Muddy Dogs .... or Dog anyway

We try to be good dog owners and take our dogs for walks three times a day. Morning, lunchtime & evening. The lunchtime walk is more in the manner of a gentle leg-stretch combined with a check of the horses to make sure they're OK and still in the right field. It has to be fitted into a lunch hour so there's not too much slack time to cope with the unexpected ...

Like what happens when your 8 month old collie loses her tennis ball in the stream. Not the clean part of course, the swamp-like part. It's a very good swamp like part, complete with raised duck boards to stop you disappearing up to the arm pits in mud. The sort of swamp where you won't even be mildly surprised if an alligator slithered across the path in front of you and a bit of moss waved at you.

I foolishly watched the tennis ball float down the stream and thought that was that. I turned to go on with the walk and followed our other two dogs (the good ones). Load splash behind me. Dreading what I might see I turned around to be confronted with a collie puppy (?) enthusiastically searching for her ball, whilst chest deep in mud, not water, MUD. Deep. black, smelly mud - the real stuff.

The ball was long gone by this stage having followed the current, but collies are not to be deterred. Eventually, a long eventually with several re-visits, she was persuaded back onto the bridge.

Those paws are supposed to be white!

I'm sure it's down there somewhere ....

Once removed from the swamp the extent of the damage was accessed - was this by some miracle, a quick towel off, or was this going to be a full-blown bath?

Bath, definitely, bath.

So lunchtime went on a little longer than expected and we have a collie who smells of Evening Primrose.

However care will have to be taken on this evening's walk, otherwise she'll be straight back in. Collies have long memories and she knows she lost a tennis ball there. What was lost, can be found .... evening if Daddy is sobbing quietly on the bridge. He'll be happy once I bring the ball back, won't he?

Our local pond...

This is our local pond - it's a very nice pond. It has ducks and fish and is the focus of much attention at the weekends by local families for the traditional activity of feeding the ducks. So much so, that if you come down later in the day, the ducks are so stuffed they can barely waddle in your direction.

Our village pond

The sign in the middle says "Private, No Fishing"- fortunately it doesn't say "No Swimming" ....

We walk the dogs past the pond at least twice a day on the way to check the horses. The previous two and half months have all been relatively uneventful with Enya walking past the pond ... dum, dum .... dum, dum .... dum, dum, dum, dum ["Jaws" theme].

A dog on the edge

As we walked past last night she was sniffing at the edge of the pond as usual ... I looked away for a second and there was a splash and I looked back and there was a small tri-colour head swimming in the pond. What makes this really amusing was that I was on the phone to her breeder at the time giving her an update on puppy progress. I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was along the lines of "Oh good grief, she's fallen in the pond". Fortunately Heather is very understanding and just said that she'd leave me to fish the wayward pup out of the drink.

Actually it turns out she swims very well and even hauled herself out at the edge without any help from the handler. I don't know who was more surprised :-)

A dripping puppy - but the head is dry

Result: a damp but completely unflustered puppy who has knotched up another life experience. She certainly hasn't put herself off water judging by the way she went frolicing through the water in the stream on today's walk.

Self-service Labrador

Oh-uh, it's that time of year again. Blackberry season. And what is wrong with blackberry season, I hear you ask? Well nothing as such, except a couple of years ago we thought it would be cute to teach Kira (our Labrador) to eat blackberries straight off the bush. Needless to say, with food being involved, she took to this like a duck to water...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V3paw13Pqo

Problem is we now have a Labrador that regards autumn evening walks as an entree for supper and the hedgerow as a self-service food bar. Your walking along and realise you haven't seen the Labrador for a couple of minutes. You look back,and sure enough there's a black bottom stuck out of hedge ... whistle ... obedient stampede of feet ... praise ... glance away for 2 seconds ... bottom in hedge again.

Ahhhhh, supper !

There's one under here somewhere

Bring a friend

Getting to Work

If you thought your journey to work was bad, check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txdv_oNq81I&feature=player_embedded

(Climber's view as an engineer goes up a 1,768ft tower)

I get goose bumps just watching it, however the major problem is:

How do you take the dogs to work ?  :-)

UPDATE: Unfortunately the video has been taken off YouTube - you can read the reason here http://www.theonlineengineer.org/TheOLEBLOG/?p=561, however if you do a search on "1768ft" or "radio tower climb" on Google you'll likely find a copy of it.

