I am a poorly dog

See how small I can get?  The world is currently a very cruel place for Alfie dog!  I has the 'kennel cough' dont know why its called that as I dont do kennels.  But yesterday I got very poorly and had to visit the vet man Uncle Owen, he came out to see me in the car so I didnt give the nasty cough to any other dogs.  Even though he did some awful things to me (note from Mum, he took his temperature) I still gave him a big kiss on the nose, and he said it was ok he couldnt catch it.
I have pills, and Mum came away with a vaccine for Tess as she is old and apparently I have not to give this to Tess, but we share everything, not got to give it to Jaja either, but I really dont see why he shouldnt suffer too.
Worse than the general feeling of poorlyness, is the fact I now cant go out and play with my friend Zac or any of the other dogs, and I missed dog club.  I am feeling like a social lepper.  So, I have spent the whole day today up and down waiting for my walk inbetween bouts of coughing.  Must say I do like the honey she got me and happily drink that from the spoon, and I even quite like the benalyn.
But no dog club, no agility - no playing out is a very very sad life for a social boy.

I do require lots of sympathy please till I get better.

Alfie xx

October 1st 2011 - HOT in the UK!!

Here I am on the beach this morning, how handsome am I?  The hoomans are not too pleased at the arrival of the hotness, especially as its Saturday and they had to get up good and early to take us somewhere nice and cool for our walkies.  The beach was fabulous as the tide had been in so nobody else was simple enough to walk through all that mud to get as far out as us.  Should have seen how muddy we all got.

Did we have some fun in the sea? well almost, was a bit too far for them to walk out to the actual sea itself but plenty of watering holes for us to play in

Now just look at this one, many other hoomans see my Tess and say 'awww, she is looking old now' really?? do you think? at the age of around 11 years young she looks good to me..

..and here is me and Jaja before he got all poorly, he started off enjoying the playtime and the cool, but then he went all quiet and sulky chops..

Seems Jaja has the tummy bug I had earlier in the week, I was a wee bit below par and even struggled to eat my breakfast one morning, though I did manage it - might not have been one of my better idea's though as I dont think it helped eating when feeling so wuff.  Jaja didnt eat his tea tonight which is totally unheard of in this house, and the mean hoomans wouldnt let me and Tess help either.  Jaja is currently having one major sulk, and 'they' are fussing round him like you would not believe, hmmf dont recall all that fussing for me??  (note from Mum, oh yes there was!)
Get well soon Jaja I need both my playmates for tomorrow in case its hot again and they have to get up early on Sunday too to take us to play

Alfie xx

Greyhound Gap show

Well we made it, instead of our usual wonderful beach walk for Sunday we were dragged many miles away in the tin wheely thing to a park full of pointy dogs.  I am very very good with pointy dogs, Jaja taught me to give them all the utmost respect which I do.   Many black Labradors are very naughty with the pointies and most of them dont like us, but I was very good and they seemed to like me ok, just one showed me his teefs so I backed up and play bounced at him and he stopped.

The humans were not so impressed for the first few hours as they got very wet, here is my Auntie Liz from Labrador Rescue South East & Central she gave me lots of new squeaky toys to take home, and Auntie Sue fed us lots of yummy treats - but she refused to have her pic taken.

Jaja and Tess dont really like shows, they sulk for most of the day, but Jaja remembered when the hooomans took their cakes and things back to the car, whenever we come to this show we get to go round the back to the park area for a play to cheer them up, this was the best bit of the day and we all enjoyed it.

Auntie Chris won us the toy on the tombola, so we really enjoyed playing with that, thank you Auntie Chris.  Chris is an old friend the hoomans, lives a long way away so they like to meet up half way at this show, they chat on the PC for the rest of the time.  Here she is getting rather wet when we arrived, not as wet as Moms and Dads did though as they didnt take wet things, ha ha.

Auntie Chris has two pointy dogs, Millie and Bess - Millie has a poorly leg so she couldnt play with me, and Bess is about as impressed as Jaja at these things so she wouldnt play either, suppose we should show them off too though.  Millie is the Greyhound and Bess the little Lurcher

I think that will be the last show for this year, weather usually gets too poor for us all, though I hear we are due for some more nasty heat this week, I dont like heat and have to go out very early for my walkies when its hot, then I am bored to bits all day - but at least I still have my squeaky toys to play with for now, though I think Tess and Jaja are getting a bit cross with all the squeaking, serves them right they should play with me more.

