Scottie Dog News

By Gus, Sparhawk Ebony Prince, 12 years old

Wow! What a week we’ve had. I was 12 on Saturday and my younger brothers were 8 on Monday. Mum and Dad pampered us really well – didn’t give me enough food though, but I’ll let ‘em off.

You’ve read about my birthday walk, well we went on another one with my full brother William on Thursday, who, obviously, was 12 same day as me! There were 6 scotties on that walk but we had to take 4 humans as well.

Bobby embarrassed himself that day by taking a very serious interest in Baxter, one of William’s friends. He decided to appoint himself Baxter’s minder. He just wouldn’t leave him alone – cleaning his ears, sitting beside him, following him everywhere – just like a love-sick puppy! Although I heard Mum say that she could understand Bobby’s interest in Baxter as he was such a little cutie!

Back on our home patch, Mum has been encouraging us to hop across some stepping stones (which I don’t really like). She says it’s better to cross the stepping stones as we then get more of a chance to run freely across the grassy meadows, rather than being stuck on those dreadful leashes. Still, I try and put up as much resistance as possible, whimpering like a puppy, which then makes her come back for me and I then get carried across. A funny thing happened to her recently though. She didn’t realise that the stones were icy and she slipped in – twice – whilst trying to get us all across. Now she knows what it’s like to get very wet feet.

Anyway, each day some of us hop across the stones, and we have fun in the meadow. Bobby runs the most and also does the most miles as he zig-zags across the paths. Finlay, mummy’s boy, stays by her side. He gets very mardy with all the twigs getting entangled in his fur. He stops frequently to have them removed. He’s fine on the grass though, but still prefers to stay at her side.

Me, I have the task of “Pathfinder”. Mum lets me choose which paths we’ll take and then everyone follows me – it’s just great. I choose the woody paths on purpose just to irritate Finlay. Bobby tries to keep up with me, but his constant zig-zagging means he’s more often then not behind me. He does sometimes try and steal my job of pathfinder, but Mum always has to call him back onto the right route.

I slipped off the stepping stones on Wednesday – Mum just happened to be taking a picture of me at the time, so you’ll see me not looking my best – is it any reason that I get her to carry me across them! It’s alright for those with longer legs.

Mum went to see one of her friends Wednesday afternoon, who also has scotties. She returned covered in wonderful smells. We all sat on the floor together whilst basking in the aroma of our fellow Scotties. She doesn’t realise just how lovely she smells when she returns from a visit to her scottie friends.

Thursday was William’s birthday walk – mentioned above.

Friday nights are “pie nights” for us: our start of the weekend treat! We have home-made pie from the village chip shop and our usual complete biscuit. Mum and Dad have chicken kebab with chips. We sometimes get leftover chicken meat as well – if they’ve not been too greedy!

Today though is Saturday and it’s a miserable day weather-wise. I pretended to show interest in wanting to go out for a walk, but Mum knows us better than we think. Paddling in little streams, and drinking dirty muddy water in puddles is not too bad, but actually going out for a walk in the rain – well that’s not on at all – thank goodness she knows better.

Finlay and Bobby helped her to fix the front garden fence, in the drizzle, but I stayed in the warm. I think I’ve just heard Mum say that there was still some homemade pie for us again, so I’m going to sign off now and start lobbying her for my dinner!