Picnic .... and guests!!

We all went for a picnic. Master and Misery Mistress do class picnics.



Master parked over by the grass for me to have a short walk, and near a rubbish bin. He parked as far away as possible from the shop so that Idle Misery could get a bit of exercise.



She bought two tortilla and pimiento sandwiches, cokes, a beer for her, and we had packed our own crisps/chips/patatas fritas.

Master got his dust sheet out and put it carefully on the floor so they could lean against the rear wheel.



Misery kept waving our sandwich around. I kept lungeing for it. Nearer and nearer I got, every time she looked away.



And then - Yes!! I had it in my mouth. I was just about to chomp my PippaJaws down on it when it snuck back out. It wasn't the sandwich at all, it was silly Misery's finger and she didn't want to lose it. She didn't want to lose the sandwich either. A bit of a failure there on my part I must say.

Still, I had plenty of yummy chips, and Misery did feed me the ends of her sandwiches.



It was very peaceful and tranquilo. We all thought Misery was never going to get off the dust sheet. She gazed around at the mountains and dreamed of camping.



And then remembered how much it costs a night at camp sites whereas it is free at my finca, so we jumped back in my Landy and headed off up to my finca.

At my finca Master discovered uninvited guests. Apart from the four dead cockroaches in the bathroom that Misery screamed at.

When he was working in MY corral, he sensed a movement. Then he looked down and what did he find?



A C-A-T. A pesky cat. In MY corral. And not only a cat, curled up carefully on one of Master's boxes with a few rags, but her kitten too. She is a feral cat so there was only one kitten, hiding underneath her (on the left). Master and Misery tiptoed around them, and Mistress took some poor pictures without a flash so she didn't disturb them.



When I lived in my corral not a single cat would dare come in there, and any rats that got near were quickly dispatched with a smack of the PippaPaw and a slight shake. Was I allowed in to get rid of uninvited guests? No.

Behind bars.


Really. I swear the world is going to the cats.

Back from hols

We have been on hols. But actually I don't think I understand what that means. Master took a week off work, Mistress took a week off faffing around on the computer, and we went back to my finca.

Life seemed the same as normal to me. Walks, no cats to chase, food, and lying on my terrace.

Master and Mistress spent all their time tidying the garden and painting the outside walls. Now Master normally paints during the week, and gets paid for it, so why would he do that on 'holiday' for free? Humans are beyond me. Mistress even mopped out the house.

They went geocatzing one morning. Apparently it was too hot for me to go so I stayed inside my cool house. Mistress may write about it on her own blog. She is still toying with starting a new one.

Oh, and it was their birthdays too. There were some nice messages from some DWB friends on FB so Misery says thanks for that.

Now we need to spend the rest of the week visiting friends and catching up. I was so sad to read about Dakota and our hearts are with the Op Pack. JB and her family are also in our thoughts with their sad story about Bear. And to end on a good note, my good friend Randi had some good results with her surgery. I guess there is more to read on all your blogs so this is a short post today with a few pix from my 'holidays',


At my gate with some of Misery's pretty flowers. No more flowers on MY blog - the rest will be consigned to hers.


Me again, happy.


Me supervising Misery painting while Master was out.


Oh, look, my walls have been painted here. About time too.


A rather nice profile shot I think. (I look even better bigger)


Gosh, it is so tiring lying on my terrace.


Just surveying my terrace and feeling important.


Having a good sniff to see who - or what - is around.


Come on Master, give ME some cheese on toast.


That friendly face didn't work. A more assertive one was called for.


Lying inside my cool house while they clear off cycling, or geocatzing or something.


Stopping for chips/crisps/patatas fritas at the rest area on the autovia on the way back to Gib. YUM!

Chasing pirates - I wish

I was going to make some announcements but it has taken Misery so long to get around to writing this that I have forgotten some of them.

1) Misery is considering messing around with some of her blogs. I think instead of considering that and doing nothing about it she would be better off employed writing on mine. Anyway I know that some of your humans have a looky at her blogs, so if she ever gets round to doing anything I will put up a new linky. The Landy one will stay as it is, it is the other two she is thinking about revamping or maybe combining. Or something.

2) One of my favourite and most loyal girlfriends Randi the Lab/Newf has some nasty lumpies that need to come out, so paws crossed for Randi that everything goes smoothly. Randi also gave me a wonderful shout out on her blog the other week, so thank you for that Randi.

