Bran Dog's Blog

Ahhhh..... Saturdays......

2009-05-17T00:13:00.004+01:00

I did something new today!!

I went out in the car with Mummy and she said we were going to get fuel for the car. So we went to the place we normally go to get the fuel. As usual, she got out of the car, put the thing into the hole on the side of the car and blew kisses to me, then went in the shop to pay the lady.

Then she got back into the car and we headed home.

But we didn't go home!

Instead we drove into this reallllllllllllllllllllllly strange place. It was like a giant see through plastic room with these great big red fluffy things. Then it made a funny noise like "kerchunk" and the big red fluffy things started moving towards us! I shouted and shouted at them to get away from my car but they just kept coming and then they went "swooshswooshswooshswoosh" and went all over the car and left bubbles on the window!!! The big red things came right over the car and down the window by my bit of the car. By then, I knew that they weren't going to hurt us so I just sat and watched them. When they came back up over the windows, they washed all the bubbles away but kept making the "swooshswooshswooshswoosh" noise.

And then the noises stopped and Mummy drove the car home.

When we got home and I got out of the car, it was all sparkly and shiny!! How very odd!!

I told Flora and Hugo all about the strange machine and they laughed at me! Humph.

Everybody went out for a bit this afternoon because Hugo had to go to the vets again about his cough, but when they came back Mummy took me to the park and Pauline and Cooper and a little boy who was staying with them.

Me and Cooper did running and running and running and running all over the wet grass and we rolled and rolled and Cooper had a great new harness thing on his back so when we wrestled I could grab him by it and we found some plastic bottles to play with and we did more running and running and running and then I was very tired so Mummy took me home.

And I fell fast asleep......

Belated Birthday Cake

2009-05-15T13:14:00.006+01:00

The promise of yummy food last night sort of came through. We got more of the delicious rabbit and vegetable food that Mummy cooked for us the other night.

And because I was the Birthday Boy I was allowed to sleep upstairs! Sophie was sleeping on the sofa under Mummy's bed (Mummy has a very tall bed!) and I slept on the sofa with Sophie! What a very special day I had :o)

When it was breakfast time today, Mummy said that she had forgotten to give me my cake last night because she was busy working. I didn't really know what she was talking about but OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! I soon found out!!!

Just look what she'd made for me!!!!!!!!!!

And then, even better, I got to eat it all up!!!!!!!!

I cleaned the plate right up and made it all shiny!

It was soooooooooooo delicious.

Being such a very kind and sharing sort of brother, I let Flora and Hugo have some of my special cake.

Now I know that birthdays are even better than I thought they were yesterday!!!!

I Am A Birthday Boy :oD

2009-05-14T18:21:00.007+01:00

Mummy was not telling me fibbers about today being another exciting day!! It is my birthday! Today I am not a puppy any more but a proper growed up dog. I am one whole year old.

First of all, Mummy sang me a very lovely song before I went out for a wee. I like it when she sings to me and this song had my name in it. Isn't she a clever Mummy to know a song with MY name in it????

After I had had a wee, I had the most delicious breakfast ever! I had chicken and bacon and pasta and sweetcorn and spam! What a fantastic start to the day!

And then Jacob got up and he sang me the song that Mummy knew! And then Sophie got up and she sang me the song as well. I like all this singing, it makes me want to dance!

Something very very exciting happened next. I got presents! Two presents that were just for me and nobody else. I love opening presents so I did some more dancing about with the presents, before I started to unwrap them.

A honky duck! Ooh I love honky ducks. We had a honky duck for Christmas but........ermmmm ......well............something bad happened to it. I can't remember what but I'm sure that it was nothing to do with me.

I put my honky duck safe and then opened my other present. This one made all sorts of interesting noises. Noises like my favourite Womble Prize - plastic bottles!

It is a verrrrrrrrrrry lovely toy and I love it love it love it. I am a bit confused because it still makes a noise like bottles but it looks like a cat and has lots of legs, but I have decided to ignore the confusing bits just because I love it's noise sooooooooo much :o)

That cheeky little whippersnapper decided to try and muscle in on my new toys >:o( I realised that if he holds on to my new bottle toy, I can swing it up in the car and the whippersnapper's feet come right off the floor. Haaaaaahahahaha! He looks so silly. But it doesn't make him let go.

I took my toy to hide from him on the sofa where I could keep it safe from his sharp little teeth.

But I was kind and let him play with honky duck while I was busy with the bottle toy.

I got fed up with that though and decided it was time to give honky duck a bit more attention but there was NO WAY that he was having the bottle toy, so I kept both toys safe from him!

After opening my presents, a little snooze was in order.

After my snooze, Mummy took me to the park. It was raining but I didn't care because she had my bally with her :o) Even better than bally, when we got round the corner my friend Pickle was there! She is a very beautiful labradoodle and I think that I might love her a little bit ;o) Next time I see her, I am going to ask her to be my girlfriend. She is a bit older than me, but a bit smaller than me, but as fast as me and loves chasing balls as much as me. She is also very clever because she could hold her bally and my bally in her mouth at the same time!!

When we were both very wet and very muddy and very tired from chasing and wrestling and rolling, Mummy took me to the post office and when we came back through the park, Pickle was gone :o( I was getting a bit soggy by then so I didn't mind when we hurried up home.

I had a very lovely rub down with the towel and I didn't have to wait for anybody to go before me because I was the only one lucky enough to have got so wet :o) I love it when Mummy rubs me with the towel. It feels all lovely. When I was nearly dry, I did a little dance to show Flora and Hugo just how happy a day I was having.

And then! There was a knock at the door and it was Nanny!!! She had brought special treats for us because it is my birthday and she had brought cake for Mummy and Jacob and Sophie. I ate my treats quickly then snuggled up on the sofa between Mummy and Sophie and had a snooze whilst the people did the talking stuff.

Mummy says that I will be getting a very special tea tonight too and keeps giving me lots of cuddles and sighing about what a tiny cute puppy I was.

I think birthdays are even better than visiting the food and toy smelling shop!

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me..............."

Rollercoaster

2009-05-13T19:32:00.005+01:00

Been of a bit a rollercoaster of a day today!

I was not happy that Flora was allowed out to play with all the toys this morning and I had to be shut in her crate :o( Mummy said that it was because I keep making her play all the time and she should still be resting lots after the hopperayshun. Hmph. Doesn't sound right to me but while she was out playing with MY toys I snuggled up in her verrrrrrrrrrry comfy crate and chewed on her yummy nylabone. So there.

When she went back in her crate, I tried to sit on the sofa and have a sulk but I can't even do that in peace! There was I, sulking my best sulk, when Mummy came in with the camera and started taking photos of me. Just to add insult to injury, the flippin' puppy jumped up next to me and started barking at me in a vain attempt to get me to play. I wasn't gonna play, I was far too busy sulking.

This afternoon was brill!! Mummy took me out in the car all by myself - no kids, no other dogs, just me and Mummy. I like going in the car. The special bit in the back for us dogs is dead comfy with a big squishy bed in it.

When Mummy got me out of the car we went into a great big shop. It was FANTASTIC!! It smelled like food and toys and food and food and toys and food and toys and food and food...... and I just sniffsniffsniffed at everything! Mummy squeaked some toys at me and I got all excited and did a little dance right in the middle of the shop :o) Lots of people made a fuss of me and told me how handsome I was. I smiled at them and licked their hands. They seemed to like that because they usually shared the lick with their trousers! Mummy put lots of yummy smelling things in the basket and I was just a very happy boy. She asked me if I wanted rabbit for tea and I said "yes please!!" because I had seen a rabbit in the shop that looked like this.....

Very yummy looking, eh? ;o) Anyway, she did not put a bouncing rabbit with great big ears in the basket, but a very cold block of something brown. Blah. Borrrrring.

When we went to pay the man, he gave me some treats for being a very handsome boy. Well, I don't like to brag, but.............. :oD I wasn't very happy at being taken out of the excellent shop but when I got in the car Mummy gave me one of the yummy smelling treats so I decided to not lodge too much of an objection.

We drove slowly through lots of cars on the way home, but then the car stopped and I realised that we were at the park!! Oooh I love the park. I usually go the park in the afternoon with Mummy or when it's later with my mate, Cooper, but today it was a bit windy and rainy and so there weren't any other dogs to play with. Luckily, Mummy had remembered to bring my squeaky ball with her so I chased around after that until I was tired.

When we got home, Mummy put lots of things into the big pot that usually has yummy smelling hot stuff in it and what did I smell???? Rabbit!!!!!! Oooh it smelled so delicious that I drooled on the floor. I had to wait until it was cold enough for me to eat safely (that was about 2 years!) but when I did get it to eat.........ohhhhhhhh. It was like heaven in my mouth!! Yum!!

After filling my belly with delicious tea, I decided to have a little snooze on the bed next to where Mummy sits when she uses the computer. She laughed and got the camera out again. She says that really none of the dogs in this house are the right size for the bed. What's that all about then?

Me on the bed

Hugo on the bed

And then she kept the camera out and took some more photos of me. I was still not best impressed at having that thing in my face again.......

........so I ignored her and pretended to sleep ;o)

Mummy keeps telling me that something exciting is happening tomorrow but, personally, I can't see what could top today! I hope it means that we're going back to that brill shop again!

Little Brothers Smell

2009-05-03T19:20:00.004+01:00

When you are trying to have a little snooze, they bounce about in front of you and yapyapyapyap and jump on top of you and use you to climb on to the sofa or on to Mummy's lap and they race around everywhere and they just don't stop until you're dizzy!!!

And they smell >:o(

(Note from Flora: Hahahahahaha! Now you know what I had to put up with when you arrived, you great big lummox!)

We had some very very very exciting news today as well. My mate Muppet (fellow norty puppy ;o) ) is a bit special and goes to lots of dog shows because he is very posh. Today Muppet went to one of his dog shows and won a prize that means that next year he gets to go to Crufts with all of the VERY posh dogs to try and win a VERY posh prize!! Isn't that amazing?? He is only a little dog!

Guess what happened??

2009-05-02T00:07:00.005+01:00

I have had the most exciting few days!!! The doorbell went yesterday and guess who was at the door? Auntie Fi! And she had Patch with her and a blue box thing and...................Orca!!! I was so pleased to see him that I took him straight out to the kitchen to wrestle >:o)

He has grown lots and is nearly as big as me now!

We have had soooooooooo much fun chasing round the garden and playing tug and breaking all the mats and chewing up toys and teasing Flora and driving Mummy bonkers..........

But but but but..............MORE exciting things. The blue box thing that Auntie Fi had with her was actually Orca's old travelly house that he got too big for. In the travelly house was the tiniest little thing I've ever seen! Auntie Fi says he's a real dog and he's older than Orca, but I'm not so sure. He's so little!!

I don't know how little he thinks he is though because he was joining in with mine and Orca's wrestling games!

His name is Hugo and he is actually quite good at Barking Competitions! Where I have big deep big boy barks, Hugo has teeny little baby barks but I think they're just as good at making Mummy's head hurt!

