Sunday, November 29, 2009

Poodle face


My little sister is so intense. Attached a photo of her looking a little more relaxed, with a hint of a smile too! Most photos of her a blurry, a bit like her tail in the picture - because she never stands still.

Babette

Interacting with the neighbours

As a Melkbosstrand resident, I have to keep in touch with my neighbours. Normally we get to bark at each other on Fourth Avenue as I go to and from my walks. Mosttly we can see each other through fences, sometimes it's just a bark behind a wall, occasionally the front gate will be open and we meet in the street and rarely, we get to play together on the beach.

I've talked about the Min Pin before but here is a short video clip of us playing on the beach last month. Even though it is so small, I still find him exciting to play with but he seems to get tired quickly.

Babette

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Our outing to Bantry Bay

What a treat! Babette and I were bundled into the car this morning. In itself, this is exciting because we just KNOW that we will end up somewhere else, normally another beach except this morning we drove longer than usual and our Poodle senses told us we were going in a different direction than normal. OK, the sense I'm talking about was my eyes as I just wouldn't sit down.

Anyway, we got to this place by the sea and we were taken for a walk on the grass. There were small and large humans and other dogs and lots of things to sniff at and then Babette had a poo and a wee and then we walked some more and I was so excited and then we were taken back to the car.


Then, we drove for a little bit and then went into a building and something called a 'lift' and then we were in a home and these nice people made a fuss over us. It was exciting. We sat and watched humans walking, some had dogs with them and we barked a lot but eventually we got tired so we lay down while the humans talked.

The human lady adoring us in the photo is a fellow blogger. Her blog is called Back Chat and she writes a lot about food! How neat is that?

Thank you to the lovely humans who told us we were so pretty and who let us into their home to bark at dogs from high up. What fun!

Mia

Friday, November 27, 2009

Parlour day at Wags and Whiskers


Yesterday we were dropped off very early at Wags and Whiskers, our current beauty spa. It's in a place called Parklands and is run by Anna-Marie and Elaine. We were there quite a while this time but they paid us extra special attention and worked hard to make our hairdo's as close to the picture as possible in the little book our humans have.


The only problem with going to the parlour is that our humans tend not to let us run off leash on the beach for a week or so. We can't work out why they would do that, can you?

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Which Poodle am I?


When our fur gets to a certain length it becomes difficult for the humans to tell us apart, especially in photographs. Of course, they are handicapped by not being able to tell who is who by sniffing bums, but that's their evolutionary loss!

Note to our humans: those metal chains are staining our necks. You need to find something we can wear into the sea that won't turn to rust. Summer is here and we intend to get as wet as possible, when possible. We may need to seek advice from Poodle Union about this!

Monday, November 23, 2009

I hope this doesn't lead to rhinestone bootees

My humans don't really do the doggie dress-up thing but the other day after our romp in the water, the normal walking human put his cap on me. I entertained him by sitting still and looking cute just long enough for a couple of photos. Then I got bored with that and went to find Mia to play with.

Babette

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Video from Saturday's beach outing

This is the most the two of us have spent wading and jumping though water. Normally we sprint through the surf and sometimes jump into the waves but on Saturday, we both nearly swam! We want the humans to bring us here again. Mia and her human came to the beach this morning but there were loads of other humans and canines in the pools today - so they just had a walk together.



Perhaps we'll get lucky on our walk tomorrow!

Eden Cafe - Eden on the Bay

Dog friendly venue alert! If you can persuade your walking humans to take you to the Bloubergstrand beaches, you must visit the Big Bay area. After you've had a lovely walk on the endless beaches (which have lots of dunes to explore and things to sniff at), your humans can visit Eden Cafe for something called coffee (apparently us canines can't drink that stuff). They also provide food for walking humans - a treat if you like, for taking us dogs for a walk.

The best is that they have these bright blue water bowls, specially for quadrupeds. Will they serve us food too I wonder?

This is the view from the promenade restaurants at Eden on the Bay. Poodle picture perfect.

We think Eden on the Bay is Poodletastic!

Post 101 and a fun walk on the beach.

Wow! We have been busy Poodles! This is our 101st blog post. We do try and post regularly but sometimes our humans leave the screen lock on the computer and we can't do the CTRL+ALT+DEL thing with our paws. This hampers our ability to post as regularly as we'd like but in anycase, we've reached a blog milestone and that's something to get a crunchy tasty treat for!!

Yesterday was another perfect summer day for walking. The three walking humans took us out around midday. It was pretty hot but the tide was out and there were lovely patches of warm water for us all to play in. Sjoe! What fun we had. We splished and splashed in the water and Mia almost swam at one point.


We prefer the flat, calm water when there is a choice between that and the surf. The surf is fun too but somehow the layout of our walking beach has changed and we now get these shallow pools in the sand when the tide goes out and these are the bees knees! In this photo, everyone is going in different directions. Strange, but still fun!


The humans risked a wet camera with all the splashing but we're glad he did - so we can put these stills on our blog. Video clip to follow.

Babette

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Playing in a dusty, empty room

Me playing at Wrestlemania with my big sister, Babette. Dust makes me sneeze!

Sea puddles for Standard Poodles

The other day Babette and I got to run around off leash on a deserted beach. It was so exciting! Everything is exciting for me!!! Anyway, it was a beautiful day - blue sky, hot, low tide and shallow pools of blue water that we ran through and splashed around in.

