Oh no, she's going away..

"Bless you, Gail. Gesundheit."

"What??"

Oh, I thought I heard Gail sneezing, but my mistake, it seems she was just practicing saying 'please'. In Polish. And there was silly old me, worried she might be ill. 

The truth is worse. Much worse. 

I am shortly going to be abandoned. 

Home (almost) alone for a fortnight, with only Marie-Therese to feed and water and cuddle me, and keep me company at night, and give me treats. And Yvonne and Aaron to take me for afternoon walkies. And sometimes Margaret too. Who may give me more treats. Oh and maybe some extra walks from Neil at weekends. 

How can Gail be so cruel? 

I'm sure I'd enjoy a holiday Poland. I would be an asset, don't you think? I travel well, I absolutely love exploring new places, people like talking to me. It would be an excellent opportunity to further develop my role as special canine ambassador for Scotland.

And truly, I speak the Polish language at least as well as Gail. 

PS I may have to take a break from blogging for a couple weeks, due to the unavailability of technical support.

Apparently I look cute coming down stairs....

As you know, I am an intellectual sort of a fellow, and as such, consider certain trivial things rather beneath me. But, to keep the peace at home, I have decided, just once in a while, to allow this sort of item to be posted on my blog. (You have to rotate your head 90 degrees to watch it. But don't worry, the clip only lasts 11 seconds......)

Take your dog to work day (unofficial)

Well I've obviously been successful in making clear my dissatisfaction at being left alone at home, and today I got taken in to the University for the whole day. 

I don't understand why I can't go to work with Gail all the time. 

After all, I helped her sort out some samples for analysis.

I thoroughly checked the room where she works at present.

I had imagined it would be full of amazing scientific instruments, particle accelerators and the like, but what I saw was mostly kitchen blenders and clapped out ovens, key tools for the plant scientist apparently. 

Gail tells me that the University of  Aberdeen is over 500 years old and it seems that some of their equipment might have been there from Day One (and some of the PhD students....)

At lunchtime we went for a walk in the Cruickshank botanic gardens, just outside the laboratories. Aren't these flowers just weeds though?

I stopped at the pond for refreshment. 

For some reason I wasn't allowed to investigate the most interesting looking area.... 

But please don't suppose that I'm complaining. I had a lovely day meeting students from all over the world, and I was mostly well-behaved (apart from a little incident in the tea room, where my attempts to join in the discussion were not properly appreciated.....)

I do hope I get to go again soon. 

I don't like trains anymore.....

Well as if being dropped on the road last week wasn't bad enough!

I went down to England with Gail this weekend, to visit her lovely parents. We travelled, as usual by train.

I am never ever ever ever ever going on the train, ever again. Got that? Not ever.

Have you any idea how frightening it is to be stuck on a train for ages and ages when you're just a little chap, and you don't know why the train is taking much longer than it should, and you can't walk up and down the carriage because it's too crowded and people keep stepping on you, and knocking your head with their suitcases? So you start barking to let everyone know you're REALLY fed up, and you can't go for a pee because a train counts as 'indoors', and it's so noisy, and you can tell that everyone else is in a bad mood too, and people are saying nasty things about you because they just don't understand how upset a dog might be feeling....

Do I sound traumatized? Well I still am, a day later, simply thinking about it. Our 6 hour journey to Nottingham took almost double that, both there and back, and PLEASE don't give me all those excuses about floods on the line and signal failures, I don't want to hear them.

I hereby withdraw my application to be special canine ambassador for Scotland, until SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING ABOUT THE TRAINS.

I am so pleased to be back in Aberdeen. And I must say that it was nice to find these beautiful flowers and a card from Yvonne waiting for me on the kitchen table. Well, Gail seems to like them anyway (I confess I would have preferred some liver, or a bone perhaps....)

Oh, and I'm happy to report that my paw is feeling totally fine again now.

So sorry (sort of....)

I want to tell you about an incident that occurred last Sunday, after my walk. And to ask you to judge who was in the wrong. And whether I really should have been made to apologize...

It happened like this.

Gail was out in the street washing the car. I was stood by, as usual diligently performing my quality control function. Then I saw our neighbour Yvonne, across the road, getting out of a strange car. So naturally I rushed over to see what was up. (You have to understand that we live in a very quiet street). Gail shouted at me but I ignored her.

Then, much to my surprise, Yvonne picked me up and started to walk back towards Gail. But she picked me up ALL WRONG. I didn't like that at all so I struggled and she dropped me! From a great height! Right in the middle of the road! I fell hard on my left front paw. It REALLY hurt. I barked, loudly, of course. Yvonne leant over to pat me but I was frightened and so sort of bit her on the hand. But I didn't hurt her nearly as much as she hurt my leg. I was still limping the next day.

Yvonne has a big dog - a flat coated retriever called Jake. She says that she forgot I had such short legs. That's not my fault is it?

Well anyway, the next day Gail made me buy some flowers and go round to Yvonne's house with them to say sorry.

Was that fair?

