Honey the Great Dane

I’ve been tagged by my blog friend, Mango the Mastiff, to play a game and the rules are:

• 1) Post a link to your blog entry from one year ago.
• 2) Tell us what was happening then.
• 3) Post photos of significant events between then and now.
• 4) Pass this contest along to three other doggies (an old friend, a new friend, and one other pal)

Well, actually – a year ago, I wasn’t blogging yet! I only started at the end of August last year so I haven’t even reached my 1yr blogaversary (although I just realised that this is my 100th post – what a coincidence!)

But Mango said I could just post a photo of what I was doing at this time last year, so I went and had a look in the folders – and can you believe it, I could barely find a single photo of me in the whole of July last year?! The outrage!

And do you know why?? Because my human, Hsin-Yi, was really busy then with her own dancing – it is called “burlesque” and they were performing at the Auckland Salsa Ball and so all she was doing was going to rehearsals and wearing silly costumes with feathers everywhere…

And to add insult to injury, I wasn’t even invited to the Ball!! Even though there was lots of dancing, they didn’t invite ME – the ‘Dancing Dane’ – oh no, but Paul got to go and I can tell you, I dance a far sight better than him! Humph!

Anyway, if you’re interested, here are some photos of Hsin-Yi’s performance at the ball:

And here is a video of their performance (if you click on the little “HQ” button, you can watch it in better quality. The performance starts at 1:50) – I personally think it would have been a much better performance if there had been a couple of dogs in it!

 

Anyway, I’m pleased to report that since then, there have been plenty of pictures of me! Especially since I started my blog and my humans realised how important it was to have a photographic record of my every breath and every move, no matter how insignificant! Hee! Hee!

Well, so a LOT of things have happened since then…

In August, I had to return my Shayiska Trophy, which I won for the Best Canine Freestyle Routine at the National Dog Training Assemby (NDTA) in 2007 (you get to keep the trophy for a year and then you have to return it unless you win it again! But we did not compete in the NDTA last year so I never got a chance to defend my title...)

I also gave Paul lots of cuddles because he had a very bad Back Sickness which was squeezing a nerve called “spinal cord” and so he could not stand properly or feel his leg and he could not go to work but had to stay home and lie flat most of the time…

…but thankfully, some other Human Vets made an operation which fixed Paul’s back a bit so that he could walk again, although they said that he could never again do many of the things he loves – like riding a horse or a bicycle or anything bumpy…poor Paul!

In September, we found a lost duckling…

…and my humans also told me that (gasp!) they were going to give our house to other people in return for some money paper!

This was because we were doing something called “moving overseas” and my humans didn’t want to feed a monster called Mortgage anymore so they had to let some other family live in our house and feed that monster instead.

 

 

 

 

 

So Lemon and I helped my humans make our house look nice and prepare for “Open Homes” where people come to look at it and see if they like it…

 

Since my humans were planning to take me to a big city when we did the “moving overseas” thing, they thought it would be good for me to get used to being in the city.

So they started taking me into downtown Auckland a lot and we did lots of cafe practice…

…which was GREAT as I always got lots of muffins!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then in November, I went to the Auckland Highland Games to watch my friend, Kira the German Shepherd, do her special trick of jumping through a fire hoop, as part of the German Shepherd Display Team!

 Lemon and I also had our annual check-up at The Vets and Hsin-Yi made a funny video of that, which you can watch here.

 

In the meantime, I was still going to my 6-weekly ‘Refresher Classes’ at Flip’s Top Dog and we were playing some really cool training games  (Games 1 and Games 2) invented by the famous veterinary behaviourist, Dr Ian Dunbar, called “K9 Games” – they are brilliant fun and at the same time, they help us doggies practise lots of important training exercises.

(You can find out more about K9 Games here: http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/k9-games%C2%AE)

Then we had some bad news – because of something called “economic crisis”, nobody wanted to give us enough money paper for our house. It was also a bad time to be doing the “moving overseas” thing. So my humans had a BIG THINK and in the end, decided that it was best to stay in New Zealand for another year. (We are still going to do the “moving overseas” thing, though, and we will now be doing that THIS coming December and we will be going to a place called Brisbane in Australia!)

We did have some exciting news too…a lot of newspapers heard about my dancing and wanted to write about me…I even made the front page!

 

Then came Christmas and my humans went away for a long time to visit their families in far away places. So Lemon and I went to stay at our usual place: The Airport Pet Hotel.