When we got to the beach today, it was like Poodle deja vu! Unfortunately, we were not the only ones enjoying the perfect summer day, so our human didnt let us off leash because he knows I will run up to other dogs and blaf at them! Ha!

Our walking human walked us through the Poodle puddles on leash. Babette jumped around a bit and I know she wanted to go crazy and run like a galloping Poodle. If only we were off leash. The human managed to take a couple of photos and a small video clip of me walking and looking around but he was scared we'd start jumping around and make him drop his phone camera thing again.

Doesn't the water look so inviting? It's a dog's life!

Mia

...and Poodlenaldo takes control of the spherical object!

Disclaimer: in order to avoid infringing on trademarks and copyrights held by the governing body of the popular sport involving a spherical object being passed without touching by hands by the people on a grassy field, references to dates, places etc. are not being directly mentioned, and thus we Poodles hope toavoid legal action (which it seems they are so quick to do with ANYTHING that could remotely be infringing on their rights during the run up to and after the event here).







It's a well known fact that next year (the one that follows 2009 and precedes 2011), there will be a HUGE field based team sporting event held in my home country. People from all over the world will be visiting us and some of these sporting events will be held in our home town that is colloquially known as the Mother City.

The sylised mascot of this event being held here in the country at the southern-most tip of Africa is a cartoon lion thingy with a spherical object used in this particular sport. I think that a Poodle would have been a better choice. Don't you?

Sorry for the shaky image. I reckon the human drank too much coffee.

Mia

1,2,3,4. Who can that be at the door?


Mia is always the first to run to the front door. She is a very good guard dog and ferocious for a small Standard Poodle. She does tend to get a fright at the funniest things though - things like sticks and bits of stuff on the beach.

Charlie the Worsie will go 'wuuuu, wuuuuu, wuuuu' from wherever he is, being too old to sprint everywhere. We don't call him F.A.T, but he leans more towards the plus size of his kind, if you understand what this Poodle is telling you....

I tend to look in at the commotion with interest, being more reserved and ladylike than my tomboy sister. Every now and then I do get all barky and excited but then, I can tell the false alarms from the real visitors.

Tabby is the quietest of the four of us. She is not a very good guard cat and will not bark when people arrive or cars drive past. She seems to think that she can stare whatever it is into submission and doesn't understand the joy of barking at all. Cats are funny things really.

Babette

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Can Poodles kitesurf?


We have seen skateboarding and water-skiing animals but would any Poodle be able to kitesurf? Mia and I studied the humans today who were whizzing all over the place at the Big Bay Beach, Bloubergstrand. They wear funny suits and then there are lots of strings and a big flying thing to control.

It looks a bit difficult but the humans look as if they enjoy the water as much as we do!

Meet 'Dubai Cat'


They (the humans) say that cats and dogs don't get along, however I love looking out for this little cat every time I leave Mia's house. It will walk right up to me and we've even touched cold noses! Mia is another story. She wants to eat it and just after the photo was taken, she pushed herself under the car to try and catch Dubai Cat (thats her head watching it in this photo).

When it walks it looks like it's legs are too short and it falls down for a scratch when it sees a human.

Mia and I do not know what Dubai Cat means but our humans and their neighbours call it that for some reason.

The doglet was at the beach again.


This little doglet lives very close to my weepoo beach. His human parents let him run around without his leash on and he roams all around the place. This is the second time I've found him at weepoo beach.

My walking human let me off leash so I could go do my business but before I could even so much as squat for my wee, I was distracted by the doglet, who was sniffing a bush on the beach.

I've forgotten his given human name but I call him Hwrrrr Arfff.


I just love playing with him and doing the doggy play dance (the front down, paws spayed and.... JUMPANDRUN!!!!).

He plays along for a bit but then he gets a bit overwhelmed by 25 kilos of Poodle and retreats, letting me get on with my day.

It's such fun meeting other dogs on my walks!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Sheer Poodle pleasure


We just love summer. Especially when the humans let us run off leash on a deserted beach! The photos were taken yesterday by one of the walking humans.


Sjoe - did we have fun! Mia even took a jump straight into an oncoming wave which is unusual for her. It's normally me who jumps into the deeper water.


A thorough soaking later, we dried off as we walked home - our fur clumping together and going somewhat frizzy (all the better to keep sand locked in so that it drops out for days to come).

Thursday, November 12, 2009

It was a dark and stormy weekend



I didn't manage to take any pictures of me out in the big storm this weekend but this photo was taken yesterday at Melkbosstrand beach when I went for my morning weepoo. Look at all the yellow/green sea foam. When that stuff blows on us our legs turn a funny greeny colour. Apparently that foam is made up of little sea plants but I think it looks like parlour shampoo.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Muscling in on Charlie's couch.


It's been a while since I last put paw to keyboard. When the humans get busy they leave the computer alone and the screen lock password is unknown to us Poodles. I must get Mia to try and figure out what it is. She's good with cryptic stuff.

Charlie the Daschund and his human dad came back from their trip away last week. While Charlie was away I sort-of took over his day couch. Not sure how happy he would be to share it with me, today I decided to climb on WHILE he was on it! Well, he growled and barked but luckily this attracted Mia and then Charlie forgot about me and growled at Mia. He is a grumpy old thing.

My human took this photo after all the commotion. Charlie is looking very put out. All I have to say on the subject is, 'Should I book my hair appointment this week, or next week?'