Some photos

Here I am looking after master's shoelace and his boot



Because misery has been so slow and useless at updating my blog I thought I would post up some piccies that I meant to post ages ago.

Here is the bird who sits on the streetlight over the road. He is a seagull, and he only has one foot.



The woman who lives in the house opposite to us (next to the one with the shutters) puts out fish for the seagulls.

Footless comes to stand on top of the lamp and squawks, demanding his food.



Then he twirls round in a circle waiting for his food to arrive.



And flies down.



Looking for his food.



And wondering where it is.



Sometimes the cats eat the fish. The woman opposite also puts out food for the feral cats. But we have seen Marmalade (real name Harvey) who is not feral, polishing off this food too. Greedy Marmalade. I am not sure if anybird or anycat gets to eat the food that is put out for them, but it is nice of her to do it.

Especially as it means there are always lots of cats in my street prowling for food.

Misery went for a walk the other day - without me - and took this interesting picture of an overgrown cemetery with two sunbathing cats. Well, I thought it was interesting because I would like to have gone with her and chased the cats off the tombstones.



She also met some birds, and being somewhat strange, chatted away to the parrot. Here is the parrot listening to misery.



And here is a caged bird, which we don't like to see, but we don't know why it was caged so maybe there was a good reason.



And mistress wants me to add thank you very much to everypup who wished them happy wedding anniversary. They had a very nice weekend doing nothing, but mistress never does anything anyway so I couldn't tell the difference.

Murphy the Rotti

First, today is master and misery's wedding anniversary, so I would like to wish them a happy anniversary.

They have been married for zillions of years so I don't know exactly how many but it is more than 20.

That's enough of them. Onto ME. My darling girlfriend Guinness gave me the BFF gold card. Thank you Guinness, I appreciate that very much, and I hope we will always be best Blogging Friends Furever.



Today, I thought I would do a different post and tell you a story about Murphy the Rotti (although I don't have any pictures of him, so sorry about that).

Once upon a time, master and misery decided they needed to get some rewiring done at my finca in Spain.

It was difficult to get an electrician to come and do the work and one day master met a British man who was walking past the house. The man was out of work and turned out to be an electrician, so master asked him if he wanted to do the work on my finca.

The man went to have a look and said yes he would do the work, so they agreed a daily price. A few days later the man started to do the work. He would go home for lunch, but a couple of times he didn't come back in the afternoon.

When mistress was preparing lunch one day, master asked if there was enough for the man to eat too, and she said yes. So they all sat down to pasta and tomato sauce with salad.

After that, the man ate lunch with master and mistress every day. He particularly liked spicy Thai curry, and some mashed potato dish that mistress cooked. The man was not vegetarian like master and misery, so she tried to make sure that the food she cooked was suitably interesting.

But after a while, it became clear that the man and his woman were having problems. The man loved his woman very much, but she wanted to go back to the UK with their two children. The man took a few days off work to say goodbye to her and take her to the airport. She took the children and all their money and left him with nothing but a tatty old car and - Murphy the Rottweiler.

Murphy was a very big and very beautiful dog with a heart of gold. He had a lovely temperament, and could eat for Spain. The man had bought him for his woman just after they arrived in Spain because the woman "always had to have a Rottweiler." Apparently when they were in the UK, they had two Rottweilers, but they did not bring them to Spain with them, unlike master and misery who brought Paddy (cross-setter, and very cross) and Prince (GSD).

Master and misery were not impressed with the idea of people who "loved" their Rottweilers, but left them behind when they became inconvenient, and thought this did not bode well for Murphy.

The man had nowhere to live and was sleeping in his car. He did not know what to do with Murphy during the day, so master and misery said he could spend the days on our terrace. So there was Murphy on the terrace, Paddy and Prince in the house and patio, and me in the corral. Paddy was a cantankerous grumpy old dog and did not want any other dogs in his house, hence the demarkation zones.

