My terrace

Here I am. On my terrace. In charge.

And I have some good news. I heard mistress say to master that she is off to my Gibkennelflat. On her own - to give a fridge away and something to do with FreeBicycles. Or stuff like that. I thought all bicycles were free because master normally finds them at the skip and repairs them. I might like a bicycle. PippaOnaBicycle. Or did she say FreeCycle? It makes no difference. She won't be here. Hehe.

Anyway this means that I can wake master up very early, just after 5am say, and he won't want to stay in bed with mistress. He will have to talk to me all the time as he will have no-one else to talk to.

We can sit on the terrace together all the time chatting and playing.

Looking down my main gate


Catz. I am sure there are catz


Playing teethies


Playing paws


Hehe. More paws


Guarding my terrace


Bye bye mistress. See you next week. PS. I haven't got any news yet on the girlfriend front because I have been busy guarding my terrace as you can see.

My den

First of all I want to thank every dog who voted in my poll, especially those of you (17 in fact) who said I should go for more girlfriends. I think this is a top idea and exactly what I shall do.

Three of you suggested I should stick to the ones who love me the most. Now although I don't have favourites, well not really, what dog can resist the girlfriends who are always loving and tell me how gorgeous I am? I am sure you all know who you are so I won't embarrass you by naming you, but you do have a special place in my heart, up there with buttered toast.

One silly dog said I should stop looking for any more. I think that must have been a wind-up. Another one said I should should go for one. How is a dog to choose one girlfriend out of so many beauties? Too difficult for me by far.

So I will report back when I get some acceptances. If I get some, I suppose.

Master and I went for a walk down the river bed, well the stream bed, last night. Mistress eventually turned up late as usual to take some photos.

Posing. Hello mistress, late again


The river bed changes every year, depending on the rain and how much water comes down from the mountains. So each year, the course becomes deeper, or wider, or shallower. Sometimes you can't get down.

Down the river bed


But one of our neighbours with a tractor has some land down there so he has flattened it out so he can drive his tractor up and down. He has a big black dog guarding his ground. He is chained up. I am glad I am not chained up at all or locked away. It was just as well he was chained up though as he was very big and had a loud bark. He wagged his tail nicely though so I tried to greet him the same way. Master was having none of it and dragged me off.

The big black dog


And now my den. This is my very favourite den at the moment. It is just down from my gate so I can see up the street while I am hiding. But no cats and dogs can see me. Even mistress struggled to find me for the photos. Can you see me sniffing? Mistress thinks I was smelling the jasmine. Master thinks I was smelling for cats. What do you think?

Looking up the street from my hiding spot


Looking the other way


Hiding


Sniffing

My 100 - and thinking awards

Well mistress and her blogging pals have been writing 100 things about themselves on their own totally uninteresting blogs.

Now how dogotistical (you mean egotistical Pippa) is that?

But not to be outdone I wanted to do it too, and Misery Mistress said I couldn't possibly think of 100 things about me. Well I can.

I like buttered toast x 49
I like chasing cats x 49
I do snoses when I want, and only when I want
I think mistress is rubbish.

Snosing with master


So there we are. 100 things written up at the flick of a paw. It didn't take me hours to think of. And I think it is a very good and very interesting list myself. Better than mistress's silly list clicky here if you really want to read it. ETA Ooops, no it's not there. She must be gutted that my list is smarter than hers. Hehe! She's taken it off her blog.

Now Charlie has given me the thinking blogger award. So now I have it twice as The Barkalot Boyz gave me it just in time for my Gotcha Day. That means I must think twice as much as mistress as she has only been given it once, I think.

And my very bestest Frenchie pal Balboa sent me a brill card for my Gotcha Day. I made mistress print it out and it is now on the wall. Thank you Balboa.

