One Year On....

This post is going to be about something very special to me. I havnt actually posted anything for over a month, I always said I would never post just for the sake of it though, only when I actually have something to say. And now I do.

A year ago today, my life changed. That may seem dramatic to anybody reading who doesn’t know what its like to loose your dog, or even loose a dog that you had such an amazing bond with. But things did change for me, I had a different outlook on everything in my life for a while. Before this day last year, I had never experienced loosing anybody close to me, never really had to grieve and I’ll be honest I didn’t think I would have to experience it for a while, but it just goes to show you never know whats round the corner.

His last Christmas with us, about to chew up one of his presents!

 

For those who don’t know, Bruce was my springer spaniel and my first ever dog. I had pestered my parents for the whole 16 years I had been alive for a dog, and I finally got him. Let me tell you he was worth the wait, he was beautiful. He was different. Bruce was born partially blind, but that’s a whole other story. I will probably write his full life story one day, it would be an interesting one but this post is just to remember him by and not to go into all the details! I got him at 6 months old and he was my birthday present. I’ll be honest, he was supposed to be my dog. I said I would walk him everyday, I said I would get up early to feed him but being a typical 16 year old, after a few weeks it was my parents that ended up doing that! Don’t get me wrong, I never lost interest in him or anything like that, I just took a back seat when it came to those things so naturally he became more of a family dog which was fine with me. I loved him so much, everybody did but he was a mans dog really and grew really attached to my dad, who surprisingly was the least keen on getting a dog in the first place!

When I remember Bruce, it makes me sad. Not the little fleeting memories I have or when he comes up in conversation, I mean when I properly think about him. You never realise how much you miss them and how many little things you forget about them. And that’s what makes me sad. I don’t want to forget anything about him, I always wish I could just have 5 more minutes with him just to see his face, because it breaks my heart that I cant look at his cute little face anymore.

 

In the sea, his favourite place to be :)

 

Theres things I could never forget about him though. He always loved to chew and destroy all his toys and blankets. He would take cushions and bedding out his plastic bed just to chew on them. I miss his cheeky side, if I tried to get him to come out of a room he would gradually sink down to the floor and end up lieing on his back so I couldn’t move him! He barked at any strangers who came into the house and hated the window cleaner! When my parents went on holiday he would go to the front door at around 5ish and wait for them, thinking they were coming home from work! And I would try to sit on the coach next to him, for him to jump off and go and sit on another, it was only really my dad who he would sit next to. When I was sad he would sit next to me and let me cuddle him, Id put my arms around him and he would just let me sit there for as long as I needed to. When I groomed him he stood so still and so well behaved and even closed his eyes when I dried him. He loved food, and had many roast dinners, bolognase and chip dinners with us. Above everything he loved the water and on any walk would manage to sniff out a stream and just stand there with his tail wagging away. He also loved the sea and we struggled to get him out so many times!

 

Giving a paw for a biscuit!

 

Brucie was six when he died. He had epilepsy for almost all of his life and in the end it finished him off. We always knew he wouldn’t live a very long life, but I honestly thought he would still be here today. Even on the day he died, I was in the garden with him, holding him up and willing his back legs to get stronger. But deep down I think I knew he wasn’t going to get better. The comfort I took from his death was that even though he only had six years, we made it an amazing six years. He really did have a great life despite his problems and he was truly loved by so many people. He went on holidays, got away with murder and was spoilt rotten. We’d have had it no other way. I started to accept this after a few months and stopped feeling so annoyed at the fact he only had a short life and more blessed that I had him in my life.

Its strange how odd the house feels when your dogs leaves it. We could still smell him, and all of his things were everywhere but theres just this massive gap left. For the first 6 months or so, I could still feel him in the house. I thought I saw him a few times, heard him bark and even my mum thought she saw him once! Though, after Christmas this stopped and now it feels like hes well and truly gone. Its sad but I hope wherever he has gone he is in peace and happy. I know not everyone is but I am religious and I do believe there is a rainbow bridge and I like to think he is there.

 

Happy on holiday

 

It was obviously his time to go and that’s life, it can be cruel but I had 6 years with him to be grateful for. Its strange how things turn out, I now have my spaniel puppy George, who in no way ever replaced bruce but really helped me to be happy again. In so many ways he is like bruce, and every day he makes me smile. Bruce changed my life, may sound silly but he made me more mature, George is attached to me and I do everything for him, if it hadn’t have been for bruce he would maybe have never come into my life. I have a lot to thank that dog for.

