What a two years I have had!

I find it hard to believe that two years ago today I arrived at what I now call home for the very first time in the arms of my new mum. Eight weeks old, and weighing only 3.5 kg, I was a tiny version of what I am now.



Since that day I have had many adventures, learned a lot about life, and become a much more sensible and mature dog (most of the time). One of my first new experiences happened only a short while after I arrived. It snowed, and I had never seen snow before. That was great fun. Mind you, I have seen a fair bit since and am now less enamored.



I have got quite interested in what goes on in our garden so having seen my mum put things in pots of compost to make them grow, I thought I would see if it worked for me. It didn't!



And then there were the less pleasant moments. At the age of about six months I was whisked off to the vets and had certain vital parts of my anatomy removed. Not only did it leave me sore and miserable for a few days as you can see below, but I also found it quite humiliating. Still, all's well that ends well.



There are, of course, those delightful moments which stick with you for the rest of your life. One of these was the day I discovered my love of grapes. Living where we do, this is, on the face of it, an ideal passion to have, except for the fact that grapes (or more specifically lots of grape pips) are poisonous to dogs. As a result, my love of this fruit has to be curtailed at the height of the season by the use of a muzzle whilst walking through the vines.



All in all, it has been a fun two years growing up in a very interesting world. I have made some great friends, both canine and human, traveled to some really fascinating places, and had some amazing experiences. Now I just can't wait to see what this next year is going to bring.



Can I take this opportunity to wish all my friends around the world a truly wonderful 2011 and hope that you all have a great time during the next 52 weeks and beyond.

Lots of love

Django

Christmas spirit & venison

It's that bloody time of year again when the humans all go slightly mad decorating up their houses and wearing silly outfits. Even worse, they sometimes want to dress us dogs up for the occasion. I was told in no uncertain terms that I had to enter into the Xmas spirit and then had these pseudo reindeer antlers stuck on my head. Even worse, they light up and play carols. Oh, the humiliation of it! As you can see, I was delighted - not.




Mind you, they would have come in handy last weekend when dad and I went to visit Auntie Mary and Uncle Tim over near Fanjeaux. On our obligatory country walk we saw, in the distance, some hunters and their dogs giving chase to something. Didn't think much about it until, on our return leg of the walk, in the field next to us, three deer appeared at great speed followed a few minutes later by four of the hunt dogs. We all barked, shouted and whistled to distract the dogs and we were effective for a couple of minutes which gave the deer a chance to escape. I was going to say that if I was wearing the antlers I might have been even more effective at distracting them, but on second thoughts I might just have got my throat ripped out!

Earlier this week Uncle Martin had a problem with one of his electric radiators not working and so naturally brought it round to Barnes and Co to fix. Dad and I were soon on the case and it did not take us long to identify the faulty bit, a replacement for which is now winging its way to us. I do like a bit of bricolage.



Not sure if I will get a chance to chat again before the "Great Day" as the social calender is filling up fast. If I don't, can I take this chance to wish you a very happy Xmas and a recession busting new year. Speak to you all again soon.

Gloves and Meerkats

Last Sunday whilst strolling amongst the vines with my mum I happened to notice that she had taken off one of her nice fleecy gloves to rummage in her pocket for something (it turns out it was a biscuit for me!). Now seeing her standing there with one hand immobilised in her pocket and the other dangling the removed glove, those of you familiar with my penchant for socks, gloves and the like will not be surprised to hear that I could just not resist a lunge for the tempting mitten. Having been successful in obtaining it I was immediately challenged to LEAVE IT, and responded in my usual fashion by promptly swallowing it.

This created an air of tension amongst my parents whilst they worried about its return. However, they need not have been concerned as some 44 hours later, in the small hours of Tuesday morning, I returned it intact. This is no where near my record for retention of a glove which was set last Christmas at five days. Mind you, that was only a child's glove.

I don't know about you but I just love those adverts on TV with the adorable meerkats trying to sell us insurance or something. Particularly appealing is the way they stand on their hind legs and look around. The other day I thought I would try to emulate this position - with remarkably successful results. In fact, I can say I found it "Simples!".

