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| If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving me only two of them! |
Did you all have a good Christmas? We had lots of presents to open and opened most of Polly and Michael�s for them too. Amongst other things we got a new activity toy which is great fun. We also had replacements of our favourite toys which had disintegrated with playing with them. Edie got her new rubber turkey and I got a fleece shaped bone with Father Christmas in the middle which I love.
I can�t believe that I am 10 this month and Edie will be 4 in March. Michael just coughs when I try to find out how old he is so I don�t they have invented an age that old.
Polly has been in hospital again. She has had one side of her jaw bone shaved then Botoxed and implants in the other side of jaw. Michael thinks she could do with them elsewhere but at least it�s a start. I hope this will be an end to it all as Edie and I won�t be able to recognise her if her face changes any more.
| ARE YOU A DOG PERSON? |
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You have a childs paddling pool in the garden, but no small children. Gravy bones are on your shopping list every week. You have baby gates but no babies. The waste bin is more or less permanently installed in the kitchen sink, to keep the dog out of it while you're at work. You can't see out the car windows because there are nose-prints all over the inside. Poop has become a source of conversation for you and your significant other. You like people who like your dog. You despise people who don't. You carry dog biscuits and poop bags in your purse or pocket at all times. You talk about your dog the way other people talk about their kid. You sign and send birthday/anniversary/Christmas cards from your dog. You put an extra blanket on the sofa so your dog can be comfortable. You and the dog come down with something like flu on the same day. Your dog sees the vet while you settle for an out of date cough mixture from the back of the cupboard. You have your dog's picture on your office desk (but no one else's) You are the only idiot walking in the pouring rain because your dog needs her walk. |
Well we�ve had quite a busy year again. In April Polly had one of the metal plates taken out of her face. I think it had gone rusty or something and painting it over with Hammerite wouldn�t have worked. She was only in hospital for one night but boy did she look weird when she came home. I swear she was hiding our favourite tennis ball in her cheek.
10 days later and Michael disappears. Polly explained to us he was having a triple bypass. Why would anyone want a single bypass running over them, never mind three? Polly was out of the house quite a lot, looking for Michael I think so I was left in charge. At night time Edie and I snuggled up on the sofa looking after Polly.
Michael finally came home after a week I think the 3 roads had taken it out of him. He had also developed a worrying fetish, wearing stockings. Not just plain ones but thick blue ones to cover the hairy legs. Thankfully he didn�t start wearing high heels too and he got over his obsession after about 6 weeks.
Polly�s Mum came for her birthday, she is great fun and loves being jumped all over
We have just come back from holiday and went to Amroth again. The beach was lovely and quiet; it just seemed to clear of everyone as soon as we got there. How nice of people to let us have a run on our own. We did lots of walking round shops and got made a fuss of. People kept laughing at our beards though, cheeky things.
We had such a great Christmas and got sooooo many toys to open. My favourite is an activity toy called a �Dog Brick�. I have to move the sliding bricks with my paw or nose and uncover the hidden biscuits underneath. Edie cheats and just waits for me to find them then she pinches them from right beneath my nose. Here is me at my first attempt with it. I was quite distracted as I knew there were still lots of other presents for me to tear in to under the tree.
We got our new toy from
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Polly had her braces taken off before Christmas so is now eating most of her food, much to our annoyance....fewer tip-bits. Luckily for us though she has to have another operation on her jaw, one of the metal plates is rusty or something so they have to take it out.
Edie has completed her first agility course and she came fourth out of eight which wasn�t too bad for a little �un. She earned herself a rosette and certificate and an extra bit of chicken with her tea.
Polly is continuing to make good progress and most of the swelling has gone from her face now, she no longer looks like she�s storing food for Winter. All being well she will have the metal work taken from her teeth next month. Michael gave us all a scare when he landed himself in coronary care for a few days. He has to have some tests done while walking on a treadmill which sounds like great fun, I hope I can go with him.
