Gong Xi Fa Chai!

As a lot of my blogging friends are celebrating the start of Chinese New Year today, I thought I'd get into the spirit of things & have a Chinese lunch. Mum made me that well know Chinese dish, boiled rice & dog kibble!


Look at the beautiful presentation of my din-dins.

Yummy yummy in my tummy. (This photo is actually me getting second helpings as the camera batteries ran out as I polished off the first bowl of rice & kibble. Just got kibble this time, but I'm not complaining!)

I'm not too hot using chopsticks, so opted for the easier option of shoving my muzzle in the bowl & polishing it off in double quick time.

But when you've got a nose the size of mine, it's hard to eat delicately out of a little china bowl.

Never mind, I can hoover up the bits I spilled.

Mum also said it's traditional to give a red envelope containing money. Well, I found an envelope, but I haven't got any pennies in it, boo hoo.

So, GONG XI FA CHAI! Happy Chinese New Year!

Licks

Oscar x

Whoops

This is what I was doing when mum left me, snoozing away like a little angel.

This is what I was doing while mummy was away. I have never really chewed anything in the house, & this mat has been down the whole time since I started staying out of my crate, but for some reason, today seemed like a great day to have a good old chow down on it.

Not bad work. A pretty sizeable amount of mess for such a small chewed corner. Very satisfying. Unfortunately, mum has now removed the mat, so I can't continue my work tomorrow, grr.

Think I better go & do some of this face at mum.

Oh, and a very Happy Chinese New Year to all my pals who are celebrating!

Licks

Oscar x

What Do You Call A Dinosaur With No Eyes?

A "Do-you-think-he-saw-us!" Hehehehehehe

Yep, this was me posing with my new toys that mum bought me at the weekend (they were 4 for £5 - bargain!). A few minutes later & Mr Dinosaur was minus an eye. Doctor dad performed emergency opthalmic surgery but the eye I damaged could not be saved, & dad thought it was better to remove the other eye for cosmetic purposes. His eyes are all sewn up nicely now, but dad says the stiches are NOT to be removed!

I also got this cool tuggie. The food looks impressive, but it's plastic, not real burgers like Bogart gets.

A cool banana frisbee-type affair. These little guy's days with eyes are numbered!

A weird dinosaur egg thing. His egg body has a tennis ball in so he bounces madly all over the place & is great fun to chase!

My alien toy from Christmas also had a surgery appointment as his brains were coming out of his (now empty) eye sockets. Nice!

Excellent, I can now do this to him again! Tuggieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Licks

Oscar x

Love Is In The Aire

Ah, my heart is going bumpety, bumpety, bump. I have received not one but TWO Valentine cards!

The first I received from my beautiful Swiss girl Faya. She received my Valentine card & gift yesterday, check out her blog to see what I sent her.

Isn't she just the cutest?

Faya, des gros bisous pour toi. J'ai vu ton blog aujourd'hui - merci! Je t'adore aussi ma cherie. J'espère que le cochon va bien. Je te souhaite un excellent jour de la St-Valentin.

Fantastique
Adorable
Yeux Brillants
Amoureuse

Look at my card from Faya! She looks so pretty in the snow. I wish we could have played together in my snow last week. There was a message just for me on the back, but it's personal between my & Faya, blush, blush.

But look...I also got a card from another cutie pie. Can you see the confusion on my face that I have another admirer?

I tried to eat the other card in case Faya got jealous & didn't love me any more, but mum said I was worrying too much.

It's from Snickers

How sweet of her to send me a card. I had seen I was one of her hearthrobs on her blog, so maybe I should have had a clue that she liked me! It's a very beautiful card, just like her.

Aw, how sweet!

Well, after all that excitement, I'm off to have a little nap. Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Licks

Oscar x

Hairedayle

You know I said in my last post that Aunty Kim was cleaning out the garage & that's why her & Paddy couldn't come play in the snow? Well, seems mum was right & she was setting up her grooming table for me!

This was how my Saturday morning began. Dad put me up on the table so I wouldn't wriggle so much while he combed out my legs before I had a shower. They were really tangled up from getting so wet over the last few days playing in the snow. Does that look like a happy face to you?

Once that torture had finished it was straight upstairs to be dumped unceremoniously in the bath. Now I have to admit I don't actually mind having a bath per se, I just don't like being clean and smelling of shampoo. And I especially don't like dad aiming the shower hose at my butt. What is he doing back there???

This is the stoopid girlie shampoo mum makes me use as she says it smells all nice like baby powder. I don't want to smell like a baby, I was to smell like a handsome young chap. Can't she get something like "C K9" or "Tommy Holedigger" so I can smell all rugged & manly. The bottle even has two cutesie-pie girlie puppies on it & says "Molly & Daisy, beauty queens" for pete's sake. See my not impressed face.

This has to be the No 1 most unflattering photo EVER! I look like a scawie monster!

After my bath mum went out to get her nails done. She goes every 2 weeks & always has pretty patterns on her nails. Today she got some Valentine hearts, aww.

Once she was back, off we went to Aunty Kim's house. Now I have to admit that I was a little bit worried about getting my hair cut by her because she has 3 poodles, and beautiful as they are, I didn't think I'd suit a poodle top knot. Mum assured me that she had given Aunty Kim a step by step guide that she found on the internet & she would stay with me the whole time. That made me feel a bit better, and going to Aunty Kims has to be better than going to the grooming parlour again.

