We lost Truffle today. Diagnosed with kidney failure last week. Vets tried their hardest but we had to let him go. All his family was with him at the end. A wonderful much loved boy, fun and faithful for over 13 years. We are heartbroken.
Me and my mum are big fans of Max Out in the Lakes. Last night mum met Max, Paddy, Harry and owner Kerry Irving in Newcastle as they promote their newly published book Max, The Miracle Dog.
Kerry describes how meeting Max, then adopting him, brought him out of deep depression following a car accident. They have since raised thousands of pounds for charities, met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, starred on national TV and attended Crufts where a little girl desrcibed Max as having ‘hearts for eyes.’ Max also attended a Buckingham Palace garden party last summer with Kerry and wife Angela.
I wasn’t allowed to go because of space restrictions but mum took lots of photos so I got to meet them that way. She said she’d never been to an event with a backdrop of dog snores and dog farts!
Harry wears orange, Paddy wears teal and Harry is in red.
My mum has been busy in the kitchen making marmalade. Lots of people have asked her for the recipe but it’s in an old book (TimeLife ‘Preserving’ published in the 1980s) and not on the internet. She thought it would be a good idea to photograph the recipe – and the marmalade! – and put it on here. She says it’s lovely – deeply fruity and caramelised from long cooking (over an hour!) – but I bet I don’t like it. I don’t like fruit.
Did I ever tell you how my mum came to get me?
A friend had lost her elderly pooch and my mum was visiting a mutual friend whose neighbour had a litter of English Springer Spaniel pups. Have a look at them for me, says friend 1.
My mum goes to see them asks to hold one and Leesa, our first mum, plonks me in her arms. I moaned, apparently, and mum thought I was unhappy being picked up from the rest of the brood.
‘No’, says Leesa, he loves it.
Mum came home and joked with the Irish Aunt that she almost brought a puppy with her. Irish was so excited, said she’d walk me etc, so mum made a split-second decision and – abracadogra! – I became a shared dog.
I came home in the cat basket (maybe that’s why the then cat, Sherry, beat me up…) on April 1, 2009, at exactly eight weeks old. The rest is history… I hope you enjoy my slideshow.
Max , left, and Paddy
My mum is a big fan of Max and Paddy out in the Lake District*, a pair of English springer spaniels who have huge following, especially on Facebook. In fact she met them last week – huh, didn’t take me but took some of my Tails.com treats (the cheek!).
Now we find out Max has to have expensive surgery to remove a bone chip from his left ‘elbow’ joint – the same bit of leg I broke two years ago. I hope he doesn’t have to wear the cone of shame though my mum says it’s unlikely as he is such a well behaved dog.
Max was a rescue dog, as well as being too old, so his owners could not get insurance. His (and Paddy’s) fans have started a fundraiser to help with the costs.
Please donate if you can. These boys are such fun.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/max-outinthelakedistrict-needs-surgery
* https://www.facebook.com/maxinthelakes/
Update: The appeal raised a whopping £3,830
My mum is the first to admit that our yard gets in a bit of a mess over the winter. The Indian sandstone flagstones (with fossils – look there’s one just in front of me!) attract thick green algae and look more like a muddy football pitch than a pretty patio. She says if she’d known they would get like this she would have laid something different.
Anyway, she shut me in the house and got to work with the pressure washer. I wasn’t allowed anywhere near. But she let me help arrange some new plants to add a touch of spring colour.
Wonder which pots are going to be the right height for me to cock my leg…
Look at how artisitically I’ve arranged my toys.
Top art critics could read a lot into this, positing how I’ve captured the concept of aesthetics in my lyrical deposition of significant objects in a visual arc representing the freedom of the canine psyche.
Others may say I’ve dumped a teddy, donkey, Piglet and a very much chewed bear in a mess on the floor… then gone to bed and left my mum to clear up.
Mmm, my mum had a Cornetto after dinner and it smelled so good I couldn’t tear my eyes and nose away from it. I’m not normally given bits of dessert but tonight she obviously took pity on me, couldn’t resist my appealing look, so I got the last of the cone which still had some strawberry ice cream in it. Now that’s the sort of fruit I like. Yummilicious!
Mum says I have to include the song from the advert. (Maybe if Walls see this they will send me more!)
Marley Cat has disgraced himself two days on the trot – nibbled the top off a cheese and bacon quiche yesterday then licked the butter today. My mum is incandescent.
After lunch with a friend, she put a cover over the last slice of quiche but cleverclogs tipped it off and helped himself. I was the beneficiary because after that it wasn’t fit for human consumption.
This morning she’s making bacon sandwiches and finds him licking the top of the butter in the dish.
She puts the lid on, goes away while the bacon cooks and comes back to discover he’s knocked one slice of bread off the other (supposed precaution to avoid said cat having a go) and licked more butter!
He’s now hanging his head in shame, in the proverbial doghouse. Looks as if he’s in the summerhouse to me. I thought she said the summerhouse wasn’t a dog kennel…
Update July 14
More horrors from the cat! He pinched cake which had been left under a teatowel overnight – crumbs on the counter and a big scoop out of the tin. I was allowed some of the rest for breakfast but the remains went in the bin. I would never steal food…
Excitement today as my mum installed a new rug in our front room. We had a cream one, thick and soft for me to lie on (except I do sneak up on the sofas when she isn’t looking) but she wanted a different look, even though my white fur hardly showed on it.
We are now the proud owners of a Persian carpet and, if I do say so myself, it was a great choice because it complements my coat beautifully. I have always liked blue tones.
I’m going to have to guard it carefully against those cats – especially the fringe which Cleo is bound to want to chew and kick. I will be marshalling the long arm of the paw.
Dogwuff! 