Loving the snow!

 

I really cant put into words how much I miss him. How much I think about him and how much apart of me he was. Writing a few paragraphs about him does not do him justice because he really was the world to me. I’d like to think that one day I will see him again, and we will never have to say another goodbye. Love you always Brucie xxxx

 

<3

A Holiday To Remember Forever

I don’t really know how to start this post, there are no words to sum up this last week or to sum up how I feel now it’s over. But, I need to write the story of mine and Laura’s holiday to Dorset whilst it’s fresh in my mind!

So, on Friday the 3^rd of may, my garage room was full to the brim of bags and boxes for the trip. Laura and Duke (her puppy) arrived at mine at around half 9ish and we took the dogs for a run on the park in the dark. They hadn’t seen eachother for a few weeks so they were hyper to say the least plus I think they knew something was going on! We went to bed about 11ish so Laura could have a good nights sleep for the journey down the next day and we arose at 6:30 am. Grim! After taking the dogs for a run on the field we came back and began running round like idiots trying to pack the van with all our stuff. There was so much! We finally got ourselves and the pups in the van for 8:15 and set off on our 5 hour journey to Dorset!

The back of the van

All set to go!

 

The journey down on the motorway consisted of Disney songs, and me telling Laura weird but wonderful stories about an ex. All I will say is ‘blew his nose on the road’ haha! We stopped for lunch near oxford then a problem occurred in the form of Laura’s phone (which was our sat nav) ran out of battery. I rung my parents and got some directions as they were travelling up to, but basically we had to wing it until we got into Dorset. And you would think then it would be all plain sailing? It wasn’t. We got lost for about an hour driving round the same roundabout about 10 times looking for the a3bloody51 which none of us could spot! I was on the phone to my dad getting stressed and at one point Laura actually stopped the car and got out! I thought she was going to run into the middle of the road! It was at that point my phone also ran out of battery so it was gameover and we had no choice but to find the a351 by ourselves. After Laura had taken a painkiller we travelled slowly round that roundabout and I can not describe the relief we felt when we saw the a351 signposted! We arrived at the cottage about an hour behind what we would have hoped but managed to lug our things in whilst my parents watched the dogs, who were loving running wild round the garden. The cottage was great, with the lounge, spare bedroom and bathroom on the middle floor, 2 bedrooms on the top floor and the kitchen on the bottom floor it was a lot of space for all our things! The cottage people had been kind enough to leave us a bottle of wine and some malteasers as a welcome present and it wasn’t long until we cracked open the wine to have with our pizza buffet tea. After tea we headed to the beach with the boys and they absolutely loved it! Both of them went into the sea, George a little more keen than Duke. And I was so happy to be back at the place I love with my best friend with me! When we got back to the cottage the boys were quite tired so we sat in the lounge and finished our wine watching a film about someone being kidnapped. Around midnight we went to bed.

We're here!!

 

7am came round, as did the sound of George’s screams wanting to be let out to play! Because the weather was still really warm we spent the morning in the garden with the dogs and filled up the paddling pool for them which they loved. We had dinner at the best chippy in the world then walked the dogs along the promenade. We wanted to go further but because it was still the bank holiday, it was really busy and its hard to navigate two puppies in crowds. I remember us laughing at this one man who was conked out in his sun lounger in the middle of everybody rushing around him- how is that relaxing! We went back to the garden and did some more chilling and sunbathing having our funny conversations then only afterwards realising that the neighbours who were in their garden probably heard every word haha! For tea we went over to my parents apartment where they were staying and had a roast dinner. Because their place was no dogs allowed the boys had to sit in the patio area and sulked and pulled their faces at us through the glass! After tea we went for another walk on the beach then came back to the cottage and cracked open the drinks! We had champagne, cider and blue vodka mix on the rocks which ended with us singing into the camera and having one of the best heart to hearts we have ever had. We talked about brucie and got upset but also about how close we are as friends and how there’s nobody else we could have been having as good a time with as eachother. Really cheesy but it was nice.

