Can anyone explain what happened??

Hello everybody. This is Bran. Usually, I let my mum do the typing because I am farrrrrrr too busy annoying....I mean....playing with my big sister, but yesterday I had a very very strange day and my mum couldn't tell me exactly what happened so I thought I'd ask you nice people if you knew.

It all started when I went to bed on Monday night. I'd had my tea and everything, but when I went to bed I did not get any chewies. I ALWAYS have chewies when I go to bed. I thought that my silly mum might have forgotten (she had had some of that yummy wine stuff) so I shouted to remind her, but she just told me to be quiet and did not bring me any chewies. I was very sad, but I went to sleep anyway.

When I got up yesterday, everybody was already up! Mummy and Jacob and Sophie were awake as well as me and Flora! I was very happy to see them and did a little dance before going out for a wee. I came in and waited on the mat for my special big cuddle from Mummy - as usual - which is ALWAYS followed by my breakfast. My favourite bit of the morning :oD I got an extra special squeezy big cuddle from Mummy. It was very nice but I nearly couldn't breathe!! So then I ran out to my bowl and sat waiting for breakfast to appear.

But guess what?

It didn't!!!

I shouted at my silly mum again and said "Excuse me, but you appear to have forgotten something" (I am a very polite puppy ;o) ). She just looked at me and shook her head and said "not today, Pickle". I was a bit cross and a bit sad and VERY HUNGRY so I said "I am sitting nicely. I am waiting. WHERE IS MY BREAKFAST???". Mummy laughed at me and told me that I couldn't have any and that we were going in the car soon.

And so then me and Mummy and Sophie got in the car and went on a nice little drive. When we got out of the car it was freeeeeeeeeezing and I shivered. We went for a little walk and I didn't know where we were going so I checked in every garden that we passed, just in case that was where we were going. Mummy kept saying "come on, Beans, you're having breakfast out today at a very special place" so I was very excited and thought we were going to a new house for breakfast!

We stopped outside of a big door and we all shivered, but then a nice man let us in and told us we could sit down in the warm.

It was a Very Strange Place. Mummy and Sophie sat down, but the room was all echoey and there was nobody else in there and it was a bit dark and it smelled funny. It sort of smelled like other dogs and cats and another thing - but I didn't know what - and like clean all at the same time.

After a bit, the nice man who had let us in opened another door and called my name! I was very excited and ran in to see him. He smiled at me and sat on the floor so I gave him great big kisses. He stood up to talk to Mummy and said something about my being there for "cats-at-the-station". Silly man! I wasn't there for cats-at-the-station! I was there for a special breakfast :o) The man took my collar and lead off and put a not comfy (or handsome!) collar and lead on me, then Mummy and Sophie gave me great big kisses and cuddles, and then they walked out of the room!! I was a bit worried but then I remembered that the nice man was going to give me breakfast so I walked nicely with him.

THEY LIED!

THERE WAS NO BREAKFAST!!

AND THEY PUT ME IN A CRATE!!! And the crate didn't have my duvet in it. Nor my Nylabone. And no chewies. What was going on??

After a little bit, a nice lady came to make a fuss of me and I gave her big kisses. She put the not comfy collar and lead on me and took me to see the nice man again. I gave him more kisses! I like giving kisses. Even though the man had told Mummy that I was too big to go on his table before, they lifted me up and put me on this table! People are very strange sometimes. The nice lady tickled my ears while the nice man did something to my leg.

And then I was back in the crate..........!

I cried a bit then because I wanted somebody to tell me what was happening. And I hurted a little bit. And I wanted my mummy to give me a cuddle.

The nice lady came and gave me some water and then took me outside for a wee and told me that I was a very good boy. Tut. Like I didn't know that. My mummy tells me that all the time. Then she took me back to my crate and said that my mummy would be coming to see me soon and that I could go home. That made me happy so I bounced on her and made her laugh and gave her a big kiss.

Another nice lady came in and put my handsome collar and lead on me and took me away from the crate and back into the funny smelling place and Mummy and Sophie were there!! I jumped up at the door and wagged my tail very very very fast and everybody laughed.

So anyway. Then we went home and Flora bounced on me and it hurted a bit and I cried, but I don't know what hurted or why. I just felt a bit wrong. Like something was missing.

I had to stay in my crate allllllll night which was rubbish, because Flora was playing with Jacob and I wanted to play. I moaned and nagged and nagged and moaned for a long long time and eventually Mummy let me out and I was SO EXCITED that I ran as fast as I could around the room and on Flora and on the chair and on Sophie and on the sofa and on Jacob and into the hallway and then Mummy caught me and put me back in the crate and told me that I had to rest! Rubbish, I tell ya. I did get a very yummy tea though and Mummy called me "a brave little soldier".