Home maintenance

It's that time of year when one has to knuckle down to some very necessary jobs around the house and garden. For a start we have a large tree in our garden (heaven knows what it is called) that chooses this time of year to dump leaves, long spikey bits, and hard pea-like berries all over our lawn. I felt a bit sorry for mum having to rake all this up so I decided to give her some respite by asking her to scratch my back. Surprisingly, she did!


Another emergency arose last week which required some immediate DIY action to fix. Our sofa, on which I have spent many a happy night, decided to shed a few of the bolts holding all together. As a result, dad and I had to work hard to get it all back together again so mum could once more watch Emmerdale in the comfort to which she is accustomed.


Big thank you is due to my mate Princess Jolly Dog's dad as he has helped sort out our computer problem. I am pleased to report we are now all up and running again as the appearance of this new blog entry will confirm.

I'm in a bit of trouble again as once more I seem to have managed to loose a small chunk of flesh from one of my ears (the other one this time). Now for me this does not cause any great problem but mum and dad are not at all appreciative of the resulting burgundy respray of their nice pastel walls each time I have a good shake. Don't really see what the problem is as it licks off quite easily - well, the bits I can reach anyway.

It is usual practice to advise rest after blood loss so I'm off for a kip.

Furthering my social networking skills

As a further step in my attempts to become more techno savy and "in touch", I made my first Skype call the other day. It was to my new mate Princess Jolly Dog and her dad. Lovely to see her lounging on the back of the sofa like she owned the place (which she probably does), and I also needed to get her dad and mine talking in order that we can get this mess that Mac OSX upgrade 10.6.5 has made to our computer sorted. Apparently he knows even more than I do about Macs (which I find hard to believe) but if that is the case then he must be a good man to know!

I got a bit of a lecture from mum afterwards about not being very sociable on the call. Seems I am not supposed to leap about a lot and lick the screen. As I tried to explain, I was only trying to stick my nose up Jolly Dog's tail as us dogs normally do in greeting. Anyway, I don't really do sitting still for any great length of time.

Mum and I are a bit tired today as I had to get her up at 3am this morning for a call of nature. She's not mad at me though, and we had a nice cuddle in the lounge before I sent her back to bed.We might both just have to have a bit of a kip this afternoon to make up for lost sleep.

My first day at the seaside

Having been postponed from my birthday due to inclement weather, my first trip to the seaside finally took place yesterday. We went to Canet Plage which is near Perpignan.



Now those of you who know me of old will be aware that I have a particular distrust of water, even choosing to walk around puddles after rain. So it was with some trepidation that I set foot on my first beach. It turns out that the sand bit is really great fun and you can tear around on it very easily.



As for the sea bit - well the jury is still out. There I was standing looking at it when it dashed at me and got my feet all wet. I was less than pleased about that. And it is such a pain getting all that sand from between your toes afterwards.



We then went to the marina where there were hundreds of boats. I had seen a few of these before at Port Vendres but never as many as this. Not too sure I would like to go on one as you are surrounded by water!



Still, I really enjoyed my day out, and would love to go again, even though it does rather knacker you. I slept all evening when I got back.

On a different note, a strange thing happened today. My mum went out this afternoon and when she came back I did not recognise her! So much so that I had to bark quite severely at her. She had SHORT HAIR. It was quite a shock, I can tell you.

She is on dog walking duty tomorrow so I will try and find out more about how and why this happened. Will report back later.

UPDATE: Interrogated mum as to how and why this short hair happened. It appears she asked this lady to cut it short because she wanted a "change of style". Alright for some. If I wanted a "change of style" with my very short hair I'm a bit stuffed, especially if I wanted it in a "cockapoodle" style which I understand is very fashionable these days.

Mon anniversaire and other matters

Those of you living in Outer Mongolia or on Mars may just be unaware that today is my second birthday. I,m sooooo excited and I thought you might like to see a photo of my birthday cake.



We were going to go to the coast today in celebration but the weather is wet and miserable so we are now going next week when it promises to be much better. By the way, a big thank you to all my Facebook mates who took the trouble to send me birthday wishes, even if some of them were in languages I don't speak (Dutch?).

So what else have I been up to? Well, earlier this week I had a trip to the vet. No, nothing serious - just a few small issues to be addressed and a six monthly MOT or should I say Controle Technique as they call it here. It was nice to see the lovely Marie Christine again and she and I had a big cuddle for a few minutes.