 

Monday morning we woke up with hangovers! I’m so glad Laura lent me her sunglasses that day, I felt like my head was gunna explode. At one point when we were on the beach I thought I was going to throw up! We took on the beach one of them open tent things, but it seemed I forgot the poles so we had to just sit on it and try to push the dogs off whenever they came near! We were having a sit down when a family came arguing past us, a mum, a dad and their chubby kid all shouting at eachother about who should have carried what to come to the beach. It was amusing. It was also funny later on when a man walked his two dogs past and the same chubby kid came stumbling back from the sea shouting ‘KEEP THEM AWAY FROM MY SANDCASTLE!!’ We threw sticks for the dogs in the sea and contemplated going in ourselves because it was so warm! After a couple of hours we headed to the Bankes Arms for a pub lunch and found the beer garden was absolutely packed! We had to stand around like lemons gawping at people waiting for a table. It was about 10 minutes before a couple got up and we swooped in and claimed the table! After ordering our food, we realised we were number 95 and they were up to 54. We spent the half an hour waiting observing the people around us and missing the funny moment when a couple both fell off their bench nearby. After the food, we went to the co-op and got some supplies for our spaghetti bolognaise tea. The tea tasted good if I do say so myself but lets just say there was a lot of it! We made far too much for just two people and it felt like however much we ate the food on the plate just wasn’t going anywhere! After tea we had some champagne with my parents then after they left we put on the film ‘coyote ugly’ as Laura had never seen it. Even though I’ve seen it millions of times, watching it with Laura was different because I laughed at so many more things, every film I watch with her is like that. There was one part where the guy is dancing on the bar and I know she will know which bit I mean which I don’t think either of us will forget! Haha! We didn’t have too much to drink that night and got to bed about 1ish I think.

Tuesday morning we decided to make a full English breakfast. Halfway through the smoke alarm began to go off and Laura was running around upstairs trying to waft the smoke about whilst coughing her lungs up while I struggled not to burn everything downstairs needing immediate help! It was a stressful situation to say the least with the doggies cuddling on the stairs both looking really scared! In the end it turned out alright, few things were burned but all you can do is laugh right! We then took a walk up the hills near the shore and sat down halfway up to enjoy the view. The boys met so many other dogs up there and it was nice to just be able to chat in the sun. Afterwards we had an ice cream at the seagull café and Laura couldn’t understand a word the woman was saying so she didn’t get the ice cream she wanted, but ate it anyway. There was a really cute Doberman patrolling around as well! Afterwards we put the dogs in their beds for half an hour and nipped to the shop for supplies for our tea which was to be fajitas! We also bought a new pop up tent thing and a football for the dogs to play with. The ball lasted about 5 minutes before it was popped and we had a nice sunbathe in the garden, again forgetting that neighbours could probably hear us we talked a lot about erm guitars haha. I also exchanged a couple of sentences with a boy too :0

We kept joking about seeing a woman ghost in our spare bedroom window, but the joke wasn’t so funny at night time! We made fajitas successfully even though Laura binned the box with the instructions in she took one for the team and fished it back out of the poo bag bin! We had micro chips with our fajitas too and they were awesome! After tea we went on our beach walk again and me and Laura got the giggles walking down and then we couldn’t stop. A dog walking funny, Laura pretending to pull the plug out of a caravan were sending is into fits of giggles! On the beach we stayed later than everyone else and sat on a rock making funny hand gestures (you’ll know what I’m referring to Laura ;) ). Back home at the cottage, we had quite a lot to drink and it was probably our drunkest night of the holiday. I don’t remember much of what we talked about but I know we had a good time! It was 4am when we got into bed and 6 am when we actually got to sleep- woops!!

