Christmas Pheasants and Christmas Presents

We are just getting over all the eating..and excitement of Christmas now so I thought I would let you see some of our Christmas Day pictures. It has been one of the warmest Christmas Days in the UK for many years and so no snow - and when we looked out of the window we had an unexpected visitor:

This pheasant spent a happy time looking for food in our garden:

Or maybe he had an eye on our presents! Aoife and I waited patiently in the kitchen:

while Alfie Crybbe (as the little man of the house) had first look at the Christmas stocking:

He knew which rawhide treat he was after: the one and only Christmas tree:

But once he was happy, we could sort through the other treats:

Rawhide bones and lollipops

Squeaky turkey and reindeer stuffie

Caoimhe got a tasty lollipop and I tackled the rawhide stocking:

Very tasty!

Aoife did get a treat too but 'cos she's the smallest and her teeth aren't big and strong yet she always eats hers in a crate with the door shut to keep us out (as if we would take it from her - haha) and so we couldn't get any photos!

Hope you all had a very happy Christmas too!

Some Festive Photos

Oh my bloggy friends - we were all caught by the tinsel monster today! Me.....

....Aoife.....

....even Alfie Crybbe...

...but not Caoimhe who decided to be the one to wear the Christmas jumper!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OUR BLOGGY FRIENDS !

Christmas Tree and Presents

Magic here again - Caoimhe said we had not been blogging for ages and ought to put up some more pictures of our Christmas preparations so she woke me up for that! Anyway - here is our tree now it's all decorated:

 and it has an owl on the top because the fairy has seen better days - at least that what Judith & Leigh said:

Alfie Crybbe is not impressed because he told us that owl has it in for him and jumped on him when he was trying to snooze and he had to go and hide in the crate while Leigh tied it on the tree a bit tighter. We have more decorations round the fireplace as well:

and then the best bit is the presents which are going under the tree- we keep checking them to see if they might be for us:

Sadly none of them are - yet. Can you see the lovely labels which Louis and Dexter's Mum made for her little online store?

Caoimhe is sure she can smell sea jerky but Leigh says no dog presents are coming out until Christmas Day - that's a whole week away. Does she not realise how long that is in dog-time? We have visitors again this weekend so probably no time for blogging again but I'll try and get Leigh to help me post again before Christmas. Thank you to all the bloggy friends who have sent cards and Christmas emails. We have been enjoying it very much :-)

Christmas is Coming!

Hello Blogging Friends - this is Caoimhe (I'm the one on the right). As you can see I've grown bigger than Magic now :-)) Here we are posing with our Christmas cards from Minnie and Mack, Frankie and Ernie and our dear friend Rubie - in the middle. Magic's got one ear out listening in case she can hear our dinner being prepared. Now that the cards are coming in our peeps thought it was time to get some Christmas decorations up and as Magic was snoozing I thought I would help out:

Me and Aoife trying to see if there are any treats in this Christmas bag.

This looks like a good tug toy!

Oh no it's got a bit tangled up with me and my teddy!

I'll soon get that out.

Aoife got a bit tangled in tinsel too!

In fact we had such fun with it I fell asleep before we finished and Magic never even woke up!!

More Christmas pictures to come when Magic wakes up and can get to blog again...and thank you to our bloggy friends for our cards and e.mails - us dogs are keeping our noses in front with the holiday greetings!

Photo Scavenger Hunt - November

Leigh thought she might just make it for this month's photo scavenger hunt. She has been looking through old photos and thought some of them might just do for this one. Sadly I only feature in a few but we will have to make up for that another time!

This is a LUCKY CHARM keyring with lots of doggy features!

A POPPY growing in a crevice by the sea in Scotland - guarded by a young seagull!

SELF PORTRAIT - had to be me really as I'm the most photogenic :-)

COMFORT FOOD - Leigh's favourite chocolate!

Our garden MEMORIAL to family members who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge: Sheba (Leigh's cat); Maisie & Zeta (2 mini schnauzer sisters who passed over the Bridge before I came to live here). The lady who carves the memorial stones is working on one for my brother Kaska.

I'm just checking if there's anything left in Caoimhe's POLKA DOT bowl - no chance!

A SILHOUETTE of a horse made of crystals from an exhibition in Belsay Castle in Northumberland.

The PURPLE Man in York who rides his PURPLE Bike with a PURPLE Dog in the basket!

Back in York at the Food Market where the stalls all LIGHT UP to show off the food - yummy!

This is a joint work of art really by me and Caoimhe - a shoe sculpture MADE BY US !

 

This is an old photo of the STAIRCASE with Kaska at the top -  me in the middle - and Alfie Crybbe at the bottom

And a photo of me and Aoife when she was a little pup snuggling up on the rug by the cooker for WARMTH!

A Mist-erious Place

Last Sunday Leigh and Judith took me and Kaska on a trip to a new place - it is an arboretum at Castle Howard and they welcome dogs even off lead as long as they are well-behaved which of course we always are :-))
But when we arrived a thick mist came down and we could not see very far ahead - not that we dogs need to see when we can smell - it was a good excuse for furtling!

As you can see I did get very wet and muddy but Leigh did manage to get some pictures of things we could see - just:

A ruined castle wall.

A sculpture of a bird in the lake.

Some strange trees.

Toadstools.

Branches with webs.

Spooky sculptured faces.

Sculptured tree trunks

Can you see me under this strange building?

These were what were hanging from the roof - you can tell the age of the trees by their rings.

And Kaska had a chance to have a bit of furtling too - he really enjoyed himself there!

Maybe another day we can go when it's not so misty!

Postscript from Leigh

Just to say thank you to all the blogging friends who have sent kind messages regarding Kaska. For those who did not know he had been living with spinal cord damage for 18 months which was gradually cutting off messages from his brain to his hindquarters. We were so lucky to have him with us for much longer than the original diagnosis. When he was diagnosed in June 2010 we were told he might only manage another 3 months. His determination and courage to continue to try and walk together with the support of his wheels kept him going until this week. Until a few months ago Kaska had been pain free but this began to change and he started a course of pain relief a few months ago. Two weeks back it was evident that things were suddenly getting a lot worse. Kaska could not move his back legs very well - they did support him standing just about but he fell if not in his wheels. He could not raise or turn himself unaided if he was lying down and internally things were slowing down (his bowels etc). The vet prescribed a strong steroid pain killer which was becoming necessary by this time and it was clear we had to make the awful decision to let our boy go peacefully and with some dignity. The vet came out to our house and Kaska was sleeping in his special spot on the sofa so there was no stress for him and afterwards the other dogs came to say goodbye. When he was a tiny puppy we had taken him to Westonbirt Arboretum for one of his very first outings. He had been so excited at the smells he had rushed around snorting away at everything and we decided for his last day to take him to another arboretum. As luck would have it a heavy mist came down and everything was damp there but nevertheless Kaska enjoyed himself. He rode in the pet stroller for part of the way round, and used his wheels for a bit and then we let him have a little furtle around without the wheels. He could not go very far but his snorting was just as loud as when he was a pup. Kaska always lived every moment to the full and he did that Sunday too!