Other than that the event of note was that we went to a wine sale at Domaine Gayda - this is apparently the place where they make that bottle stuff that seems to feature so highly in mum and dad's lives. They of course bought some more to top up the always dwindling stocks whist I took the opportunity to pee on some of Gayda's prime vines. It also turns out that this is the place mum and dad go to eat sometimes as it is also a restaurant. They never offer to take me with them, but than again it does look quite a posh place.

Socks and snow

We had another bit of a drama the other day. Mum was putting washing in the machine and I just couldn't resist pinching one of my dad's NEW socks. What started with what I thought was a game of chase finished up with me swallowing the sock in order to resist all attempts at retrieval. Now whilst this did not cause me any great problem, it seemed to really stress out the parents. I must admit that during the evening I did feel a bit off colour but otherwise OK. The next morning said sock fortunately (for all) reappeared in one piece, although dad did not seem too keen on then rescuing it for reuse.

Now you may remember that I said a little while ago that I thought winter was on its way. Well, today it arrived. Frost and 2 degrees in the garden and snow on the Pyrennees. We all thought it was a bit early this year but checking back it seems to be a few days later than last year. Does not make me any happier about the cold though. However, this afternoon it is warm and sunny so I have been busy topping up my tan. Never know when the opportunity will arise again.



Looking forward to tomorrow when I have got the lovely Lilly coming to stay for the day. No doubt there will be a few things to tell you all about that later.

I'm now a social networker!

I have been writing my blog now for some 18 months and am thoroughly enjoying the experience, so I thought it about time I stepped further into the modern era and had a dabble in social networking.

First of all I set myself up a Twitter account and played around with that for a while, but after a few days I just could not see the point of the inane messaging that most people tweet (sorry Stephen Fry). Not only that, but I have no pockets to carry a smartphone so I could not tweet on the move. So I binned Twitter as unsuitable for me.

Next I took a look at Badoo which is a sort of French flirting/dating site and found it totally irrelevant to my needs and very intrusive, so dumped it.

The other obvious choice was Facebook so I set up my own (heavily protected) page and started looking around. Immediately I found a number of old friends and set about "befriending" them. Some of those in turn referred me to new friends, like Princess Jolly Dog - a Jack Russell - with whom I now chat. So first impressions of Facebook are OK and I think I will be sticking with it at least for the time being. However, I will be restricting my friends only to those I know and love or whom I find interesting.

Finally, many of you have questioned if I really write my own blog or whether I have a ghost writer do it for me. Well, in answer to all you doubters out there, here is a photo of me at work on my blog, so put that in your pipe and smoke it!



It's raining cats and humans today so I am going to have a lazy day in front of the telly. And the really good news is that dad has turned on the central heating! Speak to you all again soon.

First signs of winter

First of all it was the pool being covered up with my big blue trampoline (that I am now too heavy for!). Then there was all the garden furniture being put away. The grapes have all gone from the vines and the leaves on the vines are going yellow and falling off. When I get up in the morning it is dark outside. This weekend it rained solidly for nearly two days - the first significant rain in over two months. And now when I get back from a walk I find the need to snuggle down in my duvet to warm up.



All of these suggested to me that winter was about to arrive. However, I now know for sure it is. How is that you might ask? Well, dad is now wearing his cloth cap and hiking boots on our walks. No, don't be stupid. I insist on trousers, shirt and coat as well. Well, one has to keeep up one's standing in the community.





And how humiliating. Now, just because it's so muddy, I have to have my feet washed when I get back from my walk. Grrrrrh!

2010 vendage report

Well, the 2010 vendage (grape harvest) is drawing to a close so I thought you might all like an update on this year's vintage potential. They normally start picking in early September but the vendage is a few weeks late this year as all of the grapes, despite being fully ripe, were very small due to the fact that we had had no rain for the previous six weeks or so. So the harvest was held back hoping we would get some rain to plump up the grapes - we did (a bit ) and they did (a bit!).



Now those of you who remember last year's blog on my attempt at a one dog vendage will realise that I am somewhat partial to the odd grape. Personally I see no harm at all in consuming the occassional bunch but it appears that that grapes, or, to be more specific, the pips in them, are toxic to us dogs. This has resulted in a blanket ban being imposed on my grape consumption.



