…and it’s so nice having Paul back with the family too! Me & Muesli have been enjoying lots of extra cuddle time…

(Hsin-Yi is not a very cuddly human, really – I think it’s ‘coz she’s a Chinese human and people aren’t very “touchy-feely” in Chinese culture – they certainly don’t kiss or hug friends when greeting them and before they adopted the Western habit of shaking hands, Chinese people used to just bow to each other – no touching!

When Hsin-Yi took Paul back to Taiwan for the first time and introduced him to her best friend there, he scared her friend by trying to kiss her cheek hello, ‘coz that’s what Paul does with his close friends back in England - and even Hsin-Yi’s mummy took several years to get used to being hugged & kissed by Paul’s family when they met!  …

Anyway, so Hsin-Yi likes to show she loves us by doing fun stuff with us, rather than just hugging us – hee! hee!)

It’s great to have Paul back too because he gives us so many extra yummies!! See, Paul always remembers those Very Important Rituals…like the Cookie Before Bedtime and Treats For Staying Home Alone and Treats for Just Looking Adorable…

(and he doesn’t make me “work” for them, like Hsin-Yi does to me! Humph! Look at what she made me do while she spent HOURS getting a good photo! I should report her for Animal Cruelty!!)

Oh, and it’s great to have Paul back on Dinner Duty too! See, usually, he always does our dinners – because he works such long hours and doesn’t get to spend so much time doing stuff with us - so Dinner Time is his special time with us…

Well, Paul takes MUCH more care over our dinner - Hsin-Yi just dumps our “daily quota” in our bowls and gives it to us but Paul…oh, Paul spends ages over our dinners, making sure they are Works of Art!

He always feels sorry for me, especially, ‘coz he thinks my BARF patties look so little for such a big doggie like me and he always puts lots of – ahem – “extras” in my bowl. Like some yummy leftovers from my humans’ food…or a bit of honey drizzled on top… or some lovely stinky fishy bits…or some extra pieces of bread…

Sometimes, he gets a Telling-Off from Hsin-Yi, who is horrified when she sees how much is in my bowl and says I shouldn’t be getting such a big meal in the evenings, because of the risk of the Bloat Sickie!

Mm-mmm…gobble-gobble-gobble…I’m not complaining!!

* By the way, you might have noticed – I’m using a plant pot holder as my “elevated feeder” – hee! hee! Well, back in Auckland, I had a beautiful wooden raised feeder that was specially made for me by a Handyman Human but we couldn’t bring that with us to Australia – so when we got here, Hsin-Yi searched for ‘raised feeders’ from pet stores but all the ones she found cost lots of money paper and were just wobby, metal stands with 2 rings for the bowls – we didn’t like the look of them at all.

So Hsin-Yi decided to improvise!  She saw some metal plant pot holders in a $2 shop that looked perfect. They’re about the same size as my bowls and have 3 legs so they don’t wobble at all. My humans have put a bit of blue ‘non-slip’ rubber matting in them, so that my bowl doesn’t slip around. And they only cost $5 each! And you can easily put them in different places around the house - you don’t always have to have the water & food bowl together all the time.

I have 1 outdoors & 1 indoors – both have a bowl of water in them at all times – and when it’s my meal times, my humans just take the bowl of water out and put the bowl of food in instead (well, with my Raw Meaty Bones in the morning outside, I usually take them straight out of the bowl & eat them off the ground anyway! )  My humans say these metal stands are a lot easier to clean too – they can just be hosed off…’coz I’m a really messy eater!!

Now, you know it’s been almost 2 months since Muesli was allowed out of the house. Of course, being a Scaredy-Kitty like she is, she spent ages even getting used to our (small!) garden but my humans wondered if she would start getting braver and trying to get out, beyond our garden, as time went by…NOPE!

Hsin-Yi read once somewhere that grey tabby kitties grow up to be real “homebodies” and maybe that’s true ‘coz Muesli seems perfectly happy never to explore beyond her own home & garden! Even when my humans open the gates for her and show her outside, she is very careful…she peeks her little face out to look but doesn’t try to go out at all.

