The importance of blending in

Many of my human readers will know what it's like when you go to a new school and your classmates all tease you 'cos you have the wrong clothes or haircut. 

Well imagine how I felt, rocking up to Craigmancie Farm a few days before Christmas all fluffy, clean and city-groomed, with a wardrobe comprising my smart and pristine red winter raincoat. 

Rest assured, after a couple of days of rampaging round the muddy farmyard with my five fox terrier relatives, I blended in just perfectly.

I was even able to impress my new best friend Bruno with my climbing skills, joining him on his favourite vantage point in the barn. And he was polite enough not to rub in the fact that, as resident stud dog, he is possessed of certain equipment which I now lack...

I think I am at this point supposed to say something about missing Gail terribly, and being thrilled to see her drive up the farm track yesterday morning to take me home again.

I will admit to looking forward to hearing all about Gail's holiday visiting her friend Marse and family in Tacoma (near Seattle) and in particular about Marse's two dogs, Josh and DB. As I've previously indicated, I have high hopes there will be stories about DB behaving very badly, and so any comparisons working strongly in my favour...

I shall report back on this issue shortly, after Gail has given me a thorough debriefing.

On the way home for a bath...

I hope it's not too late to wish all my lovely friends a Happy New Year! 

Delayed gratification at Christmas?

So first I reminded Gail that I have been a (relatively) Good Boy lately  and then I asked her what she was thinking of giving me for Christmas. 

She replied thus. "OK Nobby, since you were so compliant this year about wearing Bouncing Bertie's Nordic Snowflake jumper and posing nicely in the window front of our little tree, I am thinking about knitting you your very own sweater for next Christmas, so you don't have to wear Bertie's hand-me-downs."

I'm pretty confident that my readers, like me, will find her answer at best unsatisfactory, at worst, distinctly Scrooge like.

Christmas is not the season for delayed gratification, am I right? 

Sensing my disgruntlement, Gail continued.

"You know Nobby, I think we in the West all have too much stuff and I'd prefer to give you an experience you will remember and enjoy, and not some toy you will surely shred within five minutes of receiving."

Did you ever hear such a pile of virtue-signalling poppycock? I asked what sort of experience she had in mind anyway. 

"Well Nobby, I know how much you love visiting your relatives. So later today I am taking you for a two week holiday to Craigmancie Farm, and you will get to spend Christmas and New Year rampaging around the house and farmyard with your extended fox terrier family. Won't that be just splendid?"

(photo from Nobby's last stay at Craigmancie Farm) 

It pains me to admit it, but Gail might be right about this being a splendid way of ending the year. What's more, Gail is going to stay with her friend Marse in Tacoma (near Seattle) and I do believe that Marse's dog DB is very badly behaved. So I have high hopes of Gail returning home with renewed appreciation of my winning ways.

Happy Christmas to all our dear friends! This blog is now on a break until at least 5th January. 

Hyperactive tail-wagging

There are some humans whose very proximity prompts one's tail to enter a state of involuntary hyperactive wagging, even before one realises quite why one feels so excited. 

Of course, it didn't take long on Sunday morning to remember that Gail's friend M carries very delicious and generously sized biscuits in her coat pocket, and she can be relied upon to offer these to a certain enthusiastic fox terrier when we meet at the start of a walk.

To be honest, the treat bit was the highlight of our Sunday excursion along the river with M and J. 

I think I've mentioned before that it has been raining quite a lot in Aberdeen just lately. The walk came to an abrupt end when the path disappeared into the still swollen river Dee. 

I really don't know why Gail and J were wasting time debating the issue. I could have told them right away we were going to have to turn back!

Nature Friday strike

Perhaps my friends can tell me how I am supposed to come up with a Nature Friday posts when it has been raining heavily in Aberdeen almost every day for the past two weeks, the riverside paths are flooded, woodland walks deemed too muddy and down by the sea you get blown off your paws.

And then on the one day this week when it finally stopped raining, all I got was a pre-dawn walk skirting the puddles in the park, before Gail headed off to meet her friends for what looked like a fun bike ride. 

Oh, Gail has reminded me that she did take me for a sniff around Dunecht Estate and the sun put in a brief appearance. I guess this is the closest I'll get to a nature post this week...

I trust my friends will have more to show today than tussocks of soggy grass and trees bare of leaves...

A bit more ginger...?

Rupert

Rupert and Nobby

Have you ever noticed, on the photos of my monthly walks with the Aberdeenshire fox terrier gang, that the furs on my big brother Rupert's ears and face are a deeper and more vibrant rusty colour compared with my own more muted shades? 

I've often rather envied him this.

It is well known that I am not one to miss an opportunity. 

When Gail took me for a walk along the River Dee near Banchory, on a rainy afternoon earlier this week, I decided to go exploring in the woods. I slipped through a fence and and found something very interesting so I ignored Gail's increasingly panicky calls.

When I eventually reemerged, it seems Gail did not recognise me right away. Then it was:

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR BEARD NOBBY!!!"

Back home, she immersed my head repeatedly in a bucket of water, but later still complained that I was ruining her attempts at a Christmas card photo with my Prince Harry-esque facial fur tint...

PS from Gail: I have no idea what Nobby found in the woods. At least it didn't smell, and does not seem to have harmed him. I'll admit I was panicking when he was out of sight because, after recent incessant rainfall, the river had become a torrent and I was terrified he might somehow have fallen in and been swept away. Plus, it was around 3:30 pm and getting dark. So I was pretty relieved to see Nobby, despite his newly acquired and rather alarming 'glow in the dark' beard colouring.