Alfie xx

PS forgot to say, we did enter some of the classes at the dog show, Jaja couldnt even manage to win anything in a ring of other pointies, but I got a 5th in best black dog and I was the only one with a proper face!

Hello from Woody

Here he is, that great 'goof' Woody.  Cant say I am that big a fan of him really as he keeps trying to steal my best pal Zac.  But 'she' thinks he is great.
As you can see Woody is a very large Lurcher, before adopted by his people he spent 9 months in kennels as nobody else saw his appeal (see, her words not mine!)
When Woody first arrived on our walk he was on a long line, and didnt quite 'get it' he was dying to play with all the others but nobody was quite sure how he would be with little ones and how his recall would be.  Well, Woody is a gentle giant with the smaller dogs, he does play hard and can get over excited but is a real softy with no malice in him at all.
Woody is one of the lucky ones, he has landed all four of his paws very well indeed he is loved by his new family, has a sofa of his own (and theirs) and joins in on these great walkies when his Daddy isnt working.

Here he is with Zac, and the playing ball with Zac and Tess.

See, no pics of me as I am far too jealous of him so steer clear of him, except for the time he stole my ball and try as I might I could not keep up with him, which the hoomans found really amusing, I refuse to be the butt of their jokes.
Woody's Dad commisoned a bag from my Mum which she has just finished and waffles on about on her blog here Mums Blog

We might be going to see more of these pointy shaped dogs at the Greyhound Gap show on Sunday, still deciding though so paws crossed, I do like to socialise and meet some of my friends from the Southern side of the country.

Alfie xx

My Very Best Friend

Here is the best bit, meet Zac he is my very best friend in the world.  When Zac's hooman isnt working early we get to go out early each morning to play on the hills for a couple of hours.  This is what our life is all about, me and Zac getting to play.. Jaja and Tess are much older than me so dont play the same.  Zac is like me, he too is a rescue dog and he will be 2 years young this year, so a bit younger but still lots of fun to be with.
We live for balls and play, though Zac does have a naughty habit of sticks, or is that large logs? I'm not really interested in sticks and I know 'she who thinks she should be obeyed' is not fond of them at all, and they do get taken away pretty sharpish and disappear while we are attatched to leads and cant retrieve them, Mum and Auntie Sylvia (Zac's Mum) put them high up in trees so we cant find them even if we do try double back and get them.
Did I mention we just like to play? while they walk slowly along, then stand nattering (usually about Yankee Candles and Crafts, booooooooooooring!!)

Here we are again..

Now if it was up to me, this whole blog would just be about me and Zac every day.  But 'herself' likes to share with others, so we are thinking of introducing you to Woody tomorrow, Woody loves Zac too but I am of course his favourite and I ignore Woody as Zac is MY friend not his.

Lets finish off with another picture of my best friend Zac, I love you Zac..

Alfie xx

Introducing Jaja

Time to meet my other housemate Jaja.  Jaja was adopted from Swindon Strictly Strays as a puppy 8.5 years ago.  His Mum was a Terrier x Greyhound, and father unknown, though we suspect he was some sort of Deerhound mix.  Jaja's Mum was taken safely into rescue by a lovely lady called Jess who ran Strictly strays, she was abandoned probably because she was going to be a Mummy.
My Daddy saw Jaja advertised on one of the doggie forums we ran for Greyhounds and Lurchers, he was the largest of the litter and therefore unwanted, but not my Daddy he wanted him and somehow managed to talk my Mummy into them driving to Swindon to adopt him.

When I arrived in my new home Jaja didnt like me at all - there was quite a few scirmishes, as it seems Jaja decided he would be pack leader and did not want another male dog in his house.  But once I got this message, which did take me sometime, all was well...

See, we are good buddies now.  We can even be seen sharing the sofa when the weather is a bit chilly.  But most of all we like to play..

..and we love weekends, when the weather is hot so the hoomans take us to the seaside were its nice and cool for our paws, we enjoy the big pond to play in, even Tess joins in with us

So, thats my canine family.  The hoomans were tempted to adopt more as before me they used to be owned by 5 dogs, but I hear them say I am as much of a handful as another 3 altogether?? not sure what they mean by that.  Therefore we will be staying as a 3 dog family now.

Next is the best bit, I get to introduce my best friend Zac - sending Mum off to find all the best pictures, though as she takes them most days of us it shouldnt be too hard for her.