She seems perfectly happy to spend her whole time in our garden, scampering around in the few clumps of grass and hunting for anything she can find.

Muesli seems to be a very good hunter ‘coz she is constantly coming in all day and dropping her little “catches” at Hsin-Yi’s feet!! The worst is when she brings in the big cockroaches. The problem is she never kills them – she just brings them in and releases them by Hsin-Yi’s feet!

Last time, Hsin-Yi was sitting at the computer machine and felt something weird tickling her bare feet and looked down & saw the most Humongous Cockroach scurrying around her toes – she JUMPED UP & SCREAMED so loud I nearly had a heart attack!!! Then she was wailing as the cockroach was running around loose in her study and Paul wasn’t home to catch it and Hsin-Yi was too scared to do anything.  Paul thinks it’s ridiculous that Hsin-Yi isn’t scared of big spiders but is terrified of cockroaches…but she says it’s their hairy legs & creepy antennaes!

Anyway, thankfully, most of the time, Muesli catches little lizards instead. She also brings them back alive and releases them too but Hsin-Yi isn’t scared of them. She usually rescues them and puts them safely back outside…honestly, some days we’re doing so many trips, it’s like running a Lizard Rehab Centre!

Oh! And finally – I must tell you about another fun thing that happened a couple of weeks ago. Do you remember my lovely new friends, Carmel & Peter who went on that bush hike with me? Well, they came over to our house for Afternoon Tea!

I love Carmel – she is really good with doggies ‘coz she used to be a petsitter back in the faraway place called Scotland and she has looked after lots & lots of doggies (since she can’t have her own yet) and she knows all the best games and tricks!

We even went out for a little walk together and Carmel did some fun trainings with me…

Well, Carmel & Peter told my humans about a cool thing that happens in Sydney every summer, called the Moonlight Cinema. This is when they show a movie outside in the park, at night and you can sit & watch it under the stars and take a picnic too! So they invited my humans to go & watch a movie with them!

 Hee! Hee! Guess which movie they saw?? Mission Impossible (4): Ghost Protocol. My humans said it was a bit rubbish and Tom Cruise looked awful and shouldn’t really be trying to do “young heart-throb action movies” anymore…and there was a really silly scene of a sandstorm in Dubai which was so ridiculous! Hsin-Yi grew up in Dubai and has been in several sandstorms and they do not look like that – like some monster out of The Mummy! Sheesh! Still, it did give Hsin-Yi the idea for my Mango Minster entry…although she said MY Mission Impossible movie was much better!!

Well, even though the movie was a bit silly, my humans had a great time! And they were so impressed at how organised it was – you could get comfy beanbags to sit on ($5 each) or they were also giving out free blow-up backrests (those yellow things in the pictures) or some really organised people had even brought their own chairs & cushions. My humans took their own yummies for a picnic but you could also buy yummies & drinks there too…and there was even somebody going around giving out free mini-gelato!

Oh! And can you believe it – it’s dogfriendly too! Yup, well-behaved doggies are allowed to go along with their families. My humans didn’t take me, though, coz Hsin-Yi said that although the idea sounds cool, I wouldn’t really have enjoyed it – I would have had to do a Down Stay all the time and be on my best behaviour – and we probably would have been bombarded with strangers coming up constantly wanting to pet me and it would have been unfair to make me sit through 2+ hours of that…

Well, don’t worry – I had a nice time at home with Muesli, catching up with all my blog friends!

* ps. I don’t know why but the Spam filter on my blog seems to have gotten extra sensitive lately – a lot of my friends’ comments are ending up in there! So don’t worry if your comment disappears after you click on “Post Comment” – it’s probably gone into the Spam folder – but we check that every day and we will fish it out!

