Hot, hot, hot!

Hello again

My Mummy has been told that she isn't allowed to say how she is on the internet so I can't tell you how she is. My face here tells you what I think about that!

It has been very hot and sunny this week, much warmer than it usually is during April. We have been sitting out in the garden lots and lots under the shady trees. Mummy says if anyone knows of good products for keeping dogs cool in the hot weather, please let her know and maybe she can review them here (if she asks me nicely!). Auntie Steph and Nes kept coming outside to chat to Mummy and when she sat in the bottom garden, they took it personally, but Mummy was only down there because I like the cool grass and didn't want to move.

The Guineas' claws were really long when they first came to stay so Mummy has been putting their run on the cement and the mud and feeding them dandelion leaves, but the other day Bella cut her foot and bled lots and lots it seems ok now though.

Stan next door has been trimming our grass again and Auntie says she is going to do the shrubbery tomorrow so she will probably get sunburn as Mummy says she is part vampire as she rarely comes out in the sun. She did join us outside tonight for a while when Mummy was lying on a towel - I went and bundled Mummy when she lay down then sat ion her then threw my toys at her then Auntie came out and gave me a doggy massage and I was like a pig in mud enjoying all the attention.

Auntie Geri and Mummy took me out really early before it got hot today and will do so again tomorrow. It is nice going out in the morning and I see some different dogs and smell different scents so it is nice.

regards

Bruce xxx

Get Better Soon Mummy

Hello

My Mummy is feeling proper grotty today and doesn't want to walk me. I'm sure she will gather the strength to take me a little way. When she feels poorly, I don't ask her to take me any further than she can manage and I turn her round if she tries to go further, but it is nice to get away from the house and do some sniffing once a day. In the evenings, if I didn't go far on my walk, we go down the garden and I chase my ball and woof at cats. I enjoy that.

Also when Mummy is poorly, I lie next to her when she lies on the couch and i nuzzle her and hold her hand with my paw to comfort her. Sometimes I climb up and share the couch with her - it doubles as her bed as she sleeps downstairs with me in case I have a fit. And sometimes I sneak up there anyway and then she calls me a horrible dog but I don't mind because she says it fondly, like a compliment.

Uncle Ricky came over yesterday. I like seeing him. He plays with me and plays bongo-butt on my bottom. We are having warm, sunny weather at the moment so Mummy puts the budgies and the guinea pigs outside and we sit out there with them. Our new neighbours, Auntie Step and Nes and Skye all come out and Mummy and Auntie talk to Auntie Steph, who they think is funny, and I go over to the fence and stand nicely so that little Skye, who is only one, can stroke my fur. She has learned to say my name now and waves at me and says 'hiya'. I like her. I am a good boy around children. I stand still and let them stroke me.

Mummy won some Encona Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce sachets the other week in a Facebook competition and she put some up for auction as part of Darcy Deerhound's Party On The Web, http://darcyswebparty.proboards.com/index.cgi which was held to raise money for research into osteosarcoma, which was what My Melody got. Mummy found out about it on dogpages which is a rescue forum where you can look for a rescue dog or chat to other dog people about doggy issues - Mummy goes on there to talk about epilepsy and tries to help other people whose dogs have got what I've got.

I send my regards,

Bruce xxx

Sylvia and General Thoughts

We saw Sylvia yesterday. I like Sylvia - she has always made a fuss of me and said how gorgeous I am and often has gravy bones in her pocket especially for me. Sometimes, when she hasn't, Mummy slips her a bit of Schmacko and she gives me that instead and we all pretend she had it in her pocket in the first place.

Sylvia used to have a German Shepherd Dog before me, and he was called Rommel. Mummy says he only got to my age and then got really slow and stiff and could only walk as far as the smallholding and back and then he went All Gone like Melody. I am lucky (God willing) that I cans till run and play.

