Enter the Dogathon

Today I wanted to let you know about a fun app on Facebook that is being launched by Crufts, the Blue Cross charity and Samsung. For those peeps who haven't heard of the Blue Cross, this is a charity that helps give veterinary care to sick and injured pets of peeps who are too poor to pay the bills, they also help re-home abandoned animals and do lots of good educational work to train peeps how to look after their pets. They have 4 animal hospitals and 12 re-homing centres in the UK. You can find out more about them by clicking on the link here - Blue Cross.

Anyway the app is called Help-A-Dog-A-Thon and by taking part you can help to raise much needed funds for the Blue Cross. My peeps have already taken part and have adopted a virtual greyhound they have called Cassius. You can choose which virtual dog you want to adopt from the 4 dogs and then give your dog a name and begin to help that dog become fit and healthy by grooming him ( not sure about that one :-( ); taking him for walks and playing games (better) and feeding him  (better still!) There are good tips along the way to show peeps how these little things make us dogs happy and healthy members of the family. For every virtual dog adopted Samsung will donate the costs of a health check for a needy dog and they are trying to get 20,000 virtual adoptions to reach the target of 2,000 dogs helped by Sunday 10 March - the final day of Crufts.

Every homeless dog that is taken in by the Blue Cross gets a vet check to see if it needs treatment or medication. The vet will check it's coat, skin, heart, breathing - everything really -  like a full MOT before it goes to its new forever home. The money raised from this will really help these homeless dogs and it didn't take my peeps long to take part. If your family use Facebook ask them to check it out here and adopt a few virtual dogs today!

My peeps only knew Samsung made electronic goods but reading about the Dogathon they discovered that Samsung who are kindly donating this money have been a partner of Crufts since 1993.They have also been supporting animal welfare work across the world, including the only Guide Dogs for the Blind in Korea,  and they were presented with the Lesley Scott-Ordish Award from the UK charity Pro-Dogs for their services to dogs. You can read more about their work for dogs by clicking on this link: Companions for a Better Life.

As you can see this long blog post has really tired me out - no excuse for Trilby though:

Those pups are getting bigger inside me every day so I'm trying to get as much rest as I can :-)

Friends for Life

Hey Magic here again - I have been letting Trilby have a go at blogging too as I am feeling quite tired right now. As you probably know I am expecting pups very soon! I went to visit Trilby's Dad in January and we are hoping to have some more little ones in the middle of March. I will get Leigh to put up some photos so  you can see how things are going over the next few weeks but for today I wanted to tell you about a special event that is held at Crufts every year. It is called Friends for Life. As you probably know Crufts is a huge dog show but there is a lot more going on than just the showing.

You might remember how our Crybbe used to be a Pets As Therapy dog visiting people in care homes. Well Friends for Life is an event at Crufts where dogs who make a real difference to people's lives are honoured and they come to the Arena at the NEC on Best in Show day to see which has been chosen by public vote for the top award - a trophy and £1,500 for the charity of their choice. The other finalists each get £750. Of course there are many many wonderful dogs bringing joy to their families or helping out like Crybbe did for PAT. but the finalists for this competition are all very special and you can see their stories here: Friends for Life

As well as the wonderful assistance dogs there is Haatchi the Anatolian mountain dog who was severely injured after being cruelly tied to a railway line by heartless people but who now brings happiness to a disabled boy; Brin who was a hero helping soldiers in Afghanistan and was captured by the Taliban but now lives safe in the UK (phew); Janus who is retiring after an active life crime-fighting with the police and helping catch criminals and sniff out stolen goods! They are all heart-warming tales and my peeps usually end up crying when it is shown on TV - every one of those dogs deserves an award I think :-) Do have a look at the video as well if you can see it on the link page. And click on any of the Crufts links in my post to go through to their website for full details of what's happening this year.

A Birthday ...and the Competition Winners!

Today is Aoife's birthday - she is 2 years old. She is hoping for a party tonight with lots of treats - and so are we :-).

This morning Trilby kindly brought a large selection of toys out into the garden for Aoife to play with. But she wasn't that impressed with them.

"I hope you don't think I have to bring these back in - I know nothing about them!"

The Clanger toy and box of treats were a bit more interesting though.

Anyway - while we are looking forward to a birthday tea tonight I have an announcement regarding our Crufts competition. Trilby kindly agreed to select the names from a big bowl:

and the lucky winners are:

Kay

Cat 

Eileen

We will contact you for more details very soon :-) Thank you very much to all those who entered and we hope you can get to Crufts show anyway and enjoy all the sights there. Do go along it is an amazing event!

That's all for this post but look out for more on Crufts over the next couple of weeks!

Competition Time!

Aoife's place card from last year :-)

It's that time of year again - Crufts the world's largest dog show will soon be taking place at the NEC in Birmingham (UK). This year, as official Crufts  bloggers, we will be bringing you lots of information and pictures from the 2013 event... AND  giving anyone in the UK the chance to win free pairs of tickets to any one day of the show courtesy of the Kennel Club!