We had a really tough time in Brisbane – we had to go through 3 vets before we found my wonderful Dr Seung Ho at the Central New Farm Vets (recommended by one of my lovely readers – Oscar the Weirmaraner!) – and in Newcastle, we also had to go through 2 vets before we found the great Hamilton Vet Clinic and Dr Anthony…

So when we moved to Sydney, my humans were really worried. In such a big city, how would we know which vet to choose? How many vets would we have to go through before we found one we liked & could trust?

Then my new friend, Boo, came to the rescue! He told me about his wonderful vet, Dr Ian Murdoch at the Pennant Hills Vet Hospital - who also happens to look after all the Danes that come through Great Dane Rescue NSW. Dr Ian also used to have Danes himself…and he now has a Newfie puppy. So he knows a lot about giant breed doggies – plus he believes in the 3yr vaccine protocol, doesn’t think we should just buy all the supplements, vitamins, injections, etc that pet companies make, without good research-based evidence, and understands about the Raw Diet…He’s the perfect vet for us!

Boo’s human thinks Dr Ian is so good that she drives 40mins to see him – so my humans decided that’s what we would do too. Pennant Hills is on the North Shore of Sydney so it is quite far away from us – but in any case, my humans decided that in an emergency, they would be taking me to the local emergency vet anyway so it wouldn’t make much difference – and they would rather drive further to take me to see a really good regular vet.

So last week, my humans took me & Muesli to go and register with Dr Ian…

While we were waiting for our turn, we got to know the Head Nurse, Shannon who…guess what? Has a Dane too! Yup, he’s a blue Dane called Orbit and he eats the Raw Diet like me!

Well, soon it was our turn to go in & see Dr Ian…I liked him instantly!

Although I had just had a check-up before we left Newcastle, Dr Ian gave me another little “once-over” just to make sure everything was in still ’ship-shape’…

He said I was very good – both a good girl and in good shape! Hee! Hee! He said my heart sounded good, my tummy felt good, my hips moved good, I was moving around well, my eyes were clear, my nails were short, my ears were clean…and my teeth were VERY clean!!

While Dr Ian was writing down his notes about me, I decided it was time to make myself more comfortable. My humans started laughing at me and telling Dr Ian how lazy I was and how I couldn’t stay standing for longer than a minute – if nothing was actively happening, I would always lie down…

…well, honestly – standing is a lot of effort, you know? The wise doggie is the one who doesn’t miss a chance for a little snooze…anytime, anywhere! Don’t they know my motto yet? ‘Why stand when you can sit, why sit when you can lie down?‘

And now…it was Muesli’s turn!

Since Muesli is usually terrified of strangers – especially men – my humans thought she’d freeze up as soon as she came out of her crate…but no! She instantly started scampering around, exploring the room! Maybe it was because we weren’t at home? She even didn’t seem to mind much when Dr Ian picked her up…

This was the 1st time Muesli had been weighed in a long while...and she had grown! She was now 4kg and we think this is going to be her adult weight now. She is a nice slim dainty kitty! Hsin-Yi says she has heard that grey tabbies often become "fat cats" so she is determined Muesli isn't going to end up like that!

Muesli was given the all-clear as well – and will be coming back to see Dr Ian in March when she needs her 1st annual vaccine boosters (after that, she’ll be going on the 3 yearly vaccine like me).

So we all trooped back into the reception where I  got more cuddles & treats! I LOVE going to the vet!!

And my humans got a treat too – just before we left, they got to meet Orbit!

Orbit - the 'Orlando Bloom' of Great Danes

I didn’t get to meet him because Orbit usually comes to work every day with Shannon and so he sees the clinic as ‘his’ place and can get a bit territorial about it – and so he might feel a bit grumpy if he meets a strange doggie there. It would be better for me & Orbit to meet another time on “neutral territory”. So I went to wait outside in the car machine (with the AC on!) while Shannon brought Orbit from a back room into reception, to meet my humans…

…Hsin-Yi thought he was really pretty – yup, she said ‘pretty’, even though Orbit is a boy – and before you think she was insulting him, she meant that he was ‘pretty’ like Orlando Bloom!