8:30 soon came round as did the sound of George. I crept out of bed, let him out then collapsed on the sofa feeling like the living dead. Laura emerged after and made us both a cup of well needed tea. I think we just sat in silence for a few minutes while the dogs bounced around wrestling and playing their little games. We set out about half 10 to get the train to Corfe, a small old fashioned village about 20 minutes from where we were staying. £24 I think it was for us both and the boys to travel on the steam train! We had like a married couple discussion in the middle of the waiting room while the lady waited before we purchased our tickets! Whilst waiting for the train something so funny and so typically us happened but I can’t really put it in my blog, so all I will say is ‘Bog Standard’ hahaha. On the train the pups decided to have a wrestle, then when the bloody thing started moving they decided to fall asleep! After we payed for them to come on their first choo choo train we weren’t having that so we sat them at the window to watch. Duke started licking the window and this weird man kept walking past and gawping into our carriage! We quoted harry potter aswell ofcourse J We almost forgot to get off the train when we arrived in Corfe, and we took a walk around the castle. We didn’t go in as it would have been tricky with the dogs, but it was a nice walk and George found a stream to paddle in. We got dinner in the ‘Greyhound’ pub and sat in our own little section. Laura met a huge man at the bar who had to hoist himself out of his chair and we shared most of our dinner with the dogs. We laughed so much in that pub, no wonder the waitress had a face on when I asked her for mayo. After dinner we had a cream tea in a garden overlooking the castle and felt really silly sat near all these sophisticated people while we talked about events of the previous night and giggled away. After we got the train home, we headed straight to the beach to tire the dogs out and had a rainy half an hour. We basically had the beach to ourselves and it was one of my favourite times on the beach. Laura kept trying to film the dogs to show her parents but I kept accidentally saying stupid things and oh the looks she was giving me! It was then I realised that in her presence I am an utter crazy person! We walked back talking all the way about dogs, and planning our next ones. At the cottage we got into bed in the spare bedroom, got all snug, the dogs slept at the bottom of the bed and we watched 101 Dalmatians with hot chocolates. I’ll never forget that, even though it was so simple it made that day my favourite of the holiday. It just felt perfect. Afterwards, we got showers and got ready for our meal in the posh restaurant ‘the bull and boat’ by the shore where apparently jonathan ross eats at! My parents came round to watch the boys and we had a really nice meal though it felt weird without them! The menu was so posh too that we had to google what the meals were before we ordered haha! We had a great chat and both talked about how we were already dreading having to come home. As we walked back along the promenade in the dark the wind really picked up and we got back to the boys for about 10pm. When we were home we watched 102 Dalmatians in bed and all 4 of us ended up falling asleep so we decided to call it a night!

Thursday morning, it was really windy but the sun was out abit more than it had been the previous day. We headed to an animal sanctuary where we kept making the ‘DO SOMETHING’ joke haha. There was a few animals but not as much as we had hoped. There was 2 goats, one looked like Gandalf and the other kept butting the fence while the dogs shit themselves! We then went to my parents for dinner, then onto a different end of the beach where it was practically deserted. The wind had really picked up now and we tried to put up our pop up tent thing. It nearly blew away so many times and the pegs wouldn’t stick into the ground so somebody had to be sitting in it at all times to keep it from moving. Despite this though, me and Laura had a good laugh in it while the boys played in the sea and dug holes around the tent. Laura actually part buried duke in the sand and he wasn’t bothered, in fact I think he liked it! We also went into the sea, just ankle deep though it was freezing cold! But I’m glad we did it! After a couple of hours we made our way back along the beach but had forgotten my grandma had the bag for out tent so we had to carry it between us looking ridiculous and in the end Laura ended up carrying it, thanks bab! Haha! Back home we got ready to go out for another meal, this time with the dogs and my family to a pub called ‘The Halfway House’. The meal was really nice and we had a really good time. Back in the cottage we watched ‘for the love of dogs’ with Paul O’grady in it, then began drinking again. We had champagne and finished off vodka and the blue vodka. Again we had such a great night, a really good laugh and got to bed around 4ish. Pretty sad that we would be waking up to our last day.

Friday morning came around, and we were both feeling sad about it being the last day. We went to Lulworth Cove with my family, a pebble beach and had a nice sit down on the stones. The weather was abit chilly but the sun came out every now and then. We had a game of chucking stones at a can which my granddad won all 3 times and we saw quite a few other dogs. When we got back home me and Laura put the dogs in bed for an hour and went looking round the shops. We had to giggle at how nice people are down there then they are back at home. Lots of ‘have a lovely weekends’ and it was catching! In boots aswell we had to giggle at someone having a conversation that the whole world could hear and I couldn’t look at Laura. We got a ring each and she bought us both a necklace with our birthstones on it. We both watched homeward bound 2 in bed when we got back with the dogs and Laura fell asleep! I woke her up for tea and we got a chippy, which we ran for haha. Also we couldn’t help but laugh at the ‘keen’ men in there eating them before they got out! After we had the chips we made our way to the beach for the very last time L I knew I would feel sad but I didn’t expect it to bed that emotional as we both sat watching the waves thinking the same thing ‘I don’t want to go home’. We had a game of consequences with my family then had our last beach picture taken. My family left and we stayed another half an hour with the pups, just not wanting to go really. Sad to say we both had a little cry! We soon left and made our way back to the cottage where we filmed ‘the holiday awards’ then watched a film whilst eating sweets from our piñata. The following morning we got up at half 7 and had to run around the cottage packing our things up as we had to be out for 10am. It was stressful but we managed it and the dogs looked all sad to be leaving. We set off at 10:09am exactly for our journey back to ‘crapdon’ as Laura named it and spent the journey back doing identical dances to Disney songs, singing and gawping at people! Heres just a few of our holiday quotes;

