In comedy, timing is everything

Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote, the longer you leave it the harder it is to get back into the swing. So a belated happy new year and here goes.

Unfortunately I had a funeral to attend last month. As is usual, lots of relatives travelled from far and wide to attend and as such my mum opened her house to lots of people to warm up and have a cup of tea. Charlie was very good, he didn’t jump and went round to the various people to be petted. People often say that dogs can sense sadness so perhaps he understood that he needed to behave. Perhaps not!

I let Charlie into the garden, there are French doors along the length of the sitting room so he was quite visible. Chatting away to a relative I looked outside and it appeared Charlie had picked something up in the snow. Down it went again, he was carrying it and then dropping and nudging it so I looked closer. A lump of snow? Piece of ice? Nope. A dead bird, a little dead song bird. Out I went to check and as soon as he saw me he guzzled down the bird as best he could. I called him over and he actually came, but all that I could see were its little feet sticking out of the front of his mouth. Now Charlie is not a retriever, I have been working on fetch but it is not a strong point and certainly was not in effect that day. I took hold of him and was shaking his collar shouting drop in my most authoritative voice, my sister came out with some kitchen roll so that we would not have to touch the bird with our hands and was ready to catch. This was not working. My step dad came out and tried to pull his jaw apart but Charlie was not letting go. I tried putting my fingers over his nostrils to make him open his mouth, nothing. My uncle came out and was trying to pull the bird from his mouth, sister ready to catch, step dad prising the jaws, me shaking the dog, all shouting "drop".

In the end, with the efforts of all four of us, my uncle managed to grab the bird from his mouth. Calm at last. I looked up. 20 horrified faces, dressed in black, mouths open had been observing the chaos through the French doors. Only Charlie could pick this of all days to attempt to swallow a bird whole.

Beagles on the Beach!

Charlie went on his first Beagle Beach walk and as you can see from the Picture was very very tired afterwards!

We met at old Hunstanton and about 15 Beagles were let loose on the sand. It would seem that Charlies energy levels are a Beagle thing, they were tearing around, mostly Chasing after Charlie. As you can see from the photos, catching them was quite hard, most of my pictures are of expanses of sand with some white dots in the distance.

At one point Charlie did look like he was going to swim to Norway as he started chasing Seagulls in the opposite direction to the way we were walking. But he was geenrally good. I have to say the I have no CBB story to tell other than what fun it was to watch them all hooning around!

The Flying Beagle

Charlie and Merlin take Flight

Sorry that I haven’t posted for so long. Charlie has been as busy as ever but his biggest adventure was his first Beagle walk. We met up in Ely and went for a lovely walk with a group of dogs, four of which were Beagles. We were very sensible, keeping them on leads until we got to the river. As soon as we let them of it was total carnage, locals must have thought that the local hunt hounds had escaped because they tore off baying as they went! Charlie had most of his fun running around with his friend Merlin with whom he played the ‘chase me’ game for about an hour. As far as I can see, this game is a bit like tag except when you catch the other dog you have to bowl into it and have a bit of a wrestle before you switch over. I cannot believe what a brilliant photo Sally managed to get of them with their ears flying.

It would also appear that I have bought a water beagle, Charlie likes to paddle but he has never actually been swimming, it would appear that he has no fear, though that is no surprise! I just threw the ball in and told him to go get it – what a good dog! Although I did realise my mistake after this – I was going to have to take him home in the car. I need one of those towel bag things where you zip the dog in and it has to sit in the towel and can’t get the car filthy, I think that might have to come for Christmas. He does look a bit of a sorry state all curled up in the car on a horses exercise blanket!

Please don’t think though from this happy tale that Charlie has mended his destructive ways, the little monster spent Monday evening at my Parents house, systematically destroying the cushion to one of her arm chairs. I’m not sure how all of this stuffing came out because I tried to put it all back in but it doesn’t seem to fit. I think I am going to have to get the sewing machine out and perhaps learn to upholster furniture before we’ll be invited back!