Orbit does lots of training with his human, Shannon – such as Obedience – and they even showed us a couple of tricks that they’d learnt, which they said was “inspired by us”!  *blush*

Hsin-Yi was really excited to meet another Dane owner who is into doing training stuff as well (rather than showing, ‘coz Hsin-Yi isn’t really interested in that – but most Dane people are usually more interested in showing than dog sports!).

I do hope I get a chance to meet Orbit properly soon – maybe on a playdate? And hey – he’s only 4yrs old…purrrrr…you know how I do like my ‘toyboys’!! Hee! Hee!

OK, now the rest of this post is especially for my blog friends, Oreo & Chewy and their human, Sara - who asked last time for some pictures of Sydney yummies!

Well, you know Paul was really lucky this year not to be ‘on-call’ over Christmas & New Year…in fact, he had 2 weeks off – which my humans say is almost as good as winning the lottery! So my humans said this was a great chance to do some sightseeing in our new city…except…well, from the pictures I found in their camera machine, it seems to me that they’re seeing Sydney through their STOMACHS!!

Spicy Thai Green Papaya Salad - Hsin-Yi's FAVOURITE!!!

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Beer-battered Fish 'n' Chips

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Sushi Train...

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Grilled Prawns with Watermelon, Ginger & Rocket Salad

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"Death by Chocolate"! - Max Brenner

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Won Ton Noodle Soup - Ding Tai Fung, Sydney

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Italian cookies in Leichhardt, Sydney's "Little Italy"

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Crispy Coconut Prawns - @Home Thai, Glebe

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Apple Fritters with Cinnamon Icecream

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Vietnamese Rice-Paper Rolls - Xiclo, Chatswood

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Chilli, Garlic & Prawn Linguine - Mezza Picca Cafe, Leichhardt

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And here is one of their favourites: a chocolaterie in Glebe called San Churro, serving real Spanish hot chocolate and of course, those yummy, crispy Spanish doughnuts called churros!

Well, see, the problem is - the part of Sydney we live in is famous for having some of the city’s best restaurants & cafes  – so every time my humans head out, they never seem to get further than the cafe down the road…and the next thing you know, they’re busy seeing some ‘sights’ on the menu and deciding that the Sydney Opera House can wait another day!

They did manage to go and visit Sydney’s Taronga Zoo – but Hsin-Yi took so many photos that I’ll have to tell you all about it in another post!

Still, I guess the cafe lifestyle isn’t so bad…’coz sometimes us doggies get to join in!

This was how I made lots of friends back in Brisbane…it didn’t work so well in Newcastle (‘coz I think Newcastle is so small that not many people were reading my blog) – although I did meet Miyuki the Maremma through my blog and she introduced me to the best walk there: the Stockton sand dunes…but I knew even before we moved to Sydney that I had several readers here and I was really excited about meeting them in person and making new friends!

Well, we’d barely been here a couple of weeks when I got a message from a handsome black boy Dane named Boo!

Boo & his human actually happen to live quite near us…isn’t that a great coincidence? And they were so nice and offered to be our personal guides in the neighbourhood and show us all the best doggie spots – from the best parks for doggies to run free to the best dogfriendly cafes and pet stores!

So last week, Boo invited me to a playdate for us to get to know each other better – and also to show me one of the best dog parks in the area…

It’s a big piece of land next to Callan Park, which used to be part of an old mental hospital and some other government buildings…but now they are all empty and the grounds are all free for doggies to roam around as they like!

It is HUGE. It takes at least 1hr to walk around it properly and it is wonderful because it is not just a boring, flat field – there are woods & trees and little streams and hills and bushes and cliffs and rocks and old buildings to explore…

Hsin-Yi told me there was an easier way up the bank & around the bridge...but I decided I wanted to go THIS way!

…and guess what? This park has free Kitty TV as well! What more could a doggie ask for??

Yup – there is a part of the park where a ‘feral cat colony’ lives in one of the old, empty buildings…and you can see all the kitties sunning themselves on the roof!