This is Trilby getting groomed in preparation for her big adventure in a couple of weeks - yes my girl is going to be strutting her stuff at Crufts - along with Crybbe and Aoife. I did qualify too but, due to being somewhat pregnant, I'm having to give it a miss again this year. Not that I mind too much :-)

But I know you are wanting to know how you can win tickets for the event. Well not too hard really - just check out the Crufts website to find the answer to the following question:

On what day and date are the Affenpinschers (Toy breed) and Miniature Schnauzers (Utility breed) being judged this year?

Email your answer to crybbe14@gmail.com and 3 lucky winners will be drawn at random at 9 a.m. GMT on Monday 25th February to win a pair of tickets for any one day of the show. Please note that this does not include the Best in Show event on Sunday.

RIP Isadora

Sad to say that one of our hens, Isadora Duncan passed away last night. She looked a bit down in the dumps yesterday  but this morning she had crossed the Rainbow Bridge. She was 3 years old.

This was Isadora when she was young - only about 6 months old helping Crybbe do a bit of weeding in the garden.

And this was Christmas 2010 with two of her friends seeing snow for the first time.

This was me as a puppy - it looks as though Isadora is pecking my head - I'm not looking just in case!

Goodbye sweet Isadora - hope there are lots of good places to peck and explore across the Rainbow Bridge xx

Wordless Wednesday - In the Family Way

Visit to Fountains Abbey

Hello bloggy friends - Trilby here :-) I had a trip out with my brother Crybbe at the weekend to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Gardens. Crybbe has been before and but it was my first visit and so I've got a blog post all to myself to tell you about it!

Here we are setting off - me posing nicely for the camera and Crybbe more interested in rabbit pellets :-(

There is a stream flowing past the Abbey and an old mill there too. It is very fine to look at even though it's ruined. And it is e-normous!

You can see how tiny me and Judith look through the window arch. One of the windows had an angel carved above it:

After wandering round the ruins we set off for the Water Gardens.

This is view of the Abbey from the path towards the Water Gardens. Fountains Abbey was built in the 12th century (900 years ago!) It is owned by the National Trust and English Heritage now.

This is one of the ornamental lakes.

Here we are crossing the little stone path across the waterfall. It was quite scary as the water was rushing very fast.

Across the bridge there was a cafe so we all stopped for a bite to eat :-) There were quite a lot of peeps out with their dogs there as it is quite a dog friendly place to visit.

A sad looking border terrier puppy waiting for his peeps to come back.

Me smiling for the camera - and Crybbe looking grumpy!

On the way back we saw this lovely swan looking for food in one of the lakes.

As it's still cold and only early Spring here there weren't many pretty flowers but there were lots of snowdrops.Then after that good walk it was back in the car for the journey home but..on the road through the city of Ripon we saw 2 goats walking along a wall!

It was such a lovely day they must have decided to have a trip to town :-)

I hope you have enjoyed my blog post - Magic will be back soon with her big news!

Banana Joe - Monkey King of the Jungle

Aoife and Crybbe were so excited today when they heard that Banana Joe the affenpinscher won Best in Show at Westminster Dog Show in the USA. As you can see from this magazine photo, affenpinschers are very highly groomed in the USA - not so much here in the UK though.

Aoife wanted to send a special message because her great great grandfather is Banana Joe's father :-) so she is even more proud to have a family connection to such a fine dog!

OK Aoife - we get the message - Congratulations to all at Team Joey. 

We are looking forward to Crufts now here and our little family will be going to strut their stuff on the green carpet. Don't expect great achievements from any of us but it will be a fun day.More to come on that in future posts!

PeeS. The stray hen was re-claimed yesterday evening by someone down our street. She is named Emily and was a stray hen when they found her wandering in a car park. I think she is a bit of a professional escape artist :-)

The Stray Hen

This is me looking puzzled - we have a mystery. Yesterday we had 2 new hens in our garden - Leigh thought they had come in from our neighbours who also have a little flock of hens so she caught them and gave them back......BUT today one had returned. The neighbour said that one wasn't theirs so ..where has this hen come from?

Leigh managed to catch the hen and put it into one of our crates - while it was in the hall, Crybbe and Aoife came to say hello.

First Crybbe.....

then Aoife.

Crybbe trying not to scare the hen...

and Aoife trying the same.

But Leigh thought it would be too hot in the house for an outdoor bird so she moved the crate outside into the garden and put some hen food and some water in for her and a cover on top so she wouldn't get too cold.

Aoife came to check out the new visitor again.

And Crybbe decided to keep guard.

Crybbe has always liked hens, here he is a few years back with Darcey Bussell:

If we can't find out who owns her we might have to keep her but Leigh doesn't think our hens will be very welcoming to an unexpected visitor. They are not fond of strangers :-( I will let you know what happens to her in my next post.

Canine Massage

The other week Leigh went on a Canine Massage Course run by Dani Paizis who is a chiropractor for dogs and horses. You can see her website by clicking here. She is very good at making you feel better if you have pains when you are walking or jumping. Leigh took Crybbe with her on the course as she thought he would be the most laid back...BIG mistake. There was a young affenpinscher girl there and Crybbe couldn't take his eyes off her so not much relaxation there! He was pretty chilled when he got home though.

Anyway Trilby enjoyed some massage this morning:

and I was happy to oblige as well :-)

and get in a sneaky lick on the nose!

And then me and Trilby posed for a photo with little Aoife.