A Collie at Work and Play

Well, you didn't this was being written by a human, did you ?

What do you mean, it's too big ?!?

Could I do this if it was too big ??

The Working Week

A colleague on a project I worked on drew this many years ago - it's still completely true !

Inside the mind of a 6 year old

• For those with no children - this is totally hysterical!
• For those who already have children past this age - this is hilarious.
• For those who have children at this age - this is not funny.
• For those who have children nearing this age - this is a warning.
• For those who have not yet had children - this is a form of birth control!

The following came from an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas:

"Things I've learned from my Children (honest & no kidding):"

1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 3 bedroom house about 4 inches deep.
2. If you spray hair spray on a nylon duster and then run over it with roller skates / blades, they can ignite.
3. A 3-year olds voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a large room.
5. You should not throw balls up when the ceiling fan is on, using the ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can then hit a ball a long way.
6. The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a ball hit by a ceiling fan.
7. When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh," it's already too late.
8. Brake fluid mixed with Bleach makes smoke, and lots of it.
9. A six-year old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old man says they can only do it in the movies.
10. Certain bits of Lego will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old.
11. Playdough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.
12. Super glue is forever.
13. No matter how much Jelly you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
14. Pool filters do not like Jelly.
15. VCR's do not eject toasted sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
16. Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.
17. Marbles in petrol tanks make lots of noise when driving and very expensive to remove.
18. You probably do not want to know what that smell really is.
19. Always look in the oven before you turn it on.  Plastic toys do not like ovens.
20. The average response time for the fire brigade is about 20 minutes.
21. The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.
22. It will, however, make cats dizzy.
23. Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.
24. The mind of a 6-year old is a wonderful and amazing thing.
25. 60% of men who read this will try mixing the bleach and brake fluid.

Dog - 0, Squirrel - 1

This was sent to me by a friend in South Africa. No idea who the photographer is, but the sequence is absolutely wonderful.

Lab has baby squirrel pinned down....and...Mother sees it (from above)!

Mom takes action!

Dog gets it from Mom and baby gets away!

Mother consoles baby and...

Look at the dogs' face - he just has to be thinking ....

What the hell just happened?
Did I just get my ass kicked by a squirrel ?!?

The Big Conference Call - what to expect

If you ever work for a large company at some point you'll be involved in the Big Conference Call. The video below gives you a good idea of what to expect ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbJAJEtNUX0

The scary thing is this is just sooooo true to life, however he did miss a couple.
The Mute Moment

Dave: So I'll just hand over to George at this point.
-silence-
Dave: George?
-silence-
Dave: I think your on mute, George.
-silence-
Dave: George?
-silence-
Dave: George, could you just check your not on mute?
-silence-
Dave: Well, we'll just move on for the moment. Harry, are you there?
George: Sorry Dave, I was on mute there.

On-Hold Music
Someone in the call puts the conference call on hold so they can take another call and accidentally connects the entire conference to their On-Hold musac (musac: That really bad music that you hear in elevators, dentist offices and grocery stores, etc). I have been on conference calls where this happened and the only way to clear it was for everyone to drop off and the moderator to close the call. Come to think of it that was a very productive call ...... hmmmmmm :-)

Do Dogs Go To Heaven ?

Supposedly this was a 'church signs' debate, played out in a Southern town, between Our Lady of Martyrs Catholic church and Beulah Cumberland Presbyterian church. From top to bottom you see the response and counter-response over time... The Catholics are displaying a much better sense of humor. One gets the impression that the Presbyterians are actually taking this seriously. The churches face each other across a busy street.

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Only Humans Go To Heaven Read The Bible

God Loves All His Creations Dogs Included

Dogs Don't Have Souls This Is Not Open To Debate

Catholic Dogs Go To Heaven Presbyterian Dogs Can Talk To Their Paster

Converting To Catholicism Does Not Magically Grant Your Dog A Soul

Free Dog Souls With Conversion

Dogs Are Animals There Aren't Any Rocks In Heaven Either

All Rocks Go To Heaven

It makes me laugh :-)