Paddy


Prince


On the first day that Murphy arrived, the man was moaning about the woman taking all his money and saying how poor they were. Mistress asked if Murphy had eaten and if he would like some breakfast. Of course he wanted some breakfast, so mistress gave him some food. Every day after that she always fed him, as well as the man. Mistress thought Murphy was adorable.

Towards the end of the job, the man was talking about going back to the UK to be with his woman. Master and misery were worried that he was hinting at leaving Murphy with them, and sadly they couldn't logistically manage another - huge - dog. Murphy was so big and powerful that when he had jumped up to hug mistress after his food, she had nearly fallen over. They also thought the man wanted to stay in their spare room, and they had visions of never getting rid of either the man or his dog.

On the last day, the man had his lunch as usual, master and mistress offered him a shower, paid him his money, and off he went. He had done a good job by the way, and M&M were very pleased. Master had helped of course, by doing a lot of the hacking out and plastering, so it had been cost-effective and pretty efficient.

A few weeks later on, the man told master and misery that he was going back to the UK to find his woman and children, and he was going to try and rehome the dog. Master and misery were very sad for Murphy, and thought the man was silly because it was clear to virtually everyone that the woman didn't care two hoots about him, whereas Murphy did.

Murphy was rehomed with a nice person and everyone was pleased about that. Master and misery knew some kind people who lived just outside our pueblo who had acquired a few dogs as you do in Spain - from cardboard boxes left outside supermarkets and other places where people dump unwanted dogs, and they had helped with the rehoming. They also let the man stay with them for a couple of nights before he left and they took him to the airport. They brought him to say goodbye to us, and collect a few things he had left with us for safe-keeping. And then he was gone.

The man and the woman rang the kind people a few times and asked about Murphy. They wanted to make sure they could have him back if they returned to Spain. Murphy was fine and happy with his new people.

Some time later the new people and Murphy moved. The kind people told master about this, and said we are not going to tell the man and the woman where they have gone because we think they are irresponsible and Murphy has been disturbed enough in his life. So master and misery and the kind people entered into a conspiracy of secrecy and the last we heard was that Murphy was still happily living with his new people.

If anyone is interested in what happened to the man and the woman - she left him of course - and he was very upset. She came back to Spain for a holiday with one of her (teenage) daughters, slept on the beach one night and with some gypsies the next.

I should say that this is not a post about Rottweiler owners - it just happened to be the breed concerned - but rather about people who buy dogs for status symbols.

The saying "Dogs are for life (and not just for Christmas)" is probably over-used, but it is still true. This couple bought and abandoned three dogs to our knowledge. Dogs that are large, often classified as "dangerous," expensive to keep, and because of all those factors, difficult to rehome.

The only ones who are dangerous in this story are the people who paid thousands of pounds for pedigree dogs and then ditched them when they didn't fit into their life.

Anyway, the story had a happy ending for Murphy which is all I care about, and we are going to have a fine party weekend for master and misery, and it is a Bank Holiday on Monday, so it will be an extra long party.

Take care pups.

The rubbish bin

Most mornings when master goes out to work he takes the rubbish downstairs with him and dumps it in the bin outside.

If he doesn't, naturally I think it is important to check it out to see if there is anything yummy in there.

They used to use an open topped bin, and it was under the sink so it was difficult to get at and I had to pull it over.

Now mistress uses a flip top one and it is much easier to open and take out what I want. And what I don't want too.

My best find is the paper that the butter is wrapped in. When master puts the last of the butter in the dish he throws the paper in the bin, and if I am lucky I can take it out, lick it very clean, and then tear the paper into tiny pieces.

Next best are the plastic cartons that the vegetarian sausages or rashers or slices came in. There is not really anything to lick but they smell nice so I like to lick them anyway just to see if there are any nice flavours left.

The trouble is that if mistress is still in the bedroom when I do it, she usually hears me and calls out "Pippa. Stop." And being good I do stop.