Polly�s sister and family came to visit and stayed for something to eat. It was the first time that we had been allowed to mix with the younger children. I loved all the extra attention and eating of crumbs from the floor but Edie wasn�t as keen. I don�t think she quite understands children and sat like a wimp on Polly�s knee for most of the time. It seems to be the first time that we have found someone makes more noise than Edie and I think she was jealous.
We have a new member of our extended family. He is called Harvey and has come from a rescue centre. He lives with a little boy called Joshua who we bounced on when he came to visit us. Harvey has been poorly with kennel cough but is getting better. Personally I think he needs a jumper to keep him snugly warm!
Polly has just been in hospital and had her face broken. We were left in the sole care of Michael and wrapped him round our little paws. He is such a push over and we managed to get lots of treats just by looking at him with pleading eyes.
Polly looked very strange when she came home, she looked a bit like Desperate Dan but with not quite as many whiskers. I was rather disturbed to notice that she had not bathed in the 5 days she was in hospital. Her face, neck and chest were black, blue and yellow. I am happy to say that after 4 weeks she does seem to be making an effort with her cleanliness as the dirt has faded to yellows and greens. Everyone was quite concerned that we shouldn�t jump up round her face, but that is something we have always done.
As it turns out they are concerned for our safety. It seems that Polly has 8 metal plates and screws in her face and if we aren�t careful the metal could act like magnets to the name tags on our collars and we could end up stuck to her face and unable to get off.
As well has the bathing habits her table manners have been in rapid decline too. Really, I have never heard such a noise in all my life. She has to have soup for 6 weeks and the slurping and dribbling has got beyond a joke, I think she is trying to tease us into thinking her food is better than ours. The sooner the better she starts eating solids, I am just glad our visitors don�t stay for meal times. Speaking of which, we�ve had quite a lot of visitors lately coming to see us and bringing us treats. No-one has wanted to kiss Polly though, they have obviously also heard about the magnets in her face.
Michael wanting sympathy too threw himself down the stairs in the early hours of one morning. You�ve never heard such a noise in all your life. It took me ages to get back to sleep afterwards. Now he is walking slower than normal and moaning when I jump all over him. Honestly what we have got to put up with. Jean obviously felt sorry for us and took us both to the dog club for a run round. The only downside to that was the fact I had to share the cage in the car with Edie and one of Jeans dogs, Murphy. While he is a lovely dog I am just used to having my own space. Next to us is Pagan the 12 year old Doberman. I notice she has a cage to herself the fussy hound. Although Pagan isn�t too steady on her feet we could have shoved Edie in there with her, she wouldn�t mind being sat on.
Anyway that is all our news for now. I have chosen this picture as it is similar to what Polly looked like after surgery!
This is us in our newly painted summer house. I am miserable as I hate having my photo taken. Edie, the little poser, isn't camera shy at all as you can see.
Polly is still going great with her braces. I am sure the staff at Leighton Hospital see more of her than we do at the moment. As yet all the extra metal work in her mouth hasn't made her any quieter but we all live in hope!
Polly has been making us doggy ice-lollies. She freezes water in pudding bowls and adds lots of goodies in layers. We have layers of biscuits, fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Sometimes she puts chicken in too which we love. On a hot and sunny day we have them in the garden. We are spoilt really!
We have had our friend Molly to stay overnight while her humans went to a wedding. She was very good and was nice and calm which is what an aging schnauzer like me wants. She had hurt her leg the week before so we had to make sure she didn't run around too much. Unfortunately that did not stop her from jumping over the wall from the patio to the garden. Thankfully she cleared the wall and made a safe landing on the other side.
| SOME TOP DOG PEEVES | Taking me for a walk then not letting me check stuff out. Exactly who's walk is this anyway? |
| The fake fetch throw, You fooled a dog! Whoop-de-dooo what a proud moment for the top of the food chain | |
| Any trick that involves balancing food on my nose....stop it. | |
| Blaming your farts on me..not funny..not funny at all! | Yelling at me for barking..I'M A DOG YOU IDIOT! |
We have just been clipped so I thought I would show you a photo of how wonderful we are looking. The weather is very hot so I am glad we have got rid of all our fur. If I put on my appealing face later today we may just get an ice cream cone. Yum yum!