3) I met some super Americans the other night. They were on a coastguard ship chasing pirates around the world. How brave of them. They told master it was not an easy job at all. They knew straightaway that I was a cross-husky and immediately came to give me big hugs and kisses. They even asked if they could take me home with them, but Master was having none of that. Shame though, just think how many dogpals in America I would have been able to visit. And I would have been able to join in the pirate chase too – what an adventure. I think Master was rather grumpy not to let me go with them.

Here I am looking at a map of Africa and thinking about chasing pirates.



Here I am looking at a map of Africa and I appear to be falling asleep.



4) Speaking of huskiness, I gave a very big HAROOOOO the other day. Mistress was very surprised because I don't usually bark or woo or haroo. But she had such a nice sandwich with sage and onion slices, and artichokes and beans in mustard dressing, and lettuce that I wanted it. So I thought the best way to demand it was to Haroo. Loudly. Silly Misery said 'Was that a haroo Pippa?' Of course it was. Now give me the sandwich. And I gave another quieter but very assertive haroo. I got a little bit of sandwich, I usually get the end bits when she starts getting fed up with it. Not enough for my excellent haroos though. So I shan't haroo any more unless I get reasonable rewards.

And here is a silly picture that Misery took of me in my table den. (Note to Misery - I think you should polish my table den before you post pictures of it on the internet).



Edited to add: We have just started to go and visit some of our friends and sadly see that our friend Rocky died at the weekend. Many of you have already visited but if not you can find his blog here - RockStar and Company. Our condolences to Mike and the beautiful Mahti.

On the road again

I have been a busy Pippadog travelling up and down to my finca again. I knew we were going because Misery was carrying bags with her when we went out for a walk, so I quickly pulled Master towards my Landy so we could get in and set off.

When we got there I did boundaround.

I bounded through the house, through the sitting room, and the dining room and into the kitchen. Then I bounded back through again, and back once more.

And when Misery opened the kitchen door for me, I bounded out onto my terrace and bounded up and down there a few times. Then I went to lie down at my gates.







I don't really have any space to play boundaround in my Gibkennelflat, the most I can really do is a few leaps into the air to help myself to food in people's hands or from their plates - although sadly I don't seem very successful at this.

It was very warm at my finca, so mostly I lay on my terrace in the mornings and the evenings. When it started getting towards lunchtime I went inside and lay in my den under my table. And sometimes I went to my sofa.



Misery and Master seemed to be busy doing something each morning called Paying Bills, but when they came back home from that we all went on my terrace again.

And that's it really. We didn't do any geocatzing, and I didn't manage to chase any ordinary catz either. I did eye up one of the local pups and warned him off my path. We went for some walks up the hill and said hello to the horse and foal.









It was very hot on the way back down to Gibflat. At my finca there was a sea fret and everything was very still and quiet, but as soon as we left the coast and went slightly inland onto the motorway, the sun was shining brightly in a clear blue sky. Master and Misery have started to take a couple of the toll roads as well, and they go further inland, cutting through the high mountains. It was windy too, so even though we had windows and vents open, the breeze was hot.

We stopped at one of the rest areas for a leg stretch, some sandwiches, and my favourite crisps, Lays Artesanas made with olive oil.





I howled and jumped around because Master and Misery weren't giving me enough. Misery had bought two small bags of crisps, I think she should have bought three. One for me on my very own, and then one each for them that I could have shared as well because I eat faster than them.

Then we all had a drink. But it was too hot for my feeties on the pavement so I started dancing around.



Master quickly opened my Landy door so I could climb back inside and Misery brought my little water bowl for me to drink on my Landy sofa.



When the toll road finished, we took the coast road for the rest of the journey, and the breeze was much fresher, so we all cooled down a little.



And then we arrived home in Gib.

The great escape

The other night, Master and I went for a nice late walk.

We had all cruised off to our beds nice and early, deciding that we would go out for a later walk when it was quiet.

Misery, as usual, was lying in her bed (ie on the floor), and suddenly she heard a loud bang. And then another one.

Fireworks! she thought. And wondered if there were going to be lots of them.

Meanwhile, I heard the first nasty loud bang and started. The next time, I decided it was time for action. I pulled in the opposite direction to Master – and as luck would have it – my chain snapped.

Off I skipped. First I ran onto the road, but then remembered there are nasty vehicles on there so I quickly jumped back onto the pavement.

I ran up the street in the opposite direction to Master so he could chase me. But he didn't. He called 'Pippa' and when I waited for him to chase me he just turned and walked in the other direction. I was so disappointed. And I didn't want to be left either, so I quickly ran after him, and he clipped my lead to my collar. Not much of an escape really.

