Happy Doggy Christmas

It's nearly Christmas here in Australia and Cindy's Walking Group has already celebrated! The sun shone gently (thank goodness for cool weather), the dogs had fun, and...

... Father Christmas arrived, bringing gifts for all the dogs.

Penny loved the treats in Santa's basket, yummy liver brownies from our favorite recipe book, Feed Your Best Friend Better.

The humans had plenty to eat also.

And, best of all, from Penny's point of view: when I wasn't watching, one human scraped onto the ground the left-overs from the plate in the foreground and Penny scoffed them. I wasn't watching her too closely because I knew I was in the company of ultra-responsible dog owners and sure enough, the human treats were fine for dogs - beetroot crisps.

Merry Christmas to all our blogging friends, and, if you celebrate a different holiday from the one we do, we wish you a peaceful, joyful and loving time amongst your loved ones.

Honey's new online store

Honey is over her surgery to deal with her glaucoma and she's out and about again! Hooray!

And in other news, Hsin-Yi is starting an online store, which you can visit here.

The merchandise looks great so far, but I'm hoping Hsin-Yi will branch out into items that relate to all sorts of dogs and not just Great Danes - though Great Danes are wonderful, lol

I've already suggested the number one on my list for Christmas 2013 would be Christmas tree baubles that are dog-safe. We can't have any baubles in our house because Penny might grab them, thinking they are balls. After all, she pinches the plums from our plum tree each year and stores them up for future games.

So we limit ourselves to a small ornament on a table, up out of reach.

We like it, but it would be great if Hsin-Yi designs something we could use on a full-sized tree next year.

an older dog and a new trick

Penny taught herself something new the other day. She collected two different items as she was swimming in the Yarra river.

We had been playing with her Whirl Wheel,

alternating it with her SafeStix.

She would drop one near the bank and swim out for the other. But on this occasion she absentmindedly took the WhirlWheel with her as she swam. We watched as she circled around for ages, trying to figure out how to get them both back to the shore.

And then, to our surprise (you'll hear on the video clip that we were a bit over-excited, lol) she swam with both in her mouth.

Here she is, arriving triumphant on the shore!

I see beauty when I walk with my dog

Today Penny and I walked in a potentially boring place, a sports ground, because high winds were forecast and I didn't want to be under trees that might drop branches on us.

But it wasn't boring. It's never boring walking with Penny, because she explores every nook and cranny and makes me more observant. (Watching out for snakes, if nothing else, keeps me on the alert.)

Today she wandered down to a little sandy patch of water that hardly earns the name of creek. It wasn't much, but as she paddled in it I saw how peaceful and inviting the spot was.

I'm glad I have a dog to open my eyes to the beauty around me.