I got so excited when I saw the kitties – I could just stand and STARE at them for hours!

…and if you walk through the grounds, right down to the waterfront, you get to Iron Cove, which is part of Sydney Harbour…

There’s a path right alongside the waterfront which is called the Bay Run and lots of humans like to go jogging or cycling along it (or walking their doggies) – the Bay Run is really long and only part of it runs through Callan Park – it follows the waterfront all along Sydney Harbour and has lovely views.

Although the area around Callan Park is dog off-leash, my humans made me come and walk nicely next to them when we were actually walking on the path.

Me doing my leash-free Heeling on the Bay Run path...

See – my humans believe that it’s really important for dog owners to make sure that their doggies don’t “disturb” or bother people – like chasing joggers or blocking cyclists or even just going up to people who are scared of dogs – because otherwise, this will give doggies a bad name and make people very “anti-dog”…and then this means they start to ban us from all the nice places. Lots of people already complain about doggies…you don’t want to give them any more excuses!

My humans believe that if all dog owners could be more responsible about their doggies’ behaviours so that they are always good ambassadors and always pick up their doggies’ poo and show people how well-behaved & under control doggies can be, then people will feel more friendly towards doggies (and also help those scared of doggies to overcome their fears) and this will mean that there will be more places that will welcome doggies.

Hsin-Yi often doesn’t bother to put me back on leash for these “sections” - I can do a very good leash-free Heel so she just calls me to her side and makes me Heel with her – this means I must walk on her left side, with my shoulder in line with her knee, and match her pace, and ignore all distractions around me. My humans only make me do this when we have to pass through crowded places or past big distractions but because we have practised this lots, I’m really good at it. Once we have passed through, I get told to Sit – and then my release word (“OK!”) – and then lots of praise & treats!

* It’s very important to “mark” the end of Heeling with a release word – rather than just letting us drift away, even though we have already passed through to a ‘safe’ area. Otherwise, it’s not clear to us doggies when we should be Heeling and when we can be free…and this means we end up with a very “sloppy” Heel where we’re not doing it properly because we keep thinking we can drift out of it anytime.

It’s the same for other commands – a lot of doggies have a poor Stay because their humans don’t use a release word to show them when the’Stay’ ends – and so they just think they can get up whenever they feel like it (when they’ve had enough!) – that’s why they keep breaking their Stays - whereas I have learnt that I must Stay in position (or keep Heeling or whatever) UNTIL I hear my release word. If I get up before my release word, my humans just put me back into Down Stay or Sit Stay again (and again…and again…as many times as they have to, until I get the message). But if I stay until AFTER I hear my release word, I get lots of praise & treats! (if you’re using a clicker, make sure your humans only click AFTER they say the release word – because otherwise as soon as we hear the click, it signals the end of the exercise)

The key to successful training is helping us doggies not get confused – and so by having a very clear Start & Stop to each command, it keeps things consistent and helps us understand what we must do and when.

And I’m off!

Boo is a really bouncy, energetic doggie – he was running circles around me the whole time! Well, he’s only 3 & 1/2yrs old so he’s still a young ‘un. Even at the end of our long walk, he was still full of beans!

Still, I think I kept up with him pretty well – considering that I’m nearly 5yrs older than him!

Dane slalom!

I think Boo was a bit hurt in the beginning because I was acting a bit snooty and even though he kept trying to invite me to play – licking my jowls, jumping all around me and even on me! – I just wasn’t responding much. Well, you see, when I was younger, I used to play with anything that moved…anytime, anywhere! But now that I’m an older, mature lady, I’m a bit more – ahem – ‘selective’ about who I will play with and when I will play. I have to be in the right mood to play…and I usually take a while to warm up to a new doggie, before I decide that I will play with him/her. So it usually takes me till the 2nd or 3rd playdate before I’ll really play properly…

…still, I did show Boo a few of my signature moves!

"The Big Honey Dog Left Hook - match that, young whippersnapper!"