-          HOW D’YA DO A FIRE SHOT

-          Aww its an andrex puppy

-          Stop gawping at me

-          DO SOMETHING!

-          Set it on fiiiiiire!

-          Bog standard!

Annoyingly blogger wont let me post anymore photos which is so shit, but they're all on my facebook. Also, I vlogged every day here is Day 1.

 

There’s more, but I don’t want to give all the holiday secrets away :P If you don’t like cheese then don’t read on.

This holiday has honestly been the best one of my life. I’ve been to Dorset about 10 times before but none of them have been this special and I’ve got Laura to thank for that. Spending the week with my best friend has made us even closer than we were which I didn’t think was possible and having the dogs with us made it all the better! I loved every part of the holiday and I’m having a serious case of the holiday blues. When Laura went home on Sunday I felt so lost and sad, miss her loads it was like my right arm had gone! I love her, and the pups to the moon and back. I know we will go to Dorset again, who knows maybe this year or it may be next, but I can’t wait until the four of us return. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

STOP BURNING MY THINGS!

Ever have one of them weekends you know you wont ever forget easily?! Just had one of them, and its always the weekends you don’t expect.

Me, Hannah and Laura had planned to go camping at some point this year, as we said we would last year and never did. Plus it was on mine and lauras do to list, and you know how much we like to obey the to do list ;) Even though the weather on Saturday was odd to say the least (raining, hailstoning, occasionally the sun popped out) we still decided it would be a good idea to set up tent in lauras front garden so if we did get too cold, we could always rebel and go indoors. Let me just explain that laura has a lot of land round her house so we had plenty of room.

So, I arrive at lauras about 7:15ish, then Hannah at 8 (she was late due to fish problems!) and we thought it would be a better idea to get a takeaway first, then put the tent up. Basically we were being greedy! By the time we had gone out, got the takeaway and seen it off, it was almost 9pm and we hadn’t yet started to erect the tent. Now in the uk, it starts to go dark around 9ish this time of year, going pitch black by about 10 so we realised we were going to be working against the light and I think we underestimated how easy it would be. Tensions rose as we fiddled about with poles effing and jeffing, where to pitch the bloody thing and all the time being observed by the freaky naked lady statue in the corner of the garden. It was a good team building exercise and hats off to Hannah and laura who kind of did most of it while me and the puppy Duke chased sticks and string. To be fair I did play a vital part in holding the tent up and shining the flashlight in their eyes when it went totally dark haha!

The tent was finally up for 10pm so we ventured inside for warmth and a celebratory shot of aftershock which I was 80 % sure I would throw straight back up, but I didn’t. Lauras parents had arrived home so we sat up drinking with them for a couple of hours, being entertained by Lauras dad’s stories about giant turtles he encountered on a trip to florida one time, they were bigger than sofas apparently! And hey he even did a shot with us!!

About 12ish we decided to get everything set up in the tent, and put on our onsies. For a few hours we sat drinking, eating chocolate and talking about shit. ‘Vaginas go camping’ as my mum described it and it really was basically a vagina party outdoors! If your wondering what a vagina party is read here. We wanted to make a shit scary movie, but the only thing that was remotely scary was hannah’s deep breathing into her air bed to blow it up! Instead we got into the bedroom compartments, and had no intention of sleeping. That’s when the randomness came out. Hannah began playing remixes of lord of the rings and other youtube videos that only us would find remotely funny and for the next few hours all you would hear coming out of our tent would be ;

-          MY NAMES JOHN RUSSEL!

-          WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!

-          GANDALF! NOOOOOO!

-          THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO IZENGUARD

-          HEY HOWS YOUR DAY SO FAR

-          DO THE KENDRO DO THE DO THE KENDRO

-          STOP BURNING MY THINGS

-          THE CIRCLE OF TRUST GOES ROUND AND ROUND!