Anyway, Auntie Fi brought him here so that he could go and see my lovely vet because he has a poorly heart and that is why he is so small. Sadly, the vet said that Hugo's heart is much more poorly than anybody thought for and that he won't live to be a big growed up boy like me :o( Auntie Fi that he needs somebody special to look after him and pamper and fit 15 years of love into 6 months. I know somebody just like that. My Sophie Jayne :o)

I have decided to let Hugo borrow my Sophie as long as he lets me play with her and cuddle her and lick her sometimes too.

So there we go. Who knew a few days ago that by today I'd have a little brother and have spent some great days playing with my best mate Orca again??

A Rather Serious Business :o(

2009-04-29T14:32:00.005+01:00

I'm taking over from Bran just for the duration of this post to get across a rather serious message - sorry!

Bran's big "sister", Flora, has finally had what Bran likes to refer to as "her hopperayshun".

Flora was born at a puppy farm and sold, along with her brother, to a couple who knew nothing of American Bulldogs. As they grew older, they grew feistier and harder to control and so, at just 6 months of age, Flora and her brother were handed in to rescue. Their first stop was Trallwm Farm where they were handed into the care of Lady Lesley Cooper. Whilst being keen to lavish them with love, Trallwm Farm is actually a farm and has lots of horses and big dogs who wouldn't notice 2 pups under foot! And so lovely Lady Lesley secured places with them in the care of Lizzie's Barn Sanctuary and our wonderful friend Fionna. After a month of finding her feet at the Barn, we were lucky enough to meet young Flora Pandora and I was smitten within seconds.

Flora's time with us has not been easy: there have been a lot of changes for her to adjust to. On top of that, she has been "gifted" with far too many health issues that could all be pinned on her thoughtless breeding: epilepsy, hip dysplasia and a heart murmur. Despite all of this, Flora has brought sunshine and joy into our lives from the second we laid eyes on her. She is a wonderful companion and adores us all. Just before her hip replacement op, Flora's quality of life diminshed to such a degree that I questioned whether to proceed with the op or whether to set her free from the pain.

Thankfully, we battled on through and the op has been more successful than I could ever have imagined! The pain is gone, Flora is healing amazingly well and all she has to worry about now are the next few weeks of enforced confinement ;o) She is trying hard to convince me that she is well enough to go on 2 mile hikes or to romp on the beach or even just to be allowed to play in the garden with Bran, but her new prostethic hip joint says "NO" for the time being!

I would again like to take this opportunity to thank all of our family and friends for supporting us through the last 6 months or so, which have been utterly hellish at times, as neither Flora nor I would have made it to this point without you xxx

Lady Lesley has very kindly put together Flora's story on her blog: Flora's Story

Included within Lesley's post is a very important link to a very important petition. It is a petition to plead with the Prime Minister to bring about an end to puppy farming. I have already told you Flora's story and what the trade of puppy farming has meant to her life. Now I follow up that info with why this has been posted on Bran's blog: we have recently discovered that Bran also has hip dysplasia :o(

I was shocked enough to be having to put Flora through a hip replacement operation at 2 years of age, but Bran is still a baby. He is now 11 months old.

Fortunately, we hope that this diagnosis has been made early enough that diet management and supplements will be enough to control this godawful disease sufficiently without having to resort to surgery. This disease is all too common in labradors anyway, but, again, Bran was bred at a puppy farm so it was almost a given that it would rear it's ugly head within his beautiful bones.

Not for a second do I regret the fact that my dogs were born because then I would not have known the joy of having them in my life and I give unlimited thanks to both Lesley and Fionna for getting them to safety before they came home, but I wish with all my heart that no other dog be born into the circumstances/conditions that my babies arrived in or suffer the health concerns that we will have to deal with throughout Bran and Flora's lives.

So PLEASE sign the petition. Get the word out. And, above all else, DON'T BUY FROM PUPPY FARMS!!

The petition can be found HERE

So Rubbish/Lazy!

2009-04-02T22:51:00.002+01:00

My mummy has decided that she can't manage to keep up with 2 blogs at once so she is only keeping Orca the Porker's up to date because he is only here for a few weeks whilst I am here forever.

Fortunately, she has done a very good job of letting all of my fans know just what I've been up to as well as Orca the Porker ;o)

I'm very sorry if you've been waiting for updates, but you're just going to have read about our adventures on the smelly puppy's blog.

(He is a bit lovely actually and I will miss him lots when Auntie Fi takes him home. He is very norty and we have had lots of fun! Mummy says that he will go home at the end of next week because Flora is having her hopperayshun on Wednesday and Aunti Fi is coming to stay for a few days to help when Flora comes back home, and then she will take Little Stinker back with her.)

Woohoo!!

2009-03-15T20:37:00.003Z

Orca the Porker has come to stay for a holiday! Mummy was telling the truth about me getting to meet him very soon!

He's a bit of a pain in the bum sometimes and his teeth are VERY sharp. I'm sure that I never used to bite Flora as much as he bites me. But he is LOTS of fun to play with.

Mummy was going to let him share my blog but I said "no way!" so he has got his very own holiday blog here: Orca's Holiday Blog

I have to admit that he's quite cute for a bitey, barky puppy.

I have lots to teach him though before Auntie Fi gets back from her holiday. Mwahahahaha!!!

Orca Update

2009-03-02T16:27:00.004Z

We've got lots of photos of my little puppy friend Orca who was born back in January so we thought that you might like to see how he is growing up. I haven't met him yet but Mummy says that I will do very soon! Auntie Fi says that he is a very naughty boy so we should get on like a house on fire. What does she mean??

Orca when he was first born on 8th January

1 week old

10 days old

2 weeks old

(I think this might have been a set up! Such a little puppy couldn't be so naughty, could they??)

3 weeks old

4 weeks old

(he looks like a real dog but in tiny!)

6 weeks old

(doesn't he have very handsome eyes??)

At 6 weeks old, Auntie Fi weighed him again and he was 3.5kgs! I was 6 kgs when I was 14 weeks old and everybody thought that I was a big boy - I think Orca is going to be even bigger than me!!

He is starting to eat big boy food now and isn't drinking so much of his mummy's milk, because he's 7 weeks old now. That means that his beautiful mummy, Katie, will be looking for a very special home of her very own soon. He has had the first of those horrible injection things and soon he'll be able to go out and play with all of the other dogs at the Barn.

I can't wait to meet him. I know lots of things that I can teach him. I'm sure Auntie Fi would like that ;o)

The Bran Stuff

2009-03-02T15:40:00.004Z

Oopsy! Left it a long time again!

It's not been lots of fun at my house :o( Flora has been really poorly and had to go to hospital for 2 days last week. Me and the kids went to Nanny's house while Mummy and Auntie Fi took Flora to the hospital. She didn't come home on the night time because they had to take photos of her baddy hips. When she did come home she was very very tired and a bit grumpy. Poor Flora looked very sad.

As promised, Mummy has kicked me out of the crate which I don't really mind because I am a big boy now and very good at sleeping in the lounge by myself. It means I get to spread out on the sofa allllllllllllllllllll night. Although, the crate is looking sooooo comfy now that I'm not sure whether I've made the right decision. Mummy has put duvets around the sides so that Flora's legs don't hurt if she leans against the side and there is a super squishy bed in the bottom of it!! As soon as Mummy had finished putting it altogether, Flora was allowed to try it out - but me and Sophie sneaked in too! Flora wasn't very impressed though ;o)

When Sophie got out there was a bit more room for me and Flora to stretch out.

Mummy says that I am a silly boy because after we've had our last wees at bedtime, she always gives us a chewy to take to bed with us and both me and Flora grab our chewies and race into the crate together! Pah. Then Mummy comes and tells me to get out.

Lots of things have changed here because of Flora's baddy legs. There is lots of stuff on the floors so that it isn't slidey any more. It's nowhere near as much fun now that I can't skid down the hallway and into the kitchen! But Flora is happier.

And Nina and Stew and Tom came the other day to bring the kids home after their holiday and clever Stew made a special ramp for Flora that goes over our back door steps. I usually just jump straight over it but Flora uses it to go into the garden nearly every time.

Mummy says that Flora will be having her hopperayshun soon and then she will not be able to play with me at all as she will be very poorly and have to be extra specially careful not to hurt her legs. Before she has her hopperayshun though, Mummy says that somebody will be coming to our house who will be able to play and play and play with me until I can't play anymore. I am very excited but don't know who it is!!

I was in Serious Trouble the other day. I made Sophie cry and Mummy told me off. I don't think it's so much fun being a norty puppy any more :o( Auntie Sarah and Zack and baby Sam came to visit and I played with them and then slept like a good boy, but then they went shopping and left me on my own when I hadn't been to the park for a walk and I lost my chewy under the chair so I found something else to play with instead. There were some lovely squishy toys on the windowsill that smelled just like Sophie so I played with them. When Sophie came home and saw that I had eaten her Sandy's special sparkly harness and chewed a hole in Sandy's face and took Sandy's nose off, she cried a lot :o( Apparently, she's had Sandy (a yellow labrador toy) since she was a very little girl and nothing bad has ever happened to her before so she was very sad with me. Mummy was cross with me first of all, but then she explained to Sophie that Sandy should really have been left somewhere that I couldn't reach and she also apologised to me because I would have been a good boy and gone to sleep if I'd been to the park. I don't think I'll play with any more of the toys that smell like Sophie!

Mummy has been taking me to the park lots and lots since the Sandy incident though. Lots of times, I go with my friend Cooper. He is white and black and is a terrier and he lives just 2 houses away from me. He is just a little bit younger than me and used to be a naughty boy who used to try and get me to have his puppies!! I have been trying to teach him how to play nicely with everybody and he is lots of fun now. I like it when we go to the park together. We play chase with the ball and we wrestle and we play with all of the other dogs. Our mummies smile and tell us what very good boys we are.

A little while ago, a very lovely lady who my mummy calls Auntie Verity sent me some presents. Presents! Just for me! She had sent Flora some pyjamas too which have helped to keep her baddy legs warm but she didn't want me to be left out. For the first time, I learned what fun it is to open presents all by myself! I had toys and treats and Auntie Verity said that I had to share them with Flora. Humph. Well. I shared the treats with Flora but the toys were so cool!! I was a little bit greedy...

I did let Flora put her paw on one of MY new toys when Mummy told me to stop being mean...

While "we" were playing with the new toys, Mummy made a discovery in the hallway. I think this photo is called Aftermath of a Puppy Lesson...

I know that the snow was here quite a long time ago now, but Mummy has only just put the photos from the camera on to the computer. So here are some photos of me playing in the snow...

A Hup-Date

2009-02-16T22:42:00.002Z

Oooh hello! I haven't been here for a long time again - sorry!! Lots of exciting and rubbish things have been happening and I forgot to tell you all about them.

First of all, we got a new car! Yay! Mummy bought it from one of her doggy friends which meant that it smelled heavenly. I know that the nice lady cleaned it before me and Flora got to ride in it, but we could still smell that fabulous smell of Other Dogs. It made me like the car straight away. It made me like it enough that I couldn't wait to go for a ride in it so I made a great big mistake and forgot that I make Mummy lift me into the car and jumped in all by myself as soon as she said "hup". Oops. And now she refuses to lift me in ever! But it's sort of ok because I love being in it.