So without further ado, I am going to pass the thinking blogger award on to:

Balboa - because he posts up funny pictures and then other pups come up with clever captions, although I can never think of any, and he is also an all-round nice guy
Jazz and Dixie - because I can't believe how beautifully well-behaved they are at dog school, and how much they go out for long walks, and I love the pictures they post of far-away Japan
Guinness and Shiloh - because they are such right-on dogs who take in other foster doggies until they are ready to go to new homes, even if their house guests cause a few problems for them
Randi - because she writes about lots of different stuff, and she took in lots of doggies into the Randi Refugee Camp which I thought was very noble
Tasha and Eva - because they also write about lots of different things, including important news items, and essential oils and lots of clevernesses

And because I have got this award twice I am going to add five others. So:

Peanut (and Flash) - well he must be a thinking blogger because his blog is called Peanuts-Thoughts, and he thinks of lots of different things, and travels to different parts of America, and lives with a wicked cat so he must be a very thoughtful dog, and he loves the beautiful Penny too
Lorenza - who is the only Mexican dog I know and sometimes speaks to me in Spanish so I can practise my Spanish barks which I am losing a bit, and who is a very well-informed and savvy dog, and who also has amazing abuela-designer outfits - I have never seen any Spanish dogs wearing clothes
The Army of Four - because they think of lots of missions (although I am still keeping my head down on that one)
Bama and the River Hill Pack - because they think of others and post about important issues like missing dogs
Rockstar and Mati - because they always make me think how nice it would be to have a nice bro (or sis) again

I really can't remember who has got this award so far, but these were the first ten that came into my head. If you've already got it, great. If you haven't, great. :)

Now I am meant to post up the rules, but I am too busy thinking about other things to do that. But you can pass it on to five other dogs, and if you want the piccy and rules you can find them at Charlie's or The Barkalot Boyz blogs.

My Gotcha Day

Well, it isn't today, or even yesterday, or even the day or two days before that. My Gotcha day was on 14 January.

Anyway, bad mistress has been too busy writing about glow plugs on her Land Rover blog and artichokes on her own blog. I ask you. Why is she writing about artichokes when she could be writing about me?

So no dog has been able to wish me Happy Gotcha Day this year. Now I will have to wait another 361 days. And it was the first year I knew about Gotcha Days too.

Now that surely must be worth sacking mistress for.

It was a grotty day anyway because it rained, so I didn't bother going to wake up master. But he got up anyway. So I Aroorooed to him.

"No, Pippa, we aren't going outside in the rain. We will both get soaked and you won't like that," he said.



So I Aroorooed again.

"Very well, Pippa" and he went out into the patio. "No, Pippa, we can't possibly go out. It is just raining too much."

I sighed. I waited ten minutes and then I had another go.

"Arooo roooo ROOOOOOO."

Appearance of light bulb over master's head.

"Oh, Pippa, do you want your breakfast?"

No, master, what do you think I have been Aroorooing for? A walk in the rain? The cats always hide when it's raining anyway. NO, I want my breakfast.

It's not like master to be so slow off the mark but I was a bit disappointed I must say. Especially as Misery Mistress was lying in bed laughing because she knew exactly why I was Aroorooing. It would have been helpful if you had told master, Misery. Instead of laughing.

Naturally I got no presents from them.

But my friends Jake and Just Harry, The Barkalot Boyz have given me the "thinking blogger award". They said I have opened their eyes to what it means to live on the streets before coming in from the cold to a loving family.

Thank you very much boys. So there mistress, I don't need you to give me your awards because my dogpals give me nice awards in my own right. Anyway I need to think about five other thinking blogs, so I will put my own thinking cap on while I am at the gate and post up next time.



Oh, and back to my Gotcha Day. I don't know how old I am, except that I am more than four. So maybe five, or even six. Who knows? But I've looked after master and mistress for four years now, so I think they have been very lucky.

My news

Here I am. Back on my finca. Lying at my gate.

We had a fine time driving up the coast in my Landy. I went to sleep in the back, it was nice and warm and sunny. When we stopped at the traffic lights at San Pedro Alcantara I had a little look to see if there was anything interesting - like cats - but there wasn't so I went back to sleep.







Just before master got home, we stopped for a nice walk by the sea. I think it was really so mistress could call at the supermarket.