 

There was a point where we were all actually nearly sick from laughing so hard, it was painful! I really wish my phone hadn’t have died so I could have filmed it, but maybe it was because of the stupid hour we were up that we found it so funny. I really don’t know how the puppy slept in that tent with us with all the racket we were making. Then it would go quiet for a few seconds and you would hear a GANDALF and it would start again. Who knew quoting movies could have such an effect.

 

When we realised it had started to go light, and the birds had begun to sing we decided that we should probably get some sleep. It was 5am after all! At 8:30 am we emerged from the tent looking like the walking dead, and me and laura stepped in dog poo- what a way to start a morning.

We took the puppy on a walk, meeting some cows that we named Gandalf, Bridget, Hootanany and I have forgotten the other name so lets say John Russell :P

We travelled to hannahs to release some of lauras fish named Adele and Eminem into hannahs pond and laura got all emotional so I cheered her up with a minstrel then went to see hannahs poorly ferret marshy and had cuddles. After that we made our way to animal care in Lancaster, a rescue home, on the way singing to kylie and backstreet boys- oh yeah!

The animals there were gorgeous and surprisingly none of us came out with one. We feared the rath of the parents abit too much! Though the home itself was really good, and much better than others I had come across. All the animals where healthy and well cared for, and I fell in love with a cat called Joan J By afternoon we came home, all of us half asleep. As you hit your twenties its harder to function on 3 hours sleep than it used to be! Me and laura came back to mine and after walking georgie and getting soaked in the rain, we got into bed and watched a film. Perfect end to a great weekend.

It wasn’t really like we were doing anything exceptional, but this was one of my favourite weekends ever spent with my best friends. Theres no others who I can have such a laugh with being so ridiculously weird, and I’ll remember that weekend forever J

I did manage to take some footage before my phone died on me, and its included in my new vlog which you can see here

This week now, Im just getting ready for Saturday which is the day me, laura and the pups go on holiday for a week down south as I mentioned in my previous post. 3 sleeps to go! Expect a post about that when Im back! Much Love! xxxx

Im going home soon!!!!

We're halfway through april and the weeks seem to be flying by so fast its scary. Ive been on a countdown for a few months now to my holiday on the 4th of may. I dont usually call it a holiday, its my second home. Wish it was my first! :P Let me tell you about it.

 

So every year for the last 10 years or so, my family and I have spent a week of the year down south, chillaxing in various cottages we have rented. When I say down south, Im refering in particular to a place called Swanage, which is a town in Dorset. I cant explain the feeling I get when Im there, it really feels like I come home and Im instantly in a better mood when I arrive there to the minute I leave. I knew from a young age I wanted to live there and have a million dogs by the sea. That literally still is my dream, shame I didnt know back then how hard it is to actually achieve such dreams. Swanage is not a 'wow' kind of place, it doesnt posess a zoo, theme park and a wild nightlife. Its just a sleepy little sea town where we spend the week on the beach, walking, eating chips and having family time. The latter makes it sound like we all sit round and enjoy eachothers faces like the waltons or something, we dont!!

Lulworth Cove and you can see my brucie swimming.

 

Walking to 'Old Harry's Rocks'

 

 

The old cottage where we used to stay :)

 

 

Also, My old dog Bruce used to really enjoy going, he LOVED the sea and would just stand in it for hours, tail wagging away. Dorset became extra special to me because of this, it will always remind me of Bruce, and going back this year will be strange without him as its the first time were going back since we lost him last year. However, my little monster George has yet to experience his first little holiday down south and Im excited to take him. This year Im going down with my best friend which makes me even more excited than usual. Laura has never been, but has probably been bored of hearing about me bang on about it for the last few years haha. We have a cottage which is quite central in town, sleeps 6 and theres just the two of us. Oh no wait the 4 of us if you count the kids, aka the dogs. We must be absolutly crazy taking 4 month old and 9 month old puppies to stay in someone elses cottage for the week but the method to our madness is that they will be so shattered from shenanigans on the beach all day that they will be too tired to run riot round the cottage. erm, yeah we will let you know how that one pans out. Its not the usual kind of holiday I would go on with Laura, considering our last few holidays have been to zante and london where copius amounts of clubbing occured, but Im looking forward to just spending quality friend time (as cheesy as that sounds) and taking some time out. We will have be sensible to a certain extent as we are mums to our babies and they require our full attention, until they pass out from tiredness that is, and what a wonderful moment that is :) Anyone who has had a puppy will be aware how tiring it gets, but when you have two of them its double the trouble, wouldnt change them for the world though!

