The Eighteenth Blog of Augustus Lazarus Cooke (Gus)
Hello everyone!
I thought I’d tell you a little about our days, in particular,
our walks. We usually do a lot of retrieving ‘cos after all we are working Labrador retrievers. Well,
obviously, Frodo isn’t – he’s a Dalmatian, good for guarding horses and
carriages, though he is quite good at retrieving biscuits from the ponds. When
Mr H throws biscuits for Bill and Beatrice Crow Frodo does his impression of a
crow. It’s not a very good impression ‘cos he’s big and white with black spots
and he has four legs and Bill and Beatrice are small and black and have two
legs and two wings – but he tries. Anyway, generally he doesn’t retrieve but
walks along with Mrs H, keeping an eye on her and making sure she’s safe.
She’s always got her hands full. She carries a ball flinger in
one hand and an AquaKong in the other.
ball flinger
AquaKong
She used just to take the AquaKong and
we all chased after it but Bertie got so quick that Jenna stopped trying. Mr
and Mrs H thought she was getting a bit depressed so they decided to take the
ball flinger, too, and now Jenna is happy again. I chase after the ball as well
and sometimes I get it and sometimes Jenna does but we both like to try. Bertie
picks up his AquaKong and also races after the ball. He always knows where it
is if he’s been watching Mrs H and he reaches it first and shows Jenna and me.
Sometimes he doesn’t see it flying through the air and landing and then we have
to search it out with our noses. It can take lots of time but we don’t mind and
we never give up. If it lands in the water and we haven’t seen it Bertie swims
out to it and nudges it with his nose to show us – he can’t carry the Kong and
the ball at the same time.
I’ve been limping a bit recently and some days we’ve had to miss
our walks; it wouldn’t be fair to leave one of us – ME – behind. After one day and then more than one day we’ve been
allowed to go out again but I still ended up limping so I went to see Phil-the
–Vet. He knows all about dogs and joints and bones and things and he doesn’t
think there’s anything very wrong but I’ve got some medicine and some tablets
and I feel much happier. Looking back I know I had started to get quite grumpy
but now the pain has gone and I’m my normal patient self again.
Anyway, now we have retrieving walks and ordinary sniffing
walks. It felt strange at first not to be searching for anything but we have
realised we rather enjoy sniffing walks. We can always pick up a stick to carry
if we feel the need to practise our skills. The first time we had a sniffing
walk Bertie was really confused and kept looking for his AquaKong.
We’ve been to see Tia and Foxy and Buster a couple of times. The
first time we went we had to be introduced to the baby. She's called Isla.
Isla
Frankie
She’s much smaller than
Frankie. The second time we went we had to stay in the house while everyone
went out apart from Dean and the baby. Frodo disgraced himself and started
howling – he doesn’t know Dean very well and he wanted Mrs H to come back. He
settled down when Marnie came back to look after him. Mr and Mrs H and the rest
came home later and they looked happier than before they went and said they
were glad ‘it’ was all over. I’m not sure what ‘it’ was.*
I’m sure you know all about the kittens. They are rather
interesting and growing bigger and bolder every day. Bertie loves them and
wants to play with them all the time. He likes them rubbing round him.
Jenna
and Frodo and I don’t mind that but we’re not keen on them playing with our
tails. Earlier this week they went to spend a day with the vets and when they
came back they were wearing collars but what collars they were – huge things!
Isambard, Herschel and Jellicoe
I
had to wear one once – I didn’t like it and wouldn’t eat so my people took it
off me.
Bertie is a very friendly boy but the other day when we were
walking in the forest he saw something he didn’t like and started barking
ferociously. Someone was hiding in the rhododendrons and he didn’t think they
should be there. Mrs H explained that the man was helping to train Search and
Rescue dogs and then Bertie calmed down. I know he wouldn’t have attacked the
hiding man but he sounded really fierce. Jenna would just have trotted up and
licked him if she’d noticed him. She’s a real softie, my sister.
Mrs H went away last week to see Bethan and Susannah then Bethan
came home with her for a few days because Robert the Cat Whisperer was in the
States. It was nice to see Bethan again – she really likes meJ
It’s time for us to have some food – beef heart and chicken
carcase and some tripe – YUM!
Be good.
Hwyl fawr am nawr! (That’s Welsh for ‘Goodbye for
now!’)
*’it’ was
Dorothy’s funeral