But the other day master forgot to take it down to the outside bin. Mistress was going out later, and thought 'I must take the rubbish out so Pippa doesn't raid it.' And she forgot. Haha!



As you can see it wasn't much of a haul though. I wasn't too impressed with master's smelly old insoles, and the boxes for the new ones didn't smell remotely interesting.

And much as I like peas, I don't like to eat the nasty hard pods.

Still, it is always worth a look, and a good laugh to get mistress to clear it up when she comes in.

Here I am laughing at mistress.

Paws crossed

Thinking of some of my pals at the moment.

Randi, my favourite Lab/Newf, is having an operation to remove some cysts today (Tuesday), so hoping the results come back and say that there is no problem with them.

And my pal Little Sal had a lump removed so she is feeling a bit sorry for herself. Little Sal and Jasper bigdog have just started up a new blog, although Sal's first brother Harry had his own blog before he went to the Bridge. Sal and Jasper are both rescued collies.

Kai, one of the Danes at the Zoo Crew is also going through a rough time at the moment with his orthopaedic problems and has been having difficulty getting up and down and walking. He and his family could do with lots of good thoughts and healing wishes.

Not forgetting my pal Jackson, who came home after his gruelling op, complete with 21 staples, but finally managed to celebrate his barkday at the weekend. Hope you continue to improve and keep the Js in order.

Practice makes perfect

I thought it was time to put my Ao4 lessons about not looking at the camera into practice again. Got to keep up our skills.

First attempt


Looking at the ground


Looking at the wall


Looking at master


Best paw forward with master in synch


Having a scratch


Back home again

Furry dogs

Mistress is getting in my face.

It is quite beyond me why mistress seems to think it is a good idea to take pictures of me when I am sleeping.

If I am asleep that means I do not wish to be disturbed.



It is hard work being a furry dog in summer, as many of you pups know.

I do not want a camera in my face, flashing nastily, or mistress prowling around the place looking for a good angle.



And another thing. It is my right to scratch and remove my own fur for it to flutter round the flat.

It is then mistress's job to clean it up. I do not wish her to pre-empt my fur removal with the Nasty Brush.

Here is some of my fur. This is from our sitting room. I normally manage to scratch at least three loads a day similar to this.

What is that sock doing there? Oh, mistress found it under the chair when she moved it to retrieve more of my nice soft fur.



Just as well she has to sweep up my fur or she probably wouldn't have found the sock for months.

I leave a similar amount of fur in our bedroom too. I say ours, because they sleep in it at night. During the day, mistress moves the thermarests and I flop on the floor in there. Mistress leaves the curtains closed for me so it is nice and cool and I claim it as my daytime bedroom.

Some time ago I added some info to my sidebar about husky/GSD crosses.

But I forgot to mention it. So if you are interested in huskies (of all types), or GSDs, or just big furry doggies, there are some really interesting photos on there.

ETA:
Here is the link as well. I have just made mistress have a looky and there are even more nice pix added since the last time, and yet another one who looks just like me. I am so excited to think that there are other dogs out there like me. It is good not to be alone. Oh and if any pup does look at the site, silly mistress added my photo twice. hahahaha.

Beetle-Pet

No not another Crump-Pet. A real live one. Elfreda Beetle.

You all know what a silly wimp mistress is with a few dead - or live - cockroaches in the bathroom at my finca in Spain?

Well, the other day, she went into the bathroom here in my Gibflat, and spotted one on the floor, on his back and waving one of his antenna at her.

She ran out as usual and when master came home she asked him to "Do Something" with it.

But master told her not to be stupid (as if) and that it was a beetle not a cockroach.

Master turned the beetle over so that she could run around and play.

A bit later on, Elfreda Beetle came into the kitchen to explore. I went over to have a look at her. She wasn't very interesting. She didn't smell interesting and she didn't seem worth eating so I left her alone.