So, Ive been on a massive countdown and now its only 2 weeks and one day to go. I know when I get down there I'll be so happy, I have pre warned Laura so she knows I havnt taken anything. Its not that Ive been unhappy recentally, just kind of stuck in a rut still. Ive made a few good choices I feel over this last month or so, but I need to make some kind of move career wise because at the moment I'm well and truley stationed. I think I will be able to see things clearer when I come back, and everyone knows it always does your brain good to go away! Theres not really been any other updates recentally apart from the fact I started weight watchers, Ive lost 10 pounds so far and been doing it exactly 2 weeks. I'm happy with it so far, and underestimated how easy it would actually be not to snack inbetween meals. Not that I ate alot, just alot of the wrong things. Also, I uploaded my new video which will be here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvgMChobWfo and that pretty much sums up what I have been up to, which embarassingly isnt anything productive. But its all fun :)

 

So, I think I can wrap this up, and cotinue my sad little countdown to my holiday- 16 sleeps!! xxxx

My Brucie on the beach, one of my favourite photos of him, not a care in the world just trotting off to sea :)



People are the problem.

Its all over the news about the poor girl thats been killed by a pack of dogs, not far from where I live. As usual when something like this happens, the media have a field day in naming these breeds of dogs and  branding them DANGEROUS. I'm a dog lover, and in my experience encountered a wide range of breeds from when  I've worked in vets/kennels/dog grooming and can safely say there is no such thing as a 'dangerous breed'. There is such thing, however as a dangerous human.

The dogs in question are the breeds that always get the blame and therefore encourage these horrible people to aquire one. The breeds that I find are discriminated against most are staffys, bull mastiffs, rotweilers, dog du bordeuxs, pitbulls, dobermans and german shepards. I have been bitten numerous times throughout my years working in the animal industry, and not once have I been bitten by one of these breeds. I have found that its been mostly smaller dogs that are more likely to snap, which I suppose is better as they are easier to handle. Large dogs with strength and willpower like the breeds above can be fatal if they decide to attack you, which is why is important they dont get into the wrong hands. Unfortuanlty, this seems to be what happened in this young girls case.

 

There is not enough education on dog breeds, and I think its too easy for a dog to end up in the wrong hands. As an example, I would never activly seek to own a dog du bordeux. This isnt because I dont like the breed, its simply due to the fact I know I would not be capable in training and looking after a dog so big and so strong willed. Dont get me wrong, I know alot about dogs and like a challenge when it comes to training and what not, but getting myself a dog that big would be unfair to the dog as he would require my undivided attention and I just wouldnt be strong enough to handle one. Whereas, there are people who see a large dog like this and immediatly jump at the chance to own one because it will make them look 'tough' and 'hard'. They will not research the breed or its requirements, nor divide a significant amount of time to training the dog to be wellbehaved- they just love the way it look swaggering down the road with a large dog thinking they are 'untouchable'. These kinds of people I despise. They also encourage aggressive behaviour, willing the dog to growl at visitors, and enjoying using them as a 'gaurd dog'. Its sad because these dogs will hardly ever end up having a happy ending. The owners will either bored looking after them and try to rehome, but the chances of a dog with issues getting a new home are slim to none. On the other hand, the dog may attack someone and this would probably result in the dog being put down. It annoys me because its so avoidable, I know its hard to check out everybody who wants to buy a dog but the guidelines need to be stricter to ensure these dogs dont get into the wrong hands. These 'status' breeds make absolutly great pets when brought up in the correct, loving home and trained by someone who has done their research and is ready to commit to the dog. I know this first hand as my aunty has a staffy cross and he is the most softest, gentle dog in the world. He loves people, great with other dogs and has never shown any sign of agression. This is because he has been brought up in the right enviroment and its just proof that people need to think carefully before they get a dog on a whim, as in the end it really is the dog that suffers.

 

Its such a shame what happened to that girl, though we dont know the facts, apprently the owner was notoriously known for owning unruly dogs. I really hope something will be done about this, and that the media go about it in the correct way. Instead of branding 'dangerous' dogs and calling for laws to be made to ban breeds, we should be banning dangerous people from owning any breed of dog as this really is where the problem starts.

