Mia's new toy, Apie

Mia got this new toy on Friday. She just loves her toys, keeping toy 'du jour' with her almost always. This is a monkey on a ring and it's perfect for the two of us to play tug of war with. I think there are probably picture of us doing the same with her other toy, Beertjie.

Apie has already lost it's tail, buttons and a hand. How long before we decimate this one I wonder?

Haven't been to this beach for a while

This is a lovely beach - and really not a busy one. We used to walk here a lot last year and I love it. So many interesting things to sniff on the beach. Often I find dry sand sharks and perlemoen meat. It drives the humans wild when I grab a sand shark and zip off across the beach. I think they think I'll get sick or something. Not sure why the humans stopped coming here with me.

The weather is beautiful today, so I asked my human to take this photo of me on the beach with Table Mountain in the background. Where we live in Cape Town we have the picture postcard view of our famous landmark.

If this photo was scratch and sniff, you'd smell that I am sporting citronella essential oils to try and keep the fleas at bay. I smell like an outdoor candle! If you notice that the horizon tilts to the left blame the human photographer, not the subject matter.

Pooches, post parlour

Well, this is Mia (on the chair) and I, after the parlour today. The photo was taken this evening when my humans came to pick me up after they finished at gym. The lovely parlour people only put one ribbon in our hair - can you believe it? Must be something to do with what the humans refer to as 'recession'. Heck, I can type and use a computer but the concept of recession is beyond my Poodle brain :-)

We were dipped, combed, washed and dried and had our nails done. A real head to toe for us gals. In fact, so much so that the nice lady at the parlour suggested we come mid-week next time as we take so long.

Both of us are so happy to see everyone that the humans found it frustrating to take photos - we were moving around so much. Proof of Poodle happiness is evident in this photo where my tail is wagging so fast it's a blur!

My avian sister, Daisy

When I was a puppy and new to my human household, I was fascinated by the flying, noisy, yellow thing called Daisy. Even though I'm now used to having her around and we don't bother each other so much, every now and then my instincts kick in and I get this urge to play with her.

Here I am staring her down this morning. I followed her around the coffee table a bit while she made chirrupy noises. I wonder what cockatiel tastes like?

Aloe, aloe, aloe

Although originally of European origin, as a South African born Poodle, I'd like to share with my readers some of the beauty of my home. It's winter time here in the southern hemisphere and although spring is traditionally when the wild flowers go ballistic, now is the time for aloes to show their thing.

Aloes are funny plants. They tend to be the same size or in many cases, much bigger than a Standard Poodle and they have triangular fleshy leaves with lots of spikey things, so we stay well clear of them on our walks. We have to walk between the ones in the photo here on the way to the beach from home; and we do that twice a day - morning and evening walk. The big spikey thing in the background (above the aloe flowers), is a palm tree.

Look how beautiful the flowers are. The aloes are flowering all over the place at the moment. I think the humans use the sap from the leaves as a natural remedy for many things skin related. Some even drink the juice! Yuk! Give me a bowl of fresh water any day!

Rough and tumble in the sand

There is nothing Mia and I love more than to run around the beach together. We Poodle box, jump, chase and very often run into the breaking waves. The humans have to deal with sand in the home for days afterwards.

Just add egg

More for those interested in Poodle behaviour. Watch us magically make egg yolk on kibbles disappear in just over a minute!

The joy of having two houses

One of the first things I do when I get dropped at Mia's house in the morning is to run upstairs and finish my morning snooze on her Rogz bed. Sometimes we sleep together but more often than not, my little sister wants to play. She will jump around, on top of me, show me her toys and bark, all in an attempt to interest me in something other than sleep.

These two photos were taken this morning. You can see that I just wasn't going to co-operate and play with her! The raggedy loooking toy is 'Beertjie', Mia's favourite toy ever.

Cappello Restaurant, Eden On The Bay.

UPDATE: Apparently the angry or disappointed humans that commented here have been in the majority, as this place is now closed. Even our humans stopped going there due to the bad service for humans. Was fine for us dogs though!

Last Saturday, during our regular beach walk in the afternoon, it started to really pour down. This isn't the first time we've been caught in the rain. As we have nice thick coats that are pretty water resistant, Mia and I really don't mind it when it rains but our human pack don't seem to fare so well for some reason.

Before we really got soaked, we made it to Eden On The Bay, the new shopping centre and apartments that have been built in Bloubergstrand's Big Bay. We walked around a bit and finally stopped near an open door watching the pouring rain. After a minute or two, we were asked to come and sit inside Cappello Big Bay, an Italian style restaurant. The nice gentleman that offered us a seat in the warmth said that they are dog friendly!

How lucky for us Poodles and our human pack! In the future, we'll make sure we visit the nice man and his pet-friendly establishment in the future.