Pollys niece, Rebecca, has been today to pick up some furniture that Roxxis mum has given her for her new house. Of course Edie and I made her feel as welcome as is doggy possible, well what is family for but to make a fuss of us. Rebecca has horses and also works as a riding instructor so she smells delightful which is a wonderful bonus for me
Hi to you all and I hope you have had lots of doggy chocolate Easter eggs.We have had a busy few months. The first thing to happen was that Michael and Polly bought us both a bubble machine for the garden. This huge machine blows out hundreds of bubbles for us to chase. We got it from Canine Concepts. Fearless Edie has taken to it straight away but I am not sure at all and much prefer to take refuge in the summerhouse and let Edie get on with running around like a lunatic. It is so funny watching her; she focuses on one bubble and won't rest until she has popped it. Meanwhile there are hundreds flying around her head. At least it is keeping her out of trouble and giving me some peace.
Edie has been speyed. She has also had a lump taken from her chin so has been in the wars. Our vets at Ark Vets. have been very good with her and look after both of us when we are ill. Because Edie had been 'ill' Polly gave her chicken and Basmati rice, which is our favourite, so I was very happy when I got some too. She is now back to her normal self and bouncing around like she is on springs.
We are going to have a new bathroom fitted at home as I felt the other wasn't up to scratch and while I don't mind rolling in the murkiest water when I'm out I still expect a certain standard when it comes to bathing at home. I am looking forward to having the plumbers in the house so I can show them how friendly I am and how high I can jump. On the other hand, I think Edie has been spending far too much time with our Doberman friends Pagan and Kara as she is guarding the garden from our new neighbours with increased vigour and I'm sure she thinks she is an honorary Dobe.
Edie has found another friend at the dog club. She is a Cairn terrier called Molly and they like to run around together and play, anything to tire her out cannot be a bad thing. Speaking of which, we have got Roxxi booked in for a summer holiday, how on earth am I going to cope with keeping two young pups in order. Watch this space.
I am still waiting for a clip but Polly thinks that just because she hasn�t packed her thermals away yet we will be better off with our coats on too. I�m sweating like a pig that knows its dinner so I hope she gets us booked in soon. She hasn�t given up on clipping my nails yet, I�m sure it would be less stressful just to have them all plucked out but am certainly not putting any ideas in her head.
1st March 2006Edie hasn't yet been spayed. It seems she has had another season so has to wait 3 months more. I can't understand the reasoning behind a season but am pretty sure she has come into spring as we've just had winter. One thing I do know is that with her spring it brought a terrible temper out in her. How can something so small produce such a noise is beyond me? She was possessed and all I did was help her nibble at a lamb bone. Polly told her off and now she has to wait for me to start eating first before she can have hers and I'm allowed on the sofa before she is. I try not to look too smug when I am getting all this preferential treatment. This has seemed to work and we have had no more incidents; so much so that I have found myself snuggling up to her a couple of times in bed in a morning, well it's been quite cold lately and it's like having a personal hot water bottle until Michael comes down to put the heating on.
We have had some lovely deep snow. I LOVE the snow. Edie doesn't really get excited about it like I do. As long as she is chasing me then she doesn't mind what the weather is like. The only down side to snow is all the snowballs that get stuck in our beard and legs and we have to be defrosted when we come inside. The quickest and easiest way Michael and Polly have found is to dunk our legs in a bowl of warm water. It's bliss and as well as getting rid of the snowballs it warms our legs too! Polly had read somewhere that if you rub oil onto our legs the snow won't stick as much. It did work to a certain degree but which is worse, snowball legs or smelling like olive oil for a week?