She played climbing up the mop.



And fell on her back again which I thought was rather silly of her.

Then mistress went back to my finca in Spain for the weekend. When she came back master had to give her the sad news that Elfreda Beetle had fallen on her back once too often and was no more.

Before anypup asks, apparently mistress called her Elfreda Beetle because of some film/book with an Elfreda Beetle in, although mistress has forgotten which one it was.

So I didn't have a Beetle-Pet for very long at all. Onto some cheerful news after that short sad story. Some fine friends have given me another nice award.

Charlie and Eva gave me this one.



That is very kind of them, thank you to both Charlie and to beautiful Eva.

And a while ago, Rocky at The Hudson Furkids asked which blogs pups and their people visited when they wanted to laugh and feel less stressful. I was one of the ones Rocky and his family visit to cheer themselves up. I don't mean to be funny but if I make pups and people laugh then that is a good result. Thank you for saying that Rocky, and I am sorry it has taken me (ie mistress) a long time to mention it. I hope my Beetle-Pet story wasn't too sad.

Right, Misery and I are off to eat some grapefruit now and then a snooze will be in order.

Kelsey Ann .... and KuBrin

Well, I got the lazy idle mistress to start writing me a post so that I could put one up less than a week after the last one but she never finished it.

And now we are both too too sad because another of my beautiful girlfriends has gone to the Rainbow Bridge, so it will have to wait for another day.

Bye bye Kelsey Ann from The Kapp Pack. Loved you lots. I'll miss you.

We didn't know Timber but we have visited his blog and he was a very handsome Alaskan Husky and we are sorry that he too has gone to the Bridge. Our sympathies are with the husky world today.

*Update* I am so sorry to say that my fine wolfhound pal KuBrin has gone to the bridge today. It is only two weeks ago since his pack member Megan went there, so they must be a very sorry pack at the moment. Sending lots of love to Blogs From the Dogs - you are having a tough time.

ETA Jake and Just Harry have pointed out that we are all affected by this sadness not just the husky world, and they are quite right. I did not mean to suggest other pups were not upset too and I am sorry if it came across like that.

A reprieve

Well, I suppose it has only taken Misery a week to put up a post and not three weeks, so I should be grateful for small improvements.

Now I would like to thank Rocky, Bear and Angel Lacy for giving me an award. Lots of other doggies had got it and I felt I was missing out, so I was feeling sorry for myself.

But now I have it. Thank you for my Arte-y-Pico award. Happy creative Pippa. In my dreams anyway.



Except I am not feeling very creative at the moment. It is warm here. Well, it is only about 30C but it feels warm to me so I am lying around on my cool floor. And mistress puts on my ceiling fan and opens the window wide for me.



It is warmer at my finca in Spain, it is about 35C there, but I can lie outside on my terrace there and it is nice and shady. But I am not there, I am in my Gibflat and we have no outside space. So I have to make do with my fan and my cool floor.



Now. An update on my miserable restricted diet. Mistress came back from a wander down the high street yesterday with a cross auntie for us to share. I think she thought she was going to eat it all herself but I soon put her right. I like cross aunties. I have written about them before. I think they are almost on a par with Toast.

And she was feeling very greedy and fat so she bought something else. They are called Crum-Pets. But I don't think they are pets like dogs are. And there weren't any crumbs either.

She had to put two in the toaster as it will only take two items as a minimum. Naturally, we always need at least two items. One for them and one for me. Or two for me. When they were done she put some yummy butter on them and managed to drop half a Crum-Pet on the floor. hehehehe.



Then she decided she was feeling very full after her cross auntie and so I ended up with most of the second one as well.



Master had one today too. I howled at him so he knew that I expected My Share. Mistress said "Pippa likes Crum-Pets. You need to give him some." Kind mistress (for once).

So things are improving on the tasties score. Perhaps there may even be Pizza for Pippa on the horizon.