Friends are the family we choose :)

Going to do something different with this post and start with a quote and that is;

Blood is thicker than water. It’s quite a common saying, meaning basically that the relationship between you and your family is stronger than any relationship you have with your friends. If your in a predicament and don’t know whether to side with what your family is saying or a friend, this saying encourages you to pick family over them every time because your ‘blood related’. I have to say I could not disagree more with it.

I don’t know what inspired me to write about this, it just popped into my head the other day and I got thinking about it. Before you go thinking I have an awful family or that I have issues with them, I don’t. Just need to clarify that one. But I suppose I’m not as close with my family as other people are, everybody is different though.

Literally blood is thicker than water, but if I’m being honest I have relatives that don’t know half as much about me as my friends do so therefore I’m just not one of them people who can put family first all the time. That may make me sound like a terrible person, if it does sorry but it’s the truth. Its not that I like my family any less, but my friends are also just as important to me.

 

First off let me just say that I have amazing friends, I really really do. Im not just being biast either, because I know the kind of friendships I have don’t come around often, and everyday I thank my lucky stars I have them. Wow, this might be a cheese fest- so sorry haha! A friend to me is someone who you can be completely 100 percent yourself infront of, someone who can make you smile on the shittiest of days, someone who can make you literally sore for laughing and well, you get the idea. The things I’ve got up to with friends have been some of my best memories, and it makes me sad to think of anyone who doesn’t have friends because I would literally not know what to do without mine.

In the past, Ive had some particularly difficult problems, some of which are still with me today and I never told any of my family about it. I think I knew they wouldn’t really understand and would look at me differently so to this day they don’t know what went on. However, my friends were there from day 1 and the amount of support I got from them still amazes me today. They knew the ins and outs and they didn’t run a mile when Im sure I must have been pretty difficult to be around. They were always there at the end of the phone, coming up to see me, making sure I wasn’t on my own and most importantly, helping me to forget. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them, Im positive of that.

I can count on 10 fingers the friends I have that I consider good friends, always have a laugh with, can talk about anything with and love to spend time with. I can count on 5 the friends that have been there when it really mattered, have such great friendships with and I love to bits. I can count on just one finger the friend that I completely trust with anything, who I would be just lost without and is the bestest and most rare friendship I have ever been in. I’d say we were like sisters, but I've never had a sister and I’d be tempted to say we were even closer than that!

So you may be able to see why I cannot rank friends below family, as they all make me smile on a daily basis, whether it be from a random, funny, inside joke text or almost getting run over whilst running to find a toilet with me haha (yes that has happened). Some have gone completly out of their way to do something things for me so I always try and do the same back. I can be incredibly defensive over them too because if you hurt them, you annoy me and I'll come after you and go all liamneesonintaken on your ass! haha! So, to conclude my little post about friendship I’ll leave you with another quote, one of which I prefer.

Blood is thicker than water, but without water you can’t survive.

 

 

Not a normal saturday night

So I havnt really mentioned something thats pretty big in my life yet in my blog, and its about time I did. That thing is my dog George, and well, dogs in general.

From as young as I can remember I've been obsessed with dogs, I got my first one at 16 and he was a springer called Bruce. The best dog I could have ever had, sadly he died last year, aged just 6. I will definalty do a seperate post about him though, as he was so special :)

Now, I have a 7 month old field spaniel called George, who in no way replaces Bruce, but makes me so happy its untrue. Like right now for instance, he has his paws on my knee looking up at me and wagging his tail away wanting cuddles. I know Im biast, but he is so cute I cant handle it sometimes! haha.

My best freind, Laura has been after a dog for a while now and she finally managed to persuade her parents to let her have one. He is one of the most cutest puppies I have ever seen! She brought him round for the first time on saturday night, hes a yellow lab and just looks like the andrex puppy, he's called Duke. I was abit pensive initially about how they would get on together, but I needent have worried. They got on great, George loved having a little playmate. I can see them being best of friends as they grow up. Duke is a little character not shy unlike George, who is scared of new things. They were back and forth playing for about an hour, tiring each other out and me and Laura!

It was strange because our usual saturday nights involve drinking and clubbing and this one was very different. Chasing round after two puppies then having a cup of tea watching crufts. But it was a nice change and I hope we can do it again soon :)