Clancy the Wandering Whippet
Chapter VIII - the first half (and a bit) of 2008
It is now a whole new year – 2008.
Already I have lived through a cyclone and a storm that was centred right over us and was even worse than the cyclone as it kept us awake all night and Carlin was in a terrible mess all the next day too, actually come to think of it Annie wasn’t much better!
We have seen more wild dogs on our morning walks of late - they come right into the suburbs the cheeky things.
Our house on wheels is almost done on the inside and very nice it is too, we have a new bed, new cupboards and a DVD player so as we can watch Inspector Rex films while we are away, perhaps one day they will make some nice DVD’s about Whippets? We have all new furnishings too.
Next is a rebuild to the motor and a repaint, also a tow bar so as we can have a little trailer if we need it with all the stuff we have now.
I am being a very good boy with my training and Annie thinks I should be able to pass my CCD this year. To tell you the truth I don’t really care, but if it makes her happy I will try my very bestest to do well.
Actually, Annie has told me that she is not ‘hung up’ on me being titled in obedience either. She says whilst it is fun to go to the trials and all that, it is not the most important thing and as I am such a good little boy in general and such a joy to share life with she doesn’t mind if I don’t get any titles or letters after my name. I think this means that she just loves me for who I am, which is really good ‘coz I love sharing life with my special person!
Last week-end Carlin and I were invited to brunch at Daisy’s house, Annie was invited too, which was handy, as neither Carlin nor I can drive yet.
It was a lovely way to spend a lazy Sunday; there was Daisy and our GSD friend Gypsy and us two boys, all our special people and a new friend called Poppy. We had a lovely Indian style brunch for the people and liver muesli chews for us dogs.
This week-end is Easter and Carlin and I have a new toy each, a fluffy toy bunny! There are no real rabbits here in Darwin so it is useful to have some way of practising my bunny hunting skills. I take my bunny down into the garden and leave him there for a bit, and then I run down, take him by surprise and pounce on him, give him a good shake and run around the garden for a few laps to show off my ‘catch’. This seems to amuse the people who live next door a great deal.
Our mate Bob has been in hospital for over 2 weeks again, he has had another operation on his foot and has an infection that he contracted in hospital, dangerous places – glad I only have to go a Vet when I am ill (not that I ever have been really sick)
Last week-end I met a dear little girl Whippet called Ellie, she is Blue Brindle and very shiny clean white and she is 7 months old. When I raced up to play with her she rolled on to her back though. Annie thought I may be scaring her, she called to me to ‘be gentle’ I got a bit confused and thought that maybe I wasn’t meant to play with Ellie – Annie apologised to me and said we could go out and play with Ellie again soon.
This evening I was spoiled a bit as Annie took me out on a Snow Dogs walk on my own, I love having Annie to myself! I was a bit scaredy cat about being out without Carlin and I do not like the Aborigine people when they are being loud and noisy, they scare me....Annie doesn’t know why. I do but I cannot talk about it.
19.04.2008
We have had a very busy week-end, yesterday morning we had to go down to pick up bulk dog meat and dry food and since we had to almost drive past the Pet Park we had our run there, always good as there is such a lot of space for me to do my rips!
Then this morning we went to the beach, we didn’t see Daisy but we did walk with Sago and Gypsy the Golden Retrievers, Louis the poodle (a great pal of mine) sadly we heard that Alias another pal had gone to the Rainbow Bridge.
We were having a lovely run down from the surf club to the Rapid Creek mouth but when we got there a man called out not to let us go into the creek as he had just watched a crocodile swim past, so we headed back the way we came, it didn’t spoil our run at all though.
Tomorrow is when our HoW goes to have its motor rebuild and the dent in the door fixed too so we won’t have a means of travelling about for 2 weeks it seems.
06.05.2008
We are still without our HoW, reduced to rather boring walks very local to home! Still, all things being well we should be mobile again tomorrow!
I have been very busy again, 2 trials last week-end – I still did not get a pass but I did get a ribbon for being the most willing worker on the Friday night! On the Saturday we had to travel to Freds Pass with Marilyn and her 2 girls, Roxy and Frigga. Now we all know each other as we often run in the same park at the same time, but Frigga had not one but two ‘goes’ at me before I even went into the ring – I wasn’t being impolite or sniffing her ‘girl bits’ or anything like that....I was quite hurt.
As we were doing our ‘stays’ another dog got up and stood over his kennel mate, who was next to me, as he didn’t get much of a response he stood over me (gulp). Then Frigga, who was the other side of me, got up and stood over me too – I was feeling very uncomfortable by this time, I can tell you.
I knew I was supposed to stay laying down but with these two dogs standing over me in a most threatening manner I got up, walked forward about 5 paces and lay down again, hoping that Annie would not be too cross with me. She wasn’t, she was actually very pleased that I had not run out of the ring altogether or retaliated in any other way at all!
At present I am a bit sad as my big brother Carlin does not seem to be himself at all, he doesn’t want to play, is getting a bit grumpy and very slow when he is moving around. I am very worried about him to tell the truth and I know that Annie is too.