Hearts

You know the saying about how some people wear their hearts on their sleeves?  Well, guess where Beryl wears hers?

on her bum!!

I just noticed it a couple of days ago, lol.

We've got a GAP Greyhound walk tomorrow, I've even taken the day off so we can go!  But I figured 12 days work in a row was enough:-)  The forecast is bad so we will have our fingers and paws crossed that it doesn't rain in the afternoon.  We had a walk in the misty rain this evening and it was relatively pleasant, not cold at all.  Beryl still looked at me like I was crazy when I opened the car door for her to get out at the park though:-)

We have some exciting news about next weekend ... Beryl and I are going to the inaugural Greyt Greyhound Gathering which is being held in Hamilton, a city about 6 hours north of where we live.   There are lots of things organised for us to do and it will be wonderful to meet up with other Greyhounds and their people.  Poor Frankie has to go to kennels for the weekend, which reminds me, I haven't booked him in yet!  He spent a week there this time last year and didn't want to come home, lol!  He had an awesome time, but that was before he had his big sister for company here. He'll be fine though and will be too tired to miss us! 

So I hope to have lots of videos and photos to show off next week  .... if I get time to do any blogging!

And it's time for another Saturday Blog Hop.  Head on over to Life With Dogs who co-host the Hop and check out the guidelines.  Have a great weekend:-)

Wordless Wednesday

Frankie and his harem at the river tonight:-)

A Funny Thing Happened at the Velodrome Tonight

About 5-30 I took the kids for a walk down the park.  It was a gorgeous Spring evening, slight breeze, blue sky, not too warm and virtually no-one at the park.  It was a different story when we left the park and it seemed like every man/woman and his/her dog had decided to venture out.  I thought we'd wander along the top of the bank surrounding the cycling velodrome to avoid a sullen looking woman with a black lab on leash who was meandering slowly on the road ahead of us going in the same direction.  As we got closer to the velodrome I could see people on the viewing platform, hmm, strange.  Then I saw bikes and more people and there were actually about 15-20 cyclists riding in OUR velodrome!!!  Beryl and I mooched along the top of the bank while Frankie did his own thing hunting for rats in the long grass.  We stopped and watched and Beryl got VERY interested in these weird objects tearing around her velodrome.  She had her ears pricked right on top of her head, big grin on her face and was on her tip toes.  Then she took off racing them, I just cracked up.  Luckily she ran along the bank, I didn't think she'd be silly enough to go down the bank and try and jump the fence that surrounds the velodrome.  She was passing all the cyclists and I heard one of them say "Wow, look at that!!"  She was only going about 3/4 pace too.  I have to say the cyclists weren't flat out though:-)  I tried calling her a couple of times but the breeze was blowing the wrong way and she wouldn't have heard me.  She got down to the gate where we usually go in and some man shooed her away so she ran along to the other gate, which was luckily closed.  She really wanted to go in there and show them how to run around the velodrome!!

By this time the cyclists had formed a pack, for protection maybe??  And Beryl decided they weren't much fun after all and came trotting back to me, very pleased with herself.   I thought we'd best make a graceful exit in case we'd upset someone, lol.  So that was our entertainment for the evening.

Here's a short video clip which I've posted before, but it shows the bank that I'm talking about (and was taken right where we were standing tonight) for my new followers ... and I do apologise for not posting much at present.  Time when I'm not working or asleep is pretty scarce right now.

Beryl's Brains

I'm not sure of the difference between cleverness and intelligence or if they're one and the same.  I'm too lazy to look them up in the dictionary!  Beryl did a couple of things last week that were quite clever and/or intelligent:-)

We were walking the dogs in our usual place.  There is a small paddock along the way that someone has put a couple of sheep in to chew the grass down.  This is very enticing for the likes of Frankie!  On our way back the sheep decided to run around and that was enough for Frankie to race off to hurry them up.  While the fencing looked pretty good I would imagine Frankie could find a way through if he was determined enough.  I was yelling at him to come back but he kept on running along the fenceline so I scrambled down the bank in hot pursuit while Fatima waited with Louie, Bess on leash and Beryl.  Fatima went to grab Beryl's collar to stop her following me and Beryl gave her a very haughty, distainful look something like this

as she moved out of Fatima's reach.  She was saying that she knew Frankie was in trouble with Mum and she wasn't going to interfere unless she was needed.  Fatima said she stayed up on the bank with her ears pricked poised to spring into action if necessary while I went and collected my naughty Frankie (who did come running back to me when he realised he was in deep shit if he didn't!)  I thought that was clever of Beryl:-)

On Sunday we were walking again (we managed to get past the sheep without incident this time!) and at the river Fatima was throwing a tennis ball into it for Frankie to fetch while Bess and Cilla clung to him like limpets where ever he went.  When he got sick of this he just dropped the ball in the shallows and wandered off taking Bess and Cilla with him.  I had shoes and socks on and didn't feel like taking them off to get the ball so I casually asked Beryl to get it for me just waving my arm in the general direction of where it was.  She looked at me, looked at the ball and decided, yes, she would do that for me:-)  So she made her way down the little, stony bank and paddled out and picked up the tennis ball and meandered back and dropped it at my feet:-)  I thought that was clever too:-) 

But now we get to her sitting for her supper!  For a couple of months now we've been working on Beryl sitting and waiting before eating her tea.  She doesn't enjoy sitting unless I happen to be eating something extra yummy and she knows a sit is likely to get her a taste of it.  So the routine with sitting for her supper goes something like this ....
Me - Sit Bery
Beryl - won't a bow do?  (Beryl bows, she likes bowing!)
Me - no, if you want your tea you have to sit.
Beryl - I'll have to think about that, and she wanders away a few paces and comes back
Beryl - I've thought about it and I think a bow should be adequate, she bows again.
Me - nope, sit please Beryl
Beryl - big sigh, oh OK, if you insist, but I really don't think a Princess should have to do anything just for her tea.

This goes on virtually every night so I thought I would change tactics and get her to down instead of sit, as she prefers to down.  So a couple of nights ago I told her to 'down', she looked at me like I was crazy, bowed, then sat!!  Then, the next night, after thinking about it overnight, when I told her to sit she straight away went down.  OK, I thought, she's decided that she will do a down for her tea and I thought I'd cracked it:-)  Tonight I told her to down, she bowed then sat!   Is this clever, intelligent or just plain dumb, lol?  She's a very subtle character with a mind of her own and she does use it:-)

One photo isn't enough for a blog post so here a couple of action shots of Beryl running after birds

Fully extended

Unextended!

The past couple of weeks have been relatively busy for me and I haven't been able to get around my favourite blogs as often as I'd like or comment as much as I'd like or post on my blog!  But I'm still here and usually manage to read most posts.  Sometimes real life (work in my case!) interferes with the things you'd much rather be doing.  Just thought I'd mention what's happening in case I've been missed;-)

Happy blogging!