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!

West Wittering

To celebrate my recent blogoversary, Molly the Irish Terrier and I went for an exciting day trip to West Wittering in West Sussex. The beach is HUGE and there is also a nature reserve nearby. It was a lovely sunny day but it was really cold. Far too cold to go anywhere NEAR the sea, let alone in it. There were lots of other dogs there but they were all nice and friendly, not like me.

I found a green ball that someone had left behind and set to work destroying it while J1 had a freezing cold coca cola and J2 and T had a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Estimated time for me to puncture and rip holes out of it and then cry* like a baby? A mere 3 minutes.

[*I would like to point out that I wasn't crying girly tears; Oh no, they were manly tears of frustration!]

Stone me!

I'm celebrating today. Yesterday I went to the vet to have some x-rays to see if the kidney stones have returned. And guess what? I got the all clear! They couldn't find any. Not one!

I decided to go to the beach to celebrate. In case you were wondering what I'm doing in the video, I'm looking for a nice big heavy stone to carry home. I'm very particular about my stones so it's got to be the exact right one.

My new sun tent

J1 bought me a lovely popup sun tent for when we're down at the beach. It's 50+ UPF which means that I stay cool and in the shade. I like to sit at the entrance to watch the world go by.

The yellow hoopy toy I'm munching on here was history about 10 minutes after this photo was taken.

Can you see J1 kinda hunched in the tent behind me? I'm laughing because she bought the "infant" sized tent and still thought she could get in with me. Cheapskate! It's not a Tardis!

Walking the dogs

Here I am out and about with my Irish Terrier pals, Seamus and Molly. This video was recorded a couple of weekends ago and really it's just an excuse for J1 to use the tune "Baby Elephant Walk" (turn up the volume on your computers). Is she implying that I walk like an elephant? You can't see it from the film, but the sea is just to the left of us so the scenary is not as boring as it looks. Notice how Molly keeps trying to push in front of me. She should know by now that I ALWAYS get to walk in front.

Stoned!

"Paws off you two, these stones are all mine"

I think I may have mentioned in the past that I'm very fond of stones. Whenever I go for a walk, if I see a stone I like the look of I'll attempt to carry it home with me. I tend to like BIG stones best, and they can be very heavy to carry in my mouth. Sometimes they don't quite make it home with me and so I leave them on the pavement for other dogs to find. The stones that do manage to survive the journey tend to end up in my garden. When J1 & J2 are sitting outside in their deckchairs, I like nothing better than finding my stones and throwing them at their feet. And then barking. Loudly. Inevitably, some of them get confiscated but you'd be surprised at how many other stones you can find in the garden by a bit of digging and rooting around. I don't think this habit particularly endears me to J1 & J2 but I like to think it keeps them on their toes.

Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is because it turns out that I like stones so much that I've grown a few inside me! They're in my bladder to be precise and although they don't hurt at the moment, they've got to come out. This means another horrid operation but I don't know when it will be yet. I'm hoping that once the stones have been removed they'll let me keep some as a souvenir so I can show them to you. I know you can't wait to see them!

Beach boys (and gal)

Here I am again with my Irish Terrier pals Molly and Seamus. I think I've told you about them, they're my best buddies. Even though they're not Wire Fox Terriers they're still plenty of fun. Molly likes to boss us boys about, but hey, we let her cos she's soooooo darn cute. Can you imagine the mischief we get up to when we're all together?!

My pal Molly

Here I am with my pal Molly the Irish Terrier. We both like to chase balls, but unlike me she doesn't bring them back. What a pain! She runs off and drops the ball and then tries to steal mine too. We don't like getting our feet wet so we don't go too near the sea. If the ball goes in the water one of the humans has to rescue it. Brrrrr!