Life in the old dog yet

Come on Gail, let's not dilly dally!  I want to get to the top of the hill to see the heather.

Pretty, isn't it?

OK, that's enough photos, now I'm off to see what's further down the path...

Isn't life exciting! 

PS from Gail: After a bad patch earlier in August, for the moment Bertie seems to be doing a bit better. Plus, I am getting smarter about managing his 'peeing issues', which helps a lot!

Frosty morning bonus walk

Do you ever take a peek at your human's phone to find out what's going on? I did on Saturday morning and saw this on the WhatsApp. 

It was all looking rather promising. Especially when Gail joined in the conversation.

So a group of six - one dog and five humans - met in socially-distanced fashion in the Banchory Tesco car park and, gosh, we had such a lovely walk along the River Dee and up Scolty Hill. Thanks Muriel for leading the way! I'll admit that Gail and I are both slightly relieved you shortened your usual 14 mile route ... And I hope I didn't hold things up too much with all my sniffing.

Later on the phone.

I'm sure my readers would like to see the full size photo of my handsome self pausing to enjoy the winter sunshine by the river. This was early afternoon, by which time the ice had all melted.

Between you and me, I'm looking forward to lots more frosty mornings!

A misadventure on Scolty

I want to tell you about a wee adventure I had on Scolty Hill on Friday afternoon, when Gail went missing for about an hour.

The outing started well and we stayed close together as we set off through the woods then ascended the hill and arrived at the landmark tower.

Gail even carried me up to the top of the tower, where I was happy enough to 'pose nicely' by the scary spiral staircase, but drew the line at a selfie of the two of us looking out from the open viewing platform.

We took a different route down from the summit (there is quite a network of paths in this popular hiking and biking area). 

All was going well until I stopped for a minute or two to check out an interesting patch of peemail and Gail walked past, unaccountably oblivious to the important message left on the bracken.

And you know what? When I continued down the path, Gail had gone missing - she was nowhere to be seen! 

Well I am not a dog to panic, and when I came to a fork in the path, I decided to head back up the hill, presuming that Gail had returned to the summit to admire the view once again. 

There was no sign of my owner at the top of the hill, but I ran into a friendly couple, and when they gave me a piece of biscuit  I decided to attach myself to them, and wondered if they might like to adopt me. One of them petted me, looked at the tag on my collar and tried to make a phone call, but didn't seem to be getting an answer.

Shortly after this, we met a mountain biker, who said something about having spoken to a distressed lady at the bottom of the hill, adding "I think this must be her missing dog Bertie". He then sped off at a dangerous pace back down the hill.

Fifteen minutes later, a slightly breathless Gail suddenly reappeared, all hot and bothered. She put me on the lead and we walked back to the car park with the friendly couple, although I'm sorry to report that no more biscuits were forthcoming. Gail kept saying how thankful she was, and how kind the mountain biker had been to offer to ride back up the hill in search of me, and - at some length - how lithe and muscular he looked. (Between you and me, I began to think she would have been quite happy to go home with this biker and leave me on the hill with my new friends.)

Anyway....

Today we are off to the pet shop to buy a replacement for my old and apparently now illegible dog tag.

Hill top photo etiquette - a wee tutorial

An incident on the summit of Scolty Hill near Banchory this afternoon called to my attention that there are pups at large who are not well informed about the correct etiquette with regard to posing for photographs in such situations.

Let me explain.

You are enjoying a pleasant weekend walk with your owner and her friends (let's call them John and Françoise).

It is a lovely sunny late September day, and you have reached the top of the hill, from where you can enjoy a panoramic view reaching from the North Sea in one direction to the Cairngorm plateau in the other.

Naturally your owner wishes to take a photo of you, perhaps posing nicely with her friends, in exchange for which you are of course offered treat.

It is all going so well until some cheeky little ball of high maintenance fluff arrives on the scene.

First she gets under the feet of the photographer, nearly causing her to drop her precious Samsung Galaxy S6, again...


I hope no-one thinks I am being racist when I mention that said ball of fluff is a Japanese Spitz and her name is Yuki. (pronounced You-key not Yucky).

Yuki totally bombs your photo shoot without so much as a by-your-leave...


And then she scarpers, caring not one jot that once disturbed, one might find it hard to regain the composure required of a successful model.

Françoise tries to calm you down ...


... but your only focus now is to chase away the impudent intruder, all thoughts of "posing nicely" dissolving into a blur of red-blooded terrier action...


I am sure my readers will agree with me that Yuki's behaviour was wholly unacceptable, and furthermore that she should right away be disabused of any notion she might have about getting away with such stunts just because some humans might find her "super cute"...

Grrrrr.

Muddy but colourful Autumn walk up Scolty

Well it finally stopped raining and I persuaded Gail to take me for a walk up Scolty Hill this weekend. We both needed a dose of fresh air and a good leg stretch. I reminded her to take the camera too.

It goes against my nature, but for once I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Oh and I must thank all of you for supporting me in my campaign to join Gail on her trip to Nottingham to see HGD. I am delighted to report it was successful, and both Gail and I will be heading south on the train on Wednesday. The other good news is that HGY has a new, much faster computer, so I may even be able to keep in touch, if Gail has any time to help me.