All hail Deacon.

This thread is going great guns recently. Well in, lads.

Cooper’s early puppy time feels like a lifetime ago now that he’s nine months old. Enjoy it while it lasts Vere!

Liveinadive wrote:

Avoid toys made of rope

Liveinadive wrote:

Avoid toys made of rope

Liveinadive wrote:

Avoid toys made of rope

Sorry, but this cannot be stressed enough. Specifically, the kind of rope you see a lot of dog toys made with, which has multicoloured thread-like strands. A friend of mine nearly lost her dog because the threads get knotted and clumped in the intestines, and cause a blockage that can kill the dog surprisingly quickly. It’s a significant operation, too, both in impact on the dog and impact on your bank account.

I’m lucky, Candy throws away any bits that come off her toys, but I tend not to risk it anyway.

Kong toys are good, although a lot of the range is too cumbersome and heavy for a lot of smaller dogs.

In general, though, you’ll learn what works for your dog. My friends dog (the one above) would surgically dismantle a tennis ball in under thirty seconds, while Candy likes to give them a single puncture then chew on it while so that it pops in and out and lasts months and months. In the shop, I know which materials will last with her, and which she’ll tear to shreds. And (with the possible exception of Kong) it’s different for each dog depending on how they play.

Liveinadive wrote:

Tars is ridiculous!

I hope that’s a positive ridiculous!

Here’s Martha, the puppy we kept from the litter of 5.  Her mum, Tilly, is in the background. Miniature labradoodles.

Awesome puppers chaps.

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

Here’s Martha, the puppy we kept from the litter of 5.  Her mum, Tilly, is in the background. Miniature labradoodles.

Absolutely bloody adorable.

Cooper was caught by the paparazzi over Christmas, for one of those ‘it snowed today’ photo stories in the newspaper. Nice pic, so I kept a copy.

Bet he'll be pulling all the poodles like a boss

I've got a video somewhere of Bramble repeatedly catching snowballs and getting confused.  

Speaking of the boy, he's hugely sad at the moment, pining for his sofa buddy Splodge.  So much so, 'we'll keep an eye out for a kitten for Tilly in the summer holiday' has been changed to simply keeping an eye out for a kitten, to cheer Bramble up.  Part of his crushing ennui is caused by the extra affection Kiki is giving him, all face rubs and closeness that she knows discombobulates him.  When he turns around and huffs himself down in the opposite direction, she walks around to the face again.  Clever girl.  

Of course, getting him a new buddy could go either way, and he'd probably hate it, but I'm happy to pretend it's a valid reason.

I'm not sure I can muster the enthusiasm this evening.  We'd only been back from the vets (scheduled booster) for 15 minutes before the chunder rolled.  




The Christmas tree has been up since Dec 1st, and it goes down tonight.  So when does he choose to push through the awkward tastelessness of the hanging FIMO clay crap?  Today, obviously.  An Alphablock, a Yoshi egg, a santa head and yep, a very hungry caterpillar.  

Priceless.

poprock wrote:

That face. He knows what he’s done.

And I'd do it all over again!

The Adventures of Tilly and Bramble would make a great series of children's books.

King Bramble

I can't remember if I told the story about us nearly ruining the first Christmas Tilly was properly excited for.  Apologies if I've already drunkenly posted this:

A couple of hours after I assumed Tilly was fast asleep on Christmas Eve (I did check, just not very well it seems), I started packing presents into her sack on the sofa while tucking into santa's mince pie.  I gave Bramble Rudolf's carrot, which was sitting on the hearth next to a glass of brandy.  She must've heard him munching on it and immediately ran out, told him off, then turned around and shouted "Father Christmas has left his backpack!" when she saw the work-in-progress sack.  [Freezeframe OH NOES]. We quickly ushered her into the hall while hiding the sack, then put all our eggs in the 'what backpack?' basket after getting her back in, pretending that we hadn't seen it/he must've realised she was awake so he went back up the chimney etc, while chastising poor Bramble again (for the carrot and the mince pie, lool).  Those 15 seconds where I thought I'd destroyed the magic in its first proper year were absolutely crushing.  In the end it managed to add to it because she's been telling everyone about it since (although in her version she saw the big man).  It's almost entirely Bramble's fault for eating so loudly.