Will you all still play with me?

Oh dear. I haven't posted since Boxing Day which is RIDICULOUS. So many of you have sent me messages to ask how I am, which has been most wonderful. I feel like I should have some kind of sensible explanation but all I can do is blame Mum. First we had relatives to stay, then she came down with some bug that laid her out, then she went back to work. Next thing I knew, I hadn't been visiting anyone's blogs for ages and felt too guilty to post on my own. Now, if only dogs had opposable thumbs like humans, I would be able to ditch Mum and use the computer myself.

But I miss all my buddies. Some, like Cassidy, seem to have doubled in size while my back has been turned. So I hope you might forgive me and let me run with the pack again.

In the absence of a good shot to show you how grown up and lovely I am at 10 months old, here's one of me at a mere 8 weeks. My first visit to the pub, and I'm a natural boozehound. I love licking the outside of pint glasses. I also try to sneak my tongue into the inside when no-one's looking, but that gets frowned upon.


And here is the video from Christmas Day that Mum was editing just as the relatives arrived. If you ever wondered how daft an Airedale can be....




Like the way I can roll my tail up like a party tooter?
(Hope the video works for you. For some reason Blogger refuses to play it to the end for me.)

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.

wash 'n go

Rivers and open spaces are heaven to a dog.



(Mum here: never realised I had such a weird voice when talking to Mojo. Ho hum)

Strange walk, this one. On the way out, we saw virtually no-one. Oh, apart from one big black labrador who came out of nowhere, wrestled me to the ground, peed up a tussock of grass then ran off again into the distance. Kind of like an alien visitation.




On the way back, though, it was like someone had flicked a switch and all the humans had come to life. I guess they had all finished their Sunday roast and thought they had better walk the dogs before it got dark. It became a pooch party. So many dogs! Big, small, hairy, smooth, young, old. We'd form temporary packs then move off in different directions, then form a new pack somewhere else. My favourite was a young retriever girl called Truffle. Even her name nearly rhymes with wrestle!

So anyway, my advice is this: if you want a great run around with loads of other dogs, go to Uffculme on a winter Sunday for about 3.30pm.

Hairy angels

Some angels are hairy.


I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.


The last few days have been great. First up, Ferndoggle of Jackman Avenue nominated me for Post of the Month at Dogs With Blogs! It's a pretty amazing feeling when someone else finds the stuff you write fun. I mean, I enjoy myself hugely, but I don't expect others to! Aroooo! Big Aire-kisses to Ferndoggle! Actually, its great seeing who else is nominated - there's some hilarious takes on existence which you really ought to check out. I've voted for Stanley's post about Stella, because the pic of her in full-on hyper intense mode followed by the pic of Stan looking pained is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

Then, the lovely Molly and Taffy have honoured me with this award:


which is just so fantastic! They describe it as:

This award is presented to a successful blogger, one who can "be the blog" - making it their own, staying with it, interacting with the readers, and just plain having fun.

I've only been blogging for a few months, and sometimes I post too much and then I post too little, then I get behind with everyone else's blogs. But I love being part of this community and I'm so happy that Molly and Taffy enjoy my barkfests. So many thanks and hairy hugs to M & T!

I'm going to pass this award on to two others, because I love 'em both. First up are Noah and his sissies all the way over there in Australia. I feel like dropping in and hanging out with them every time I read their posts because they are such a cool bunch. Pity they live 10,000 miles away. Plus, there's that uncanny ability to photograph all four Dales sitting at the same time. I mean, getting one to sit is tough - but four? I keep going back to this post for another peek because it makes me laugh so much.

And the other dog I'd like to award is Sophie. Great photos, succinct writing style and bloomin' hilarious! She gets me snorting with laughter on a regular basis whilst veering from the sacred to the profane. That's Sophie!

Want to know what the best part of the last few days has been?

It was this morning, when I woke up and was let out of my crate to discover a huge dead mouse in the middle of the living room floor. I think one of the cats secretly loves me. Arf!

Dear Mystery Friend

Dear Mystery Friend

Thank you so much for the present you left me this morning. It was incredibly thoughtful of you. Imagine my delight whilst having my usual morning shuffle down the lawn to discover half a fresh rabbit waiting for me!

I don't mind in the least that you had the head, and indeed, most of the flesh too. I found more than enough interest in the skin, bone and remaining flesh to pass the time most happily.

Unfortunately Dad spotted me hurling said corpse around the lawn, and imprisoned me. As I am too big to fit through the cat flap any more, I could only watch in disbelief as he shoveled it up and took it away. Afterwards I did go and and perform a thorough search for any other bits, but to no avail.