The next day Misery went to the shop to look for a Strong Harness. Hmmmm. She spoke to the man in the shop and agreed to go back with Master and I.

The shop man brought out a very strong looking harness and put it over my head. Then he wanted me to lift my left paw through. But I always lift my right paw first. Perhaps I am right pawed? So Master put my left paw through.

But I think it is rather nice, and it is blue so it matches my blue collar. I wonder if my husky blood is showing through here as a harness-wearing dog?

Here is a top view of my new harness


Down the monkey steps we go


I think there were monkeys here.....


.......Or maybe they were here?


In the swing of it here with Master - walking jauntily


A quick pee-mail


WHO added that silly flower?

Geocatzing

I said in my last post that I would write about our geocatzing adventures so here they are.

Some of you may remember that many months ago Misery Mistress went geocatzing on her own - unsuccessfully. You can read about it here where I pointed out it was clear that she was unsuccessful because she did not take ME.

She has decided that we need to get out exploring and walking more, so came to the conclusion that geocatzing would be just the right thing for that. Master is always happy to buy new toys, so on Saturday they went to buy the GPS unit needed to find the little pots of hidden treasure.

Off we went in my Landy, and we were stopped at the frontier by the Spanish customs police. They are usually nice and friendly and smiley with me, but these two seemed very dour. I was disappointed.

After they had peered and poked all over my Landy, we set off to the location of the cache. It was in a very pretty park on a headland, with lots of spring flowers. And, there were lots of new dog friends to meet and greet and sniff.

We wandered round the nice paths and master and I posed for photos. There are more photos on Misery's other blogs (you can see on the sidebar), including a very good one of my ears.









Then I stood around patiently waiting for Master and Misery to find the cache but they didn't. Makes no difference to me whether they find it or not. I am sure if they had let me off the lead I would have found it. Well, I would have found something, although maybe not treasure - maybe a few nice female dogs would have been interesting. There were no catz to be seen anywhere so I am beginning to think this geocatzing is not about catz at all.

After that we drove to a nice place called Tarifa and Master and I sat in my Landy while Misery took photos of the beautiful beach.



And that's it. So the Pippa verdict on geocatzing is that it is ok from the perspective of going for a drive and a nice walk, but it was rather short on the catz.

Master and Misery went out again in the evening to look for the one up the Rock that Misery could never find, but they didn't take me so I can't report on that.

I have forgotten to thank everyone who voted for me in the GSD Adventures competition April Showers, May Flowers. I didn't win, but I was very pleased with the votes I received, and as Misery only voted for me twice, lots of you must have gone over there - so thank you very much.

Next up - The Great Escape.

History and monkeys

Well, Misery seems to have a problem with her computer. Hal, the Apple.

Anyway, I am not interested as she has bought herself another one called HP, the Sauce.

So long as my blog is updated and there are Pippapix, that is all I care about.

If you are interested in Misery's computer woes (and I tell you – there are plenty of them) you need to look at her blogs. I think the Land Rover blog is free of them.

Now. More interestingly, I was on Monkey Duty the other day.

Sniffing, looking


We had a nice walk up our back streets and came around the top of Trafalgar Cemetery. People think lots of British sailors are buried here from the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but actually there are only two. Most of those who died at Trafalgar were buried at sea, and Lord Nelson was taken back to the UK for a state funeral. Many of the graves are for people who died from yellow fever in the early 19th century.

Cemetery entrance


Sign about the history of the cemetery


A peaceful spot


Anyway the history lesson is over. As we all know, next to the cemetery are fig trees, where my friends the monkeys come to sit and eat. So yesterday, when I walked past the cemetery I could sniff the monkeys had been there. But I couldn't see them. Only smell them. No monkeys in sight.

Poking head through wall to look for monkeys


I know you are there - or you have been there


Come on monkeys - talk to Pippa


Update -
She has also been too busy GeoCatzing to post this before now, so I will write about my geocatz adventures next.

Finca fun and sofa sequel

I should like to thank everyone for their support in my sofa campaign.

First the good news is that Misery took her sleeping bag off the sofa during the day as even she can't lay down for 24 hours solid, so I got it back for 50% of the time.

The next news is that we went back to my Spanish finca at the weekend. Misery was going to go back on her own, but Master thought she was too poorly so we all drove back together.

I promptly jumped onto my sofa to make sure she wasn't going to steal that as well, but I needn't have worried as she has a bed there and spent all night (and half the day) in that.