 Meanwhile, my humans went to Dubai, to see Hsin-Yi’s family…

 

…and then London, to see Paul’s family…

It had been a long time since they had gone back to see their families and also, both Hsin-Yi’s father and Paul’s father had bad sicknesses…in fact, in January, Hsin-Yi came back first because Paul had to stay with his father, who was having an operation for his sickness called “cancer”.

Then something very sad happened: Hsin-Yi had just got back to Auckland 2 days when she heard that her father was rushed to hospital. So she quickly put me and Lemon back in the Airport Pet Hotel and hopped on the first plane back to Dubai…but unfortunately, she was too late, although she was glad her father went quickly and did not suffer – and also that she got to spend lots of time with him at Christmas.

And then a really awful thing happened! Just after her father’s funeral, Hsin-Yi got a message from the Airport Pet Hotel saying that Lemon had collapsed suddenly and died from a strange infection! It was such a terrible shock because Lemon was only 5yrs old (like me!) and a young and healthy cat…we had only just had our vet checks back in November!

It was a really horrible time, everything bad happening at once and my humans weren’t even together to make each other feel better…and I was far away from them too. Hsin-Yi felt very guilty that Lemon had died alone at the pet hotel, without her family around her…

Anyway, it was a very sad home-coming when my humans finally came back in February - we picked up Lemon’s body and said goodbye to her properly. And then they did a special thing called “cremation” so that now Lemon lives inside a little wooden box in our living room and can be with us all the time.

 

 Even though she was always bossy to me or teasing me and getting me into trouble, I really miss Lemon…we had come to live with our humans together when we were both 8 weeks old and we had done everything together.

Anyway, my humans said “life must go on” although I could see that they were very sad from all the bad things that had happened…so I tried my best to cheer them up. It’s a good thing that I’m such a busy dog because my humans were soon too busy with my stuff to think about things much!

In March, I had my first and second photoshoots with Rachael Hale…

 

 

Then in April, I danced at the Devonport Dog Parade…

 

I was also the cover star for Nihao Magazine and had a crazy photoshoot for that…

 

…but the most exciting thing was going on my first ever holiday (Part 1 and Part 2) with my humans! We went to Rotorua, where it smells of stinky eggs and there is hot water shooting out of the ground and I got to stay on a farm and go on really cool walks with my humans…

(You can watch a cool video of me doing all those things here)

 

In May, I went to cheer Paul in his “Run 4 Mums” (or Walk 4 Mums in his case, coz he is not allowed to run anymore)…

 

…Hsin-Yi started Camera School one evening each week, so I had to put up with her hovering over me with the camera machine even more than usual…

…then my nice friend, Dizzy Mum, who also has her own blog, wrote a lovely story about me in a magazine called the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly…

(if you want to read it, there’s a link in my sidebar)

 

 

 

 

 

I also started new Therapy visits to go to a special home and see special children who have been hurt by other people -

We play with them and make them laugh and also help to teach them that you don’t have to do hurtful things to others to get what you want…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and I received lots of great things from my blog friends!

 

But I also had to say goodbye to my best friend, Ombre the Standard Schnauzer…who has gone with his family to live in Toronto… (sniff!)…

 

 

 In June, I learnt to swim at last after 5 years!!

 

I also learnt some new dance moves for my new Freestyle dance routine…

 

…went on a tour of the Auckland waterfront…

 

…and met up on a playdate with my blog friends, Cookie & Cinnamon for the first time!

 

In July, I joined Ludo’s Tricky T-Days and started making special ‘tutorial movies’ about Clicker Training to show other doggies how I learn my tricks. I am so happy to hear that some of my friends find these helpful and interesting – and are already learning some of my tricks!

And lastly, last week, I had a great time eating cow poo at Paul’s “digger” birthday surprise!

 

Of course, in between all these things, I also took my humans on lots of walks to the beach…from Mission Bay where I found a giant stick, to St Heliers where I wrestled with a stingray, to Rothesay Bay where I sniffed in the rock pools and of course, my favourite, Bethells Beach, where I met some ‘surfer chicks’, explored a cave and raced my humans on the sand..!

 (And here’s a cool video my human made of my day at Bethells Beach!)

OK, well that’s brought us up to date…whew, am exhausted just telling you all that! Think I need to go and have a nap now!

(And the excitement’s not over -  next weekend I will be competing in a Canine Freestyle competition with my new dance routine!)

Right, so now I must pick an old friend, a new friend and another pal to pass this game onto…

…so I pick:

• Nala – who was one of my first blog friends and always has such beautiful pictures on her blog
• Clive – who is one of my new blog friends, who is always going to the most interesting places in his job as an Assistance Dog
• Daisy the Curly Cat - one of my few non-doggie blog friends, who always has such creative posts!