By the way, was it you that left the really smelly decaying rabbit just the other side of the fence a few weeks ago? I did a good job of digging under the fence to get to that, but again I was thwarted by Dad. So thank you for leaving it somewhere instantly accessible this time.

Why don't you stop one day for a play? I'm sure we would get on really well.

cheerio
Mojo



Dear fox

I suppose you think that was funny? Actually, it was gross.

We endure you catching chickens from the free-range chicken farm down the road and using our orchard as a dining table. You even buried an egg in the veg patch once. And we're thankful that you seem to have got over your obsession with repeatedly pooing in the same place outside the outhouses.

OK, we did find it funny the time you stole the teletubbies ball from the little girl down the road and left it on our lawn. Did you know they were watching you at 3am as you played football with it round their garden before you brought it to us?

But this rabbit thing has got to stop. Mojo does not need encouragement. She is already Mistress of the Forbidden Snack and, frankly, once she's rolled in dead things she stinks.


best regards
Mojo's mum

this one's for Jackson

We dropped by Jackson the other day to see how he's getting on. He's in the thick of health issues at the moment as you know, and having to deal with the ignomony of being poked and prodded and shaved in ways that do not befit his station in life as Dude with Dignity.

And not only that, he's morphed into Val Doonican.

Now, I'm only a wee nipper - not even seven months old yet - so I don't have personal experience of Val. But my mum does, being a child of the sixties when tv choice was much more limited than today. Oh yes, family viewing in her day meant delights like the Val Doonican Show. She thought these events were long buried, but no! Thanks to Jackson, she's spent the last 24 hours singing "Walk Tall". Constantly. She's humming it in time with her footsteps on my walks. She can't stop! AArrrggg!! Here's a snippet:
" Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye
That's what my mama told me when I was about knee high..."

You get the picture.

Right now the whole family are going psycho, Mum included, because for the life of her she can't get rid of this earworm.

However, we realise this is ok becasue it keeps Jackson in our thoughts as he awaits his MRI scan. And as a fitting tribute, I got dressed up as another of those family favourites of that era, Nana Mouskouri.

Jackson, get better soon so she doesn't dress me up as Liberace or start singing Englebert Humperdink numbers.

walkies

At last I've got Mum to pull her finger out and sort out the photos from the Airedale Club walk. That was two weeks ago!! So it is kind of old news, but thought you might like to see some of them.

This was another outing with WESWATC (West of England and South Wales Airedale Terrier Club). A lovely lady called Jackie sorted out a route along the River Parrett in the Somerset Levels, from Langport to Muchelney Abbey. There were probably about 20 Airedales there, plus a few other dogs too. Heaven!

The fun begins in the car park



The guy steaming in from the left there is called Dylan (or is it Dillon). I've never met him before but he seemed to end up in nearly every photo Mum took that day. He was fixated on me and Poppy, a girly a little younger than me. Likes the little fillies, methinks. Mum says he's like that boy you meet at the school disco who is really nice but won't let you chat to anyone else all night and you end up trying to hide from him.

It was so funny looking at the expressions of people walking towards us down the path. They really couldn't believe their eyes to see so many Hairydales in one place.



Once we got to the fields, a lot of us were let off the lead. You won't be surprised to learn that I am one of the frontrunning pack leaders.



See the smile on my face? Oh look, there's Dylan again.



Did someone mention river?



And Willow (front left) was groomed to perfection ready for a show. Here she has a quick snack of cow poo to brighten her teeth before going for the mud therapy.

The cows on the other riverbank got in the swing and kept pace.



I suppose we were quite an arresting cavalcade.



Mummy cleans up after me. Oh, and there's Dylan supervising.



We paused by the second bridge, and Dylan was, shall we say, omnipresent. So I thought I'd show him a wrestling move or two. It takes a while to figure this picture out, but I have my jaws upside down with his left ear held in a killer grip.



Thing is, he just didn't mind. I suppose he thought it was the way to my heart. Doesn't he realise that teenage girls can be terribly cruel to nice but clingy boys?

Once at Muchelney Abbey we made ourselves comfortable in the lovely grassy courtyard.





I got to play my special trick on a few grown Dales. You know, the one where you lie down in a submissive posture, get 'em to all come in and look closely at you... then snap grab 'em.



Afterwards I apologised, of course. The smaller pup on the left of this picture is Poppy. You may remember her from the Airedale Fun Day pics I posted a while back - she was the puppy completely wrapped in toilet paper.