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And before we said goodbye, I gave him a big slobbery kiss to remember me by! Hee! Hee!

I’m so happy to have made a new friend – and Boo’s told me that he’s got LOTS of other great places to show me (well, since that day, we’ve been on 2 other playdates! I’ll tell you about them soon…) – I can’t wait!!

Hsin-Yi is really happy too because Boo’s human, Sarah, has the same beliefs & attitudes towards doggies - she has done lots of training with Boo and really cares about his manners and is also very careful about supervising interactions with other strange doggies and stuff like that – plus she takes Boo out socialising to lots of different places. Sometimes we meet nice doggies but their owners aren’t very sensible or responsible and then Hsin-Yi finds it a bit frustrating spending time with them because they are always doing things in a very different way to us…so she says it’s really nice to find a friend who is a “like-minded dog owner”!

I think we’re going to have great adventures together!

* You can contact Boo through the FB Sydney Great Dane Owners page as his human, Sarah, is the Administrator!

You know how much my humans love walking – and they especially love taking me to new places…it’s so much fun exploring & discovering new things together!

Did somebody say 'cat'?! Where?

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One of the nicest things about the area we’re living in is that it has loads of nice parks – this is one reason why my humans put up with paying so much money paper to rent such a tiny house! Plus it is close to the downtown city and easy to get to places and close to Paul’s new hospital – and also has lots of yummy cafes & restaurants (and you know how important that is for my humans’ tummies – hee! hee!).

Sydney seems to be the most dogfriendly place that we have lived in, in Australia, so far. Many of the parks around us allow doggies to run free in them – not just in some cramped, fenced ‘prison-yard’ that they have the nerve to call a “dog park”, like back in Brisbane - but actually in the main part of the park!

Of course, most of them still don’t compare to the Auckland parks back in New Zealand – many of them are so small… (sheesh – what people consider a “park” here is a bit of a joke!  )  - but there are a few ‘proper’ big parks (which deserve the name!), which let doggies run free in some sections…

…our favourite so far is Victoria Park, which is a proper big park – and lets doggies run free in ALL of it – the WHOLE park – after 6pm!! And it’s a proper, beautiful park too – not just some boring, flat sports fields or waste ground near some industrial estate that nobody wants (which is usually what they leave for doggies ) - oh no, this has trees and flowers and a pond and little hills and lovely views and lots of different landscapes to explore…Yay!! I haven’t been in a proper, nice big park like this since leaving NZ 2 years ago!!

And I met some nice doggies at Victoria Park too! My humans are much happier when I can socialise with strange doggies in this sort of big, wide, natural open space – it means that we doggies can approach & greet each other in a more natural way, with as much “personal space” as we need.

I often find that if I meet doggies in smaller parks/more cramped places – even if they invite me to play, things can still go wrong – ‘coz when I start chasing them, they suddenly start to feel scared and cornered, with not enough space to get away – and then they start getting grumpy and lash out at me (and you know if a doggie attacks me, I will defend myself! but then if any “incident” happens, I’m always blamed as the bigger doggie – even if I was only acting in self-defence…so unfair!) – but in a big, wide open space like this, I can run & play and the other doggies don’t feel as threatened by me because they always have lots of space to get away (and most doggies can outrun me easily in a big space!  ) – so there’s a much better chance of things going well and a “succesful interaction”!

Hsin-Yi says that most of the parks we’ve seen in Australia, so far, are way too small for the number of doggies crowding in there (oh God – like that narrow strip of beach at The Spit back in Brisbane/Gold Coast which was like a multi-lane doggie highway! Horrible! ) – and it’s just a recipe for disaster. She’s hated this the most about moving to Australia - and found it so stressy and has had to be so careful taking me to any place like that. So I haven’t had the chance to make many doggie friends at all when we go out.

