My lovely Christmas and Happy New Year to you all

Hey pals, was Santa Paws generous to you? Did you find goodies in your Christmas stocking or a lump of coal? I received my usual tasty biscuit from the Dog Dog's Bakery, along with some pawsome treats from Eric and non-blogging pals, Pumpkin and the Woodingdean Terrors. Thanks so much, they were all very tasty. A Substanial Wire like me has got to keep his strength up!

I spent Christmas day with the Js and T and my pal Molly the Irish Terrier. In the morning we had a 2 hour walk on the beach which the Js said was very "bracing".





Actually it was bloomin' freezing!

The good news is that even though the humans ate boring vegetarian fare for their Christmas dinner, Molly's owner T cooked special turkey balls just for us two terriers. They were pretty tasty too. Here's the recipe in case any of you fancy giving it a try:


Turkey & Trimmings Christmas Balls

250g turkey mince
350g potatoes
200g carrot
250g brussel sprouts (we substituted broccoli)
half a teaspoon of Marmite
One teaspoon of cranberry sauce
Gravy

Boil the potatoes, carrot and sprouts until cooked. Drain and mash them until they form a rough and sticky consistency. Heat a frying pan and gently brown the mince. No oil is needed cos of the fat in the meat. Once the mince is cooked, mix it into the mash, add the cranberry sauce and stir in the Marmite. Grease a baking tray. Form the mixture into walnut-sized balls and place them on the tray. Cook in a moderate oven for half an hour or so until the balls are nicely crisp and brown. Let them stand for 20 mins before serving with lashing of gravy. I expect you're all drooling here!

Anyway, here are some photos of me and the Mollster lounging in front of the coal fire:




Notice that we're both wearing Cath Kidston ribbons? That's because T & J1 both got some pawsome loot from her shop for Christmas. Molly is looking rather stern. Unlike me, she's not used to having a camera thrust in her face every 5 seconds and doesn't really like it much.

All in all we had a lovely day, as I hope you did too.

Thanks again for all your lovely DWB Christmas cards and also for your friendship and support during the past year. 2008 was a difficult year for me what with lung cancer and all, but hey, I got through it didn't I? Here's hoping that 2009 is a very special year for us all. I'm looking forward to catching up with you all in the next few days. Happy New Year!

Twit!

I always thought J1 was a bit of a twit. My suspicions are now confirmed as she has signed up for Twitter. Yet another distraction to keep her away from updating my blog. You can tweet to her here, if you like. She's already following a few of you, but not in a creepy way, (or so she says!), hehehe...

Merry Kissmas!

Eye, eye!

I had to go back to the hospital last week for them to look at my eyes. Yawn. The cataracts in my left eye are very pronounced. That sort of explains why I keep walking into things. My right eye is doing OK though. The ophthalmologist had lots of spooky equipment and kept turning the lights out to look into my eyes with ginormous goggley things and bright lights, but I didn't mind cos I'm used to J1 poking about with them all the time. Some of you may remember my photos from last year of the Schirmer's eye test, which measures tear production.



I know it looks gruesome, but it's really not that bad. I hope that if any of you pups need to have this test you'll remember these photos and be as brave as me!

Anyway, my eyes have to be checked every 3 months to monitor the level of deterioration but surgery would be a last resort cos I've had more than enough operations to last a lifetime!

I ALMOST got to meet Molly & Taffy...

J1 was out all Sunday afternoon, and I have only just learned that she was in London gallivanting with my pals Blue and Molly & Taffy and lots of Welsh Terriers. She went along to a WELTAF (Welsh Terriers & Friends) walk through Hyde Park, Green Park and St James Park. She forgot to take her camera along (probably because she felt guilty about not taking me) but you can see lots of photos on Blue's blog. And do you know what the worst part is? There was another fox terrier there called Sally who I COULD have met had I been invited! There was one small consolation though. Karen, one of the organisers of the walk, very kindly gave J1 a bag of delicious fancypants biscuits to give to me. The wrapping even had fox terriers on it! Thanks Karen, you're a pal!



I also got a delightful santa-shaped rubbery ball from Blue which was very tasty.


Sorry this is a bit out of focus but I just wouldn't keep still!

I really enjoyed eating it. What's that? Wasn't I SUPPOSED to eat it???



Oooops!

Get more of your handsome Jackson fix...

Can't get enough of handsome Jackson? Never fear, J1 has opened a Flickr account to collect together her favourite photos of me. About time too, I hear you say.

Admittedly, you've probably seen a lot of the photos before on this blog, but hey, even if I DO say so myself, I look preeeetttty goooooood!

Click here to sneak a peek.

One of my pawsonal favourites...