31 October 2010

Pram Baby #2

5 comments
Pip’s my pram baby.
Pip

In fact, she’s my second pram baby. Ben was my first (you can see his pram baby photos here.) Remeber my really random photoof Pip in a pram in “In your face, gravity!“? It was an attempt at these photos. It was also a failure. But now I have succeded! Mwahahaha!
Pram Baby - Pip

The cuteness is plain to see!

Say what?
Pip

Love you, Pip! And don’t forget, today is October 31st, which means…
Happy Halloween!

30 October 2010

Pip is in da house!

7 comments
Your lap is comfy. Did you know that?
Pip

Yes, I did. Anyway, me and Pip are here to celebrate a birthday… Shane the Lab’s birthday to be precise. He was one on Wednesday, but I um… forgot. So here he is!
Shane

Handsome, am I right?

Here he is at 8 weeks old:
Shane

A little older:
Shane

And a little older again:

And again:

And he’s now one – doesn’t time fly?

Happy 1st Birthday, Shane!

I took some photos of Shane back in April. You can see them here, here and here. His owners have a website here, and a Facebook page here. He’s a popular guy!

~~~





29 October 2010

Danger sheep

6 comments
Now that I’m off school for a week, it’s time to catch up on jobs that need doing. One of those jobs was injecting some ewes who live on an out farm. It was the flock containing Suckie, Darkie, Bubbles, Charlotte, Panda and some rams. Fly and Sheila came along for the ride, and to help out a little. Sheila’s unpredictable, so Fly had to gather the flock, while Sheila joined in later. “Bannon’s land”, as we call it, lies just on the edge of the Mourne Mountains, and it’s also on the edge of  Tollymore Forest Park. It is a beautiful area.
Autumn Colours

We didn’t know it at the time, but these ewes would be some very tough customers.
Herding

The ewes had been there because they were being fattened up in preparation for lambing. Sheila was realsed and held the ewes in the pen.
Sheila

We had planned for the sheep to be squeezed into a little pen, so that my Dad could inject them and I could mark the ones he had injected with spray paint. The problem was that the gate wouldn’t shut, so we had to go for plan B and inject the sheep where they stood, and use the dogs to keep them tight together. You would have thought that would work, wouldn’t you?

It didn’t.

The ewes on this day were more dangerous even that the rams among them. They constantly ran past the dogs, and poor Fly was ran over the top of by a ewe, which sent Fly flying, rolling over a few times along the way. Fly immediately jumped up, and bit the ewe on the leg. Understandable. She seemed none the worse for wear.

But the madness continues. Once we had injected and footbathed one half of the group, we stared on the other half, who were in the shed. We decided we would try to inject them in the shed, as it should be easier for the dogs to keep them together there. That didn’t work either. The ewes charged past the dogs again, one even when out the door, realized she was alone, and charged back to the flock, missing my Dad with her head by just and inch. That was the last straw. We put them outside again, and injected them there. Once that was done, we gathered the other flock, who busted a gate open and broke the concrete pillar holding it in two.

The rest of the morning went on without many more accidents – just a few bruises and a lot of sore toes.

By the end, even Sheila was scared of the ewes.

Ahh… sanctuary!
Sheila

Yay, sanctuary!
Fly

And poor Ben had to stay home… but he came with me and Dad in the afternoon instead, to the rather safer place of Hillsbrough for some tractor parts. Nice. He was very good, met lots of people and made them smile, then fell asleep on my Dad’s lap as we drove home.

I was so tired.
Ben

25 October 2010

We two pumpkins

9 comments
Mum, what’s that?
"It's a pumpkin!"

That’s a pumpkin.

What does it taste like? Does it taste like feet?
Pip

I’m not sure.

~~~

I got my first ever pumpkin on Saturday (well, actually, I got two, but that’s for later). I’ve never had a pumpkin before, or tasted one or even touched one, so when I was thinking of the Halloween photos for this year, and I was in a supermarket which had quite a few nice ones, I decided to buy a couple. They cost quite a bit more than I thought they would. Now I was left with two huge pumpkins, and the only thing I could do with them was take photos of the dogs.

First up, Ben:
Ben

Ben was quite difficult to motivate, even with a box full of biscuit bones. At first, he was too scared to jump up onto the bale that I had so lovingly placed in front of a bush and adorned with two over-expensive pumpkins. I took me a good ten minutes to encourage him to jump up, and even then it was only because I removed a pumpkin. Ben himself had never seen a pumpkin before, and at first he was scared of them, then he was acceptable of them, and then he decided to eat them. I suppose you could call it progression.

Hey, Pip, they do taste like feet!
Ben

You know what Ben, the stalks probably do.

The next dog I brought to the stage was 10-week-old Pip. She was very enthusiastic.
Pip

But soon came round, and started posing for the camera. Very cute photo.
Pip

Pip’s sit/stay is improving by the day, and she is coming along well in her “camera training”. She can sit for a long time now, but looking at the camera is still an issue, but one that will resolve itself in time. I hope.
Pip

Last, but not least, was Sheila. Her motivation was her ball.
Sheila

I hear that you have a ball. Is this correct?
Sheila

Anyone for pumpkin soup?