The photo is of Eden On The Bay taken as you come off the beach. Cappello is at the very left side, ground floor (with amazing views of Cape Town and Table Mountain).

Reality Poodle TV

This is me eating a boiled egg. I get one most mornings. In fact, I'm so used to getting one just before the human pack leave home for work and drop me off at Mia's that I'll walk upstairs and let everyone know that there is still one morning task unfinished - and that's the ritual of the egg!

Humans always over react.

Mia and I were taken by our human pack for our afternoon walk to the beach. I made them think I wanted to poo so that I could be let off leash for some privacy but as soon as I was free - DASH! - away I zipped. Needless to say my little sister was in hot pursuit of me, so we chased each other a bit and did some Poodle boxing.

The the icing on the cake... We ran behind a dune and found something the human pack were going to have a hernia about when they found us eating it. Without naming the substance in public, suffice to say we upset them enough for them to drag us into the surf to wash our mouths and all the places we had managed to get it in our fur.

Of course, neither Mia or I were particularly happy about being washed in the winter surf but the human pack got absolutely soaked. If we were going in the freezing water, they were too! The walk was cut short and the four of us traipsed home all wet and sandy.

A quick bath and blow dry later, I'm now sitting on my couch at home with the fan heater blowing away the last of the damp. I think Mia will be doing the same at her home. Attached picture of a nice clean Poodle ready to impress at the shopping mall (less a few flea friends found during the blow dry).

Poodle One and Poodle Two

My sister and I get along like a house on fire. When I get dropped off at Mia's house in the morning we sleep together on her lovely Rogz bed (which is HUGE!). When we get bored of sleeping, we normally play together in the lounge, jumping from chair to chair, playing tug of war with sticks or cuddly toys and having a fun old time.

Tabby, the poor old girl really gets it from the two of us. She's so use to being harassed that she'll take a swipe at either of us when we walk past her and once that happens... boy oh boy... we chase her and bark at her like only two naughty poodles can.

Then there is Charlie, the grumpy old sausage dog. We really leave him alone mostly but every now and then Mia, who loves to jump and nip, will nip him on his back or the back of his head. The poor old boy is so unfit and overweight that there is no way he can catch the hyperactive Mia. I think we need some video footage of us harassing Tabby and Charlie!

Check this photo! We poodles just love to pose!

Camera clip: Poodles love attention

As dogs accustomed to being adored and told how cute we are, we just can not resist any form of camera. We'll gladly stop whatever it is we're doing to get some time in front of the lens - even licking it. We are Poodles.

Things that go 'pop' in the night!

My human pack eat a lot eggs. A lot. they eat them raw for exercise and boiled in sandwiches which they take with them when they do whatever they do while I'm playing with Mia at her house. So last night, Tuesday the eggs were put on to boil while they did their bathies thing.

We were all woken up by Daisy at 1 a.m. Daisy is my 'sister' cockatiel. She was flapping around the bottom of her cage like she does when she gets a fright. It seems the eggs were left on the stove and boiled dry and exploded! that explains why Daisy got a fright alright! My oh my! The place was filled with smoke and stank really badly of burned hair. Made my Poodle nose all twitchy it did!

Some open windows later and a Poodle cuddle later to reassure me, we all went back to sleep but are all a bit jaded this evening. No eggs being boiled though...

This photo is me pointing at my breakfast boiled egg that I get every morning.

Babette has something Mia wants

My little sister Mia is so cute. Her thing is to bring something whenever someone enters the house. It's either Beertjie (her favourite cuddly toy), a stick we play with or her bone of the moment. We get bought Ostrich bones. Don't ask which bones. I mean, who cares? They're huge, tasty and we love chewing them!

My thing is to muscle in on Mia's thing. I am her older sister after all!

Melkbosstrand

I live in a suburb of Cape Town called Melkbosstrand and this photo is me on it's beach. I walk here every morning and evening for my weepoo. It's a nice long beach to walk on but we I normally get my long walk together with my sister at the beach near her house. Perhaps one day I should walk here with Mia. It's been a while since she was in my part of town.

I'll take and post some photos of the dogs that shout at me from their homes as we walk past and some other photos round Melkbos.

This past weekend, My human pack and I stayed over at Mia's house Saturday night to keep her company while her human pack were away. Needless to say, my sister and I were not interested in sleeping Saturday night. We did the whole 'OK, we're lying on the dog bed at bed time thing' but as the human pack dozed off, Mia and I would pad around the bed... 'tiptiptip' that way then 'tiptiptip' this way.

We know that humans hate being woken up but when two playful Poodles want to play, who cares what time it is? We were ejected from the bedroom around 3 am but even that didn't stop us. At 5 am we pushed the door open and did some bed-bouncing and hand licking. It was great fun.

The picture shows the two of us playing before bed time. We milk it for everything we can because we know it's impossible to be angry at a Poodle!