The Fourth Blog of Augustus Lazarus Cooke (Gus)

                          Here I am before Christmas, still wearing my puppy collar.

Hello everyone!
I see I wrote my last blog exactly four weeks ago today back in 2009. Happy New Year by the way. (I don't know what that means but I keep hearing all sorts of humans saying it and it seems to please them.)
Well, Christmas came and so did lots of visitors. I met four new people. First there was Susannah, one of my Humans' daughters – they've got three, you know, as well as a son, but they didn't have them all in one litter like me and my siblings. Susannah brought Nick along with her but they didn't try to sleep in the house which was just as well 'coz all the beds – and the caravan – were taken and there was only floor left! Bethan came to stay with Rob – his family's got a black Labrador as well, called Fidget. Then there was Dorothy, who is Mr Human's mother. He's ever so old so she must be ancient! The Humans were expecting Mr Human's brother and sister-in-law to come but they were late getting back from Ethiopia so I haven't met them yet. Anyway, on the busiest day there were seventeen humans, six of them quite young, six of us dogs and Monty and Winston Ocicats. There was LOTS of food but we weren't allowed in the dining room though we managed to sneak in a few times.
 

We've had OODLES of snow and it's ever such fun playing in it but I do get tired quite quickly 'coz it's difficult to run when your legs keep disappearing up to the knees and sometimes the shoulders! I don't know whether it's because it's been really cold or whether it's my age but my coat is changing. It used to be very soft and velvety all over but now I've got a strip down the middle of my back that's quite coarse, just like Jenna's. I will be nineteen weeks old on Sunday and my Humans are beginning to have difficulty telling me apart from my sister at first glance. Our eyes are different and of course I've got a white chin.

I've got a new collar! We were going out one day and I got over-excited and pulled so hard on the lead that my puppy collar broke! Mrs Human bought collars for Buddy and me. Buddy didn't break his collar but it kept coming loose and sliding up over his ears so we've both got stripey blue buckle collars. I think we look cool! Frodo's wearing Buddy's old collar and he looks very handsome in it. I really like Frodo – he's awesome. I'm too big to sleep in the same bed as Frodo now. I suppose my Humans might buy us an extra big bed? I heard them saying that I might soon be able to sleep in a bed upstairs, rather than in my night-time pen, but that hasn't happened yet.

I'm wearing my new blue stripey collar.I feel quite grown-up in it and it's just like Buddy's!

I'm very good at stairs now. I can get up them quite quickly but I'm still very careful coming down (Mrs H says I go 'be-dom, be-dom, be-dom') and in the early morning, after I've been out for a breath of air (well, a pee and a pooh, actually . . . ) I hurry back upstairs and try to jump up onto the bed where the Humans sleep with Jenna.

I still like just about everything but there are a couple of things that I'm not keen on. I don't like Mrs H singing or sneezing and I'm afraid of the roaring machine that sucks up dust and dirt. It might get ME one day! The cats and the other dogs don't seem to mind it – well, Buddy can't hear it anyway – but I'm going to carry on keeping out of its way and watching from a safe distance. Luckily Mrs H doesn't use it very often.

I heard the Humans saying that Tia and Foxy are coming for the weekend – ooh GOODY! I hope there'll still be enough snow for us all to enjoy together – they haven't had much in Dorset. I'd better go and push out some zeds so I'm ready to play when they arrive.

Can you see Buddy's collar? Mine matches his though it is a bit smaller. Aren't we smart?

Hwyl fawr am nawr! (That's Welsh for 'Goodbye for now!')