Just another new enterprise

Poor me. Pippa of the abandoned Pippadogblog.

But here I am at last - making what is beginning to be my once a month appearance.

However, I think you should all know that in my absence I have taken up a new career.

Yes. Pippa the Painter and Decorator. After the success of supervising the repainting of my finca terrace, I decided it was time to organise a repaint of my Gibkennelflat.


My nice clean finca


I made sure Master got out all his nice dust sheets for me to lie on and supervise. Shazam! It was done in two shakes of a Pippadog's tail. It was hard work mind, keeping a sleepy eye on Master to make sure he didn't slack.

Working hard


Laughing - they are so useless


Getting rather tired with my hard work - notice all those buckets and tins I have to keep an eye on too?


I think we all need a rest. I need a rest anyway.


Barking my orders


My clean curtains


In charge


A little smile


Just me


And my other adventure of note was a rather neat little escape the other day. Our neighbour had come across to ask for some help with his water heater (Pippa the Plumber coming up next perhaps) and so I wandered onto the landing when he called me to say hello.

Naturally after the cursory greetings I bounded down the stairs to see if the front door was open and then I could chase some cats. But it wasn't. So my neighbour found me sitting by the door waiting for someone to open it and I had to go back upstairs to my kennelflat. It seems I may not be allowed to socialise with my neighbours on the landing again.

Busy, busy, busy and National Day

I have been sooooo busy, what with printing my business cards, decorating my GibKennelFlat and - National Day. Anyway, more of the other stuff later, here are my National Day photos.

Oh for any pup who doesn't know, Gibraltar celebrates National Day on 10 September and we all dress up in red and white, which are our national colours.

Normally I don't dress up. At all. But I don't like to be upstaged and it seemed that rather a lot of pups were getting into the swing of it all. So not wanting to be left out, I donned a rather macho vest of master's.

I think I will have something more discrete next time though. Perhaps a red harness, or a small red and white scarf tucked into my harness. Wearing vests indeed.





Ah yes, discreet, this is what I like. Subtlety. Nothing over the top. Tasteful too.


A flower - of course, any excuse to put flowers on my blog. Even if it is red.

A car seems to have found its way in here too, just because it is the right colour is no excuse.

Idle

Yes, that's right. Idle Mistress. She has now decided that posting rather nice photos of me is much easier than writing up my busy activities aka sleeping. Chasing cats. Or at least dreaming of chasing cats.

First off, it is not true that my delicate soft skull made this rather large dent in a very strong paint tin. Despite what some people have been saying.


Off out with master.


Favourite folded paws. Or Tuck as Sophie says.


At my favourite gate.


I wonder if anyone has ever thought of cleaning my window in my Land Rover?


Just enjoying the ride..


.....


....


What was that? Did I miss something?


Oh, and I am now on Facebook IN MY OWN RIGHT. With my very own farm too, sadly bereft of cats. I am searchable but if you are on too as a dog just leave me a message on here and we can catch up somehow:) Well, possibly, given all Misery's flaws and inabilities.

Random PippaPix

Well I can report that there was no trace of that Feral Cat at my finca so perhaps it has really gone.

Misery now has her Hal Apple back so perhaps that might mean she might update my blog more and visit my friends. I am surprised I have any left.

Anyway, here is a random selection of Pippapix.

First ones are at my finca, and the second lot are from Gib.

Here I am in my patio, looking at silly Misery with her camera toy.


But here, in this direction, there is toast, which is much more interesting.


Glare. I am more interested in toast than silly photos.


Happy and toasted.


That's enough now. Bored.


I'm not sure I like this photo. Misery seems to think I look funny with my eye all scrunched up. None of her business if I am comfortable lying like this.


Looking thoughtful and pensive in this rather ethereal light.



Checking out the leaves (not sure what for).


Best paw forward - home for food.


Just chillin' in front of the fan.

Ferals and fans

I decided to make a stand. I informed Misery that I was not going back to my finca until she got rid of that Pesky Feral Cat and its Pesky Feral Kitty.

So off she went, and I can report it was a successful mission. Well, it was successful inasmuch as Misery said there was no longer any trace of the Pesky Feral Family. Of course she would have made so much noise clomping around that the Peskies probably just ran away when they heard her.

The next time I go back I will have a good sniff around and a proper investigation will be carried out by Detective Pippa.

In the meantime I am chilling out in front of my fan on the floor, or lying underneath my ceiling fan. What else is a dog to do in hot weather?

All stretched out



A good position for ignoring Misery



Someone, is getting up my nose



Time for a stretch....



.....And outta here

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?