But I don't understand. Why am I brave? What is missing? I've checked all over me and everything looks normal, but it still feels like something is missing. I have been bouncing and running lots with Flora today and Mummy keeps telling me to "slow down" and "be careful" and "not so rough". And how did I go from the table with the nice man and lady to the crate? Was it magic?

I tried asking Flora but she looks sad and says that she remembers when it happened to the gingers and now she has to check them every time she sees them to see if they've grown back, but she won't tell me what happened to them or what isn't growing back!!

Sometimes, it's really rubbish being a puppy!!

More Lovely Walks

Yesterday we went for another lovely walk at Barton Country Park in Bradford on Avon with Wendy, Wiggle and Sir Henery, Elaine with Amber and Freddie, Amy and Louie, Lynne and Todd.

We had hoped that our friends Ange and Minnie-Moo were going to join us as well, but Minnie's dad had a car accident and although, very happily, he is ok their car really isn't :o( We missed them though :o)

The weather was meant to be very cold and very wet, but luckily the sun shone and we only had a few short showers. The dogs couldn't have cared less about the weather anyway! They smelled the fresh air, saw the water and grass and mud and had a wonderful time!

Before heading off on the rest of the walk, we stopped at the river to let the dogs have a splash. Flora and Wiggle made the most of it, but Bran was rather more sensible and didn't go in too far this time.

And then it was time to head off through the fields. Rather precariously, there were lots and lots of fishermen out and the dogs were very interested in what they were doing - or perhaps it was the contents of their tuck boxes that interested them!

Amber trying to keep up with Bran and Flora

Sophie with her bestest friend - Sir Henery - and Amber

Bran and Flora racing

Bran displaying a view that, unbeknown to him, will be changing forever tomorrow!


Group shot

We then stopped at the pub for the humans to warm up on coffee, hot chocolate, mulled wine, chips, whatever... The pub is a very lovely, dog friendly place called The Cross Guns. Last time we went they told us that the dogs would be very welcome inside the pub by the fire, but, as this time, we chose to sit outside and enjoy the autumn sunshine. We sat right beside the river and it was just beautiful. We couldn't have inflicted so many filthy, dirty dogs on a public house anyway!!

Bran giving his Auntie Wendy a sneaky snog

Bran and Flora looking not very clean at all!

Todd tried to convince his mum to feed him scraps using his telepathic powers


Wiggle and Sir Henery looking very handsome

Freddie and Amber the beautiful, barky bassetts

Louie very sensibly decided to get rid of the bulk of his mud by wiping it on his mum!

The dogs were sooooooo dirty by the time that we got home, that they both had a nice (I'm not sure that they would have chosen that word to describe the torture that they endured!) bath, were put into snuggly jumpers, and curled up in their beds with chews before having a nice long sleep.


After such a long walk where she did so much running around, Flora's hips were very sore this morning and Bran didn't help matters by trying to bounce all over her, so I decided to leave Flora at home in the warm and take Bran to the park by himself to try and tire him out a bit. I also decided to take his puppy dummy with us to do some work on his retrieving. Just recently he has become more and more interested in playing with balls above any other toy - which can only help with the whole retriever thing - and so I took a tennis ball too.

He loves the puppy dummy! I do have a brand new one but Wendy sent us one that used to be Dolly's so it obviously smells much much nicer than the new one ;o)

He was very keen to chase after it and brought it back with no trouble at all and for no reward other than a big fuss from his mum :o)

To try and keep the excitement with chasing after the dummy, I replaced it with the tennis ball after a few very fast and excited retrievals. Again, Bran raced after the ball and brought it straight back to me to hand over.

Whilst off fetching the tennis ball, Bran spotted what looked like a discarded carrier bag from where I was. He kept looking at it suspiciously and then started bouncing at it and barking! Rather than ignore his confusion, I walked over to the "carrier bag" with him to give him a bit of moral support whilst he bravely investigated his find.

"What's this funny thing, Mum?"

"Oooooooooh! It smells like a different ball!!"



"Yay!! I can play "fetch" with this one too. Look! Aren't I a clever boy?"

We then had a bit of a modelling session amongst the autumnal backdrop. Bran was very distracted by the wind blowing the leaves around and there seemed to be an awful lot of interesting smells about today, but I got a couple of lovely pictures.

I love the colours in this photo, even if he is looking the wrong way

And this photo just shows how grown up Bran is becoming. He is beginning to lose his puppy looks and looks almost like a real lab now.

He is still my very handsome, baby boy though xxx