Alfie xx

Introducing Tess

Meet Tess, she is the old girl I live with.  Though I am told my arrival took years off her.  Tess was adopted from Labrador Rescue by the folks some 9 years ago, she had a tough past before they adopted her at around 2 years of age and is a very timid girl most of the time - but not with me..

Here we are playing at our pond on our daily outing - she doesnt do so bad for an old duck dont you think?  She didnt like me very much when I arrived, but I suppose I was a bit on the 'forceful' side before they took me for 'that' operation.  But she loves me now, we even share a bed quite often, but most of all we like to play.  Here we are in the snow earlier this year

See I love her so much I even let her get the ball - sometimes....

Hope you all stayed dry today been a wet one over the UK today - not that it bothers me of course but the Lurcher isnt so keen on it, his turn to be introduced next time.  We were very lucky and missed the showers but my bestest pal Zac was out early with his person today and I expect they got very wet indeed.

Just Jaja's turn to be shown off next then you get to meet my pal.

Alfie xx

Introducing Bailey

As promised its now time to introduce our pal Bailey.  Here he is with me on one of our beach walks.  My Mummy has been walking Bailey for a couple of years now.  She met Bailey on our daily dog walk with his Mummy Jess, they used to walk together a couple of days a week, turned out they had plenty to talk about as Jess knew my Granddad Geoff, they went to school together.
Sadly Jess got sick, so Mummy and her friend Julie used to walk Bailey for Jess and her son Paul (who is really Baileys Daddy) More sadness followed as Jess passed away, his Daddy Paul has to work full time so Mummy and Julie took over dog walking duties for Bailey, so Bailey comes with us most days on our walkies.

He is a big handsome lad, dont you think? we get on great though Bailey steals the ball all of the time and wont give it back, takes me most of the walkies to retrieve it from his mouth, he can also hold 3 tennis balls at once, Mummy gets very cross with him sometimes as other dog owners do not like it when he steals their ball and refuses to give it back, personally I dont get it? I love to bring back the ball for everyone to throw it for me again and again...

Here is Bailey this Easter with his Daddy Paul, you can tell just how much his Daddy loves him, what a lucky boy Bailey is.

So there you have Bailey, I will tell you about my housemates next - before we get to the best bit of my very best friend Zac - I love Zac.

Alfie xx

Town and Country Fair ~ now finished

Hello everyone,
Here I am with my Auntie Sylvia, my Daddy and Jaja.  Dont look at the mess they made of the stall here, this is day one it had just finished totally pouring with rain so everything was still dumped inside, they made a better job of it after Mum took this photo.  Sadly due to the weather the show was very quiet on this day, but as you see with my place at the front I did manage to draw a few in and get lots of fusses.  Jaja (and Tess) stay behind the table as they are not as happy with lots of people as me.

I even did my bit for the agility team, here I am starting off with my Daddy - arent I a good boy?

and next my favourite running around those jumps, its easy..

That was just the first day, and I was just sooooooooooo tired after that..

Day 2 the weather was better, well at least it was dry though still very windy.  My Mummy and Auntie Sylvia had the day off, but Auntie Heather and her dog Woody came to help out.  Woody was great fun and Auntie Heather had lots of yummy treats so she is a new best friend too.  Here is me and Woody loving Auntie Heather so much.

The weather sure did take a turn for the worst that night, Mummy and Auntie Sylvia were on the phone very late at night with plans of how to improve things for the next day as they were not making enough money for the needy dogs.  When we arrived on Monday the weather was awful and lots of the other traders had gone home (mind you they had no gazebo's left as they had all blown away) so we all had to work very very hard to raise the money and pull in all the people there.
We got home about 7.30pm last night totted up all the money and had manage to raise £465 over the three days, which was quite impressive to say the weather was poor and not so many people around to spend their hard earned pennies.
Now me and Daddy were 'really' tired whilst waiting for our tea - dont know what Mum does all day not to have our tea ready a bit quicker than she does?  here we are all tired out.

.. and they are trying to keep this a secret but just look at what Daddy ate after tea and didnt share any of it with us!

Thankfully thats it now for outdoor fundraising for this year.  We are hoping to go see some of our pals at the Greyhound Gap show later in September, but we are just visitng and enjoying that one.  My next blog entry will be going back to my story and introducing you to Bailey who we walk with each day, and then my very best friend in the world Zac who owns Auntie Sylvia.