 

Charlie B Beagle and the Christmas Jumper

Charlie lives with me in a very old cottage; as a result we don’t have any central heating. We do have lovely log fires but it can get a bit cold, especially mid-week when we haven’t had a chance to light a fire. Because of this I thought I ought to get Charlie a little jumper to keep him warm. Problem is that there wasn’t much of a range of plain jumpers, there was glitter and fur trim and diamante. So we go this little number, Charlie was not amused as you can see from this photo. I think it looks a bit like a Christmas jumper that you granny gets you, I was hoping he could pull off the Geek c’est Chic look but I don’t think he is convinced! In fact, when I released him he started trying to get the jumper off and carried the jumper, with him still in it outside to try and escape. What I missed on this video was that in one manoeuvre, he was so determined to get out of the jumper, he pulled so hard that he flipped himself over!  I am hoping that he is going to learn that this is the key to him being warm at home and he will stop trying to eat it!

No. We haven’t been robbed!

My friend was reminding me today of a story from over the summer. I’d been out partying the night before and being a little broken I thought I would have a nap on the sofa at lunchtime. Charlie hopped up and he got snuggled up under the blanket for a little sleep.  Off we dozed until I could hear voices calling my name. I’d forgotten that I had invited my friends and their baby over for coffee to meet Charlie and they had let themselves cautiously in having had no response when they knocked and were calling for me. However, it would appear that Charlie had not been asleep for the whole time, he had been having a bit of a party whilst I was asleep! There were cushions everywhere, toys shredded, he had ripped out the stuffing on the sofa – total carnage! The first question “have you been robbed?!” No I had to admit, this is just what Charlie does when I am not watching him!

So after this wonderful first impression, Charlie was not done, he promptly stole the baby’s rattle and hooned off around the garden with it, requiring me to chase him about. Not great when you are hung over and a little sleepy.

Luckily Charlie was pretty well behaved whilst they were visiting and spent most of his time in the garden. Thomas then pointed out that Charlie kept running in and out of the kitchen. That was when I realised that he was running in, stealing a packed of Smackos, running outside to snuffle them and then coming back for more, he ate five packets – naughty beagle!

Three Beagles but only one CBB

We’ve actually had quite a good week. I don’t think we have had any crazy chewing, there has been some serious digging in the garden but I can live with that. I did bust him playing in the garden with my toy beagle that was a gift. I didn’t have time for photos because it was being dragged around in the mud and I wanted it back pronto. How he got it I do not know because it was on a windowsill. He would have had to climb on the back of a sofa, on top of the microwave and then up onto the windowsill!

At our Scent work class at the weekend we met our instructors’ dogs Harry and Merlin. Charlie may have met his match in Merlin as they tore around the hall playing with Harry supervising. I think Charlie is getting the gist of Scent work, he is getting quite quick and has managed to find a scented rag in a box in another box – very clever beagle! He got a little overexcited when we got out a lot of cones that they had to search under, he started by ploughing through all of them and grabbing the cones not the toy. I suppose at least he was having fun!

 

Charlie did manage to resist diving into my very delicious steak dinner, but he sat very close and tried to look very cute hoping I might drop some. I’m afraid to say that I did not so he had to make do with a doggy treat from the snack jar.

 

I have also been trying to train him to the whistle, though I think I just look a bit nuts at the moment because I am trying to make the whistle exciting so I blow it and them play crazy games. I am hoping that I will get a response out of Charlie before I am labelled the local nut!

Still CBB but a very Happy Hound!

Sorry there hasn’t been a post for a while; do not be fooled into thinking that Charlie has been behaving, I have just been really busy.

So in way of an apology I give you a few of Charlie pictures, not particularly related to any story but quite amusing none the less!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the weather has turned colder he has taken more and more to sneaking into my bed. His latest trick is to wait until I am asleep and then creep in so I don’t notice. He likes to be snuggled under the duvet and since he has located the electric blanket he is always tucked right at the bottom. How he doesn’t get too hot I’ll never know! 

He is looking suitable guilty in this photo having been busted by me for eating my lunch box. The comedy of this was that he was in his harness strapped to the back seat but chewed through the strap and made his way into the front seat to find the Tupperware but took it back to his original seat as if I might not notice– bad beagle!

 

 

I do enjoy that he has taken, snoopy style, to sitting on top of his kennel, though I am a little nervous that he can now reach the fence into the neighbours’ garden!

We have been trying to do lots of fun things in an attempt to distract Charlie from being quite such a BB and so we have found a new scent work class in Ely where Charlie can hone some of his hound tendencies! He actually really loved it although if you click this link to the video you will see that he was as interested in the boxes as he was by the actual toy! He was very excited and there was lots of barking but we got this photo in a rare moment of quiet.