I was a bit unsure of the table at first as it seemed a bit small for me. But I was a good boy & stood very still, so Aunty Kim didn't have to use the harness.

She did my back and tail first. It felt a bit tickly, but not too bad at all. Her clippers were nice & quiet, and mum was giving me treats, bonus!

Next she moved onto my head & face. She did this shorter than my back. It was a bit tickly, but she said I had to stand really still so I didn't lose my eyebrows, eek!

She clipped carefully all around my ears, and inside them. The had been getting a bit itchy as they were furry inside, but they're much better now. Dad kept having to give me ear rubs, so he should now be relieved of that duty for a while!

Here I am just checking with mum that she's keeping a tab on things & that I'm still looking handsome. She assured me that all was well.

Woah, that's a lot of fuzz. I'm glad the snow has gone or I'd be f-f-f-freezing.

Part way through, mum & Kim had a tea break. How am I looking? Kim still has my legs & underside to do.

I love Aunty Kim. I'm glad that she is learning how to groom me so I don't have to go to the groooming parlour any more. Uncle Charlie is fitting out the garage for her so she'll have a proper set up next time I come with a bath, grooming table, drier, etc. The walls are going to be tiled & it'll be very fancy. I guess when you have 3 poodles to groom you're spending a lot of time out here so need somewhere nice!

Here Aunty Kim has brushed out all my leg hair. She said I have quite a few places where the hair is short or even a bit bald, & that my beard was the same. Mum said it's because I eat the big white rawhide chew sticks, which I hold between my paws and gnaw on, & all the gunk gets really stuck in my beard & legs. Mum said "right, no more of those chewies so your hair can grown back nicely!!!". Any ideas for non gunky chews you guys?

Nearly done now & feeling a lot more relaxed & happy. Aunty Kim was pretty nervous about messing up as she had never cut an Airedale before, but mum kept saying she was doing good, and do I not look like a satisfied customer?

Just my back legs & tail to finish off now. Sunshade , I have to tell you that my "muscle butt" that you so admired was infact all hair from the weird way the lady at the groomers cut my back legs last time! My black saddle is coming through nicely now though.

My cute butt!

Freedom! I finally get to have a run around in Aunty Kim's garden (see, the poodles aren't allowed on their lawn either - they have mean parents too!). This wicker pig's ears weren't as tasty as the pigs ears mum buys me!

I think Aunty Kim did a really good job. She said I was a really good boy to stand so still & stand, sit, turn etc when she wanted me to. I have a show in a fortnight, so she's going to give me a quick tidy up that morning, and you know what? I think I'll actually qute enjoy coming back. Especially as the "Poodle Parlour" should all be finished by then!

Licks

Oscar x

Still Snowing, Whoopee!

Woo hoo, it's STILL snowing really hard here. I think I am driving mum & dad a bit crazy as I am wanting to go outside every 10 minutes to check the snow's still there. Sorry, but it's just so exciting!

As promised, mum took me to Seven Fields yesterday afternoon for a romp. Paddy the Poodle's mum said she was busying clearing out the garage so he couldn't come, boo. Mum said Aunty Kim is clearing out the garage so she can set up her grooming table to give me a haircut on Saturday, double boo!


I think I told you all about Seven Fields before. It's a huge expanse of fields which are all green belt & cannot be built on. It's hard to explain just how big the area is, but believe me, there's simply LOADS of space to run around. I am really lucky to have this right on the doorstep, so insist that mum & dad bring me here regularly to make proper use of it!


Aha, so this is where the local squirrels have been hiding out. They obviously decided not to come to MY garden anymore, ha!

Before we got going with the crazy running around in the snow, mum wanted to take photos of me looking rugged & handsome in the snow. I obliged & posed nicely - not!

Is this my best side...?

Or is this better...?

I am training for the world record for snow eating. I must have eaten kilos of the stuff today. I made so much yellow snow as a result!

Yum, yum, yum. I know it's only frozen water, but it's just soooooooooo good!

To see why I look so shattered in this photo & why mum had one frozen hand by this point in the afternoon, see the video below, tee hee hee!

I have realised the point of snowmen. They are excellent stick dispensers. There are now lots of one armed snowmen on the fields of Swindon as I casually grabbed an arm from almost every one that I passed.

This was definitely a boy snowman. Don't look at him if you are easily offended! See how I am looking away in shock.

To protect other doggies & small children from seeing the rude snowman, I did the decent thing & ate his boy bits! All gone, much better.

There are still some pretty decent sized sticks hiding beneath the snow, you've just got to know where to look & have a good nose to sniff them out.

Whoa, those are some BIG snowballs. Hope no-one throws one of those at me!

This was the coolest snowman that we saw today. He only seems to have one arm, but I am NOT GUILTY in this case!

See how fast I can run even in the slippery snow, whee!



And this might explain the tired photo above & mum's freezing cold hand (sorry mum, but it was such good fun!)

Daddy made me my own giant snowball when he got home. I was more interested in eating more snow though! Sorry it's sideways on, dopey mum!

We were out for 2 1/2 hours, phew!

Licks
Oscar x