Fat camp.

Izzzy Wizzy Wizole Wumps... or Izabel for short.  10 years young this coming August, so technically 9 and a bit.  Heavy - that is those big sturdy Welsh bones - very fluffy and desperately in need of a good groom; which is this afternoon's big job!

Iz in the snow 2014.

Gorgeous, isn't she?  I might be a bit biased as she is my baby, the first.. .and last.... puppy we will ever own.  Having always had rescue dogs (and cats before Iz and since) Iz was the puppy we choose to live with us and our now departed Suki (Lurcher X).  Having never had a puppy, we, as a family, decided we would give it a go, she was hard work but worth it.  Obviously the family all wanted to help out with walking, grooming, picking up the poo, training and all the  jobs that go with being responsible dog owners.  It was them telling me how helpful they would be that convinced me to have a third dog.  Their good intentions barely lasted the week but by then my maternal instincts had kicked in and I was super protective of my fluffy bundle of mischief and despite her reluctance to be less than the stubborn lead tugging creature she still remains we enrolled in obedience classes. It wasn't long before she made the trainer use the F word due to her refusal to come back preferring instead to wander over to the nursing home residents (the group ran in the grounds of a beautiful old nursing home) introduce herself and get fed cake! 

It was not her finest moment but in later classes we could console a young girl whose Spaniel was being particularly naughty and the girl was in tears, after telling her she wasn't doing too bad the trainer was yet to swear at her dog in exasperation she cheered up no end.

And so life has pretty much been run her way ever since.  We tried the halti to stop the lead pulling, she threw herself on the floor and I dragged her down the drive on her side until she relented for a second - and a piece of sausage - and got to her paws.  She was not to remain standing the second the sausage hit the stomach she threw herself back down on the lane.  

We don't use a halti.

Christmas Day 2015 up Skirrig Fawr with Jacqui (my friend), Defi on the left, Basil on the right and Dils at the back.

We have always had big dogs.  Our first dog together, the husband and I, was Ricky a big black and gold German Shepherd with 'issues'.  He really set the precedence for having animals that needed a forever home and I learn't very quickly that dealing with animals that have not had the best start in life was hard work but very rewarding.

Ricky lived to be 15 years old and was with us for 14 of those years.  In all that time I was very careful to balance his daily diet with his weight and exercise.  Big dogs, especially Shepherds, have problems with their back legs and carrying too much weight shortens their activity and life.  We found the right balance with Ricky and he was still wandering around, albeit slowly, on his own steam the day he died.

Time for a snooze whilst I work in the glass studio.  January 2016.

 Suki, our beautiful 'old lady dogs' as I called her was a barrel!  A Heinz 57 mix of just about every breed but narrowed down by the rescue home as Lurcher X.  She was lovely was Suki, biddable happy little soul that sadly left us too young at 13 with cancer.  It was Suki that welcomed Iz as a puppy, although welcomed was pushing it, it took a good 3 months for Suki to forgive us for introducing such a bundle of energy into her sedate life and accept Iz as a friend, once the bond was forged they spent 4 or 5 years playing together in the garden and taking long walks, made longer by Izabel's insistence on not coming back!

January 2016, buddies in mud!  Izabel left, Defi right.

If Suki taught Iz one thing it was to be lazy, not that Suki was lazy she was an active little thing in her day charging about like a loon and jumping into my husbands arms at the end of the day when he walked in through the door and of course she grew up with two kids who were under 10 in those days and so much fun in the garden was shared as well as crayon eating: Suki did like to munch on a good crayon and our garden was often bright and sparkly from red, purple, green.. glitter poos!

Iz excelled in one lesson at dog training.  Down, stay.  She would lie down and go to sleep. She would probably be there now if I hadn't woke her up with sausages and brought her home!

She loved agility, she ran the see saw like a professional in the agility ring, the tunnel was zipped through at the speed of light - once we figured out how to stop her lying down in the middle of it for a quick snooze, the other dogs crashing like a cartoon into the back of her and causing congestion round the circuit!  The long jump, she flew through the air her soft feathers floating like angel wings on a cloud.  She was brilliant.....

...right up to when the trainer tried to tell her how to do things properly, that is, not her way.  After weeks of her refusing to jump, get up, move at all.. we got busted down from the top group to the toy terrier group.  I was humiliated.  When the class ended and it was fun time, she was back on form and top of the group.  Tell her what to do......

We left agility soon after.

Iz @2012

Then there was Gordy.  The day he arrived Iz lay down in front of him and he climbed onto her back for comfort.  She looked at me, I looked at the husband, we all looked at Gordy and Iz went back to sleep.  When Gordy is having a bad day, when the dribble is flowing like a leaky faucet it is always Iz that he climbs onto for comfort.  He gets a bit hot does Gord and Iz will raise her head get eye contact which means 'please remove him' before getting off the sofa.  She is a great step mum to Gordy, she doesn't play with him like Defi does but she does the important work of caring, when he is not his normal self.