Alfie xx

Edit by Alfie's Mum, Alfie forgot to say thank you to Sam's High Flyers agility team who raised funds for other dog charities and Woof Beginnings, donating £33 toward our total.  Thank you very much to Sam and the team.

We are having a break from my story as we are to be very busy this weekend.  This is what I will be doing, as well as keeping a close eye on Mum, Dad, Tess n Jaja working the stall.

This weekend we are out raising funds for http://www.pleasehelpourdogs.co.uk/  to help the rescue dogs not quite as lucky as me and my house mates.
The humans are running this stall, but also now with a HUGE tombola, that they say is the best in the world!

This was Daddy still setting up last year. You can find us at the Town and Country Fair, Stanley College Field in Southport.
Oh, and here is Jaja the daft Lurcher who is so totally useless at agility he still wears a coat with 'L'plates to excuse his appauling behavoir in the ring, and he has been doing it much longer than me, he is more than capable but unlike me just does not see the point and isnt too fond of the crowds, he normally just runs straight out of the ring leaving Daddy looking very silly!

Proably wont be much more said from us now till thats over as we get all get very tired, they are long days and we are there Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  (well, me and Daddy are - Mum, Tess and Jaja have to have Sunday off as Tess doesnt like it)

Hope you all have a super weekend, and the weather smiles on us.

Alfie xx

My First Real snow ~ January 2010

It wasnt long before those pesky stitches were removed, and as luck would have it (for me anyway) more snow came down, this time I got to play properly.  Mum said 'that op' had improved my behavoir a little and the training classes were also helping, I was starting to appreciate that playing was far more fun than trying to pick fights.  The humans told me this yellow Labrador was around 9 years old, seems to be a great young playmate to me.

Because of the very poor weather, Mums car was snowed in, so I got to play on the local park with Tess, not too many other dogs (or people for that matter) around so we had lots of fun.  My other housemate, the lurcher above called Jaja, went out in Mums friends 4x4 with the other dog she walks, you will see a lot of him his name is Bailey, he sadly lost his Mummy a few years back, so my Mummy takes him for walks with us each day, as his Daddy has to go to work so cant do the fun stuff.  I will show you Bailey in my next blog post, Mum has lots and lots of lovely pictures of him, I was friends with Bailey straight away as he is a nice dog and likes to play ball, only thing is he wont fetch it back, and he calls himself a retriever?

Till next time, wish Mum would hurry up with this past stuff - I'm a dog, I live for NOW!

Alfie xx

My First Christmas By Alfie

Hello again
So sorry for delay, Mummy and Daddy wanted my first Christmas pictures which they had copied off to discs, its taken silly Daddy 2 days to sort through 44,500 pictures only to find they already had them to hand - I mean what hope is there for a dog when the humans can be so useless sometimes?

Anyway, here I am on my first Christmas in my new home and it snowed, would have been so much fun but I was stuck in that simply ridiculous blown up collar and on a lead to take care of my stitches.  But, I showed them after that particulary fun-less walk I came home and ripped it to bits.  So the rest of my day was spent playing with mine and Tess's new toys.  This is Tess, she too is a rescue Labrador when I arrived she was around 9 years old she is around 11 now.  Thing with us rescue dogs, sometimes our exact age is not known.

Must admit though, looking back once that horrendous two weeks of confinement was over life got a whole lot better.

Alfie xx

In my new home

So, let me take you back to November/December 2009 in my new home.  I loved being with my new canine housemates Tess the Labrador (I 'really' loved her often) and Jaja the Lurcher, who wasnt really such a close friend back then, I heard my new Mummy say he was quite horrified whatever that meant.  I started off on the big walk with all my friends each day, but I didnt quite get it, and it wasnt long before I stopped attending the big walk and was left alone while the others went, then walked miles on the lead with a lot of training, and a halti to learn to walk properly and be a good dog.

Dad still took me though, here I am on one of my first walks with my new friends and my new Daddy.

I was still attending the doggies school, and even had my own bandana with 'Asbo Alfie' printed on it, lets face it I was quite a naughty lad at times, little wonder Mummy used to get so exasperated with me.  But I really dont think there was any need for this at the Dog Club Christmas party

.. but worse was to come.... I was dumped at that nasty place they call 'the vet' and parts were taken away, that sure did calm me down, and stopped me from being quite so over friendly with Tess, to stop me interfering with the stitches they then did this to me

I had thought this to be a great new home, but was not quite so sure at this time and for the next few weeks, but it did get better.  I will tell you next about my first Christmas in my new home.

Love Alfie xx