Twenty-seven Cavaliers

Fantastic ANZAC weather + 27 Cavaliers = a great doggy afternoon at the Botanic Gardens with the 

Tiki Cavalier K.C.S Club.

The party life's not for everyone...

Well I went to an unusual birthday party today, for Caeser the Border Collie. I did not really know any of the people there, but the boys do rub noses and sniff bums with some of the canine guests from time to time when we're out walking on the Peninsula. It was on a walk meeting that Caeser's owner invited me to this do a few weeks back.
Someone counted 19 dogs, ranging from Chico the chihuahua to Bear the German Shepherd. There were schnauzers, a miniature poodle, cairn terrier,  chocolate lab, golden retriever, bichon, dachshund and many more.
There was absolutely no unpleasantness between the dogs at all. Some enjoyed the canine interactions more than others.  Hugo and Reilly were pleasant to the doggie guests for a while, but their preference was definitely for the human touch, as they moved around the people batting their eyelids and getting continually petted.
Unfortunately, Mr Stirling was a bit overwhelmed. The party life is not for him. He spent most of the time under a chair, on a chair or on someone's lap... Chico the chihuahua was quite persistent in wanting to get to know him, but he was not willing to reciprocate. When Bear the German Shepherd was even in close proximity, Stirling got his big boy bark on. From under the chair. But he did come out to eat cake. At least he enjoyed that part of the celebrations!

I'm a Little in Love with Romeo

A friend of mine has a new cavalier puppy.  His name is Romeo, and I think he's Mr McDreamy.
If I ask him to be my Valentine, do you think my boys will get the pip?

We've Been Waiting to Meet You!

The Boys and I had a lunch time visitor today - our kind of second cousin Winston. His person is my Aunty Kaye. who passed by on her way back up North.
I have been longing to meet Winston (so named because of an apparent similarity to Winston Churchill) ever since puppy pics of him appeared on my Aunt's FB page some months back.

Winston is not quite a year old yet; a Lhasa Apso/Shih Tzu cross, and a cute bundle of delight he turned out to be, as predicted. He coped very well with three inquisitive cavs.  We all hope he will visit again soon!

Barking Mad #2

I say this often... 'People who know me well..."
And again I start with this phrase...
People that know me well know that I do NOT camp. A holiday for me includes all the creature comforts of home - and more if I am honest.
So, it may come as a bit of a surprise to some that here I am at 'home', sleeping in a tent - by choice.
This is a concession I chose to make, for the love of my dogs, and out of respect for my Mum.
I have visited many times with Hugo and Reilly. They started off sleeping in the garage or laundry, but of late had eked their way into my bedroom, with my mother's blessing, even though I know she is not in favour of 'inside dogs '. Now I have three dogs, I felt that it was unfair to try and wangle them all into my inside bedroom. Yet I was reluctant to have them spend their Christmas in the laundry... so when it was mentioned that we may need the tent to accommodate all the family at Christmas time, I bravely put my hand up to sleep there, with my boys.

It's actually quite a cool little set up, as the photos show. And across from the tent, is my 'day room' - the old shade house which is now a place I can sit and read or edit photos...

So just at this moment it seems like a holiday adventure, though this time tomorrow, my opinions may have changed...

PS Photos courtesy of Camera+, iPhone

Barking Mad #1

The lengths we dog people go to...
Chose a chew toy each for the boys for Christmas.
However I know they are not that fond of 'plain rawhide', so these particular ones were carefully selected so I could (again - did similar last year) untie the 'stitching', insert cooked chicken and re-tie...
They will sit in the fridge till wrapped, and if last year is anything to go by, the unwrapping process will be cuuuuuuuute!

P.S:
Here's Stirling opening his on Christmas Day...

Bloggies and Doggies

We have recently purchased some Bloggies for school, and as I am using one next week my friend and colleague Lisa encouraged me to take one home to practice with. I know she knew I would find them simple to use, I think she was just hanging out for some doggie footage.
"Make Stirling do something cute" she said.
Well he wasn't very compliant with that request, so to incite some action I just uttered that one question that causes a cacophony in my house... "You wanna go for a walk?"
The footage downloaded, I then decided to trim it a bit, and Reilly and Stirling reacted noisily to their own recorded barking, as the end of the movie shows. That was a bit cute.
But to keep up with the photo-a-day promise, I do have one still image here, though taken with my iPhone as my camera I find, is M.I.A. I am really hoping I will find it at school!

Finding your perfect match

In terms of posting a 'photo' I know that a screen shot is tenuous.

However I saw this website on Close Up by accident the other night and thought I would check it out. The aim of the NZ developed site is to match dogs needing a home with a 'physically similar' owner - you know the old adage of dogs and their owners looking alike...

Well, no cavs on the pound list (I hope) because of course my perfect match would have been one of them... but I am quite happy with the match it came up with for me. I think Elliott is pretty cute. And as a weird coincidence, some will remember that I once co-owned a cav puppy called Elliott. He was the result of a repeat mating to get another Hugo. But he went to live with a lovely family in Onehunga, and became 'Duke'.

Anyway sorry Elliott, but sadly there is no room at the inn here. Perhaps someone else will visit the Doggelganger website and be a perfect match for you also...

PS just to keep it real, I have gone back and found a photo of Elliott the Cavalier...