Poppy is a cutie, and along with my best mate Ruby, we're the youngest pupsters here. For some reason I haven't got pics of Ruby from this walk though. Very annoying, as she is looking so great. She has a great jaunty bossy walk that makes her completely adorable. Ah well, it'll have to wait till our next gathering.

So there you go. Airedale overload. What always amazes my parents is how so many feisty Airedales can be in one place without trouble. Sure, the males sometimes make a big noise at each other, but it is all showing off. I've got more pics on my Flickr account if you want.




One last thing. You may remember this pic of the lovely Nigel that I met at the Fun Day back in September:



I learnt that he has since passed away. I've only heard the details through others, but I believe he had a tumour that suddenly caused him to be desperately ill. He was such a lovely boy that I feel very sad, especially for his family. He is currently on the Wikipedia page for Airedales, so has a little posthumous fame.

I didn't give permission for summer to be over

Something odd is happening round here. Things are getting colder, there are leaves everywhere and sometimes I hesitate momentarily before I wade into the canal.

They're calling this autumn. But as I was born in April, I've got used to summer being the normal arrangement of my universe. And I want it back please.

I want the back door left open so I can wander in and out freely, instead of having to ask someone to open the door. As often as I like. Without questions about whether I really need to.

I want it to still be light past 9 o'clock so I can hang out on the patio and watch the pigeons go by, idly eating compost from the plant pots and plucking the occasional succulent snail from some shady arbor.

I want to be able to crash out on the lawn and sleep in comfort.


I wish it was still plum season so I could stuff my hairy little face under the trees in the orchard. Although those plum stones are not so comfy when they reach the end of their journey, so to speak.

I wish my parents still fell asleep sunbathing so I could Aire-bomb them without warning. They are so cute when they squeal and flail their arms around.

I might have to torture Dad to see if he'll bring summer back. I know, I'll do that thing where I pin him down and squeak my giraffe right down his ear.


Apparently autumn has only just started. And it will be followed by something called winter. They tell me it won't be fun and snowy and stuff, because here in Devon all we get is months of grey, dull, rainy days. Perhaps I should go and play with some friends instead. Mexico sounds nice - I could drop in on Lorenza for her birthday. Then hang out in Australia with Noah and his sissies. Oh yeah, and then go see Pacco in Malaysia!

Just imagine if we could all do a world tour of everyone we knew to follow the best weather. We could use the member list on Dogs With Blogs to discover new friends to drop in on. Want to visit Argentina? Let's go see Gorda. New Zealand sounds fabulous. Let's go play with Burbon.

Sounds like a great tag game, don't you think?

trimming class

On Sunday we went back to where last week's Airedale Club fun day was held. This time it was to their trimming classes so Mum and Dad can figure out how to prevent me becoming a woolly mammoth. I've been doing a merino sheep impression lately and they thought it was time to release my inner Airedale.

So without any warning whatsoever I was put up on a trimming table and a lady snipped off all the heavy hair from my ears. Dad let out an audible gasp as he is very fond of my puppy curls. But as one of my ears is not standing up properly, they need to take the weight off. If that doesn't work, there are dark mutterings about gluing my ears and I DO NOT like the sound of that at all.

I'm not posting a pic of my trimmed ears yet. I am so shy. My parents keep looking at me and laughing, saying they don't recognise me. I don't recognise myself! I'm still a work in progress, waiting for proper grooming tools to arrive in the post. When I get my courage up I will show you the new me.

Here's two pics from the trimming class. When not on the table, we all got to charge around together and wrestle.

We all got to meet Saffie for the first time - she's 7 months old and her parents are concerned that she is still a little mouthy. So we thought we'd get her on the floor for a bit of socialisation, and she loved every minute. I'm the one on the left. You can spot me by the curly tail - I was born a couple of weeks after the tail-docking ban came into effect, so I'm one of the first Airedales around with a full-length plume.

Sit

Saturday mornings are getting better and better. I've started going round to see my friends Rooster and Sol whose mum is running a puppy training session. More pup play = more good!

OK, so my level of concentration is poor at times and I just want to jump around like a nutter, but I'm only five months old and allowed to be an Airehead.

Though sometimes I'm impeccably well behaved. Here I am with Rooster and Sol doing a triple sit for their human boy, AJ.


I had a good wrestle with Jess the Jack Russell and left loads of blood all over her nice white coat. No, I didn't maul her - I'm just teething really badly at the moment and anything I chew gets covered.