(The only good place with big enough space was Nudgee Beach back in Brisbane and the Stockton Dunes, in Newcastle – but of course, dogs aren’t actually officially allowed off-leash in those places, so you have different stress going there, of worrying about Animal Control catching you and giving you a $200 fine! And of course, being the biggest doggie for miles – I’m always the first doggie a ranger sees… )

But now finally – hopefully – with big parks like this in Sydney (where doggies are officially allowed to run free), I can finally make some doggie friends!

Like Emma the Border Collie – who loved getting me to chase her! Boy, she was fast! I tried and I tried but I just couldn’t ever get near!

…and then I met Briscoe, the English Bulldog! Ooh! He was so cute!

My human, Paul, absolutely adores Bulldogs and is always begging Hsin-Yi to have one as their next doggie (if they don’t get a Dane again).

Hsin-Yi isn’t so sure – she does love Bulldogs (they are on her shorlist – and they tick all her boxes of being a placid, calm, easy-groom doggie with a gorgeous wrinkled, jowly face!) – but she’s not sure she wants such an unhealthy breed of doggie.

Bulldogs probably have the most health problems of any doggie breed! And she would like a doggie that is a bit more athletic and able to go for long walks & hikes & stuff – or do other sporty things, if she wanted.

* That’s why she likes Danes so much – ‘coz we’re so flexible when it comes to exercise: we’re easy & lazy & happy with a short walk when our humans are busy but we’re also physically fit & agile enough to go hiking and stuff on weekends. Of all the big, heavy, giant breeds, we’re probably one of the most athletic - we can do the ‘elegant, noble galloping horse’ thing but also do the ‘easy, lazy snoring pig’ thing!

Well, anyway, so Hsin-Yi isn’t sold on the Bulldog idea. But she does love them! And Briscoe was one of the cutest Bulldogs we’ve met! He was a very self-important little chappie and very friendly and playful…

Briscoe had to stay on leash most of the time because he is ball-obsessed – even more than me! If his human lets him off, he would immediately zoom off to the nearest bunch of humans playing ball in the park and try to steal their ball…like this!

It was very embarrassing for his human to have to keep chasing after him to round him up and return the ball…although at least Briscoe was pretty slow & easy to catch! Hee! Hee! :P

Briscoe was actually one of the healthiest Bulldogs we had ever met – and his owner said it was because he was very careful to keep Briscoe a healthy weight (because most Bulldogs – well, most pet doggies in general – are hideously fat & overweight!) and he always took Briscoe out exercising lots, from a small pup, so he has built up good stamina.

He did say, though, that he had to wipe Briscoe’s face wrinkles every day otherwise they get yuckies stuck in them (like my ear yuckies) and he also had to specially clean Briscoe’s tail, which was an “inverted corkscrew” and so grew inwards!

He was actually from Southern California and had just moved to Australia with Briscoe, who had just come out of a month in quarantine. He was moaning a lot about how UN-dogfriendly it was here, compared to his home in California, from renting with a doggie to going out & about - and he was horrified when Hsin-Yi told him that Sydney was actually the best place we’d seen in Australia so far!

Aside from people walking their doggies, there were lots of other people in Victoria Park too…some people walking home from work, lots of Student Humans, and some Jogging Humans too!

In fact, when I wandered off from Hsin-Yi a bit, I met 2 Jogging Humans on one of the paths who got very excited when they saw me and made a big fuss of me and gave me lots of cuddles…

…and when they started jogging again, I decided to join in! Hee! Hee! They were delighted!

When I jogged past Hsin-Yi, she called me and said it was time for us to go home – so I had to leave my new friends…

I had a great day at Victoria Park and hope we get to go back soon – it is my FAVOURITE walk so far!!

And gosh – I sure slept well that night…must have been all that jogging!

ps. Hsin-Yi wants to say thank you for all your comments with the great storage suggestions in my last post! We’ve already rushed out to get some of those special, Command (3M) non-marking hooks…and oh! We found a home for the Vacuum Monster! I’ll tell you all about it in my next post!

pps. sorry – still haven’t had time to come round & visit your blogs but will try to catch up as soon as I can!