PS. Do you like our new Halloween look?

23 October 2010

Just another day at the office

4 comments

For me, anyway.
Ben

Sheep. Yes. Good. Like I haven’t seen enough of these already!
Ben

Yes. More sheep.
Ben

Just another day at the office… thankfully, it’s over!
Ben

22 October 2010

Coco and Caramel

4 comments
This is “Caramel”, a ten-week-old Husky puppy, who came to the vet’s on Wednesday while I was on work experience there. She was there because she was getting her second vaccination. I couldn’t resist snapping her!
Caramel

But wait, there’s more…

Meet “Coco”!
Coco

You like? Unlike her sister, Coco was calm and cool (can you tell from the photo?) while getting her injection. Caramel was shivering like a palm tree in Winter! Sorry about that simile. It was rubbish.

Despite being litter mates, their personalities are so different. I had to name them myself, though, because they are going to new owners soon, so they don’t have real names yet. I still like Coco and Caramel. What do you think?
Coco and Caramel

Photobucket

20 October 2010

Magnificent Meg

6 comments
You must admit that this dog looks stunning in black and white!
Meg

This is Meg, and I met her while out “On Call” with a vet.
Meg

When we arrived to see Meg’s old goat friend, Meg was in the house, and came out when her owner did. She spotted me straight away, and came and sat beside me, demanding storkes and looking at me like this:
Meg

How could I resist giving that a stroke? Really?
Meg

Could you?
Meg

So, while the vet was examining the goat, I stood and stroked the dog, Meg. She kept putting her head up like a queen, because I was scratching just the right spot. After about ten minutes of constant attension, she wandered off… only to return with a stick! Who knows where she got it from, but she dropped it at my feet, and I threw it. She returned it. I threw it agian. She returned it and dropped it at my feet. I was very impressed, since, for some unknown reason, all of my dogs refuse to fetch… and return. After Meg had retrieved the stick about twenty times, I got mu camera out and started snapping. She was very easy to photograph because she stayed still.
Meg

The reason for her stillness is that she watches Mr. Stick like a hawk, and refuses to stop. Notice the line of slobber running up her face? That’s from obsessive Mr. Stick fetching. Nice. (Grotesque slobber/mud/water covered stick thankfully not pictured).

Love her eyes.
Meg

And love her too.
Meg

Have you guessed what breed she is yet? She’s a Golden Retriever/Border Collie cross. So that’s why she loves Mr. Stick!

Wordless Angry Sheila Wednesday

3 comments
Madness

19 October 2010

There’s something funny about Kim

4 comments
Kim

There are sheep here, but she’s not chasing them. That’s because, ever since that day in June, my Dad has been working hard on calming Kim down. Her sheer determination to attack sheep was actually quite frightening, and whenever you took her for a walk, you would be constantly paranoid that she might get off her lead somehow and attack some sheep. Now my Dad is in charge of her, and while I head off to school, my Dad takes Kim with him while he checks all of the flocks at home. It has taken a long time to get this far with her, but all of out hard work is finally paying off, and here there’s no lead, Kim’s looking at sheep, but not chasing them.

It’s nothing short of a miracle.

18 October 2010

There is no good place to clean your boots

6 comments
Because wherever you clean them, Pip and her sniffer are sure to find the smelly, brown residue of a days work in the sheep pens.
There's no good place to clean your boots...

There is one cure for this oddness – a chew that’s longer than your own head (well, almost).
Pip

Yummy!
Pip

What a wonderful solution to a rather odd problem!

17 October 2010

I just wanted to let you know

5 comments
That I’m a girl, contrary to popular belief.
Pip

~~~

The Saturday Pet Blogger Hop (Green)

14 October 2010

Help – there’s a Sprollie on my face!

4 comments
And I can’t get it off!
Help! There's a Sprollie on my nose!

It’s really annoying -  go away!
Ben tumbles!

Away, I say!
Ben and Sheila

Go away!
Madness!

Feel my wrath! – And brush your teeth!
This is bad...

Maybe this is why Sheila hates Ben. He nags, he scratches, he paws and does everything to annoy her that he can possibly think of at a time… which isn’t much really, but it does annoy Sheila a lot, so much so that I fear Ben may get injured at some point.

It’s OK! No need to worry – I have a secret weapon! Brains and ears!
Mad

And you think I’m daft sometimes.
Sheila

Is it just my dogs or do all dogs hate each other this much? And here’s a tip for you – NEVER judge a situation via Ben’s facial expression. EVER.

 

Exhibit A: Clearly, here Sheila is angry, while Ben is blissfully unaware of any danger to his health or well-being.

EVIL!

 

Exhibit B: Surely he can’t have been shocked by this?

Evil cheese

I rest my case.
Out of harm's way

Meanwhile, Pip can sit! A little, anyway.
Pip

Of course, food played it’s part…
Yummy!