On the 25th February I had my 7th birthday. As soon as they start singing Happy Birthday I go wild, as I know there are presents to be opened, whether they are mine or not I like to help. Polly started singing on her way down stairs and I was so excited I ran up four stairs to meet her, as she wasn't coming down quick enough for my liking. I got four presents in total and let Edie open them with me. Edie was 1 at the end of March and she let me help her open some of her presents too
Polly is having a special handbag made. Someone who she talks to in her computer is going to paint Edie and I onto the front of a handbag. How cool is that. As yet Polly has still to get round to sending her photo's of us both but I shall print a picture when it finally gets sorted.
Well I think that is all for now. Happy snowballing.
Friday the 13th!!!! January
Well what a lovely and hectic Christmas we have had. It's been all go with opening presents and eating turkey, pork, lamb and biscuits. It's been wonderful. We sniffed out our presents from under the tree as soon as they appeared and then nearly hyperventilated as we tried to open them all as quickly as we could. Then we helped Michael and Polly open theirs as they were taking far too long.
Boxing Day was even better, we were just starting to calm down and then Jean and Cyril arrived and sent us back into a frenzy again. They love being jumped on so we do like to oblige with the all the great gusto that us Schnauzers can manage. After 7 hours they were ready for leaving and there was me just sat still long enough for a cuddle with Jean. Edie was a bit of a wimp and although loves Cyril at the dog club was a bit frightened of him in our home environment. Personally I think it was because she didn't recognise him dressed up and not covered in dog slobber (apart from mine of course).
On New Years Eve we had Roxxi to stay. Polly picked her up at 9.30am and they took the three of us to the fields to give us a good run round. Well what bedlam. Edie and Roxxi ran round as if caught up in a whirlwind. It was making us dizzy just watching them. They ran round like that till 12 noon when we came back home for a rest, or so I thought. They ran round and round till 3pm when they eventually flopped in their beds for an hour. Polly and Michael stayed in with us to see in the New Year just in case the fireworks frightened Roxxi and Edie. No chance of that they were comatose and slept through the whole thing. I eventually got to bed at 12.30, these young pups are just too much for a middle aged schnauzer like me, they wear me out.
New Years Day we got a lie in till about 7.30 then walked round for the newspapers. At 10.30 we were back up the field for another hours run but there was still no tiring them out. It certainly tired Polly and I out as we had to have a lie down at lunch and recharge our batteries. Polly's joints were a bit sore so we had to wait to have our new year�s meal till 5. It was well worth it though as we had rack of lamb. The down side was that we had to share nibbling the bones with Roxxi. I've had a lot of sharing to do these past few months but I am getting more tolerant of it. Maria and Georgia came for Roxxi the following morning and off she went without a backward glance leaving nothing but muddy paw prints on the kitchen tiles and an extremely exhausted Edie.
Edie has been moved out of the beginner�s class at the dog club so her training must be coming on. She still has a long way to go though. She is being spayed soon. I don't quite know what it is but I think it must have something to do with gardening as we have a spade in our garden cabin.
Well I think that is all my news for now so I shall end this update. Keep the e-mails coming in. xxxx
I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I help with all the decorations. As Polly is putting up the tree I dip my head into the box of baubles and usually half a dozen hang on my beard when I lift my head out; thus helping Polly by saving her from bending down into the box.
Most normal people have chocolate on their tree but Polly wraps up dog biscuits and hangs them on the tree for me, but I suppose I�ll have to share them this year with Edie. Michael or Polly says �would you like something from the Christmas tree?� which is my cue to run and sit under the tree drooling. I also have an advent calendar with chocolates in. I only get one chocolate per day from it and I�m sure there should be two a day but Michael must eat the other, as all through December his hair is lovely and shiny and his nose healthy and wet.
We have been on a weeks holiday to Amroth in Pembrokeshire. We went there last year but this year had to take Edie with us. I love the beach except this year I was chased by Edie all over the sands. She thought the rock pools were puddles which was quite amusing. She just ran straight through them, one was rather deep and she had to swim to get out but it didn't seem to put her off.
One day in Saundersfoot she spent ages outside a shop barking at a plastic Guide Dog that was collecting money through a slot in its head. I still swear she's got a screw loose.