I was very excited when we got home and I ran all round my house. Then I ran outside onto my terrace and ran up and down there a few times. Then I lay down at my gate. I am sure to see one of the horrid Marmalade family soon. Master and mistress think they are on the fifth or sixth generation of feral kittens by now.



Mistress has got some awards on her blog. Bloggers of the World, and Thinking Blogger. I think she should give them to ME. I am the one in this household who gets awards, not mistress for her stories about life in Spain and Gibraltar and Important Things whatever they may be. Who is interested in that? Does she have lots of dog pictures on? (although I do feature on the last post). No. Does she get as many comments as me? No. Give ME your awards mistress.

Remember the nice people who came to see us at Christmas? The woman sent some of her photos to mistress and said she could post them on our blogs. So here they are. Well, the ones with ME on. Because they are the only interesting ones.





There are only two days left to vote in my poll, and it looks as though nearly everypup thinks I need more girlfriends, so if you haven't voted yet, please put your paw on the button.

Finally, I am so sorry that one of my newest friends, Durango, has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. So this post is in his memory. Run free, little one. Dakota and Thrawn will be there for you.

Pippa goes to work - sort of

Two of my favourite dogpals, well six to be accurate, have both given me this lovely award. I am very pleased with it, and I think it looks so pretty on my blog. Thank you Kelsey, Sky and Canyon of the Kapp pack, and Guinness, Kenna and Shiloh over at the The Stoutino Inn & Foster Kennel. You all make my day too when I visit your great blogs.



Edited to add: I forgot to pass this on. As usual. Anyway I am going to pass it on to the Barkalot Boyz, Frasier, Ume, River, Perfect Tosca, Golden Rossi, Gus and Louie, Pacco de Mongrel (although Pacco is always winning lots of prizes), Balboa, and ChaChi Lu. I thought I would mention 10 in case some of you already have it. You can pass it on to up to ten other blogs.

I have been nice to mistress this year I gave her a snose the other morning again. But just so she doesn't get used to it, the next day I did a pirouette. I put one paw on her chest, put all my weight on that paw and then bounded off in a twirl. I don't think she liked that very much.

I was a working dog today. Mistress and I were doing some paperwork and she put our files on MY sofa. So I had a quick peruse to give mistress the benefit of my opinion.



It was difficult because the file was upside down but I did my best. I think I gave her some inspiration.



Note from mistress. Photos unstaged. The file was to my left on the sofa, and Pippa carefully jumped on, and then sniffed and inspected the file. Then he supervised me and kept looking at the file.

Then I went to help with the chopping of vegetables. Some celery leaves fell on the floor but I don't like those, so I left them. Nothing else fell so it wasn't a very successful haul.



Well, now I am tired so I'm off back to my sofa.



Another hard day at the office for Pippatheworkingdog.

My review

Mistress has done a review of the year on her blog, so I WANT ONE TOO.

Those of you who read mistress's blog may find a couple of similarities, because she wrote about me on her blog. I don't know whether I am pleased or annoyed about that. Of course, I write about her on my blog sometimes but that is different.

On with the review. In January I celebrated my third anniversary of finding master and mistress on the street and rounding them up to take them back home. I can't think of anything for February.

March was very important because I started blogging. Some of my earliest friends were Bella, the Lurchers, and the Dachsies.

In April I became Pippa the camping dog. That was ace fun. I would like to do it again, but mistress went quite pale when she discovered how much the prices had gone up since the last time they camped. Don't care Meanie Mistress, I want to go again. I will ask master to take me and you can stay at home. Oh, and I got a new kennel flat in April too, with a grotty sofa that the previous owner left behind.



Now this is where my blog converges with mistress's. In May we entertained some of her friends. I liked the woman, she is small and pretty and just the right height for Pippadog to jump on and hump. Everytime she got up I ran over to her for fun games. She kept saying no though, which was a shame.

Later when they had gone, I jumped on my sofa and vomited. I hadn't finished but mistress took my throw away and put it in the wash so I vomited again. Mistress looked a bit sick and tired so we went out for a walk and I found a nice cat to chase. Mistress was a bit slow so I tried to drag her along but eventually she just fell down. Silly mistress. I lost the cat anyway so went back to find her. She has not taken me out since.