And then something terrible happened to the garden! My tunnel is gone. Alright. It wasn't much of a tunnel yet, but I'd made a really good start on it and had a great big hole. But now there is a big square stone over it :o( I've looked really hard but I can't find anyway around it. It's not fair! I think that Mummy had something to do with the stone appearing so I have decided to get my own back by chewing up the little fences that she planted ;o)

Ooh there was lots of white stuff!! Did you have the snow stuff? It was fabulous and tasted soooo yummy. When we went to the park I didn't even want to play with my ball because the kids kept making me special balls made out of the snow stuff. They were much more fun, but they kept disappearing when they landed. Mummy took some photos of me playing with the snow stuff but said that the white dots made me look like a "reverse dalmatian". Silly Mummy.

We've been for lots of rides in our new car. We even went on a great big ride where I seemed to be in the car for aggggggggggggggggges. When the car stopped, we were at Nina's house!! I haven't seen Nina for a long time and she was very surprised to see how much I've grown. She has 2 tiny little dogs called Ricky and Charlie but they are both old and don't play much. That didn't stop me trying to make them play though! I chased around their house and tried to make them get off of the sofa and chase me, but they just looked at me like I was a bit stupid. How very rood. Flora did not come to Nina's with us. She stayed at Nanny's house for a little holiday. I don't know why she didn't come, but I missed her lots.

My mummy has been a bit sad lately. I give her lots of kisses when she looks sad and that makes her smile again. I don't know why she's sad but I think that it might be something to do with why Flora didn't come to Nina's house. Flora's not allowed to come out with me for walks any more and she doesn't like to play much now. When she does play with me, sometimes she cries and has to have a big sleep afterwards. I keep hearing the word "hopperayshun" but I don't know what that means and sometimes Mummy says that I might have to stop sleeping in my crate at night because Flora is going to need it to get better in. I know that she is not feeling right at the moment, so I am being a very good brother and looking after her.

Mummy note: Flora has severe hip dysplasia which has been under control for the last 9 months or so, but there's been a relapse over the last few months and she's now waiting to see a specialist to see if she's a viable candidate for a total hip replacement op.

Exciting News!

2009-01-08T17:58:00.006Z

My friend Katie - a beautiful chocolate lab girl - that I met at Auntie Fionna's (Lizzies Barn Sanctuary) had to have a little operation today and when she woke up she had had a baby!!!

He is a very big baby and Auntie Fi has called him Orca. I think that she already loves him lots and will keep him forever and ever just so that I can play with him when I see her :oD

Welcome to the world, Orca!

The Truth Is Out There!!!

2009-01-08T17:25:00.008Z

Just like my mate Muppet I've been working on cultivating a reputation for myself. While Muppet is striving to let the world now just how naughty he is, I am going for the other end of the market and encouraging people to believe that I am the best behaved labrador puppy in the world. And so far it's working ;o)

I've learned to retrieve (rubbish), I have not killed (m)any toys, I don't bark (much), I am (mostly) doing as I'm told, I've been letting Mummy take lots of photos of me and I'm being nice to Flora (although we'll not talk about the incident where I decided to see if she'd give me a piggyback the other day and she bit my winky - yowch!).

I have been sharing sleeping space with Flora and she is happy for me to plonk my gigantic bum on her head and everything. I'm a bit bigger than her now so she usually has to curl up quite small so that I can have enough room to spread out...

Sometimes, though, I forget how big I am now and my head falls off of the sofa and my nose gets all squished up to the floor!

Sophie was all poorly yesterday so - being the best behaved labrador puppy in the world - I let her share our sofa.

Now, however, I find that there is a bit of a flaw in my plan >:o( Mummy took a video of me and Flora playing this morning and I'm not convinced that it shows me in my best light. Well. It certainly doesn't show me being the best behaved labrador puppy in the world....

Ah well. I suppose I'd better just admit that I'm not the best behaved labrador puppy in the world: I'm just a labrador puppy and I like being naughty ;o)

Me and my winnnnnnnnnnnky...

2009-01-06T15:20:00.007Z

Betcha weren't expecting that one were you?? Mwahahaha!! Well that Christmas stuff was lots of fun! I got paper to chew on and toys to kill and lots of food and Nanny and Grumpy slept at our house and we slept at Nanny and Grumpy's house!! It was brill!!!!

On the day before Christmas, Mummy spent a lot of time trying to get me and Flora to be quiet but we were VERY excited and wanted the kids to play with us so we rarrred and bounced and boinged a lot.
....until Mummy got realllllllllllllllllllllly cross and threatened to put us to bed early and we wouldn't see Nanny and Grumpy. Spoilsport. So we decided to be nice. Or as nice as we ever are ;o)

In the morning, the kids made *lots* of noise and everything was veryveryvery exciting and happy and bouncy and we got "presents"!!! I was a very clever boy because Mummy was trying to get me to open my own presents. As if!!! I have a slave that can do that for me.... Flora loves opening presents so I let her take all of the paper off of them and then I stole whatever was inside it. She was so excited at opening presents that she didn't even notice that she never seemed to get anything out. I did have a quick go at opening my present from Auntie Wendy, but it was too much like hard work so I let Flora take over after a bit.

Mummy had entered us into a Secret Santa thing with her friends on The Refuge and I got a present from my friend Louie and his mummy, Amy. They got me lots of things but I loved the little elephant the best and didn't even start taking the stuffing out for DAYS after Christmas.

Flora had a Secret Santa present from a lovely lady called Brenda who sent us lots of treats as well! Stupid Flora was so excited about opening the presents and checking the bag that she got her head stuck!!

We got lots of presents from Mummy and Jacob and Sophie as well and some of them are even still alive! Mummy has said that we are very ungrateful though because we have killed most of them and she might not get us any presents next Christmas. Oops! They were lots of fun while they lasted though ;o)

We got these brill honky toys - a duck and a goose. They made great noises, not like any other toy I've played with, and we thought they were fab! The ducky is still alive and making noises, but the goose doesn't honk any more and is quite a lot thinner than it was in this photo :o(

Granny and Bamp came to visit us and then we went to Nanny and Grumpy's house for lunch. We got turkey and potatoes and lots of yummy things! This Christmas thing is great!! And then we got very excited when Mummy told us that we weren't going home but were sleeping at Nanny's house. So excited that we started wrestling again!

Mummy was so excited that she had to have a sleep. She looked very comfy and was right by the radiator so me and Flora decided to keep her company...

Mummy got a new camera from Father Christmas so we've had it stuck in our faces quite a lot, but she has managed to get some photos that make us look very gorgeous, even if I do say so myself.

When we woke up at Nanny's house the next day, Mummy said that we were going to have some special fun with the car and some turkey and no Flora. We played a very silly game where Mummy got into the back of the car and called me and dangled turkey through the guard thingy and I jumped into the car and ate the turkey and Mummy told me that I was a good boy then told me to get out of the car again. It seemed a very silly game to me but Mummy seemed to be pleased. She was very lucky because normally I can't be bothered to jump into the car and make her lift me in. Then we changed the game a bit and she stood next to me and put her arm in the car whilst holding turkey and told me to "hup". I don't know what she was on about but there was no way I was going to jump into the car to get the little bit of turkey in her hand when there was a big bag full of turkey in her coat pocket right next to me! Eventually, Mummy started using some naughty words and we went back into the warm house. What a silly way to spend a morning!

The next very exciting thing to happen was that we went to see Auntie Fi and Auntie Wendy, Wiggle and Sir Henery came in our car with us!!! It was lovely to see my Barn friends again but there were lots of tiny little dogs there with not much fur on their faces. They looked silly - like little old, wrinkled dogs! Mummy said that they were puppies and had had mange so nobody wanted them and they'd been given to Auntie Fi to look after. She also said that when their fur grows back, they'll look just like me. That's silly. Those dogs are very little and I was never that small!! Just look how much bigger I am than the little dogs...

I barked at them to try to make them play with me, but they didn't take any notice at all. Boring! There was one puppy there who looks he has potential to be lots of fun to live with and Mummy called him Bug (short for something rude,I think!). Auntie Fi phoned today to say that he has gone to a new home with a new family so they'll have lots of exciting times now!

On the way home from Auntie Fi's, us dogs were all snoring in the back of the car when we suddenly stopped. It was very dark and Mummy and Auntie Wendy jumped out of the car and there was smoke coming out of the car and a funny smell. Auntie Wendy got Jacob and Sophie out of the car and stood by the side of the road but we all had to wait in the car and just looked out of the window to see what was happening. A big yellow lorry turned up and made lots of noises and then suddenly we were moving but not moving and Mummy, Auntie Wendy, Jacob and Sophie weren't in the car!! A funny man in a yellow coat looked in the window and we all barked at him to leave the car alone, but he got in and sat down so that was alright and we stopped barking and smiled at him instead :o) The man in the yellow coat got into the lorry and then we were where Auntie Wendy had left her car so she took Wiggle and Henery out and drove to her house in her car, but we carried on doing the strange moving/not moving thing until we could see Nanny! Then we had a ride in Nanny's car - Nanny and Mummy and Jacob and Sophie and Georgie and Flora and me - back to our house. I haven't seen our car since :o(

And then Mummy and Jacob got poorly and that has been soooooooooooooooo boring! I haven't been able to go for walks or anything so I have been keeping myself very busy killing those naughty toys.

Mummy was feeling a little bit better today but a man was coming to mend stuff in the house and we still couldn't go out for a walk until he'd been, but Mummy let me play in the garden with her and a tennis ball for a while and then she got her new camera out again...

Aren't I looking handsome and grown up today? Can you guess what I was looking at in the next photo?

Those pesky cats all jumped up on to the windowsill to tease me!! Mummy wouldn't let me chase them or anything :o(

I have to go now because we're going to the park! Yipppppppeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

It's Chrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssstttttmasssssssssss

2008-12-24T17:07:00.006Z

But I have no idea what that means!

Strange things have happened to my house:

1. There is a tree growing in the computer room with bright lights on it and things underneath that smell GOOD! I got told off when I tried to have a closer look at the nice smelling things so I have decided not to try that again. I am hearing lots of "good boy"s now :o) I love being told that I'm a good boy.

2. There are cards alllllllllll over the place and boy are they yummy! That's my noo trick but nobody seems to be very impressed with it. I've been practising it for ages. It's just not fair. I love cards.

3. There are lots and lots of nice smelling foody things in the house and I am managing to persuade everybody to give me little bits of them now and again. Mummy says that I will need to be going on a D-I-E-T after Christmas because I am a lardy bum, but she isn't worrying about it at the moment because she is sad that Bearthecollie isn't here for Christmas whilst being very happy that I am. I think she loves me a little bit. I love my Mummy almost as much I love the food.

Very exciting news is that Nanny and Grumpy are coming to stay at our house tonight. I love Nanny. And tomorrow night we are all going on holiday to Nanny and Grumpy's house! I love Nanny's house.

I got a present!! Mummy says that it's an early Christmas present and it must be from Santa because there was no label on it. It wasn't even covered in paper or anything! I found it sitting in the middle of the park just waiting for me to find it. It is a football. It is a bit flat but I can carry it easy like that. My very own football! Aren't I a lucky boy?? I love my football.

