So much is new!

We have moved house! I am very glad because now I have 2 and a half acres to run on. I always thought that half acre was too small!

My kitty Cyrano likes it because the new house has a mezanine floor, where he can sit and survey the living romo with great grandeur. He even has his kitty-house up there so he can sleep in warmth and comfort and still know all that goes on below. I don't like it because he is too far away for me to bother!

We also have a new puppy in the house. She is a little black cannonball called Rosie. Mum says she is a breed called a Poopador. I think that is a joke because she looks just like a mini-me of my Grandma's Labradors. I like her because she is smaller than me and loves to play, and because I get to wreck all her toys. Mum says she is very proud of me for the way I have taken the puppy under my wing and looked after her. Apparently, I am supposed to be a puppy-eating monster, but I showed them! I even get grumpy if another dog is too rough with her!

Saint Buffy, that's what they should call me!

Snarfs,

Buffy

Winter again!

Boy, the days go quickly when you are a mature dog! Here it is, winter again!

Actually, I am seven now and mum says that means I am a grown up GWP at last. Sometimes she can even see me for a whole walk!

We are all pretty lazy lately. We only practice tricks when mum has done our toenails and has treats left. I have been learning to salute when mum does. I kind of worked it out for myself when we were doing high fives, and mum thought it was so cute she encouraged me to keep doing it.

My kitten, Cyrano, is all grown up now. I'm not sure I like it as he now beats me up as much as I do him. We have great games though, like chasey games on the lawn where we take turns, and 'chase me into a crate or onto the couch and wallop me' and stuff like that. He is one tough kitty!

Snarfs!

Buffy

Spring is here!

Yay! The sun is coming out and Mum is spending lots of time in the garden! This means that Tam and I get to spend lots of time sunbaking and watching her, and having big runs down the driveway to the gate to scare away all those evil people who walk past. Mum doesn't seem to like us doing this very much. I don't see why. It's our job, we reckon!

Cyrano, my very own cat, is happy we are outside a lot, too. We play chasey a lot. When he was little it was nearly always me chasing him, and Mum yelling at me, but the other day he chased me all the way up from the gate, and pounced on my back legs when I didn't go fast enough. These days he is a bit scary to play with; he chases me up onto the couch and then I am too scared to get back down! I think I liked it better when he was a kitten and I was boss.

No training happening right now. Mum is too lazy. It's actually exciting when she gets out the garlic sausage to trim our nails! (That is, to treat us when she has trimmed our nails, she doesn't actually use the sausage to trim them.)

Oh well, as long as the walks keep coming, I don't really mind, and we make sure the walks keep coming by driving her nuts if we haven't had one. Keep your humans well trained, furfolks, it's the only way to have a blissful life!

Snarfs,

Buffy

I have a new pet.

How lucky am I? Not many dogs get to have their own pets, but I do. His name is Cyrano de Purrrgerac, and he is a ginger kitten with white paws. Mum and dad call him their kitty, but I know better. He is such fun, he jumps up and grabs me around the neck, and even bites my cheeks very gently. Then we run all over the house together. Mum was worried I would be too rough, but my kitty gives as good as he gets. He is a bit like a dog, he even came on holidays with us!

I have my aunty labradors staying here right now. Not sure if I like that. Kate the black Lab is bossy like me, so Mum has to roar at us sometimes to stop us getting narky with each other. Also, Kate tries to steal my important spot on the bed, on Mum's feet. So far I have been really well behaved except for the odd bit of crankiness. Hey, it's my house, right?

Tess, the puppy is ok, she isn't really a puppy any more and she is very polite to me, and shows me the right respect for my exalted status as boss dog.

Mum is boring right now, no training still, except I am learning to salute and to do high fives and low fives. The salutes just kind of happened, because I was doing them when I sat up to do high fives and Mum thought I looked cute, which I do of course, because I'm always cute.

Got to go find my kitty, he's outside, and I don't like that. I like him safe inside where I can see him! Boy, he's one lucky rescue kitty, he might have ended up dead, or in a dogless house, but instead he got me!

Snarfs,

Buffy

Winter woollies

Boy is it wet! Wet! Wet! Wet! It has rained so much here in Perth so far this winter that Mum reckons we are growing big webs between our toes to help us on our wet walks!

Mummy and I haven't been going to agility the last few weeks. What a piker she is! An hour's drive each way in the dark and rain is nothing if it means I get to have a good play over jumps and stuff, and the TENNIS BALL of course!

We have been down to my favorite walks spot, though, so I can't complain too much. We don't go there other times of the year because of snakes. I love it there because there is long grass, reeds, muddy backwaters, river, trees, ducks, and even geese there. Tam and I run like mad and wear ourselves out pointing at ducks and sniffing the sniffs at full speed.

Yay and ROOs for winter!

Buffy

New things happening!

Wow, so much going on right now. Mum has been taking me to agility training. We drive for miles and miles to get there, with Mum's Mum and her little Labrador called Tess. Mum says she drives so far so we can learn how to do agility right the first time. Our class is called "foundations" and that means we get to practice standing on the ends of dog walks and go through tunnels and learn to run on both sides of our Mum's. Its different to obedience or retrieving, and involves lots of fun and games...and treats!

Went in an obedience trial on the weekend. I was so busy watching Mum I didn't see the judge come up to do the stand for exam, so I jumped, but Mum wasn't mad, she just got me to play a bit of touch and do a spin, and we did some more heeling and stuff, and then I got my jackpot.

Snarfs!

Buffy

Summertime

Yay! Summertime! That's when I get to go swimming in the pool with mum and dad every day, sometimes even a few times a day! It gets really hot here in Perth, Western Australia, so I'm really glad we have a pool now. In the bad old days we had to drive to find a dam where it was ok for us dogs to swim with the folks, and by the time we got home we were hot again!

The pool is great. I especially love divebombing right next to mum's head when she is swimming. It gives her a fright every time! I also love dropping my kong in and whinging till she gets it out again. We also like eating the passionfruit that grow along the pool fence. They aren't ripe yet but we eat them anyway. I can't see why mum has to get cranky about it, what's the difference between ripe and green?

Mum has been taking us out a few mornings a week, very early while its cool, and doing lots of fun retrieving training with us. It's too snakey here in summer for going out to rivers and things, so we are learning what she calls 'concept' which involves learning to get two or even three things in different orders depending on what she asks for first, and also going for things we never saw put out there, just trusting her there will be a ball or training dummy in the direction she says. I love it because it involves lots of fetchy games and lots of treats. "Training" is one of my favorite words!

Hope you have lovely summer, or winter, depending on where you live!

Snarfs all round (this is what mummy calls it when I lick them and lick them and lick them),

Buffy