Back again

Firstly I want to say that another friend has gone to the Bridge. Regal deerhound Megan, of Blogs from the Dogs went this week. We have written about it on DWB News, but here is a link to their site. Bye bye Megan.

Mistress had a break from blogging (and everything else) for their birthweek. Then she got carried away and had another week off, and another..... but here I am. Finally. Although I note she managed to stick a few posts on her blog. Selfish mistress. Lazy too.

Now, what to tell you all? Well, I have been a poorly Pippadog this last week so maybe she was a bit worried about me. I had a poorly tummy when I went out for my walks, then it seemed to clear up. But then it came back again and one night I walked into master and mistress and whimpered to go out Right Now. I don't know what time it was and neither do they but they were asleep.

Kind master jumped out of bed much more quickly than usual and managed to find all his clothes in the dark and out we went. I couldn't have waited for long I can tell you. Even mistress took me out one day which she hasn't done since the day of the famed cat-chasing incident when I pulled her over and she hurt her arm and hand and fingers. I lay around looking very sorry for myself.

I am feeling a bit better now though and I am back eating my normal amounts of food. BUT, Misery and master have decided that it must have been something I ate that gave me a bad tummy. I don't see why because I ate just the same things as master, although apparently he has a cast-iron stomach whatever one of those is. So now I am not allowed to have tasty titbits with my food. How boring. And even worse, master is not giving me any TOAST. Everydog knows that toast, especially slightly burnt, is very good for poorly tummies.

Only this morning I sat patiently next to mistress while she was eating our grapefruit. I poked out my little pink tongue a tiny bit so I looked very cute. Next I tried to do shake a paw but she was too busy getting the grapefruit down her neck. And then it was gone. With not a teeny little sliver for me. I checked out her chair and the floor but she hadn't dropped anything anywhere.

And we have stopped going out for dinner too. This is nothing to do with my tummy. This apparently is called an Economy Drive. Although we haven't been driving anywhere.

So I will finish with the story of the pizza place as I don't think I will be doing any more restaurant reviews in the near future. My career has been abruptly ended. Back to the film project methinks.

Remember when I went to Jumpers? a few posts back. Well, the Italian restaurant is just before the bastion. We had been before but Misery had forgotten her camera, so she made sure to take it this time.




They had ....

Salad....


And olives....


...for Pippa


She had aubergine/eggplant/berenjena/melanzana - hehe - multi-lingual me. She didn't give me any. Greedy mistress. No wonder she has put on weight.



Master ordered pizza. Pizza romana, sin anchoas. When the pizza arrived, mistress took a bite and master looked at it puzzled.

Mistress said it was very salty, and then master realised that it had anchovies on after all, even though he had asked for it without.

So it got taken back and a new one was made. Now, wouldn't the sensible thing have been to give the unwanted anchovy pizza to me? Even if it was salty? Would I have cared? If I didn't like the anchovies I could always have spat them out.

Hungry


My pizza


It is mine, I tell you


Then another couple turned up while we were eating there so I got to eat some of his tasty toast. Yum yum.

Good food all round for Pippa. Paws up. And the pizza was cool for breakfast too, because this was before my poorly tummy episode.

But then we went again for mistress's birthday. They had a salad to start with, master had a pizza as usual and mistress had a pasta dish. They both kindly left a little bit of their main course to be taken home in a doggy bag for my breakfast.

Pizza


And pasta


And then the waiter came out and said they had made a mistake - and thrown my breakfast IN THE TRASH!

Big paws down from Pippa and I decided we would not go there any more. Irrelevant really as Meany and master decided to go on the Economy Drive and curtail my promising new career. Perhaps one day I will get to eat pizza again. I must remind master I have not been poorly when I have eaten pizza.

Looking at the view while waiting for the non-appearance of my food.


I will try and get round my pals and I am sorry I have not been allowed out to play.