Ooooh!! I hear crisp packets!! I have to go, but I hope that you all have a very lovely Christmas.

Love from Bran

xxxx

and love from Flora

xxxx

Hide the treat

2008-12-01T14:47:00.011Z

When my mum went shopping with Sophie and Auntie Wendy last week, she bought a very special present for me and Flora to share. It was supposed to train our brains. So far, I've managed to convince her that I am a Very Clever Puppy so she thought that this toy would be nice for me to play with.

Well I don't like it!

What sort of a stupid game would have your mum showing you a yummy smelly treat and then hiding it from you never to be seen again??! How is that fun??

And Flora just laughs at me because she thinks it's easy-peasy :o( She's even got to play with the Other Side which is even harder and is so hard that Mummy won't even let me try it. Good! I don't want to try it because it's a stupid game!

This is what the stupid game looks like...

Flora gets all excited just when she sees the box! She's just a show off.

On one side the yummy smelly treats get hidden under pegs. Torture, I tell you, torture!

On the other side it has slidey things which have more yummy smelly treats hidden under them.

Mummy took some videos of us on her mobile phone this morning (so the pictures are a bit rubbish!) to show how we play with it. Flora got lots of "good girl"s but I just got lots of laughing and even Flora was laughing at me from the crate!

So that was Flora's "brilliant" attempts. She is quite fast isn't she? For a bulldozer anyway!

Here are my goes - I will go and hide my head under a blanket now. Don't laugh too loud!

Well did YOU see where the stupid yummy delicious treat went after it left Mummy's hand?? I couldn't find it at all! I thought i could still smell it but then I couldn't see it! See? I told you it was a stupid game.

Anyway, I got tired of listening to Flora laughing at me (there are another 4 videos of me trying to find the treat that Mummy has kindly not put up to "save my dignity") so Mummy let her out of the crate and she found the treat straight away! Do you think it might be some sort of magic that they don't tell little boy dogs about? She can remove all 7 pegs - one after the other - AND eat the treats in just 20 seconds!! That is quite impressive isn't it? I couldn't find even one treat in 7 minutes!

Stupid game...

The Shame!!

2008-11-30T17:30:00.003Z

My mother is horrid :o(

We went to my nanny's house on Friday and there was lots of dressing up going on. Jacob and Sophie and Georgie were putting lots of different clothes on and kept putting strange things on their heads.

So my mum decided that it would be a great idea to put strange things on mine and Flora's heads >:o(

Don't I look like a plank??? I *may* have got Flora to look up the number for the RSPCA - just in case.....

And this all came after she'd been telling me what a veryveryvery good boy I am because I have stopped weeing in the house! This is after I've been good! Just think what she would have done if I'd been naughty. She might have dressed me up like my mate Muppet's mum did to him....!

Can anyone explain what happened??

2008-11-26T21:15:00.003Z

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

2008-11-24T15:05:00.006Z

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

Proof of the Growth Spurt!

2008-11-20T13:37:00.002Z

Following the photos making Bran look like a right heifer, I thought I'd check on his measurements.

The results:

Height: 18"
Neck: 18"
Length: 27"
Weight: 26kgs (that'll be another 4kgs gained in 2 weeks then!!)

Ermmm.....so that puts him at just 4-4.5" shy of the expected adult male height and at the bottom end of the expected adult male weight.

At 6 months.

With another 6 - 12 months of growing to do!! :oO

Mid-November Catch Up!

2008-11-17T13:32:00.004Z

Ooops! I really must get on here more often. The boy is growing so quickly and this time is never going to be gotten back.

Ok then. 1st November was the last update. So what were the next things that happened?

Monday 3rd November: In the evening the dogs had a trip with my mum and I all the way to Frankley Services where we collected the children and Jacob's best friend Tom. Nina and Stew (Tom's parents and my great friends) had brought them all down from Cheshire to the handover point and they were thrilled to see Bran. They'd been at our house the day that Bran arrived so the last time they'd seen him he looked like a teeny little puppy. They've seen photos of how he's grown, but I think they were still surprised to see him in the flesh!! Flora was absolutely beside herself with excitement at seeing so many of her favourite people in one place, but was also scared because there were fireworks going off nearby :o( Fairly appropriate really as *bang* went our peace and quiet!

Tuesday 4th November: Sophie and I visited Cardiff with Wendy, Loobie and Fi to go to a fantastic place called Batleys. It's a cash and carry that has a wonderful pet section. Amongst all of the ridiculously girly giggling, we managed to bag some fantastic bargains and - sssssssshhh, don't tell them! - I got lots of Christmas presents for my spoiled puppies. Jacob and Tom had stayed at home and looked after the dogs and so upon our return I was regaled with the horrendous tale of just how norty Bran had been in my absence!! He had destroyed 2 pieces of post, suspectedly eaten a keyring (which he hadn't), chewed the back off of the remote control, chomped on a battery, hidden the remaining battery and the rest of the remote control!! Within 2 minutes, Sophie and I had managed to find all the missing bits and Bran was fine but he'd never been so norty in such a short space of time!! Little monkey had a lucky escape.

Wednesday 5th November: The dreaded Bonfire Night. Fortunately, Bran couldn't care less about fireworks - the noise or the sight of them. Flora is transformed into a quivering wreck and I ended up having to give her a diazepam to calm her down. Bran didn't quite know what to do with himself as his playmate snoozed her way through the evening. The kids did a great job of entertaining him though ;o)

Thursday 6th November: Ah the much awaited day arrived!! My temporary fencing and fencing pins arrived in the post. Despite the fact that we were due to be going out, I couldn't wait to put it up so got the kids to help me poo pick the main lawn for the last time until Spring and then we put the fencing up. I am absolutely thrilled that my poor lawn has been granted a reprieve for a few months, grass seed needs to be scattered to give it a chance to grass properly again, the floors won't be covered in mud and poo picking will be sooooooooo much easier! The dogs are less than happy, but they still have the patio, the concrete area at the end of the garden and a small grassed area to play/toilet in.

Friday 7th November: Bran got to meet a new friend and Flora reacquainted herself with a summer holiday friend. The children's friend Kyle came to visit for the weekend.

Saturday 8th November: My mum's birthday. My mum and dad came to visit for the evening but, unfortunately, there were HUGE amounts of fireworks going off and Flora was absolutely terrified :o( She had another diazepam but I also covered the crate with a heavy blanket and let her settle in there for the evening with various chews and bones. This meant that Bran got alllllllll the attention, dropped bits of food and extra treats for being such a good boy. The covered crate settling Flora gave us the brilliant idea of leaving the crate covered through the night whilst Bran is in it to see if it encourages him to sleep in a bit longer.

Sunday 9th November: I woke up at 9 o'clock and came downstairs to wake Bran up!!! Astonishing result for the covered crate!! Flora was very poorly all day as I think she'd got herself so stressed throughout Saturday evening, so again Bran had to entertain himself for the day - fortunately, he opted to not fill his time with more nortiness!!

Tuesday 11th November: The dogs thoroughly enjoyed themselves today! We had an official Lazy Day (which started with me not getting up until 10 o'clock!! Woohoo for the covered crate!!), so they had lots and lots of cuddles and people on hand to play with them for the whole day.

Wednesday 12th November: Another norty Bran day. However, he did have huge amounts of temptation put in his path so I can hardly blame him. We sorted the 3 outside sheds out so emptied the contents of all of them onto the patio before cleaning them out and putting things away again, so Bran spent the whole afternoon racing around with something that he shouldn't have in his mouth and, inevitably, with somebody on his tail yelling for him to drop whatever it was he had! He had a wonderful time and we were all absolutely shattered! Hahahahaha...

Saturday 15th November: Another new friend for Bran. Auntie Fi came for a visit. Initially, she arrived just for a couple of hours with our old friend Twister and a new friend - a very beautiful, gentle GSD girl called Nouska. Nouska was going to be adopted by Fi's friends who live in Portugal but were visiting Bristol for the weekend, so Fi was due to take Nouska to meet her new family. We were utterly smitten by the stunning girl, although Flora wasn't quite so impressed with having another big girl in *her* house. Bran thought she was fab xx Fi then took Nouska off to her family and returned to stop over for the night.

Sunday 16th November: What a busy day!! Bran and Flo were very excited to see Auntie Fi coming down the stairs in the morning and she got well and truly dozered!!! Flora has been educating Bran sufficiently that we have now decided that he isn't "just" a labrador but is a labradozer. They leapt all over poor Fi and covered her in kisses before getting excited enough that they just had to start wrestling!

Wendy then arrived with Wiggle and Sir H and we headed off to the park for a while. Flora was very noisy but Bran was a star, although I'm not sure that Twister would agree! Bran has taking an immense liking to Twister and has made it his mission to get her to play with him one day. In the house, this means that he has to bounce in front of her and bark whilst she is snoozing on the sofa. In the park, this means that he has to run right next to her and try to grab her if she stands still for long enough. Needless to say that, at 12, Twister is far from impressed with this behaviour and has completely blanked him so far. The Pickle isn't one to admit defeat though!! We were a bit shocked to realise that Bran is nearly as tall as Wiggle now!!

Big Boy

(doesn't look so bad until you realise that the bed he's in (or almost in!) is 3 feet across!)

And then.......Nina and Stew arrived with their cavalier boys - Ricky and Charlie. Wendy and the labby boys left and Bran focussed his attention on annoying Ricky as much as possible by employing the same tactics as had been wasted on Twister!!

And finally... Monday 17th November: Thankfully for me, the manic weekend has meant that after an inital manic hour or so of mad wrestling this morning, both dogs have been snoozing soundly!! Bliss. Absolute bliss!!

A Big Catch-Up

2008-11-01T14:29:00.011Z

Oooh I have been *very* rubbish at keeping this up to date. We have been a very very busy family so I'll try my best to get you up to date with what's been happening here....

Wednesday 15th October - We went for another walk with friends to a lovely place called Barton Farm Country Park in Bradford-on-Avon. We went with Wendy, Wiggle and Sir H and also met up with Ange and the very beautiful Minnie-Moo for the first time. There was a lovely river for the dogs to play in - Bran was very brave with the water this time and had great fun splashing with the others. Flora decided to be very stupid and threw herself in at a point where she couldn't get out by herself so I needed to lie in the mud to pull her out. Bran very helpfully sat very close to my head so that I couldn't get up easily after pulling her out so I very nearly ended up in the river myself!! We walked through lots of fields and eventually came to a lovely pub called The Cross Guns. We (people) sat outside and ate chips and drank coffee and hot chocolate whilst the dogs sat very quietly, looking cute and trying to beg chips. We walked back along the canal together before collecting yummy cakes from Wendy and heading home.

Auntie Wendy tried to drown Bran!

My babies

Spot the difference to the above photo

Watch out! Here comes trouble!!

Abandoned Puppy!

