Scribblings

I have just been reading blog posts by an old friend, Phillip Bruce, an ex-next door neighbour of ours from a time when we lived in adjacent houses just off Worthing's eastern sea front. He was a fine writer having cut his teeth on journalism and PR. Phillip would come home to England 3 or 4 times each year from HongKong where latterly he had handled the public relations element for the then 'New' Hong Kong Airport. When he returned to England full time after the airport's opening and probably, more to the point, after Hong Kong reverted to Chinese control, it was not long before he knocked on our door... In his hand he had a bucket half full of mussels. In all my adult years of living in Worthing it had never occurred to me to collect mussels from Worthing's seashore. It just wouldn't have seemed right.  But, as only a relatively rare visitor... we hadn't socialised too much either - but there he was bucket in hand saying "How about Mussels and Mash...

Firstly let me apologise for the delay...Plenty has been happening since that last blog entry - the one with that baleful photo of me back in February, with the baldy scabby thing on my head and the 'helmet'... The helmet! For four months I wore that thing!... It was loud, hot and the term 'tunnel vision' was mentioned more than once. So anyway the helmet is now a thing of the past - but not before much angst, anger, ineptitude, misdiagnosis, mis-information and a few vets later...  some disappointment and plenty of money... not mine I hasten to add, has been spent. I haven't actually had anything to call my own since my stripey towel disappeared just after I arrived in a box from Crete and was handed over to new uprights in MacDonald's car park in Sevenoaks just off the M25. I am, as I write this, just finishing a course of anti-itch tablets that cost a hundred quid (GBP). I know! ...For a while I thought that the word 'effing' was directly linked...

I've been in the UK for three months now (but I have been on two trips to Brittany too so that's a month in France)... and it's safe to say it's all going well.  Well... with a couple of tiny reservations... As you can see I am wearing a 'hat'. I am being bathed, pummed; administered with creams, lotions, forced to take potions and pills. All of this is accompanied by a mantra of... "Do you know how much all of this is costing, 'King Dog?" Fortunately I'm not made to wear this plastic monstrosity when I go out for a walk... Others of my species would ROTFL or whatever is the modern parlance. It would certainly ruin my street cred. And I don't like to use the common name for what I've got, because it makes me feel... well, less than my best (and anyway I prefer its proper name, 'Mycosis', it, at least, has a slightly classier ring to it)... but it's Ringworm - see what I mean? Ugh!! And, whilst it is far from life th...

Hi Dog Lovers... A lot has happened since my last 'dog blog'... And I've added another stamp to my passport! Even though the journey from Gouves in Crete to Worthing, Sussex was not without its spooky and frightening bits - what with van, ferry, aeroplane (AEROPLANE!!??) ferry again and van stints to get here. But, having settled in for just two weeks in the UK, I was whisked away and crossed over water again. My uprights said it was the 2nd worst channel crossing they have ever had. I can't believe that anyone can have had 200 crossings without being on wages on board the ship... but then, I'm just a dog. In my box in the van (I love my box - I call it home ) I was low down in the ship - but it was much worse than the Mediterranean and I was a bit sick... but the humans said they thought we were all going to die. So...we've been to France and I liked it! They've got what they call their 'renovation project' over there... I didn't have to g...

I have to say... the team back at  Gouves Animal Shelter , in Crete (where I came from)... they did a great job on me ... Along with the rest of the pooches I was fed and watered ... I could wee and poo whenever and wherever I wanted and then, at the end of the day, whichever of the volunteers who drew the short straw would come around and hose down the place down to freshen things up. They all gave us love and life was good. It was warm (not so much rain as here) and I now know that stability had arrived in my life... But, I left Gouves about 10 days ago! And - they hadn't told me about THIS place! Here, in downtown Worthing (I think it must be near the North Pole) I go for a walk every morning (maybe even along the pier). I am still on the coast here but on this one it's a little on the chilly side. The Mediterranean it definitely is NOT... Sometimes there's another walk just after lunch (yeah I have lunch too) and then again, after my evening meal - yep, we may ...

From Crete, in a Crate, all the Way to Worthing in West Sussex... The Rudy Has Landed! It was a long haul from Crete, and the Gouves' Animal Shelter volunteer ladies did us 4 dog-travellers proud! The trip didn't quite go according to plan and I think a few beings... human and canine, got fairly near the end of their tether at times! I've finished up in a place called Worthing hey ho!... And, first impressions are that it's OK. Cooler than Greece but that is just from a temperature point of view initially. I will let you know about the social, hip-hop and night club scene after a few days... I was sick in the back of my new owner's car after being lifted into my new squidgy pet carrier...within the first 30 seconds... and then did a poo on the hall floor as soon as I got into the house... what my new boss called my 'travel plug'! He thinks I'd been constipated after being cooped up in a box for a long time with only a few opportunities to ...

I'll have to qualify that straight away. I don't even know what my name is! In fact I'm not even supposed to know what a 'name' is . There are things happening to me - and around me, that I don't understand... Since just after my eyes opened and I could actually see for the first time, I have been in what I've heard people call an 'animal shelter' with my brothers and sisters... I recognise the words because they are said here all the time... but I don't know what the words mean. Here's another word, one that I've heard humans use and, by association and because I heard it again recently and close by this time, I think I've just been 'castrated'. All I know about that is - it hurts like hell - especially after the anaesthetic wears off! This word 'castration' is something that I've heard just before others around me have disappeared and, when they get back - just before they disappear forever, people start m...