr site). Then the weather went foul - 70 mph winds - and she wouldn't bring the camera out with us. Then she went and got a job. Ridiculous. The temp agency called late on Monday afternoon and she was in work the next morning. I was not at all happy that she would leave the house without me and be gone for so long unsupervised. I've been driving Dad mad. At least he has the good sense to work from home.

Anyway, she's under strict instructions to get her act together this weekend. Look at what has been happening whilst she has been so useless:

Not one, but two glorious golden roses have come my way. The first was from my fantastic buddies Maggie and Mitch. Do you know, they sent me a Christmas card and it was the first card to arrive at our house. Can you imagine how great it felt for me to have a card before my mum and dad got any? Ha ha! Priceless!

The second one was from the ever-wonderful Bogart. Bogart was the first dog blog my family ever saw. In fact, it was one of the reasons my mum and dad decided that they really needed an Airedale to spice up their life. So getting a rose from Bogey made me run loop-the-loop round the house with excitement.

I'm going to send this rose on over to Molly and Gertrude. We still haven't met in person though we've had walkies in the same forests. But you are two big-hiking adventure loving girls, so I know when we do meet there's going to be some serious wrestling and chasing to be done.


Here's a few pics of what I've been up to over the last few weeks. This is walking on Culmstock Beacon the day after the 70mph winds and lashing rain. Cold and windy, but lots of splashing to be done in the stream running along the path.


How ridiculous do I look here?


I'm getting used to the frosty weather and it still doesn't stop me going for a swim in the canal a couple of times every day.

Now, this is 100% pure Airedale. We were bred to hunt along riverbanks and here I am diving into the undergrowth along the canal bank. Check that curly wurly tail!



Right, I'd better catch up with what you have all been up to. Hairy kisses to you all.