When the verbal instructions went unheeded I found myself suddenly enclosed (whilst in the vineyards) in a Hannibal Lecter style mask which physically prevents me eating them. I admit that if I eat too many I get a bit sick, but I find it a bit degrading and unfair.



After all, the famous bottle stuff that all the humans love comes, I understand, from grapes, and yet I never see any of them with such unpleasant appendages on, and plenty of them get sick after too much of that. Actually, come to think of it, I think I did once see one being worn in a darkened bedroom, but that was a different story!

However, I digress from my report. The grapes actually harvested this year never did get fully up to normal size but are very sweet. The resulting 2010 wine should therefore, according to my vigneron friend Francois, be of very good quality but with less of it being produced, so therefore a bit more expensive. So some good news and some bad news for all you fans of the bottle stuff.

As for me, I will just be glad when it is all over and all the grapes have been picked. Then I can get back to running around the vines unincumbered by that horrible contraption on my head. I might even find the odd grape or two that the pickers missed!

Uncle Django!

I'm soooooo excited!!!!!



When I was born I had four brothers and a sister but since leaving Bouisse I am afraid I have rather lost touch with them. However, due to the wonders of the internet, my mum has just found out that on Sunday my lovely sister, Dedicas, gave birth to her first litter of pups and that I am now the proud uncle to three nephews and two nieces. Just imagine that. Me - an uncle.



Oh, and I think I forgot to mention that dad, mum, and I now go off to the pub one afternoon each week for a bit of "family bonding". Mum and dad have a couple of beers and the landlord brings me my own special bowl of "eau de Couiza" to which I am quite partial.

The Great Fire of Montazels

Now I would be the first to admit that normally the contents of my blogs, whilst amusing, entertaining, and informative, are never normally newsworthy in a national sense. That cannot be said about this one, so standby for some serious journalism.

It all started about 3 in the afternoon when dad and I were cleaning the pool. All of a sudden sirens from all the surrounding fire stations were sounding. We guessed a big accident or something but then mum came round to say that there was some serious smoke appearing from over the hill. As we watched, the sound of lots of fire engines could be heard tearing off to somewhere.



I think we realised the situation was somewhat serious when two fire fighting planes appeared and started making passes over the smoke. Curiosity got the better of us so we all piled in the car and drove up the dirt road towards Antugnac, in the general direction of the smoke. There were already a number of cars and voyeurs up there and we soon saw that there was a major bush/forest fire developing on the large hill opposite. Some 12 or so special fire appliances used for forest fires were already there and a mobile command post had been set up.


As we watched the fires grew at an amazing speed fanned by the increasing wind. In addition to sweeping up the hill, the fires were also being driven towards the actual village of Montazels. Still more fire fighting planes appeared with seven aircraft taking it in turns to dump their loads of fire retardant chemicals and water on the worst of the fires. I even did my bit by peeing on everything in sight! Another plane constantly circled over the area, presumably relaying info on the fires’ spread to control. A fire service helicopter joined in, and the skies above our house were busier than Farnborough during the flying displays (or so dad said).



With the fire now heading dangerously in the direction of Montazels, some of the appliances were despatched to protect properties in the path of the fire and some of the planes dropped their loads between the fires and the properties. My good friends, Uncle Martin and Aunty Val, were told to pack some things and be prepared to be evacuated if necessary. Fortunately the wind changed a bit so this was not necessary, but then the fires were heading towards Domaine St Jaques, the winery owned by my good mates Daniel and Francois.



The next morning dad and I had our usual promenade up amongst the vineyards to find only small areas still smoking. Being nosey, we took a drive down to St Jaques to find that the fire had come right down the hill to within about 300m. No wonder the planes were focussing hard on that point towards the end of the day.

At the end of it all, despite being one of the biggest fires in the region this year, nobody was injured and no major properties were damaged. Our thanks go out to the more than 100 pompiers (firemen) and the brave pilots for their sterling efforts in thwarting what could have been a serious situation for our area.

Phew – this journalistic work fair knackers one so I’m off for my usual well earned kip. Speak to you all again soon.