PS I have been told to add that Yvonne is a very nice lady who sometime takes me for walks when Gail is busy.

An old dog with something to prove

It has been suggested that my views on paying for doctors and vets (see previous post) are overly simplistic, and that I should stick to what I do best. Which is accompanying Gail on walks in scenic places, and sniffing things. 

Just for once, I'm going to follow the advice (it won't last, after all, what's a blog, if you can't be a bit controversial now and then......?)

Well this weekend, I decided I had something to prove. You know how us older fellows can find it hard to accept that our glory days are behind us. I certainly resent any implication that I am fit these days only for short strolls to the park and back. 

So I persuaded Gail to take me up Millstone Hill.  Just south of that famous Aberdeenshire landmark, Bennachie, it's a favourite haunt of my youth, and I knew that the heather would be looking pretty at this time of year. 

I was so sure I could still manage to get to the top.

At the start, you have to climb some steps up through a conifer plantation. No problem, although the steps do go on for quite a long time....

A bit higher, the trees are mostly birch and Scots pine, and you start to see the heather. 

A granite boulder makes for a good vantage point from where to admire the view over the valley. And if you're thinking that maybe I needed to stop and catch my breath at this point, well you're JUST WRONG. 

In fact, I was going so fast that I had to keep stopping to look round and check that Gail was keeping up (she is fifty you know...)

As you can see here, I had absolutely no problem scrambling over the larger rocks on the path. 

When you get even higher up, there's more heather and fewer trees.  So much heather in fact, a small dog could almost disappear in it.

Gail kept making me stop to pose for photos. I didn't want to stop, really.....

Approaching the top, I was still going strong(ish).

Eventually I reached the summit. As on most Scottish hills, you can tell you're at the top 'cos there's a pile of stones (technical term, a cairn, as in cairn terrier, Petey). OK, I'll admit, I was by then ready for some refreshment.

And as it was quite a warm afternoon (for Scotland that is...), and the pool was so handy, I felt the need to cool off my underside. This was the result...photogenic or what?

I really don't understand why Gail had a problem with this look....

But for some reason I was banned from the next photo on the way down.

Then forced to sit so that the muddy bits weren't too visible. 

Now I will admit, that by the end of the walk, my paws were getting a little sore, so it came as a relief to find a soft grassy stretch. 

Then, just before we returned to the car, I saw a building that looked very interesting, and went straight inside. They had all sorts of fine animals in there. I felt right at home. 

Well all in all I had a splendid time, and the fact that it took us nearly three hours to complete a walk of under four miles was of course due to Gail taking all those pictures and ABSOLUTELY NOT ON ANY ACCOUNT because I'm old and slow....

An NHS for dogs? (a political interlude)

Lying on my comfy sofa, I have plenty of time to think about things.

This week, I've been wondering why Gail always complains that it costs so much money when I go to the vet. She comes out muttering about how having me has made her so grateful for the National Health Service.

I never understood what she was on about until a couple of days ago, when I found time to read a newspaper that was lying around. And, do you know what, doggie friends? When Gail goes to the human vet, she doesn't have to pay anything at all! This National Health Service thing means that everyone in Scotland gets treated for free, however sick they are. What a good idea, don't you think? The only catch being, it doesn't work if you are a dog......

Then I read some more and found out that over on the other side of the Pond, humans are treated like dogs, and they do have to pay. 

It's all very confusing isn't it? 

In truth, mostly just a couch potato these days....

I do want to apologize for having given the wrong impression in my previous post. It was never my intention to claim that my many and varied skills include surfing.....The picture that caused the confusion came from a silly calendar.

The reality is, I find waves scary.

So, dear Stella, there is no need at all to worry about me overtaxing my aging body. I am quite happy spending most of my time just relaxing on the sofa.

Congrats Ben - Westies can surf too...

See this young man here? The one on the left, showing his 'appreciation' of his father's newly acquired accordion playing skills. He's called Ben and he's Gail's godson. And he's just passed  his 'A' levels, all with grade A. Which means, for those of you unfamiliar with the English education system, that he's altogether brilliant, clever, hard-working, handsome, witty, kind, brilliant (did I say that already?) etc. etc. It's a bit like winning all the rosettes at a dog show, only better. 

So Ben will shortly be off to Exeter University to read history. And Ben, I shall try not to take it personally, the fact that you have chosen to study in a city that is about as far away from Aberdeen as it is possible to be while remaining the UK. I understand that your choice of place to study was dictated by the proximity of excellent surfing beaches - oh apologies - I meant to say the high academic standards of Exeter's history department. 

And perhaps I can come to visit some time? Please? After all, it seems that Westies can learn to surf too...... 

Yoga instruction

As you know I'm a knowledgeable and helpful kind of a chap. Gail likes to do yoga sometimes, but she doesn't always get the positions quite correct 

Luckily I'm there to check up the arms and legs are in the right place. 

P.S. Thanks to Marie-Therese for the photos/videos. She's sharing our home now, so you'll probably be hearing  more about her...