My poor Mummy is ill again - her infection is back and she is taking horrible tablets again. This means she can only manage very short walks with me which I don't mind so long as I get a good game at home. Yesterday, she threw the ball for me lots in the back yard and then I was tired. I like it when she hides the ball in the pampas grass and then I jump up and find it. I pee on the pampas grass too and walk round and round it in circles. The mud near it is flat and all the proper grass is gone and the pampas grass is ruined. Mummy says she will never have a nice garden as long as she has me!!!

Auntie Angie's son is going to sort out the little problem that Mummy got shouted at over and I am hoping he will come to see me because I like Ashley. I hope seeing him doesn't make me feel sad like I did when I saw the girls. I do know that Auntie Angie's gone but I still get the urge to go in her house and look for her, and when I go to the door, it makes Mummy sad.

I like it when the Guinea Pigs come to stay. Rainbow has made friends with me and she even comes and eats her food in her cage next to me when I have my dinner and she says 'weep weeep weeep' to Auntie and asks for food when I get fed, which is funny because I don't think she would enjoy my food! I did try one of her carrots earlier. I used to like carrots and apples when I was a puppy but I didn't fancy this one. I like the apples off our tree when they're small and bitter. I like to chew on them and Mummy says 'yuk' and isn't that sour?'

We have been sitting out in the garden lots while Mummy has been off work. Mummy says she will go back to work with a suntan and they'll all think she's been skiving!!! She says she might have to have an operation to get herself sorted out which means she will have to stay away from home for two days. I don't like that idea. She has never left me overnight or even for more than a few hours. I'm sure Auntie will look after me very well, but it will be strange. It does, at least, however, mean that Mummy will be home for another bunch of weeks while she recovers so like Mummy says, there is some good in everything (well, almost everything, she says), if you only look hard enough.

I still don't see what's so good about Greek music though. Mummy has it on the computer all the time. And American Idol - why do My People like that so much? They said it was shocking that Pia went last week but the result was right this week. I mean - who really cares? I certainly don't! I do like Classic FM though as that means it's Quiet Time and Mummy will rest and I will get a cuddle. When I had a fuzzy head the other week, Mummy put that on and she says it helped to calm me down. The magic of Quiet Time! Even the budgies know they have to be quiet at Quiet Time!

I send my regards and welcome to new readers from bloggers,

Bruce xxx

Disturbing The Peace

Hello again

The Guineas have arrived. They don't have an outdoor hutch any more and their indoor cage is where I like to lie on the cool kitchen floor. Also a big package arrived which needs to go back and that is in another place where I like to lie. Not happy. Not happy at all. My People were disappointed because they had a call to say there was a big heavy parcel coming and they thought they had won a big prize (Mummy enters competitions for a hobby) but it was just something from the boring catalogue that Mummy thought had been cancelled.


My bed has grown since the picture was taken (above). The brown bed was from Melody, but now I have two more of her beds in the same place. At first I didn't lie on them (and mummy says I bit them when I was having a fit) but now I lie on them sometimes. Now the weather is warming up though, they're a bit too warm.

Mummy did start letting me sleep outside again but the deal is that I can only sleep outside if I don't woof at cats and I woofed at cats and I knew that was wrong so I brought myself in before she could moan at me and slept indoors. Maybe she will let me try again soon.

Mummy is still at home sick and has started to get worse again. She was feeling much better and was taking me for longer and longer walks but now she is feeling grotty again, she doesn't want to go far. I don't really mind so long as I get a good play in the evening, especially as my right shoulder is playing up again at the moment.

On Saturday, Mummy had a woman shouting down the telephone at her. This woman has some pictures that belong to somebody else and Mummy had been asked to be a go-between. She didn't want to get involved and after she had been shouted at, she wished she hadn't bothered! I would like to tell you more but Mummy says it's not our business to gossip about.


I have settled down now after my last bout of fitting. I am meant to be going to the vets for a check up but Mummy wants to put a bit longer between the cluster and the excitement of going to see Alan and also she wants to feel stronger herself. She says we might go at the weekend if she feels up to it or we might wait for our friend Dan to come home and give us a lift.

