Double Trouble

Double Trouble
It's a Beagle thing!!!

Ruby

Ruby
My baby girl

Oscar

Oscar
My beautiful boy

Sunday 31 January 2010

Getting back to normal at last



Thank you to everyone for all your good wishes, I think I'm on the mend. I think I've had the Norovirus, which used to be known as winter vomitting disease. It all started on Thursday evening and continued till late Saturday, even then I still felt weak and listless. Today I took Oscar and Ruby to the park and quite enjoyed being out and about with my dogs instead of couped up inside feeling sorry for myself! On return I felt hungry(I'd almost forgotten that sensation)
The dogs had great fun and Ruby was behaving excellently, coming back each time I called. The park was full of families playing with sledges, a proper winter wonderland scene! Although, sadly we didn't meet any of our doggie friends.
However, there is a sad footnote to this post - my poor hubbie now has virus and is suffering on the sofa, bless him- roll on summer

Saturday 30 January 2010

I must have broken a mirror


My poor babies have had to do a lot more of this over the last two days. Without going into too much detail I've had a nasty bug and retired to my bed as my bad luck continues! Not only have I got a scabby face but I've had to spend far too much time in the smallest room of the house!! Poor hubbie got the short straw and had to take two excitable dogs out in the newly arrived (grrrr) snow.

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Danger - Beagles can trip you up


He may look innocent but watch out, Beagles are a tripping hazard! I found this out to my cost yesterday afternoon, hence no new post as I was a bit sore and feeling very sorry for myself lol!

We were having a lovely walk in the park, I had turned to call for Ruby, who was very good and started to run back to me straight away, as I turned back in the direction we were going, Oscar, on lead in my right hand, crossed in front of my feet and bang down I went. As I had hold of Oscar's lead I couldn't get a hand out to save myself, the ground just lumed up in front of me. I hit hard on the ground hurting the bridge of my nose and banging my mouth. I look a proper state but I'll be fine. Oscar fared a little better and just seemed a little bemused lol, wondering what all the fuss was about.

Monday 25 January 2010

Barney

Today was a good day for Barney our doggie friend. Last week he had a lump removed which had to be sent away to the lab for tests. Today Barney got some good news - his lump had been pre-cancerous, but all was taken away and the vet is happy that the problem is sorted and no further treatment is necessary. All Barney's human and doggie friends are sooooooooooooo relieved. This is Barney today, off-lead again since since stitches have healed and happy as ever.





Sunday 24 January 2010

Another sorry tale- The legendary Roast Beef Saga

This is another sorry tale that demonstrates my reasons for now keeping Oscar on lead most of the time.

One day I took Oscar to the beach, it was meant to be a lovely long walk, with some fun on the beach too. However, things went pear-shaped (or more correctly beef-shaped) straight away.

As we approached the beach, near the promenade slipway, I let Oscar off lead. He is usually pulling hard at this point because he knows we're at the beach. Just as I released the lead another dog shot past us at full speed with something in his mouth. Oscar took off after this dog in hot pursuit, he likes nothing better than a chase. As I got onto the beach I could see the two dogs chasing in circles and I could hear the other dog's owner scolding her dog and screaming drop it, leave it at the top of her voice. When I got over to her I asked what it was her dog had in his mouth, and just then he passed and I saw for myself. It was a rancid old moth-eaten lump of rolled beef. Her dog had been scavenging in rubbish bags disgarded by the pub on the prom. Goodness knows how long it had been there!

Both dogs continued the chase completely oblivious to our shouts until her dog must have tired and finally came back to his owner, and promptly dropped the beef joint at her feet. Before I could get there, Oscar quick as lightning, had snatched up the joint and made off victorious.

This is where I felt completely helpless. Oscar will never give up any trophies like this, he has even eaten items of clothing in the park. To date he has eaten, vests, knickers, yes, I did say knickers, though his particular favourite is gloves.
So I knew there was a good liklihood that he would eat this thing too. I shouted, I coaxed, I cajoled but he wasn;t giving it up for anything. Other dog owners watched and some tried to help, Mary and Christine and others offered tempting treats, balls,, anything they could find in their pockets but it was no good. In the end Oscar ate the roast beef joint, which was liberally covered in wet sand by now. Once it was gone he did look proper sorry for himself and was immediately sick! Later that day he got no dinner (I thought it best to give his tummy a rest). I think the after-affects were punishment enough. Now you might say - Oh he'll have learnt his lesson, and he won't do that again. Beagles do not learn, they just follow their nose. It's a good job I love him!




This is Oscar in his off-lead days in the park with the gang-if only I could talk and he could understand he could have all this fun once again.

Friday 22 January 2010

Poor Oscar


Poor Oscar ..... we were having a lovely walk today in the park when we bumped into a nice dog we know called Marcy and her friend name unknown. We have met these dogs before on our travels,the dogs have always seemed friendly enough, Marcy bounds around like a typical lab- the other dog, well she seems more timid. Whilst passing the time of day with Marcy's owner the other dog started to give a low rumbling growl at Oscar. Oscar ignored this and was standing by my side watching the world go by. All of a sudden the growling stopped and the dog launched herself at an unsuspecting Oscar - poor boy got a fright and showed some teeth back - all was soon over and we thought it was all noise. I asked if the dog had ever done that before to any other dogs and the owner seemed as puzzled why it had happened as I was, at that we went on our way. Oscar seemed fine and had no obvious marks on him, we met other friends, human and doggie, then made our way home for tea.

