The end of the blog

I regret to advise that my dearest canine friend has passed away this week, leaving me, his HF, with a hole in my heart and missing him greatly.

If there's a heaven for dogs, I hope he's up there enjoying lots of ball throws, swims, cuddles and great food.  I know he will have plenty of company.

I have many wonderful memories and am so much a better person for having him as part of my life.

I've just come back from my first decent walk without Zak.  It was hard greeting others who knew him and sharing the sad news. Past the lake he so often cooled off in, past the fence where the other dog always barked ferociously and Zak would rev him up, but past the other place with the little dog who also barked but which Zak would always try to avoid/slink past, into the oval where he'd always run ahead hoping I'd throw the ball, etc etc. 

I miss you Zak!

Yay, the boot is off

That ugly cam walker boot she's been wearing is just sitting idle now, although I see there's a funny black thing on her ankle now. At least it isn't as bulky; I'm more hopeful of longer walks now !  A little bit at a time will do .... and she can still kick the ball from the deck.  (I'm quite insistent when she's just sitting there, apparently doing nothing; well it looks like nothing to me!)

Added bonus: the rain we've had in the last few days seems to have gone away. I don't mind being out as long as it isn't raining too hard, but it IS nicer with a bit of sunshine.

Here's a recent photo of lovely morning light in the park - and I feature, of course, handsome dog that I am!

A weekend in March 2014

A very quick update just to say we're still here, although slowing down a bit. And the HF can't walk too well at the moment, so she's hired the boys next door to take me for a bit of a walk each day.  Not quite the same as the good rambles we used to do, but hopefully this is just for a short duration.

Live life while you can and make the most of it, that's what we both say :-)

January 2013.  Another year has slipped by. I'm now middle aged apparently on the human scale. So is my HF. But neither of us are very keen on the moniker.  So let's look forward to a damn good year. I'll find a a photo of me looking perhaps not quite my usual handsome self - we had a humdinger of a hot day last week and HF was apparently trying to keep me cool.  You can tell I'm not that keen on her solution...  now where did we put that photo? 

Losing a friend

OK, so the black cat wasn't really my friend; we tolerated each other, but I can see that HF is a bit upset today because he has died.

I'll admit he was a character - even if he did compete for attention. He barked more than me too - apparently it was more of a yowl, something to do with what we think was his Burmese heritage, but gosh, it was loud at times. And he'd get in the way when it was food time, trying to climb up the kitchen cupboard and using the teatowel for leverage.

I guess this means the end of some of the leftovers too, because the black cat was getting to the stage where he couldn't eat much and would leave a mess to be cleaned up - which I was happy to do. I cleaned up some of his vomit too. I do have my good points :-)

My HF knows that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all - and I know she loves me - but I guess I can understand that she might be hurting from the loss of the cat. He was here before I came, even though I'm a little older.

She was telling me tonight in the park about the other little cat called Batman she acquired at the same time as Harry. I didn't know him. Apparently when she had taken Harry to the vet, she had commented to someone else in the waiting room that she had originally intended to get 2 cats, but the other one turned out to be unwell. The vet nurse's ears pricked up (I understand what that means) and apparently said she had a little kitten there which was looking for a home. However, in the end, he only stayed a few weeks, because it turned out he had a really rare condition called fragile skin syndrome which mean that his skin kept breaking open - especially when the two kittens as they were then, would play/fight. He ended up staying at the vets from where he had come and then moving with one of the vet nurses.

But the girl cat is still here. She's the one who fascinates me - I can't work her out; she sounds like a sheep when she meows and honestly, she is so furry she could be a woolly sheep.

I'd better go and give HF a lick to tell her I know she is feeling sad and I can help make it better.

Weekends in Autumn

Ah, the pleasures of long walks on fine weekend days in autumn. My HF and I have been out for a couple of long walks the last couple of days, and enjoying the very fresh mornings but lovely sunny days. Lots and lots of sniffs and a few meetings of canine friends en route.

Yesterday we wandered up through the park behind and through the school etc as usual and were just meandering along the street which runs into the bushland. A little brown lab bitch came out of one of the houses - she was very friendly and I thought she was quite cute, but she was a typical pup, wanting to jump all over the place. After a bit, I wanted to get going and so did HF but the painters who were working at the house said she didn't belong there! So we were stuck with her for a bit. HF put her on another lead and we tried a couple of houses to ask if anyone knew where she was from, but no-one answered the door! OK, it was Saturday but it wasn't that early.

Eventually someone drove past and HF waved the car down - the human recognised the dog and was able to direct us back to the house back up the hill. Someone eventually came to the door and acknowledged that Nibbles (poor girl!) did indeed live there so we were able to get on and enjoy our walk.

Gorgeous colours around with the change in trees - that slowed us down too, HF kept taking photos! How many leaf photos can one person have!

Hello NZ

We skyped to some of the family in NZ this evening. I couldn't work out what was going on; my HF seemed to be talking to herself because I couldn't see anyone else around, and then I could hear someone else's voice - and I still couldn't see anyone else around. I began to wonder whether I was losing the plot or we'd been taken over by aliens or something.

So I jumped up on her lap and then I could see - more humans, including a very little one and then another canine, a big white hairy one! She looked pretty cute, even with the dodgy video happening on the laptop. I couldn't smell her though so I wasn't particularly interested in the whole thing.

HF was away all day today and that's a bit rough because it was Saturday! There seems to have been a celebration with a couple of friends getting married, whatever that is. Anyway, she told me it was all really well done, a small group of friends and family, low key but great ceremony and a very good lunch after. She didn't bring back any fillet steak - not even a bone! - for me though.