What with my puppy class on Monday nights, I'm expected to sort my fuzzy brain out and start learning a thing or two. Darn. I thought it was just a puppy play party.

So how come our cats don't have to go to class, huh? Why don't they do tricks? I don't see them having to wait for the signal before they are allowed to eat their dinner. They get to walk over the table. They get to sit on the sofa. They get to sleep in the bedroom. And they don't do a SINGLE TRICK!

An apocalypse of Airedales

What a weekend. First there was Chilli's party (what a blast!) then I went to my friend Rooster's house for a dog training session. (I've got a great photo from that but I'll have to post that another day).

Then on Sunday my parents had a wild surprise in store. They popped me in the car and an hour later arrived at a village hall. It was FULL OF AIREDALES!!!! Wooo hooo! I've never met another 'dale since leaving my litter, and here I was at the annual fun day of the West of England and South Wales Airedale Terrier Club.

I peed the floor with excitement straight away, not least because I was being sniffed by a very handsome young boy called Gunner. Then I headbutted the table from underneath and sent coffee all over the posters that were about to be hung up. But no-one cared!

Here's a pic of me sniffing Gunner's bum while he checks out Nigel.



I had the most fabulous time. Not only getting to meet huge grown up man-dales, but even little puppies much smaller than me. Mum and Dad realised how suddenly I've become big when they saw the little pup-girls.

We didn't just stand around, though. We played games!

First up was musical chairs. You can't see me in this pic as I'm right at the back.

This pic shows stupid mummy (blue top) trying to sit on some poor boy. The boy is laughing but his dog is looking seriously affronted.

Next up was the Egg and Spoon Race. Dad got a real serious look on his face. Ultra competitive. With a shout of 'vamos' we were off - and won our heat.

Here's heat two - one smart dog has decided to run on his own, while Brillo is towing his mum.

The finals were won by Nigel, despite his mum dropping the ball.

The most amazing thing about Nigel is that he is totally blind. He had a degenerative retina condition and was blind by six years old - he is now ten and a half. My mum really fell for him as he is the most noble, calm and gentle dog. And if you didn't see his eyes you wouldn't guess he couldn't see.

My mum also fell in love with Ruby, who is a supersweet ball of fluff a bit younger than me. Mum's camera just kept turning her way.

She has had severe medical issues and is on constant medication, so she is a bit smaller for her age than she ought to be. But she is such a delight, and we hope to meet up with her again soon.

We played a ridiculous game of Mummies. People race the clock to wrap their dogs up in toilet paper like a mummy. Most dogs oblige.

Nigel looks like a Crusader Knight.

Even this gorgeous little pup (I think she's called Ellie) took it like a champ.

Poppy the puppy lay back and thought of England.

Not me.

Every piece that Dad got on me I removed before he got the next one going. Just call me Houdini. He was laughing so hard every shred of his dexterity deserted him.

Sorry, this is turning into a looong post.

I met Jess, who looked so much like me we had to check we weren't related. She's one month older than me, and after the smooching...

... came the wrassling. Stanley would be proud of me. I'm on top, by the way.

Next up was fancy dress. I thought I would just be watching as my Mum and Dad didn't organise a costume. But then the most amazing thing happened. I met Oscar's mum and dad, Katy and Martin, and Katy had brought with her the costume Oscar would have worn if he had been able to be here. It was made by the fair hand of Butchy and Snickers' mum. And I got to wear it!

It was a bit big so my trousers fell off if I walked, but I looked so splendid I won third prize! Big kisses to Katy, and to Oscar too. I can't fill his shoes, but I hope that somewhere he was looking down and laughing too.

Here's the first prize duo. She looks like a shotgun bride and he looks like he can't wait for the party to be over and the wedding night to begin.

There were other games too, like Hunt the Sausage and Best Groomed, and an agility course too. Katy took me round the agility because my parents were too boring. Actually, I think Dad was still knackered after his Egg and Spoon exertions and Mum was as usual holding the camera. I was a bit all over the place, but it was still fun.

I didn't enter the best groomed because I am a woolly mammoth at the moment.

Anyway, I had five hours of crazy Airedale fun, then we went home grinning. Mum and Dad thought I would be worn out, so we went to the pub. but there I met a Jack Russell puppy called Norman and we went bonkers. A whirling crazy ball of excited puppies. I always have energy for fun!

This weekend we may go back to the Airedale Club as they are holding a grooming class. I'll be able to see Ruby again. Aroooooo!

Wish you were all able to come play with me too!