Minnie-Moo

Sir Henery being a hippo

Me and Ange and Wendy with dogs

Flora and her beloved Wiggle

Sir Henery does running :oO

Patiently waiting

Sophie and her bestest friend

Friday 17th October - Our Kevin cat was put to sleep :o( Kevin was an indoor cat and Bran used to have lots of fun standing behind the stairgate and barking at poor Kev, who would sit and stare disdainfully at the dogs and smack them on their faces if they came too close to the gate when he was sitting on the other side of it! We all miss him lots xx

Sunday 19th October - We went on yet another big walk with lots of friends at Brean Sands. It was Bran's first visit to the beach and he loved it! He seemed to be a little bit overwhelmed by the number of people there so stayed very close to his mummy, but he splashed in the sea, chased Flora and said hello to everybody there. He was very very cold, wet and tired at the end of the walk so was quite pleased to see me produce a fleece coat for him to wear on the way home.

Sophie "walking" Morse

Excellent heelwork, that puppy!

My family (minus one 2-legged boy)

Daisy and Duncan

Snoozing and snuggly

Sophie "walking" Morse again

Me and Andrea with our dogs

Monday 20th - Wednesday 22nd October - I took the children to visit friends up in Cheshire/Staffordshire (including a fantastic day at Alton Towers!!) so Bran and Flora had a little holiday at a very special place called Nanny's House. Bran had never been away from us before so I worried lots about how he would be, but Nanny reported that they were both very very good and they were certainly thrilled to see us when we got home (well, me and Sophie anyway as Jacob stayed up North with our friends)!! Strangely, Bran has become much more cuddly since we've returned and whereas before we went he would only get up onto the sofa if at least half of it was free, he will now squish up into the smallest spaces xx

Saturday 25th - Monday 27th October - Our friends Jenny and Bethany came to stay for the weekend. They hadn't met Bran before but Jenny already loves Flora and always calls her Big Dog! Bran was very pleased to have extra people in the house as that inevitably means extra attention!! When they left on Monday evening, Sophie went with them and so me and the dogs are all on our own for a whole week!!

Tuesday 28th October - I had to leave the dogs to go out and do shopping on the afternoon, but I took them to Nanny's House for us all to have tea in the evening. They both adore my dad and so gave Grumpy lots of kisses and cuddles.

Wednesday 29th October - We went to visit Wendy, Wiggle and Sir H "in residence". Bran and Flora paid no heed to the fact that they weren't at home and that Bran had never visited Wendy's house before and played as comfortably and as madly as if they had been at home!! Poor old Henery and Wiggle just looked on in bemusement! We then took all of the dogs out for a lovely walk on the Marlborough Downs. We walked through the woods so there was lots of sniffing to be done and they all had a really lovely run.

Flora looking gorgeous

Running like the wind!

Bran looking very handsome

Bran and Wiggle

Very attractive Autumnal foursome

Having fun

The very gorgeous Wiggle showing just how much better he is since going to live with his new mummy

Doggy Mix-Up!

Flora and Bran do running

Flora and Wiggle do running!

Thursday 30th October - Mr Branston Beans was officially 6 months old. I spent most of the day saying "HOW???" or "WHEN???". I can't believe it. 6 months!!!

Friday 31st October - Halloween for Bran started with his 6 month health check at the vets. We walked through the park where 2 not very nice jack russells kept running up and snapping at him :o( Bless my brave little boy who didn't pay them any attention at all.

When we arrived at the vets, Bran entertained himself by playbowing and enticingly barking at a 16 year old westie who was really above such things and a very old labrador who couldn't even stand up. And then he improved when in walked a man with a 5 month old staffie! They had a lovely, loud play until Bran was called in to see the vet. She was very impressed with him and wanted to take him home :oD She said that he was fit, healthy and perfect. He weighed in at 22kgs and she was pleased that he is so in proportion given the lab tendency to gain weight.

I then went shopping in the afternoon with my friend Sarah and baby Sam for a while and so to make up for leaving the dogs on their own, I snuggled on the sofa with them all evening and sharing yummies with them. I even slept on the sofa so that they wouldn't be on their own all night and Bran wouldn't need to go into his crate again. Spoiled? My dogs?? Never!! ;o)

We met the House of Bejo!

2008-10-12T15:08:00.006+01:00

On Thursday we went for a very lovely walk at Coate Water Park with Cheryl, Georgia, Ella, Lizzie and Henryno.

Flora did her usual trick of screaming like a banshee whilst still secured in the car and being onlead until we got to the safe offlead area. Bran just seemed a bit overwhelmed by it all and trotted along like a good boy.

The 4 big dogs (for reporting purposes, we'll class Henryno as a big dog even though he is really a little dog although he is nearly 5 months older than Bran!) had a fantastic time racing in and out of water and mud and long grass and trees and barking (Flora and Henry). Bran seemed to have a lovely time too and did lots of sniffing and pottering but refused to go in the water further than dipping his delicate ickle toes in. He seems to have missed the point of being a labrador!! He had a little chase after the others every now and again, but would then come back to his mummy.

Flora, Lizzie, Henryno and Bran
Muddy Lizzie 2 seconds after arrival

Big dogs racing through the grass

Bran walking nicely with Sophie

Getting a helping hand

Family racing!

Bran very bravely keeping well away from the water

Henry sneaking a sneaky sniff!

Lovely Lizzie

Enchanting Ella

Handsome Henryno

Gorgeous Georgia

Ickle Pickle

Day 60

2008-10-07T22:42:00.005+01:00

I can hardly believe that my little Pickle has been here for nearly 2 whole months! It feel like 2 minutes...

Bran has had the excitement of getting used to the car because it is finally back on the road - woohoo!!! Unfortunately, the boot is too high up for him to jump into so he is needing help in and out. Given his current weight, I may be employing the use of the dog ramp again.

He's been to visit Nanny's house a few more times and has decided that he absolutely loves it there. He is a very good boy and does not go up the stairs, even though there is no stairgate blocking his path to adventures. He loves that Nanny has carpet instead of slip-slidey laminate because he can get a proper grip when launching himself at Flora!! They race around practically non-stop when we are there.

We had a rather norty few days a little while back. Unfortunately, I had no photographic evidence of Flora standing on the patio table or Bran dragging plants through the house on the first day, but caught them bang to rights on the second day!

What the day started with the arrival of - bleurgh!!

Norty digger

Norty Chewer

Plant Knock Overers

My little angels :o)

My little devils >:o(

2 seconds later - wrestling in the vines!

Yesterday, Bran got to meet a tiny baby for the first time. The baby in question was my best friend's month old little darling, Sam. Bran has met Sam's older brother, Zack, a few times now but Sam was a new visitor. He wasn't bothered at all, but Flora thought that he was the best thing since sliced bread!!

Auntie Loobie also came to visit yesterday and brought Bran a lovely surprise - a bigger crate! His "old" crate was 2 1/2 foot long but he'd got to a point where if he stood with his nose at one end and his tail straight, it touched the other end!! The new crate is 4 foot long so gives him a bit of growing space, although it is almost half the size of our lounge!!! Auntie Loobie was just a little bit stunned at how much Bran has grown since she last saw him, I think. I took some measurements a couple of days ago and these were:

Neck: 16"

Height to shoulder: 16"

Neck to tail: 23"

Weight: 19.2kgs

So he's now just 2 inches shorter in height than Flora and just 4 inches shorter in length. He's gained another 4.2kgs in just over 2 weeks and is just 6kgs short of Flora's weight!!!

Auntie Fi has come for a visit today and unbeknownst to Bran she is going to be inflicting pain shortly. Mwahahaha!! Actually. He's going to be microchipped at long last :o) That'll save my mum panicking quite so much when he bolts for the front door as she arrives!!

He has some *very* exciting times lined up over the next few weeks! On Thursday we are going to meet my friend Cheryl and her little girl Georgia for a walk with their 3 dogs for the first time. Next week we are going for a walk with Auntie Wendy, Wiggle and Sir H, my friend Ange and the famous Minnie-Moo and my friend Helen (gundog training guru!) with her lab boys Bert and Barney. And then.......we're going for a group walk at Brean with lots of our friends from The Refuge: http://www.rykat.org/forums/index.php?act=idx next Sunday. The children and I are then going away for a few days and Flora and Bran are going for a short holiday to Nanny's house!!! Bran's going to be a social butterfly!

A rare moment of peaceful togetherness

The more normal moment of togetherness

My very handsome little man

Day 44

2008-09-21T15:59:00.004+01:00

It's been a fairly quiet weekend here, so I thought I'd just show you some of the photos that I've taken instead...

Killer Puppy

Strange Sleeping Position

Big Boy (notice that he is snoozing on the sofa next to Sophie who has a plate of food on her lap!)

Gorgeous Boy

Sunbathing with Mika

Silly Boy

Guarding the Washing Machine

Hoooge Ears

My very handsome, grown up boy

The only other big significant marker from this weekend is that today Bran moved up to eating from a large food bowl and is now eating in the hallway rather than his crate - a move which hasn't dampened his appetite at all!

Day 42

2008-09-19T12:29:00.008+01:00

Another milestone was reached today - sad for me, barely noticed by Bran...

He's outgrown his little beds :o( Fi went off with the outgrown soft bed and then when I came in from waving her off, Bran refused to go near his little plastic bed because the bigger bed that normally lives in the kitchen had been temporarily placed in the lounge and he much preferred to spread out in that, thanks all the same. Typically, it will now have to be stored until we next see Auntie Fi, but for the first time in over 4 months I have 2 large plastic dog beds side by side in the lounge. It's sad for me because it means my little baby boy is growing up, but it also reminds me that the last time those beds were together in the lounge we still had our collie boy :o(

The beds in the kitchen have now been replaced by a covered duvet and they are both thoroughly enjoying sprawling on that in the sunshine.

I'm already in negotiations to secure him a larger crate as although he has enough space in his to lie down comfortably and turn around and everything, when he sits upright in it his head is only an inch or so from the top! It's only likely to be a matter of days before I need to be replacing his food bowl with a larger bowl too. He'll have been here 6 weeks tomorrow and it seems to have gone so fast because he's changed soooooooooo much in that time!

Day 41 - Thursday 18 September

2008-09-19T12:29:00.004+01:00

Auntie Fi came for an overnight stop and was quite surprised to see how much Bran had grown!

She brought 2 of her own dogs with her: Twister - the lovely old barky dog - and Chester - the mahoosive, clumsy, elephant dog! Flora adores Chester, but he had mainly been brought along for a visit to remind me how much growing Bran *could* do ;o)

Chester is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and is absolutely huge, but has zero spatial awareness - not a great combination! Hahahaha!! He is also toy obsessed, but an absolute sweetheart. Flora was soooooooo thrilled to find that he was still here when we got up this morning.

Bran wasn't quite so great when he took Twister's lead on the "who can bark loudest" game. He no longer has a "cute" puppy bark, but very much a big boy bark and it is really quite loud! He has a lot of barking stamina too so can go on and on and on and on.........

Anyway. Photos of the visitors.....

Little and Large

Chester - not the smartest cookie in the jar ;o)

Auntie Fi, Twister and Chester

Running away after springing a surprise visit on those poor kids in the background!

Group Shot - don't they all look deceptively well behaved?!

Day 40

2008-09-17T14:13:00.002+01:00

I'm making some initial enquiries into possibly doing some gundog training with little Pickle. I've got no intention of getting to a point where we go shooting (staunch vegetarian household!) but I think the discipline and variation could be very good for him.