Iz and Gordy December 2015

So Monday February 1st 2016 dawned on an unusually dry day here in Hereford and the husband and I set off for a visit to the vet with Iz.  Nothing serious just annual check up and boosters with a quick stand on the doggy scales to check that weight.

41.8kgs!!!!

Now I knew she had gained a pound or two but 10kgs in 1 year!! I couldn't believe it.  Iz was fat!  The vet started talking to me about Fat Club for Dogs held monthly at the surgery, that made me choke a bit but the husband nearly passed out when the vet told him about this special new food for over weight dogs which of course in vet language means a small mortgage to feed your dog each month!  

I was mortified, I had an over weight pet.  I have never had an over weight pet before I had always been so careful, obviously with Iz not careful enough.  I am sure she was nearly in tears too as the vet discussed how she was at risk of diabetis, heart problems... death!  

Other than the ENORMOUS weight gain, Iz is as healthy as can be and now on a strict diet and exercise program.

I did get home and Google (I love Google he knows everything, he is like a husband to whom you are not married!) the dog food I am currently feeding my dogs having changed to this particular brand approx 9 months ago, the last food, excellent stuff, made the dogs poo orange and I was being a bit posh and snobby over having dog poo in the garden that you can see from space.  So Google told me that this brand of dog food is most likely one of the worst kind for additives and 'doggy sugars'.  I did start reading about calorific value and it did get all scientific and clever so I turned Google off and advised the husband person that we are going back to glow in the dark poo and the brand that creates that.

We also take the ball down to the fields again.  In a week I have lost a pound and a half because Izabel thinks the game is leaving the bloody thing behind us and waiting for me to fetch it!

Looking back.....

I have been Spring cleaning in January, old photos found at the back of the wardrobe remind me of how long I have loved creatures with four paws and tails, seems its a life time choice.

A bit of nostalgia....

That was me, the cute one in the front touching the dogs nose, apparently that dog was a bit snappy so my mother - the headless one on the right - was wringing her hands with worry.  The three ladies are Great Aunts I believe, except the one in the middle she was a cousin removed or something like that.  Families are odd and sadly I don't have any contact with any of them any more, but that is the earliest one I have of me and some furry creatures.

Until I lived on my own I never had pets, the odd canary in a cage or goldfish in a bowl but not a dog or cat, I think I am making up for lost time some days.

That is me on the right, many years ago, the little boy in the photo is my son Ben who turned 22 last month (December).  We lived in Kent, a small village called Minster just outside of Canterbury but closer to Margate and Ramsgate.  Both the kids were born in Margate and the husband and I were married in Ramsgate a couple of years after this photo was taken.

The gorgeous German Shepherd dog was my Ricky, my first dog that was mine.  He was my best friend and lived with us until he was 15.  He died here in Hereford and now stays under the bed in a box with Suki my other dog who was his partner in crime and died a few years later.

 The girls.  The second batch of girls as Foxy Loxy and Badger came on consecutive nights and took my girls.  After that we decided to not have chickens as we do live rural here in Hereford and its not really fair when you know you have foxes, badgers, birds of prey, pheasants, hedgehogs and the occasional duck dropping in on its way to the river.

That old black and white boy in the next photo, that was my Claude when he was 22 just before he passed away.  It was his passing that left us with no cats for the first time in 20 years.  We didn't have long to wait before a now familiar face arrived to live here.  We have always had strays, the abandoned cats, abused ones and dumped ones.  They have all had their problems and quirks, but old Claude he was a cat in a million who didn't age gracefully but we loved him anyway.  He was the last of a long line of 9 quirky cats, Gordy is number 10 and Teeko is number 11.

The beautiful watchful eyes of my Izabel, our only puppy (they have all been re-homes) who will be 10 this coming August.  How the years have flown past!

The boys.  Defi, on the right says hello to Gordy who had just arrived the night before this photo was taken, they are still as close as ever 2.5 years on.

Defi loves nothing better than a good wallow in the mud!  I don't think I have ever come back from a dog walk with him staying clean and golden and I always joke that this dog could find a puddle in a desert!

Defi, Gordy and Iz.  Just one of my favourite photos.

The famous little cat himself, or should that be infamous?  Gordy.

..and our newest member of the pack, well the four pawed pack anyway, Teeko the old man Birman cat, he of the blue eyes and the 'look'.  He makes me laugh when he looks at Gordy with the bemused 'really you are a cat?' look.

Teeks, as we call him, or Tick Tock, doesn't do very much he will be 15 in April and I think he was born an old man cat as his ways are very sedentary and slow.  This cat needs to cat nap for 10 hours a day, at least, to be able to sleep though the night.  Like Gordy, Teeks is a house cat now that he lives with us (he is a natural house cat as when he lived next door he never left his garden and only went out there because he didn't have a litter box in the house). We have known him for the best part of 10 years as he was our neighbours cat and both my kids and I have taken care of him, visiting him and feeding him, sitting in the sunshine on his old deck in a beautiful garden with fish pond and Monet bridge over for many weeks at a time whilst they visited their other home in Spain.  Now they have moved permanently Teeko lives with us and when not snoozing on my daughters bed he likes to sit on the top of the fish tank in the living room and watch Gordy try and figure out how to get up there!

