He's a furry 4-legged FEET-seeking missile!

“When beauty touches our lives, the moment becomes luminous.

These grace-moments are gifts that surprise us.” 

~ John O’Donohue

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry this morning ... it’s been that kind of a day.

Some random Border Collie managed to drown the hound’s rugby ball.  

Despite having taken on the appearance of a pancake, it still floated .... until this bolshie Border Collie came barrelling along today. Somehow he managed to sink it, so the hound’s ‘old’ Chiefs rugby ball has gone to wherever dead rugby balls go.

The Border Collie that drowned the rugby ball.

Another one bites the dust.

The hound didn’t mind.  She’d already swopped her ‘OLD’ ball for Sam’s ‘NEW’ ball so it was Sam who was left looking for something else to retrieve. 

The tennis had interfered with his ramble to the beach so he was already jumping out of his skin by the time he arrived.  It’s FRIDAY and he KNOWS the hound and I are on the beach waiting for him.

Carol had been watching the Murray/Wawrinka QF but fast realised that if she didn’t make her way to the beach soon, he was GOING to wreck the house.  There are only so many items of clothing a hound can bring from the dressing room to the lounge before he turns his attentions elsewhere.

He’s definitely NO dumb Aussie.

These hounds have the MOST amazing relationship ... not just with one another ... but with Carol and I too.  They recognise us AND each other on the beach.  

Nothing and NO-ONE, neither hound nor human, stands in Sam’s way when he spots me.  He’s a furry 4-legged feet-seeking missile.  My hound’s the same, only she’s looking for the ‘new’ Chiefs rugby ball, not Carol’s feet. She’d already forsaken her ‘old’ ball for a log this morning, but the log got dropped at Carol’s feet in favour of the ‘new’ ball.

They LOVE routine and they LOVE Friday’s

.... and so do we!

Between Bandit and Sam and the hound they have dug up the beach and chased rugby balls and logs for what feels like eternity.

The whole of St. Heliers must have heard the elation in Carol’s voice when she heard the result of the game she’d been watching.  Andy Murray had been beaten in straight sets by Stan Wawrinka.  It would have made her day if Youzhny had beaten Djokovich!

Rupert, the Westie ... he's so handsome.

Stranger things have happened.

Vinnie

So much sport this weekend and I have TWO markets.  Matchsticks might be a necessary accessory.

Alfie