He's already showing me just how very clever he can be and just how well he can get into mischief if left to his own devices! Retrieving is also proving to be a good game, although at the moment he's displaying his drives as rearranging everything. He'll fetch shoes from the shoebox and place them all over the house - he's not bothering to chew them, just moving them to new places...

I spoke to a lovely friend who already does gundog training with her lab and she gave me some very helpful advice and suggestions, plus I've been Googling like a mad woman this morning.

I don't think we're going to be able to start on anything properly until next Spring which is perfect timing as it means that Bran will be that much older and I can have already put a good obedience foundation in place by then.

Of course, this may all come to nothing but it's interesting to read about at the moment.

Day 39

2008-09-16T13:48:00.004+01:00

Ooh I've been a bit slack about keeping this updated!

Ok. So what's happened since I last posted?

Last Saturday we took Bran to a car boot sale. I had 2 main concerns - that he would jump up at everybody for attention and that he would jump excitedly on every dog he met. He did me proud :o) Lots of people wanted to say hello to him but each time he stood with his 4 feet on the floor and wagged whilst he was was petted, then turned away to trot off with me. Except for one little boy. This particular little boy was utterly smitten and sat in the middle of the busiest aisle to say hello properly. Bran was thrilled and climbed on to his lap to give him great big poopie snogs! There were lots of dogs there too - all very small dogs. Again, despite my concerns, Bran was a star. He was interested in each dog but only ever went up to touch noses and wagged at them. Unfortunately, almost every dog he tried to greet growled or snapped at him :o( The only dog that I allowed him to bounce with was a poodle who bounced over to us, dragging it's owner behind, with it's tail wagging, it's eyes wide, ears up and grinning. They bounced together for just a few seconds before the poodle snapped at Bran and then pinned him! To make him feel better, I introduced him to ice-cream. I think they are going to be very good friends!

On Saturday evening we had another first, Bran stayed out of his crate while we were eating. Bless him, he just slept at the end of the sofa. When Sophie sat right next to him with her food he didn't pay attention other than to harrumph at losing a little more space! I find it hard to believe that he's a *real* lab sometimes ;o)

On Sunday, I took The Comparison Pic of Flora and Bran sharing the same bed they shared just after he arrived. Don't they look comfy now??? Hahahaha! Bran stayed for about 2 seconds - just long enough for me to take the photo - then legged it because he was too uncomfortable!

Yesterday evening, Bran went to the vets as he's been limping on his front leg for about a week. I put it down to playing too hard with Flora for a little while but a week was long enough. The vet was patronising towards me and was expecting far too much of Bran (he wanted him to walk in a neat, straight line through the waiting room which was full of people, cats and dogs!) but conceded that he did appear to be limping slightly but on the leg opposite to the one that I suspected was causing the problem. He examined the left leg first (the one that I was concerned about) and found almost immediately that Bran was sore around his elbow and that the bones were clicking when manipulated. He also checked the right leg and found no problem. He then told me that he thought Bran was small for his age!!! When I mentioned that most people thought that he was quite big he told me that he might well have a growth spurt in the next month or so! He then weighed Bran and found that he now weighs 15kgs: so he's put on 9kgs in the 5 weeks that he's been with us. Not bad for a small dog ;o) Anyway, current treatment is that Bran has a week of metacam and a week of rest. I'm not entirely sure how that's going to work, but if he's ok by the end of the week then it'll be left at that. If he's no better or worse then he'll be going in for x-rays as it may be the dreaded elbow dysplasia :o( Fingers crossed for improvement!!

I nearly forgot! On the way to the vets I had another Proud Mummy moment. We walked Bran through the park so that he could go offlead for a little while and we met a lady with a black lab and a golden retriever. The black lab bounced over to say hello and Sophie was amazed that "he even dropped his tennis ball" to greet Bran as the labs she knows treasure their tennis balls too much to drop them at some strange dog's feet ;o) Bran then raced back with the lab to greet his mum and doggy friend, whilst Sophie and I walked on slowly. Eventually, I stopped and called him and the little angel left the 2 bouncy dogs and lady-who-had-treats without a second's hesitation. The lady was amazed and asked who old he was. She was astounded that he had such strong recall at just 19 weeks. I was very proud. Especially when her 2 dogs took off to the other side of the park and totally ignored her attempts to get them back!!

I feel blessed every day to have Bran in our lives, but I feel extra proud of him when other people comment on his fantastic behaviour. He's such a good boy xx

Day 35 - A Sad Day

2008-09-12T16:49:00.002+01:00

Today we heard the tragic news that Bran's surrogate chocolate mum, Dolly Doodle, had passed away :o(

Dolly had had a huge mass in her chest and went in for an operation to have it removed on Tuesday. The mass was removed and Dolly appeared to make an amazing recovery. She went home to her family - Wendy, Wiggle and Sir H - yesterday lunchtime and seemed to be quiet but ok. She passed away at 6.30 this morning.

Wendy and the boys came to spend some time with us today and it was just so very strange and sad to not have the chocolate princess trotting around behind her beloved mum :o(

Run free at the Bridge, Dolly Doodle. We will miss you always :o(

Day 31

2008-09-08T11:03:00.004+01:00

And still he grows.................

This morning has mostly been spent digging up the gravel pit, destroying the lawn, delivering clods of earth to the hall floor and wrestling very loudly!

Thankfully, he is now having a rest and snoring!!

Day 26

2008-09-03T17:56:00.005+01:00

After saying that I'd update Bran's measurements once a week, I've not done it since. Doh!

So here are his measurements after a 2 week break and on the day he turns 18 weeks:

Neck: 13 1/2"

Back: 21"

Shoulder: 14"

Weight: 13kgs

Bran's very mean Auntie Wendy has given him the new nickname of Biffer!

He has no puppy fur left anywhere now - even the last little bit on his ears has morphed into grown up dog fur :o( The time has gone so quickly...

Day 24

2008-09-01T10:57:00.003+01:00

Bran's been enjoying going out for his daily walks and it is certainly tiring him out! He's done brilliantly at meeting lots of new dogs and people and is still totally unfazed by it all.

I've recently adjusted his food levels and he's started growing quickly again. Just to illustrate, I took this photo this morning..........

He's not much smaller than Flora any more!!

Day 21

2008-08-29T22:50:00.002+01:00

Today was a very, very special day for Bran.

Firstly, his very special Auntie Loobie (who brought him to us nearly 3 weeks ago) came to spend the day with him again for the first time since bringing him over, together with her son Liam.

Secondly, he got to go out on his first ever real and proper walk. He took it all completely in his stride (excuse the pun!) and wasn't phased by the people or dogs he met. He strutted around the park as if it was nothing special at all.

Ok. So it was a walk in the park. So I'll leave you with lots of photos instead of babbling on....

Day 16

2008-08-24T15:52:00.002+01:00

For the third morning out of 4, I woke up at 7 and before Bran. Woohoo!! We're getting into a lovely routine of waking up, playing in the garden, playing in the house, watching a few episodes of Animal Cops whilst having our breakfasts and then having a little nap ;o) And all before the children wake up!

I just thought I'd do a quick summary of what training commands Bran has learnt in his first 2 weeks with us because I'm quite pleased with him (in case you hadn't guessed that much already!). He knows Sit, Paw, Down, No, Wait and Go On Then (the command that the dogs have to take their food after Sitting and Waiting for it). He also uses his name at the moment as the command to Come which needs to be worked on, but boy does he run fast when he's called! He's also nearly there with Move (the most useful command that I've ever taught my dogs just to get them to move out of the way of whatever) and Fetch. I think that's quite impressive for a little boy of 16 weeks who has only been learning this stuff for 2 weeks.

Much excitement for me today too. I found my first puppy keepsake - a tooth!! Lots of people had told me to look out for them and to keep them if I could but I think he's probably swallowed most of the ones that he's lost so far, so I was really pleased to find one this afternoon. I can't get over how tiny it is though!

Day 15

2008-08-23T11:59:00.005+01:00

2 weeks! He's only been here for 2 weeks. It feels as if I've know this (not so) little brown scrap forever.

Again, I woke at 7 to find that Bran was still fast asleep so I made a huge fuss of him for having slept right through again.

He had to go to the vets this morning for a follow up check on his kennel cough and to hopefully get his second vaccination done. Apparently, the decision to vaccinate whilst a dog is poorly is individual to the vet so I was very much hoping that they'd see how much Bran had improved and let him have the vaccination as he is missing out on so much socialisation.

Getting him there was fun to even start with! Because he's not had his second vax, he couldn't walk and he's far too heavy now to carry and my car is still broken. We decided to strap him into Sophie's buggy....

He wasn't very impressed! But he at least kept still whilst we were moving. He got lots of attention from dog owners in the park as we walked through and he got to see lots of different things on our journey.

He was an angel in the vets again and sat quietly on my lap to wait for his turn. The vet was sufficiently satisfied that his cough had improved enough for him to have the vaccination as he also said that at this point he was more bothered about the lack of socialisation than the cough! What a smart vet ;o) I asked him to make a rough assessment of Bran's age as his growth and development has been so rapid that I've been worrying a little that maybe the age we'd been given initially may have been off, but he concluded that yes, Bran is just about right for a 16 week old pup.

Bran was *very* happy to get home and to be able to run around the garden and Flora was thrilled to see him back. I can only assume that she thought we'd run away with him!

We went to visit my parents and my visiting niece this afternoon. My niece hadn't met Bran before so was pleased to meet him. Bran was far too busy investigating the "new" house and gardens to pay much attention to people. He was very well behaved and didn't even wee on Nanny's carpet! Neither did he try to go upstairs which was very impressive because we have a stairgate at home to stop him from going up, but obviously my mum doesn't. At home when we eat, Bran goes in his crate but whilst we were eating at Mum's I put him on his lead and secured it under my chair leg and gave him a rawhide chew. Some lab he is! He didn't even glance up to the table where all the food was :o)

By bedtime last night, I realised that there'd only been 1 small indoor puddle through the whole of today! More progress from my little boy xx

Day 14 - Friday 22nd August

2008-08-23T11:52:00.002+01:00

Bit of a boring old day today.

My day started at 5.30 (the first time) so back to normal, but Bran went straight back in his crate and slept until 8.30. I was still on the sofa but I definitely feel as if we're making some progress as he is much happier to go back into his crate.

This afternoon I needed to go to Pets At Home to pick up some more puppy food and ended up leaving with 2 sacks of puppy food, a Rogz lead for Flora (to match her collar dontchaknow!), a puppy sized Air Kong hoop and five - yes five - packets of treats!

I also needed to get some shopping at Tesco and so by the time I got home, the dogs had been left for about an hour and a half. I was absolutely thrilled to find them both calm, but happy to see us, and both with empty Kongs and well chewed rawhide sticks :o) I am just so proud of them both but my little boy seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds xx

Day 13

2008-08-21T10:51:00.004+01:00

Wow! Well yesterday morning I was woken at 6.30 by a puppy needing a wee who then very wonderfully went back in his crate, whilst I went back to sleep on the sofa, and he didn't wake up again until 9.30!! This morning, I woke up at 7 and realised that I hadn't been shouted at so hurriedly got up so that I could go and make a huge fuss of him for having slept through with no noise and no wees :oD

My collar dilemma has been solved for the time being!!