The social whirl of Garrenaud

Although the summer may just be considering going into retirement, the hectic social whirl that is life in the south of France continues unabated.

This time it was the visiting neigbours, Steve and Debbie Kemp together with my two mates Josh and Sam otherwise known as the Kemplings! They all came round for a swim and, needless to say, some of that bottle stuff.















Now I always have great fun with Josh and Sam even though I do not go in the pool, and this time I made them put on their "frog outfits" so that we could be three frogs together. Get it? Frog dog plus two frogs - gosh why am I so clever?


As if this was not fun enough, then my old mate Paul arrived with his Auntie Liz and Uncle Olaf. Me and Paul - seen here as the "pratt in two hats"- get on like a house on fire and I usually finish up getting far too excited by him playing games with me. I had not met his Aunt and Uncle before but they turned out to be really nice dog people so we all got along fine.





Even more bottle stuff was wheeled out together with what seemed like two tons of crisps and nibbles, all of which vanished in a very short space of time. For once I had nothing to do with this, although I can't say the same for my mates Josh and Sam.

Then, the very next evening, my bestest friends Uncle Stu and Auntie Jo, came round to dinner. I was so over the moon about this that I forgot to take any photos (sorry!) but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and, if truth be known, was a bit naughty in an over exuberant sort of way. Well, you have to let your hair down sometimes.

Finally, as regular readers will be aware, I am rather partial to a bit of a kip, so when the opportunity arose the other day to sneak into one of the bedrooms, I could not resist trying out the bed for size. The good news - it fits!

Meet the Fockers…er Brigdales

After a day and a half of serious bed therapy I am just about ready to tell you all about the really hectic week I have just had. It was the time of year for the annual invasion of the Brigdales, this time with friends!

The first I knew about it was when two cars pulled up in the drive and disgorged what seemed like loads of people. On closer inspection it turned out to be my old mates Becky and Grant together with their mum and dad plus two nice people I had never met B4 (sorry about that…after a week with four teenagers I am beginning to speak text!). It appears that earlier this year it was Grant’s 18th birthday (sorry I forgot the card Grant) and this trip was a sort of present from us.




First to appear were Auntie Kath and Uncle Clive who I met on my visit to the UK last Christmas. They are long time mates of mum and dad and apparently have been here B4 (oops! there I go again) although that was before ( got it right then ) my time.



Now you regular readers will remember Becky and Grant, godchildren of mum and dad, from their visit here last July when we all had great fun together. They have been here loads of times so there was no time wasted in getting back to our old tricks together.






Becky had brought her friend Emma with her and although she was at first a little apprehensive about me, once she got to know me properly and we had had a good cuddle, all was fine.














Grant brought his mate Liam along too. Now Liam is a real dog person as he has one of his own and also wants to become a police dog handler so we got on like a house on fire from the very beginning.





A lot of the social activity happened around the pool, even into the late evening, so bang went my usual afternoon kip and evening lap cuddles. Instead I was busy being a good host whilst all the usual eating and bottle stuff went on around me.



Amongst all of this jovial activity there was the odd “incident” like Uncle Clive falling into the pool fully clothed, and, more seriously, Grant running into me and sending me flying into the pool. Now you know how much I hate water so you can imagine that total immersion did not exactly delight me - in fact I was scared stiff (and cold) for ages afterwards.




Don’t ask me why Becky has got a fleece on in the middle of August. All I can say is that, whilst most of the time she has a reasonable fashion sense, there are the odd moments when it goes totally wrong as you can see below.



Towards the end of their visit I took them all up to Bouisse where I was born and they all had a picnic whilst I had a nap in the car. Uncle Clive tried running up a grassy slope and finished up tearing a muscle in his calf, so naturally that evening I had to sit with him and give him comfort.









All to soon it was time for them to pack their bags and go home. I could not even go to the airport to say goodbye as there was no room in either of the two cars so we had big cuddles and I watched them drive off. It was a great, if at times a little crazy, week but I had a fab time and I think they did too. Certainly, judging by the three crates of bottles and wine boxes that went out to recycling on Monday, the senior members enjoyed themselves. Can’t wait for their next visit, but I do need a few days rest first. Not much chance of that, though, as we are of to see Auntie Mary, Uncle Tim, and my mate Fig, on Friday. More news of that later.