We had a good time there, but it was raining slightly when we arrived so I wasn't allowed to go and sit in the wet at my gate. Just as well I had my sofa, I thought to myself.

And the next day we went back. Here I am in my Landy. On my Landysofa. Mostly I lie down for the whole journey.



Until we get to San Pedro Al-CAT-ara - where I need to look for cats, or why else would it be called that?

Here I am checking out for cats at San Pedro Al-CA(n)T-ara. Sniff, sniff.



Mistress took this photo so you can see the name of San Pedro. I don't know why she took it when there was a huge truck in the way.



I didn't see any cats. But I enjoyed looking down on all the other cars from my Landy.





This is a very silly picture. I don't know why Misery has included it. I think I had just finished yawning but I look almost fearsome.



Misery seems to think we need a few photos of her garden at the finca. I don't think we do at all. One will do, Misery.



Anyway, when we got home, she seemed to be feeling a bit brighter - AND - decided not to sleep on the sofa. So now it is all mine again. Everyone's comments must have worked and made her feel so guilty for stealing MY sofa.

And I want to say how sad I am that Charlie went to the Rainbow Bridge on Anzac Day. She was a fine pal and I will miss her very much. So this post and this sad photo of me thinking of her (back on my sofa) is dedicated to Charlie.

MY sofa

Misery has stolen MY sofa. She says that she has just temporarily reclaimed what was once hers anyway.

As far as I am concerned, I have slept on it for the last two years, so therefore it is MINE. I am not interested in what went on 40 years ago, whenever that was.

She decided she was tired of aching on the floor and struggling to sit up and cough, so she grabbed her sleeping bag and jumped on the sofa one night when I was inadvertently lying on the floor.

I have not been able to get back on since.

Oh, in case anyone is confused, they sleep on the floor because they haven't got round to buying a bed.

So I have been alternating between my Under Table Den, lying in the doorway with my head under the sideboard, and lying on my dustsheet in their bedroom.

Sad Pippadog


But then I decided a little tit for tat was called for.

First I rested my head on their 'bed'.

Just trying it out for size......


Who is disturbing my nap?


Oh well, time for a stretch


Then I decided that wasn't good enough. Mistress hasn't just got her head on MY sofa, she has commandeered it all.

Mistress's scruffy sleeping bag on MY sofa


So I did the same. Have that Mistress.

Mmmm, very comfy, I could gradually get all of me on here


Go away Misery - or give me back MY sofa


Now onto my second complaint about Misery.

As I wrote the other day, she kindly submitted a photo of me in my jasmine patch for Pruett and Daphne's April Showers May Flowers comp over at GSD Adventures.

Well, the first day, she was so busy looking at the photos, she forgot to vote. The next day she voted. Did she vote for me????? NO!!!! Why did she not vote for me? Something about it is not British to vote for one's self.

She isn't voting for her. She would be voting for ME. She told Master and I waited for Master to tell her off.

"Of course you can't possibly vote for Pippa. That's like cheating. Most unBritish," said Master, very unhelpfully.

Anyway, as it turns out I am not voteless. So if any of my friends have been over and voted for me, thank you very much. Voting runs until the end of this month, and you can vote for three dogs every day, which is really good because it gives you chance to vote for lots of friends and favourites.

Monkeys!!

I have something very exciting to write about.

Monkeys. Yes that's right, monkeys.

I spotted them on the city wall gates a few weeks ago, and stood watching them and sniffing them. They chattered away but I don't understand monkey.

Anyway, off we went for our morning walk. Mistress was distracting herself with ship photos again. Yawn.

Waiting for Misery to come back from shipwatch.



We set off back up the hill and I could smell them. Misery and Master were not walking fast enough.

Come along! We need to get to the monkeys.



Master and I spotted them straight away. It wasn't difficult as they were swinging on the branches in the trees. Eventually even Misery spotted them.

They were little baby monkeys. See this one walking along the branches?



Misery walked up to take closer pictures so they threw figs at her. Actually I don't think they were really throwing figs at her, because they were too busy eating them, but it is a nice thought. But when they move along the branches some of the figs drop and fall down onto the ground.



They wrap their feet around the branches so they can sit there and then pick all the figs within reach. Misery tells me figs are nice.





While Misery was taking a few different pictures, Master and I stood there intently watching the monkeys.

Me and headless master. Concentrating on monkeywatch.


Just me.



Look, can you see the face on this one? He was looking at me I'm sure.



Then I was tired after all that excitement.



Oh and I forgot to say I entered the April Showers May Flowers comp over at GSD Adventures. But I can't make the button come up.