I must admit that Michael and Polly do seem to give us the best holidays. After a quick walk at 7 we all have breakfast then after that go visiting different places. We go round the shops and get stopped by a lot of people who stroke and make a fuss of us. After lunch the 4 of us have a nod then go to the local beach for a good run round before settling down to dinner and chilling out time. It's my idea of doggy bliss. Much better than being stuck in kennels for a week.
Polly was trying to be clever one day by walking on the rocks at the beach. She slipped and fell and said she'd dented her backside and her pride. I don't know what her pride is but it doesn't stick out as far as her backside so it can't be that important.
We have a new adopted member of our schnauzer family. She is called Roxxi and we met her through the dog club. She is black and silver and is 16 weeks old now. She has 2 young girls looking after her called Maria and Georgia. She and Edie get on really well and love to run around together which is great as it gives me a break.
Polly is still having her brace treatment and recently went to the hospital for tests as she wasn't feeling well. It seems she has high cholesterol, I always suspected she was high on something and now I know it's cholesterol. Not that I fancy any of it, all dairy food is rationed now. Polly is the dairy queen in our house - She eats that much I'm suprised she's not mooing but that has to stop and she has to eat more healthy things. I may just share the odd biscuit with her. It says on the box they are good for you and will make her look and feel healthy giving her coat a lovely shine.
17 August 2005I have added another page to my web site. I had my diary printed in the northern schnauzer club magazine and Edie just has to copy me and do her own diary. Not half as good as mine but I'll put it on my web site anyway. It also gives Polly a chance to practice her HTML code.
Click on the link Edie's first diary on the left of the page
| MORE OF MY OBSERVATIONS | After your humans give you a bath, don't let them dry you with a towel. It's much more fun to run and jump on their bed and dry yourself on the egyptian cotton sheets. |
| When out on a walk always alternate from a cough to a choking sound when a stranger walks past | |
| If your humans leave you home alone always greet them with your ears back,tail between your legs and a guilty look. Sit back then and watch them as they frantically search the house trying to find what you've done. | |
| It is not the done thing to eat the cats food - before they eat it or after they've thrown it up. | Remember a cat is not a squeeky play toy so if you play with him and he makes that sort of noise it's usually NOT a good thing. |
Polly has had her braces fitted. Before it was always said her bark was worse than her bite but looking at her now? Well let me put it this way I wouldn't like to test the theory. She has always hated it when people feel sorry for her, so I am taking great delight in the fact that she can't eat properly and I am getting a lot more left overs than normal. Unfortunately having her braces on hasn't stopped her from talking, she talks to us non stop all day. It's a good job us girls are with her or else she would have been locked up by now. Cyril at the dog club has even threatened to weld her braces together if she doesn't stop talking.
I don't think Edie is going home which I am quite glad of now as I've got used to her being around. She still tries to bite my legs and beard but I am quite skilled in avoiding her.
She doesn't sleep in her cage anymore and is very good at night, she stays in her own bed so it gives me a chance to have a rest.
We take her for training lessons too but she is not as good as me. She tends to show off a lot. Only yesterday she jumped into a bucket full of water that I was drinking from, just to make everyone laugh.
The picture I have chosen for this update is Edie playing in the garden. She loves to play with plant pots and this is her with one on her nose. It looks like she is wearing a muzzle and believe me sometimes she needs it. We are going for another clip on the 2nd of September so I'll let you know if Edie is getting any better.
2 July 2005
20 May 2005
14 May 2005
Things are a bit busy round here at the moment and that is even before Edie arrives. Polly has been busy at hospitals as she has told me she has to have braces. Strange as her trousers seem pretty fitted to me.
She is very special as she has Marfan Syndrome and will also need her jaw breaking. She says it will only take 3 years, imagine not being able to eat Bonios properly for 3 years. It doesn't bear thinking about.
I look after Polly when she ill, when she lies on the settee I keep her company by giving her lots of cuddles, she does take up rather a lot of room though and I have to squash her to the edge of the settee sometimes!
26 March 2005