I've been trying my hardest to get hold of a matching collar/harness/lead set for Bran, but his neck currently measures 12" so is only 1" off of being too big for most manufacturers' Small size and going into the Medium. If I buy a Small set then he will be out of it within 5 minutes so I'm going to wait until he's grown that extra inch.

Luckily, The Refuge (dog rescue forum which I frequent on a regular basis!) houses a collar maker extraordinaire in the form of Laura elricc. She spends an awful lot of her time and money making collars to sell and the profits go to various dog rescues. She also makes collars and lead sets to donate to raise funds for the rescues. Laura very kindly offered to make a collar and lead set for Bran and I got to choose from masses and masses of materials!

This morning, the postman arrived with a parcel containing the collar and lead set that I'd requested, plus a collar in the same material but larger for Bran to grow into and a collar and lead set for Flora! How lovely is that?!?

Anyway, you probably want to see photos of my babies in their new get-ups ;o)

Don't they look fantastic???

I just need to sort some tags out for Bran now....

Day 12 - Wednesday 20th August

2008-08-21T10:43:00.003+01:00

Today's dilemma is a rather embarrassing one for poor Bran.

At his vet visit on Monday, the vet noted that both of Bran's testicles were present and fully descended. Also on Monday, Bran started attempting to hump Flora. Flora is not best pleased at this form of attention. She's not told him off for it yet, but looks very uncomfortable when he does.

In an attempt to head off any problems, I decided to make initial enquiries about having Bran neutered. As all of my previous dogs have been older rescue dogs, they had all already been done before coming to me so this isn't a decision that I've ever had to make before!

I spoke to the RSPCA clinic (which is attached to the Bristol Cats and Dogs Home) and they advised me that they are happy to castrate male puppies who have testicles present from 4 months and that the operation can be carried out with just a week's notice. They also advised that Bran could be microchipped whilst he was being castrated.

I'm happy to know that they are confident in this approach but really don't know whether I want to go ahead with it just yet as he is still very much my little baby boy. Although, he is quite mature in his attitude and personality.

I know that the subject of "early neutering" is a much debated one that tends to force strong opinions from people and there is much evidence to both support and condone it, but I don't really have a strong opinion for or against it. My strong opinion stands as per every other aspect of caring for a puppy/dog in that whatever decision is made it has to be the best thing AT THAT TIME for said puppy/dog.

I think that my decision for now will be to leave it and see how we go. What I really don't want is for Bran and Flora's relationship to be damaged because she is getting annoyed with his new form of attention, so if we reach a point where I feel that that has become a real risk then I will be making the appointment.

I'm going to start keeping a record of Bran's measurements on a Wednesday to watch how fast he grows. I already know he's grown lots since he's been here but we'll see what happens from here on in.

Today's measurements (16 weeks):

Neck: 12"
Back: 18"
Shoulder: 11"
Weight: 9.5kgs (using Monday's weigh-in for now)

Day 11 - Tuesday 19th August

2008-08-21T10:37:00.003+01:00

I tackled the waking up early thing a bit differently today. When Bran woke me at 5.30 (after having slept right through the night and not weeing in his crate), I took him out to the garden for a wee and then put him back into the crate. I then settled onto the sofa for some more sleep. Not a sound out of him! He slept on for another 3 hours!! I'm hoping that this way he'll get used to going back to sleep in his crate after his early morning wee and I'll eventually be able to go back to bed.

Today we had a visit from my best friend, Sarah, and her 3 year old, Zack, again.

Zack again came into the house scared of Bran but quickly settled and Bran was soooooooooo good that I didn't bother to put him in his crate for the duration of this visit - only when we were eating.

He was left for about half an hour at one point, whilst we walked to the chip shop, and appeared to be absolutely fine. There was no barking this time when we got home and his Kong was well on the way to being emptied. Clever boy.

He was then left for another half an hour or so when I took the children to visit my grandparents in the early evening. Again, we arrived home to a quiet, calm puppy and an empty Kong.

I really do still have to pinch myself to convince myself that he is actually here and is such a good boy.

I texted Fi to let her know how Bran had got on at the vets yesterday and she told me that he'd been previously weighed at his vet visit the day before he came to me. At that point he'd weighed in at 6 kilos! He's put on 3.5 kilos in 10 days!! I think he's going to be a big boy indeed!!

Day 10 - Monday 18th August

2008-08-21T10:30:00.002+01:00

Bit of a strange day today. We were meant to be having a fairly quiet day until Bran's vet visit in the evening, but I ended up having to spend quite a lot of time with my grandparents so Bran got to spend most of the afternoon playing with Flora and the kids.

The visit to the vets was as good as vet visits go, I suppose. Sat in the waiting room was another lady with a very odd looking chocolate lab and she asked me if Bran was a chocolate lab puppy. I replied that he was and she shook her head before telling me that her chocolate lab is now 7 years old and still hyper. Meantime, Bran was calmly sat on my lap looking around and taking everything in but not making a noise or fidgetting. About as far from hyper as you could get without being asleep!

I explained to the vet about his symptoms and she agreed that it was probably kennel cough, but she gave him a thorough examination whilst we were there. My very clever boy just stood quietly wagging his tail while she checked his coat, his eyes, his ears, his nose, his throat, his belly, his testicles, his bottom - everything. The vet then said that she was amazed at how calm he was for a puppy of his age, let alone a chocolate lab puppy! She carried him out to the scales to weigh him and announced that he is a mammoth 9.5 kilos!!! He was then given an antibiotic injection at which he didn't even flinch. He has a 5 day course of antibiotics also and is due back on Saturday for his second vaccination.

After the vets, I took him to visit my grandparents for an hour and he was so well behaved! He just sniffed at them, had a little nibble on my auntie's handbag strap, then fell asleep.

Day 9

2008-08-17T12:26:00.003+01:00

Oh. My. God. My puppy has grown.

I know that seems like a ridiculous statement. Several people have mentioned that he's grown a lot in a short space of time, but I hadn't really seen it myself. However, I took a comparison photo.

I took this photo of Bran and Flora sharing the large bed last Sunday morning.....

And then took this photo - in the same bed and in the same position - this morning....

Not much space to spare!! I don't think they'll be able to share a bed for much longer!

My poor baby is poorly :o( He has a horrible hacking cough and keeps gagging, before occasionally producing some white froth, plus both of his eyes are runny. Typical that it would be a Sunday. I spoke to lovely Loobie and we've concluded that the poor little mite has kennel cough :o( He seems absolutely fine in himself and is still haring around like a loon and eating well so I'm going to get him off to the vets tomorrow. I really must stop Googling though and scaring myself into believing that he has pneumonia...

Day 8 - Saturday 16th August

2008-08-17T12:15:00.003+01:00

Blimey! The little fella has been here for a whole week and still I have to keep pinching myself to believe that he's still here. I think I might love him just a little bit xx

We had quite a nice, quiet day today, although Bran and Flora were left at home alone for the first time while we popped out to the library. Bran was left in his crate with a stuffed Kong and a rawhide chew stick and his Nylabone. I have no doubt that he barked for the usual 5 minutes or so initially, but all was very quiet when we arrived home 45 minutes later. Bless. My next door neighbours are on holiday for a week so we're taking advantage of not being able to disturb them and are going to make sure that the dogs are left alone for some time every day, just to get Bran used to it.

The house training is going well-ish. Bran is now completely clean at night and usually sleeps right through. If he needs to wee during the night, he is doing a quick bark to let me know and I hurry down to let him out with very little noise or fuss, then pop him straight back into his crate after he's visited the garden. There are still a few puddles during the day, but mainly on rainy days because I appear to have acquired the only labrador in history who melts in the rain!!!

He can now sit like a pro and will always sit and wait quietly in his crate when his food is on it's way. Also, they get a treat every time they've been into the garden so they now automatically come in and sit quietly next to the treat jar. I think Bran has been trying to work out how to get his treat faster - Flora always gets her's first - and has started offering behaviours that I haven't even taught him yet!! Flora always does a "sit" then "paw" for her treat. Thus far, I've just been asking Bran to "sit" but now that he is offering it for me anyway, he has also started to offer a paw!!!!! I've put it on command and he will now sort of offer his paw each time he sits anyway.

Bran also got his first bath today as he was a little bit stinky (no, really this time!). It took about half a ton of treats to gently coax him up the stairs and into the bathroom before we'd even started! I'll let Bran tell you about this particular episode....

"Ooh this is a strange place. It's all big and white and makes my voice sound funny. But Mummy keeps shovelling treats down me so it can't be bad" :o)

"It's bad! It's REALLY bad!! There was a noisy thing with rain in it! And just look what it did to me!!! And yet, there are still treats....."

"I'm leaving! I'm not staying here for the noisy rain thing to get me again. Treats or no treats!" >:o(

"The weirdest thing just happened! My mum was rubbing her hands all over me - good times :o) but then my fur started going white and smells funny - bad times :o( What is going on????"

"Phew! At last! I'm out of the big white thing and I seem to be all nice and warm and dry now. Mummy's been giving me LOTS of cuddles and calling me a brave boy"

"Don't I look very handsome now?"

"But it's all been a bit tiring. Best go have a little snooze now"

Day 7 - Friday 15th August

2008-08-17T12:04:00.004+01:00

Today Bran gave Jacob the perfect excuse to never tidy up behind himself again! Jacob had left his dressing gown on the floor (typical male!) and after we'd spent a few minutes watching Bran trying to get into the most awkward positions imaginable to try and get comfy on it, we gave in and arranged it for him in a more convenient location. Spoiled? Never ;o)

And just to prove that he isn't a neglected, bed-deprived puppy who is "forced" to sleep on a thick, plush, velour Marks and Spencer dressing gown....

He did look incredibly cute snuggled up on the gown though (NB. gown is now back hanging on the back of the bedroom door where it should be!)

Eventually, his sensible head took over and he moved into the bed. BUT....... company soon arrived......

Woohoo!! He has finally realised that the cats aren't just here for his chasing pleasure and the cats have finally realised that he's not just here for target practise!! They don't run from him at all now and will happily rub up against him. Now that they aren't running, he's realised that they're actually quite boring and pays little attention to them. That's a great result as far as I'm concerned :o)

Day 6

2008-08-14T13:24:00.005+01:00

After a fantastic night's sleep with no barking whatsoever and without weeing in his crate, Branston Beans got a little treat this morning. We ran out of milk last night and so I needed to do an emergency dash to the shop first thing this morning. As Bran can't go walking yet, I popped him into a backpack, which I wore on my front, so that he could come with me and see the world outside of our house and garden a little more. He seemed very interested in everything and was quite happy to listen to me babbling on to him. He weighs considerably more than I'd anticipated though and I was absolutely shattered by the time we got home!!

Does this face look impressed with this mode of transport to you??

After dropping Fi, Luke and Tamsin at the airport, my next door neighbour stopped to talk to me and mentioned that they were going on holiday the following day. I replied that hopefully the puppy would have stopped his barking at night by then and she was gobsmacked. She hadn't even realised that we have a puppy! That pleased me no end as I've been worried that his yapping has been disturbing the neighbours. Obviously not though :o) I brought him out for her to meet and we had a lovely chat about puppies and dogs in general. Flora then came out to sit next to me and to get her own share of the fuss ;o)

This evening Bran discovered the joys of roaching....