Only after tea did we realise that Oscar's ear was bleeding (he does have big ears being a beagle and the three little teeth marks were on the underneath side of his ear). Bless him, he was very brave as I washed the wound gently with anti-bacterial soap and applied savlon. It looks nice and clean so no real harm done. Poor boy was standing minding his own business, hadn't even given this dog a cursary sniff and he got into trouble.

Oscar got big hugs from me and sympathy kisses from Ruby aaaaahhhhhhhh.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

The imfamous Grape Incident

Well, today was quite uneventful, a nice quiet on lead walk this morning in the rain, and a good off-lead run up on the hill this afternoon, again in the rain-you may be able to tell from this that I'm not at all a fan of winter weather!

So let me tell you instead of one of Oscar's imfamous escapades, of which there are many.

It happened when Oscar was just over a year old. We had been out for a nice morning run, followed by lots of housework by me and a snooze for his lordship. Again followed by another long run in the park on the afternoon, after which, having eaten his tea, Oscar settled down to a nice sleep, as dogs like to do, and I set off to do some shopping, as woman like to do!

Upon my return I found a kitchen floor covered in shredded white kitchen roll, and my daugther scolding Oscar for raiding the kitchen waste bin. I had had a very busy morning clearing out the fridge of unused,out of date food, cleaning my kitchen hob with copious amounts of kitchen roll(now shrewn right across the kitchen floor).
My daughter was so outraged at Oscar's naughtiness I started to see the funny side, that is until I remembered that the bin also contained the hardly-touched zip-top bag of grapes I'd had to throw away that morning.

Now grapes, if you didn't already know, are poisonous to dogs and can cause renal failure! Thankfully, I had read about this and knew I had to act quickly. To cut a very long story short, I had to rush Oscar to the animal hospital at Heworth, where they made him sick, violently sick apparently. They then had to keep him overnight (I might as well have stayed too, I got no sleep for worrying). They had to do lots of blood tests and observations throughout the night but thankfully he was allowed home the next morning. Then there was an agonising three day wait for a second blood test which thankfully gave the all clear.

This was the first time Oscar had ever raided the kitchen bin and the last(I haven't had one on show since then lol).

As you can see life is never dull or easy with my Oscar the Beagle! but we all love him to bits! Below is Oscar complete with bandage from the drip he also had to have overnight at the animal hospital.



Tuesday 19 January 2010

Back to scraping car windscreens brrrr

Hello, yes we're back to cold bitter mornings! A swift walk around the block had to suffice this morning, what with windscreens to scrape lol. Ruby was a good girl today and remembered that I am her mam and she has to come when I call - not something beagles are all that good at.

Oscar, of course, is very rarely anything else other than a good boy these days being on his lead most of the time.

I must reveal I discovered something tonight that was news to me - on Sunday I took Oscar and Ruby to the beach - remember, Sunday it was actually sunny and quite warm unlike today (did I just moan about the freezing fog again?!). Whilst there I met Christine and John who look after Oscar and Ruby for me at holiday times. We were chatting when I realised that John was having a slight altercation with a man and his wife about dogs jumping up?! John had spoken out because the man had actually kicked out at the dog. I thought their young dog Peter must have jumped up at the couple and they'd complained. Through a mutual friend, Mary, I discovered that it was indeed Ruby who had jumped up and caused all the fuss.

Can't some folk be ever so miserable - I mean have you seen my baby girl - who could object -- after all she only wanted to say hello. I found it slightly embarrassing that my little pooch had been the cause - beagles, what can I say.

One of our doggie friends the gorgeous Barney has had a little operation recently and is waiting now for test results. We all are keeping our paws and fingers crossed that he will get some good news soon - Barney is a three-year old springer spaniel and such a smashing dog -I'm sure he wiil be just fine x

Sunday 17 January 2010

At last, the sun shone and it actually felt like dog-walking weather yeay It was soooooooooooooo nice today that I decided to take Oscar and Ruby to the beach to have a good run (a tired beagle is always a good thing)

Let me fill you in on a few facts about my lovely doggies - basically, they are sometimes NOT all that lovely We have had Oscar and Ruby from pups Oscar spent the first 22 months of his young life, having a rare old time running rings around me. Although there were times when his recall was exceptionally good, unfortunately, there were more occassions when it was just plain rubbish Nose to the ground he just would not come back, unless, of course, he wanted to As a consequence, Oscar is for the most part on lead for his walks - the exception being the beach where I allow him to run free (except for the 15 metre flat lead still attached - call it my safety net)

Ruby has been a star A star that is in the recall stakes- notice the use of the past tense - just recently Ruby decided to put her nose to the ground and not listen to my calling her back. At the moment she is still free - but if this behaviour doesn't improve, I'll have two little darlings on lead

Today was a good day for both my beaqles - they met their doggie friends,Susie, Jasper, Peter and Jenny, and a few new friends too. Oscar loves nothing better than chasing his ball - he even brings it back sometimes. Ruby had a little selective hearing towards the end of the walk but on the whole she was a good girl.

Later, with the wewther still bright, I took them both for a walk up the nearby hills, which has resulted in two very sleepy dogs tonight. Good job done

Thursday 14 January 2010

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my blog BEAGLESPACE.

Life is never dull with a beagle in the family but with two beagles it's a mad, mad world!

Here I will start to record our daily trials and tribulations..... oh and of course the good bits too.