In June I became an entrepreneur and went car-booting. I supervised master and mistress from under the shade of my Land Rover, and they sold lots of clutter very cheaply to earn some euros for my dog biscuits. There were no cats but there were plenty of interesting dogs around.



July was a very busy month. I got a Cool Dog Site of the Day Award, a bright shiny new toaster, and lots of girlfriends. A good month, I think.

In August, I became Gibflatdog for a while because master got himself a job here. Mistress bought me an Appletop so that we could keep up to my blog from Gib. And I became News Editor of DWB News. A busy month for work for all of us.



I couldn't remember anything for September so I have made mistress look it up. I tried to get rid of her and did a poll expecting support from my dogpals but you all told me to keep her. Then after that mostly I wrote about my girlfriends, some were becoming a bit of a handful. September was obviously a month when I had women problems. No wonder I didn't want to remember it.

In October I joined the Army of Four by mistake. I thought they were asking if people wanted to be pals on their sidebar, so I nearly died when I discovered I had been drafted into the army! But lots of my girlfriends - including Amber, who is Executive Officer for the Ao4 - have all promised to look after me. So it has not turned out too badly up to now.

November seems to have been a mixed month. Master and mistress got some 'flu/chest infection, and a few of my best dogpals seem to have been poorly too. But I got some fine new organic dog biscuits that were very yummy. Mistress has ordered me some more and I told her to get TWO sacks this time. I also passed on some Top Tips for getting food. And I wrote a letter to Santa to go in Five Happy Hounds competition. But Santa didn't come. Mistress says that is because he didn't know whether we were in Gib or Spain, and here in Gib there is no chimney either.

December was definitely the month of cards. Mistress finally finished mine and we tried to email it to everyone who emailed us with a card. Some wouldn't go though, even though she tried a couple of times. Myself I think she should have sent it to more dogpals, but she wasn't organised enough. I must make sure she starts much earlier next year. And I met master and mistress's new friends who came from South Africa. On New Year's Eve there were horrid fireworks.

But on the whole it was a pretty good year. I did lots of new things and discovered some delicious new foods - potato crisps made with olive oil, pizza, and curries from the take-away. And I like Gibraltar because there are a lot of cats here.

Onto the New Year and just a quick look forward. As January is my Gotcha month, master and mistress will now have been with me for four years. But mistress can't remember the date. She will have to look it up next time she goes back to Spain. Maybe it has already gone, if so we will need to have a belated pawty. Master was laid off work before Christmas, so he is planning to take us all back to Spain for a break. So I will be able to write some tales from the finca with any luck.

OId year, new year

Hello everydog.

First of all Happy New Year and Feliz Año Nuevo to you all. And as I hope I said earlier, apols to anydog that has sent me an ecard that rubbish mistress has not replied to.

I had a very cool Christmas. I met some new amigos. Master and mistress met some people from the Internet. They came to my kennel flat and I loved them very much. Especially the woman. She was very nice.

Naturally us machos have to leave each other a bit of space, so me and the man respected each other on my sofa, just like master and I do.



But the woman was so lovely I couldn't resist going and cuddling up to her. Of course, I never cuddle up to mistress as you all know.



Although I have done a few more snoses with mistress. Especially yesterday when we shared some fine toast. And later I got sausage and tomato.

Now, I have to confess, Pippa is not a tough dog. I was very frightened yesterday. There were some big bang noises so I quickly ran to hide and lie down in the dark next to master's chair.

Apparently humans like to do FIREWORKS on New Year's Eve. I think they are nasty, nasty, NASTY.

This was not a good day for me. On top of the nasty noises, master went to the shops and bought a nasty brush. Mistress groomed me. Don't like that. I did furly nose at her but she didn't stop. Pooh. Sad Pippadog hiding under my table.



But I will be back later in the New Year, calm and tranquilo. Posting more often when mistress gets herself into gear. I hope the nasty brush goes away though. It is hardly a fine Christmas present for me.



And today for the New Year I am going to dream about beautiful Kelsey Ann. Queen Kelsey of The Kapp Pack.