Taken with the mobile phone



I have been playing with my phone, its a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.  I have always had the oldest phone in the house, my last one was at least 8 yrs old, so when it broke I got the new one.  I am not good with change and it has taken me a few months just to get used to making a phone call, texting and adding a contact, but I rather like the bigger screen and reading the internet searching all those fab things you can when waiting for your daughter to finish work....I always thought after the ballet lessons ended when she was 13 that my days of hanging around in the car where over, nope back to waiting around for her to finish work now that she is nearly 18!

 

 

So, eventually I figured out the camera and how it works and even uploading it to Flickr and Facebook, go me life in the old girl yet!

 

First up is a photo I took yesterday down at the river, then using the colour settings I had a play, used the frames and Voila modern vintage, pretty cool eh? 

 







Izabel







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second photo is of one of my newest beads that will be coming with me to Stourbridge Bead Fair 2013 this coming Sunday 25th August, and finally a photo of my beautiful Izabel who turned 7 yesterday, I used the soft tone application on the editing software.  Unfortunately the camera is only any good for close up photos but it does do those well, more distant shots and I need to take the big camera which is  a bit difficult with the dogs, balls, poop bags, leads.........

 

 

Laney 

Hubby brought me a new lens for my camera

Sometimes I could swing for the man, other times he comes up trumps!! 

 

My husband has been a misery with this weather, he doesn't do heat, but today my new zoom lens arrived for my camera, and its brilliant so I have completely forgiven him all the grumping he has been doing!! 

 

As you do I went around the garden snapping away, my only problem with it so far is that its quite heavy so a lot of the shots are not quite in focus, but its brilliant from far away I can get the most amazing shots, here are a few of the hundreds I took this afternoon.

 

The Hollyhock

 



 

My daughter and I had a few giggles.....

 

Pretending to sell her brothers car, its not going well....

 

 

The sun was in her eyes in this one with the infamous gap that has caused some issues with her and the dentist over the years, the outcome?  She kept it!

 

Seed heads from the Azaylia with what looks like dog hair!

 

The nose of my gorgeous Izabel

 

 

The very happy and pink tongue of my biggest baby, Defi

 

 

Flowers, no idea what they are they were cuttings from the MIL years ago and are dotted all around the garden, long green spikes with tall stems of yellow flowers

 

Red Hot Poker Flower, nearly there!!

 

 

This one is out of focus, but I love it, Defi turning circles and I am sure he is laughing, he was playing with my daughter

 Pink Roses

 

 

My beautiful Izabel, I have wanted photo's like this for years but my camera never focused that far away and she would move before I got to her



 

Close up of the Hollyhock

Looking back with Iz

 

 

I have been feeling a bit down these last few days, possibly even as much as week, I dont know why, the change in the weather?  Who knows?  I came on here to blog today, not really knowing what to blog about and found a button - I just love buttons!  its been there for ages but I haven't pressed it before, so I did.  Its the picture button 'from this blog' one.  Up came all these pictures I had forgotten about and they made me smile.

Before Defi came to live with us, it was just me and Iz (and the rest of the crew, the mogs, kids, hubby and chooks but the daily walk was just me and Iz) our walks were definitely quieter then! Defi doesn't like the car rides much, so we tend to go to the river now, which is just a five minute walk from home, but back then, Iz and I used to drive the kids to school (going back a few years both have now left school), then carry on to Dinmore Woods, near Leominster.  Only about 15 mins from us.  But Iz had lots of doggy friends there, some of whom I still chat to via facebook.  The picture above is one of my favourites of Iz and reminds me of the quiet watcher she really is.

The beautiful Acer trees turn to gorgeous reds and goldens in the Autumn.  This morning walking by the river, I was wrapped in a big fleecy coat but the sun was shining, I love Autumn, that snuggly in a big coat feeling but still with a cold nose, floating leaves and winter sunshine.  Its a beautiful season.

 

Before glass, I used to draw, and, like my beads, my favourite subjects were my animals, or any animal I saw, but mainly my animals.  I found these coloured pencil drawings of my Izabel when she was a puppy, I remember they took hours of work and were a real labour of love, just as she has been, growing from a bouncy puppy to a spoilt teenager and finally, now she is six, a lovely lady dog - ok lady might be pushing it when she rolls in mud and jumps in the river and stinks to high heaven, but she is, and has been, a definite labour of love!

Just lately, my artistic muse seems to have left the building and I have been floundering around like a fish out of water, perhaps I need to go back to basics and just make the things I love the most?  I think that could be a new plan!

 

I haven't forgotten about the give-away at the end of the month and I will find something this weekend to show off and give away, just leave me a comment below and I will put your name into the woolly bobble hat, for a chance to win....whatever I come with!!

 

Laney x