That podgy little puppy tum was just crying out for raspberries to be blown on it, but there was no way that I was disturbing our peace to administer them!!

Day 5

2008-08-13T09:45:00.007+01:00

Famous Last Words indeed....

Bran discovered his voice late last night and decided to object loudly to being put to bed. He eventually settled down but started up again at 1am! I was in a bit of a quandry as to what to do: should I go into him - thus teaching him that barking loud enough for long enough makes me appear, but settling him quickly; or should I ignore him - thus aggravating my neighbours but teaching Bran that barking doesn't get him what he wants?? It was 1 am for goodness sake - my brain was like mush! I ended up doing a bit of both and came downstairs, opened the lounge door and told him to be quiet, then waited outside of the door until he settled down. I was then stuck with the question do I go back to bed normally, or do I tip-toe so as not to disturb him again?!?

To my absolute shame, when I got up this morning, I found that Bran had done a poo in his crate :o( It had been there for some time, so the poor fella must have been telling me that he needed to go with the barking extravaganza. Hindsight is a glorious thing.

That's something for me to investigate today: what am I supposed to do if he tells me that he needs to toilet during the night? He only seems to "tell" me when he is in his crate, he doesn't do it during the day. So do I praise his awareness by letting him out to the garden - whatever time of night it is? Or is there something else I should be doing?

Our friends Wendy, Dolly and Wiggle came by for the afternoon. Bran was *very* excited to meet more labradors and I found it hard to believe that he will ever grow to be as big as Dolly and Wiggle! He did his best to fit in with the big dogs though.....

I don't think that Auntie Wendy liked him very much. I can hardly blame her - he's a particularly smelly and vile brand of poopie ;o)

I was surprised to see just how easily Dolly took to Bran. As an ex-brood bitch I just assumed that she wouldn't like having yet another chocolate baby around her, but she certainly showed me....

There was something very special about seeing 2 chocolate puppy farm rejects who were lucky enough to be rescued by Auntie Fi before being sent on to their new lives snuggling up without a care in the world (for the moment anyway!).

Auntie Fi then came for an overnight visit with 2 of her grown up children in preparation for flying out of Bristol the following morning. Considering Fi had only last seen Bran on Saturday morning, her first words on seeing him were "Oh he's grown!!".

With so many extra people in the house, I opted to sleep on the sofa in the lounge with the dogs and - thankfully - Bran decided not to exercise his voice and to just let everybody sleep peacefully!!

Day 4

2008-08-12T19:58:00.004+01:00

At last! A quiet day ahead!!

Bran woke me at 6 o'clock this morning and I had to literally drag myself out of bed to let him out. However, he had not done a wee in his crate!! I'm so proud of my clever boy!

He objected to the fact that it was raining when he went out of the back and plonked himself on the back door step in protest, but soon headed off when his body woke up properly!

Wonderfully, both dogs came back in and spent half an hour playing whilst I cuddled up on the sofa, then Flora curled up in her bed and Bran curled up on the sofa with me and we all fell fast asleep.

I woke up with a start thinking that we'd dozed for an hour to find that we'd all been asleep for 3 hours!!!

We've had a pleasantly quiet day today.Well, me and the kids have. The dogs have had their now usual routine of wrestling and snoozing and eating and playing tug and snoozing and racing and snoozing and eating and wrestling some more!

Bran has been very good today at proving how clever he is: he has stopped chewing whatever he was intently chewing when told "no" and has happily chomped on his nylabone instead (when Flora hasn't been hiding it from him!); he has been perfecting his sit in front of the treat jar routine; he has been expertly jumping up on to the sofa so that he can attack Flora's head as well as her ankles and.........drum roll please.............I have only had to clear up one puddle today!!!

All in all (and please feel free to mark this down as Famous Last Words) having a puppy in the house is proving to be a MUCH more positive experience than I had banked on. He is just such a delight to have around and can make everybody smile with no effort at all.

Every home should have one ;o)

Day 3 - Monday 11th August

2008-08-12T19:38:00.003+01:00

Another good night's sleep! I was woken at 7.45 by a little voice telling me that they needed to go for a wee. Again, he'd had a wee in his crate during the night so again the day started with putting the washing machine to work ;o)

Rainy morning fun involved my standing out in the rain in my pyjamas waiting for Bran to decide whether he *really* needed a wee or *really* needed to chomp on Flora's tail first! After spending half an hour racing around the garden, then half an hour racing around the house, I gave Bran his breakfast and settled him in his crate for an hour whilst we had our breakfast.

Being a lab AND a puppy, he's very food orientated and seems to lose all control of his manners when food appears!! However, every time he's coming in from having a wee outside, I've been asking him to sit for a treat and that's working like a charm. He's slowly realising that he gets a treat straight after Flora so doesn't need to try to steal her's out of her mouth!

More friends came to visit today - my heavily pregnant best friend Sarah and her nearly 3 year old son Zack. Zack arrived in a not great mood as he'd been sleeping on the journey over and needed to be woken upon arrival here, so he wasn't very thrilled with the welcome he received from the dogs! After a little while though, he felt better and was happy to pat them on the head. Bran started to go into his crocodile mode* though and so I popped him into his crate with a chew for a break. He happily chomped on his chew, then settled down for a sleep without a murmur of complaint. Bless.

Again, the little fella was ready for bed by about 10, so we followed his lead and settled him down. He sat and barked for a couple of minutes tonight, but then settled beautifully.

Bran - Day 2 - Sunday 10th August 2008

2008-08-12T19:11:00.005+01:00

Wow! Very unexpected good night's sleep had by all last night! Bran woke me up at 7.00 this morning because he needed to go out for a wee - what a good boy! He had done a wee in his crate at some point in the night, but it's just a little duvet needing to go in the washing machine - no bother!

It was wonderful to receive a very enthusiastic puppy welcome alongside Flora's usual energetic greeting this morning - until the greetings turned into wrestling!!

As Bran only received his first vaccination on Friday 8th, he won't be able to go out for a proper walk for another 3 weeks and so his exercising at the moment is limited to hooning around the house and garden with his big sister!!

However, I'm going to be making a start on his basic obedience and get him used to walking on the lead around the house and garden. I'm also going to try and fashion out some kind of carrier so that he can be taken out to socialise.

My mum and dad came to visit later in the morning and to meet the new arrival - they were both smitten immediately! Nina, Stewart and Tom left after lunch - after trying to smuggle Bran out! - and we were left to settle as our complete, new family.

Bran started to flag just after 10pm so we put him to bed and we all headed up to bed to read. The little boy let out one little yip and then settled for the night.

The Bran Landing - Saturday 9th August 2008

2008-08-12T18:42:00.007+01:00

"No name! The puppy has no name" were the first words uttered by me on the morning of Saturday 9th August!

My favourite up until then had been Frog (linking in to the whole Frogmella/Brown baby/Harry Enfield sketch that we'd been alluding too since knowing of the existence of our brown baby). However, Jacob was away up in Cheshire with friends and had made it quite clear that he disapproved of Frog.

Eventually we arrived at Bran - still alluding to the whole braaaaaaaaaaaaan baby sketch ;o) It stuck.

Jacob was due to be delivered back at home by my friends (who were also stopping for the weekend) about an hour before Bran was due to arrive. However, they hit lots of traffic on the M6 and M5 and the weather was appalling.

Loobie's updates told me that the story from the M4 was similar.

Tentatively laid plans were suddenly up in the air and it was just a case of everyone getting here when they got here, but I received frequent texts from Loobie telling me how beautiful, quiet, sleepy and handsome the puppy was.

Jacob arrived home in a flurry of excitement and Flora was thrilled to greet my friends, Nina and Stewart and their son Tom, plus their 2 cavaliers (also from Lizzies Barn).

I had just enough time to make coffee before Loobie, and her Puppy Monitor son Callan, arrived with the cutest little chocolate bundle I'd ever laid eyes on!!

Bran strutted in and said hello to everybody as if he'd always been here. My entire family seemed to let out a huge sigh of relief that said "he's home, we're whole again". I'm sure that that sounds like utter madness to those of you who have never had dogs but it honestly felt like the most natural thing in the world for this little boy to be here.

Flora adored him from the second she laid eyes on him. Within 5 minutes of his arrival, they were racing around the garden and playing tug and wrestling and playing hide and seek.

And so the pattern was set for the rest of the day: Bran made himself at home; Flora assumed the role of big sister; the children learnt that puppies have *very* sharp teeth ;o)

He made it very apparent that he is not afraid of anyone or anything, he happily wagged at the cats, he respected the personal space of the grumpy cav (with a little encouragement), he proved over and over again just how robust and brave he is by launching himself at Flora with all of his teeth exposed and we realised just how utterly lovable he is.

Come bedtime, Bran sat in his crate and let out 3 little yips then snuggled down and went to sleep.

Preparing for the arrival of a smelly poopie

2008-08-12T18:07:00.010+01:00

Before I start on this new adventure, I'd better give you a bit of a background.

Our family consists of me (Sarah), Jacob (12), Sophie (10); 4 cats - Kevin (12), Summer (5 1/2), Mango and Mika/aka the Ginger Demons (1); and our dog Flora - a 2 year old American Bulldog. Back in May there would also have been our collie boy Bear (aged 14 1/2) included in that list. In lots of ways he still is, but physically he left a huge gap in our family and we all missed him terribly.

Our very handsome Bear.

After giving ourselves time to grieve and adjust to Bear's loss, it was decided that our now very independant Flora would be happiest allowing a puppy to share our lives rather than an adult dog.

My wonderful friend Fionna of Lizzies Barn Sanctuary (where Flora came from) promised to keep her eye out for a likely candidate. As it was, she came to stay with us for a few days last week and announced - as she stepped through the door - that she had to make a few calls about chocolate labradors that were due to arrive at the rescue. Upon making the calls, we heard that a 14 week old bitch puppy needed a space and so that was our plan scuppered as we needed a dog puppy to allow for the easiest transition for Flora.

However, the following day we discovered that the previous information was wrong and that the puppy was indeed a dog!! It was agreed that we would take him on as soon as possible.

One of the first photos that we received of the puppy needing a home.

Then my car died :o(

And so my wonderfully wonderful friend Loobie offered to collect the puppy and bring him to us. This is *not* the way that the rescue normally does things, but Fionna made an exception as she knows myself, my family and my home so well and she also knows Loobie well enough to know that she would take the best of care with the precious cargo.

Excitement gripped as we realised that we had just 2 days to prepare for the arrival of a chocolate whirlwind!

The garden and house had to be puppy proofed, treats needed to be purchased, suitable toys needed to be placed and the lounge needed to be rearranged to accommodate a crate. It was all done in a flurry with Flora looking utterly bemused at the random bouncing around the house and occasional shrieks of "puppypuppypuppypuppy"!!

Having only taken on rescue dogs who at their youngest had been 7 months, we really had no definite ideas of what to expect of living with a puppy and so I mentally prepared myself for the worst scenario: no sleep, lots of barking, destroyed belongings, chewed furniture, constant puddles on the floor.

Little did we know just what was about hit us!