That DARN Chiefs Rugby ball is back!

What is it about that darn Chief’s rugby ball that my hound likes so much! Sam was back rambling with us this week and the minute she saw him on the beach she raced down to him with ball in mouth and swopped HER ball for HIS ball .... then galloped back.

Sun rise on Thursday morning 

He doesn’t mind .... he’s a typical “dumb Aussie” .... a great big friendly “wannabe” chocolate hound. As long as he’s got a ball to chase through the waves and dribble down the beach, he’s one HAPPY puppy!

A panaramic shot of my favourite bit of real estate.

 Carol has that smile on her face .... you know the one I mean, the self-satisfied one .... she reckons my hound knows a good rugby team when she sees one.  I keep telling her .... it’s the colour of the ball!! It’s NOT because it’s the CHIEFS ball!!!  She just smiles that smile at me and I can see what she’s thinking ...... “Yeah right.”

Back to my hound and her fascination with all things rugby.

I’ve rambled at Waiatarua two days in a row now. Yesterday Carol and Sam joined us and today Julia and Indy did. Rambling with a different hound makes the ramble a very different experience.

Sam the "SUPERHOUND"!

Yesterday the chocolate hound and the “wannabe” chocolate hound paraded around the park with each other’s respective rugby balls in their mouths. They cut a cute picture .... brown hound and white hound ambling along side by side with rugby balls. Any large expanse of water is swum in .... with the exception of the wetland where the birds are .... it’s interesting that both hounds KNOW not to swim in there. They would chase balls all day long if they could .... they NEVER tire of it and leap with gusto into the water time after time after time.

Sam’s a wannabe “SUPERHOUND” as he flies through the air!!

Splash-down!

We get WET ...... VERY wet .... and I don’t mean JUST the hounds!

Rambling with Indy is a bit different ..... Indy likes to explore ..... with his nose. Anything and everything has a scent to it and he’s backwards and forwards across the path ... through the mud ... into the bushes .... nose down, tail up .... explorer in action. My hound does her usual thing .... rugby ball in mouth, tail up .... where’s the water.

The elderly man on the bicycle was feeding the ducks ... the bread
for the ducks is on the carrier on the back of his bicycle.

Julia had bought along a toy for Indy to play with today .... a tug-of-war toy .... my hound LOVES tug-of-war toys! Indy played with it for a while and loved it when Julia chased him when he had it in his mouth. He’s got a one-track mind though and when you’re out rambling all he wants to do is explore. Playing with toys is for home, retrieving is for OTHER hounds, not him. My hound DID try to give him a lesson “Four steps to a happy healthy human”  ... I’ve posted a photo story about it on my FB page .... but Indy’s a hound-man on a mission and retrieving toys is not part of his agenda.

Lola ... his hound .... who runs along next to him as he cycles around Waiatarua.

Funny things happen in my little world .... I’m sitting at my desk happily writing my blog when the phone rings. I answer it. It’s my oldest lemming ..... who’s DOWNSTAIRS in his room. He’s PHONING me when we’re in the SAME house!! He made some excuse about needing to test the skype phone and then banged on the ceiling in his room to make sure that method of communication worked too. Hmmmmmm.  

Yep, this is a rather strange family I’m part of.

Daffodil Day for Cancer ... and yes, BOTH hounds have daffodils attached to their collars,
though you can't see Chocolat's

Blonde or something!

Friday’s blog ... forgot to post it!! Blonde or something!!!


I NEEDED my coffee this morning!! It was essential - we had a rather traumatic evening last night as one of our kitties was knocked down by a car. 

Waiatarua Reserve early on a Friday morning

The young girl who’d knocked her over was devastated - she couldn’t stop apologising but it wasn’t her fault - cats are wanderers and our two are no exception. The young man with her carefully placed Shimmer in my arms and my heart nearly broke .... her beautiful face had taken the brunt of the crash and the jaw was shattered, her eyes rolling back in her head. I feared the worst and the look on the vet’s face when he saw her didn’t allay my fears. He told us her jaw was broken in several places and she has severe concussion ... concussion kills, broken jaws don’t. He administered meds to make her comfortable and try and reduce the swelling but I could see he was worried she wouldn’t survive.

When the phone rang this morning at 7 I’d prepared myself for bad news ... but it wasn’t bad news! She’d made it through the night ... her vital signs were good and she was alert and looking at him. If her vital signs remain good during the day, he’ll operate this afternoon and see what he can do to repair the jaw. She’ll need a feeding tube until the jaw heals and possibly a tracheotomy to help her breathe properly for a while ... but he’ll clarify all that once he’s seen how bad the damage is.

Phew .... these furry 4-legged friends of ours sure give us grey hairs. There’s still no guarantee Shimmer will pull through this but there’s hope and that’s so much more than what we had last night.


Any wonder my morning fix was so necessary.

Julia and I went back toWaiatarua Reserve for our ramble this morning. The hounds love it there because they can be off-leash for the entire walk. I did a really silly thing - a blonde moment I guess - I sunk the Zinger, much to my hound’s dismay.

A Zinger, for the uninformed, is a doughnut ring shaped piece of plastic that you throw with the aid of a special stick. Indy has a Zinger but he doesn’t find it half as amusing as my hound does. Yesterday they managed to break the Zinger ... I guess Zingers aren’t designed to be ‘the rope’ in a tug-of-war between two chocolate Labradors.  

Getting to know Wally ... the Dalmation ... he was huge!

The little white one at the back of the bridge
 is scared to come past these 2 big brutes!

Anyway, the Zinger now has a split in it and no longer floats ... but I forgot this .... and threw it into the pond at Waiatarua .... and it SANK. The hound swam around in circles trying to locate it, this confused look on her face - she put her head in the water trying to see it ... but it had drowned, lost in the mud at the bottom of the pond.

The rugby ball came to the rescue ... she’s a retriever after all ..... so in went the rugby ball and she lost interest in trying to find the Zinger and fetched the rugby ball instead. Fast forward 20 minutes and I’m still standing on the edge of the pond throwing in rugby ball after rugby ball after rugby ball. Julia in the meantime, is trying to persuade Indy that swimming’s good for him ... somehow I don’t think Indy believed her. Much coaxing and many treats later and Indy’s going in the water to fetch the treats - now he thinks it’s a great game ... not only does he get treats but he gets tons of praise too! What’s not to like about water!

Ready ......

..... Steady ..... and I missed the GO!!!

Update on the kitty - her jaw is broken on both sides where it attaches to the cranium, the worst possible place to be broken. The only way to allow it to heal properly is to align the fractures up and then glue the teeth together - which is what he’s done. She’ll have to be fed through a feeding tube for the next 4 to 6 weeks to give the bones time to knit but she won’t  need a tracheotomy as she’s breathing well. They’ve pumped her full of meds and she’s sleeping comfortably but won’t be allowed home until early next week.

All good news and tomorrow we can pop in and see how she’s doing. My only concern now is the damage this will do to our bank balance ... 

Another long exposure of my city at night!