We are going outsdie in a minute or maybe for a very short walk. Our retired neighbour Stan, my friend who I like to spend Man Time with, is outside doing our garden ( Mummy has never asked him to, he just does it! She gives him whisky every now and then to say thank you) and he gets embarrassed if Mummy thanks him so she wants to wait until he has finished.

That's all for now. Welcome to all my new readers.

I send my regards

Bruce xxx

It's Me!

Hello everybody, Bruce here.

So much has happened since I last spoke to you. Auntie Angie had some very big problems and then she disappeared last year. I have been into her house many times to look for her and I have seen all the rest of her family but I think she has gone forever. Mummy says she has died and is All Gone.

That makes me sad.

The Judy sent my Mummy to Coventry which apparently doesn't mean she has to go away (phew!) but that she isn't talking to her. By the time she wanted to talk to Mummy again, Mummy realised that she was much happier not talking to her - she was certainly much more calm and had stopped being so cross at times - and so Mummy doesn't speak to her now. Things have improved a bit with The Mother though Mummy still doesn't see much of her, but when she does, she doesn't come home all angry and talking and talking any more.

My Auntie was made redundant from another job last year and stayed at home with me for a while, then did a couple of jobs for a few weeks and then got the job she is in now. Uncle Ricky had lost his job and came to see me lots for a while and he became a much calmer and happier person too. Now he works where Auntie works but he is still calm and happy and has kept off the weight he lost when he was out of work and going for long walks all the time.

Mummy is OK. She hasn't been well recently and went to the hospital for an operation and came home really really tired and then got sick and even more tired. She is still off work now but I think she is going back next week. I have liked having her at home and I will miss her very much indeed.

My Melody got lame and sick at the end of last year. One day, a couple of weeks ago, she tried to chase a bunny and then stopped and screamed with pain and then I never saw her again and Mummy says she is All Gone like Auntie Angie. That makes me sad too. I have two of her beds and one of her toys and I didn't like them at first but now I have got used to them, I like them.

I have been OK. Mummy says my epilepsy is worse because my fits come in clusters of 5 or 6 over a few days and I pace a lot in between but I don't really remember anything about it so it doesn't bother me. I have to go to see the vet this week for them to talk about my tablets. I like going to the vet, especially to see Alan as he is always so nice to me and tells me I am handsome.

I am enjoying the Spring weather and sitting out in the garden a lot. Since Auntie Angie went, her daughters went to live with their Daddy. Their Guineas Pigs stayed with us for a while and then went to their new home, but they come back and stay with us in School Holidays. They arrived today and they are in a run in our garden and their Daddy put one of MY toys in there for them to play with. I am not impressed. One of the Guineas is called Rainbow and she likes me and follows me around. I like to sniff the Guineas and they sniff me.

That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed this update,

I send my regards,

Bruce xxx

Not So Good, Al

Hello. Mummy here again. Melody's Mum has been everso brave and positive and has come for a couple of walks with us to help Brucie to understand that Melo has gone. He has got the message now but that's not necessarily a good thing as he is so sad and has had three fits in the last few days. Now the vets want to see him but I'm not risking taking him in while he's still fitting so after this cluster has finished (God willing), than I will take him in. He has to have a medication review, which is a legal requirement and possibly a blood test, which I'm not keen on. He can't have any more medication without it making his back legs too wobbly and I don't really want him to have a liver function test as what's the point? If the phenobarbitone is harming his liver, there's nothing we can do. He has to have it to control his fits. He can't have less. It's all about quality of life for Bruce, not quantity.

And it hurts me so much to say that as I want him to live for years and years....

Anyway, he has perked up a little this evening and wants to play ball and can't understand why I'm telling him to stay quiet. He yawns at me to let me know that's boring. Cheeky dog!

Hopefully Bruce will feel up to writing again soon. He sends his regards,

Mummy xxx