Seasons Greetings

I hope everybody had a lovely Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year!

It was a lovely day indeed (until Doctor Who came on, but that's a different matter entirely and I fear that I'll only annoy and anger myself if I speak of it). I got up at the later time of half 8 this year as my brother did not get up an wake us all up so I ended up being the first one up and out of bed and ready to open presents. I got my new laptop, which is wonderful.....apart from the itunes issues and the fact that windows 8 is extremely difficult to get the hang of. Oscar too got some lovely presents, not as many as the previous years but then again, he'd be more than happy if you got him an empty box, flower pot or egg carton!

He loves the toy and so far it's still looking intact. The treats were greatly appreciated too although I did specify that only one pack is to be opened at a time, however that did not last long as now all 3 are open!

Oscar was not allowed to come to Christmas dinner at my grandparents house (I did try my best to fight his case but I'm not a good lawyer) so we went out for an extra long morning walk. It really felt like a Christmas morning - cold frosty air, gentle cool breeze and the crunch of hard frosty grass beneath my boots. Oscar didn't care for any of that though and just wanted to get out to stretch his legs and run around like a lunatic!

Would have looked better with snow, but nothing I could do about that!

Wishing some rabbits a happy christmas!

He took to walking through the frozen puddle, he later decided that it was a bad idea!

Zoomies in the garden!

He got one more present that day too, but he had to wait until after dinner to get it. He waited a very long time to finally get one of his own and after all of my indecision and oooo-ing and ahhh-ing he finally has one........ an Equafleece!!! It fits him perfectly just as I thought but it's a nightmare to get on and off. Putting his legs in first and then his head seems to be a lot easier than putting head and then legs in but it's still awkward. There must be an easier way to go about doing it. I was thinking that turning it inside out would help so I'll give that a try tomorrow and see how we go. Here's the handsome fellow himself modeling his new coat, (they're a little blurry)

He had it on him for our walk today and he got it nice and wet and mucky. As soon as we got home I washed off the muck in the sink but I was astounded to find that the inside of the fleece was still bone dry! People had told me such things before and that's one of the reasons why I wanted one but I can't say that I was fully convinced (especially since the Dublin Dog Collar issues). Even my Mam commented on how good the coat looks and feels! So here's to hoping that it lasts a good few years too!

Wishing you all a very happy New Year! 

It's Christmas......

......nearly......

And I'm so excited too! I cannot wait for Christmas! I'll have my own laptop and an Equafleece for Oscar! The only part I'm dreading is transferring all my photos to the new laptop, it's going to take me forever but at least it's an excuse for me to sort them all out.

Oscar will be getting the octopus toy for Christmas.....technically he's already had a little play with it but it's been living in my wardrobe ever since so it will be like he's never seen it before. That's all though I'm afraid as I am broke! For once in my life I have very little money...but I suppose €20 is more than what some people have. Maybe I'll invest it, I'll just jump in my Tardis, go back in time and invest in Apple.

The other good news is that the fields behind the house are finally empty! Well there are horses in field no.2 but they spend their time in the field next to it with more grass in so they're not an issue. And even with the horses within view Oscar still went into all the fields today, he wasn't scared one bit! As it was our first walk back in 'our territory' I took lots of photos!!!  

Green Freedom!!!

Back to recalls again

HAY BALE!!!!!!!!

THERE WAS A HAY BALE!!!

It's a good thing I wore wellies today

In tip top shape thanks to raw feeding! 

Time for a game of 'Catch the Treat'

Got one!

And off again!

Wonder who's paw this could be?

I'm coming!!!

A walk wouldn't be complete without a dash around the garden when we return home! 

Walks have really been dragging on and on and on recently and haven't been enjoyable at all but this walk today was lovely! Oscar was a good as gold and time seemed to fly by. The weather was lovely too. It was cold out but the sun was shining and the fields weren't mud pits.

In other news, Oscar's Dublin Dog collar eventually arrived. You know, that one that was sent out to me 4 weeks ago? Well it arrived  last tuesday......

And thats the Royal Mail - Packet for Ireland, to Australia it goes!  Honestly, I was utterly speechless!
But that's not all, after I complained about the first replacement collar not arriving after 3 weeks, Dublin Dog kindly sent me out another replacement collar. That collar arrived 2 days after the one above, so now I have 2 identical collars, both of which were free! It took a long time to get them here but 2 brand new collars for the price of one broken one - score!
The difference between Oscar's old collar and the new one was unbelievable!

It's not like Oscar goes cave diving and his collar gets a lot of ware and tear because it doesn't, or didn't. I don't really know how so many people with bigger, stronger dogs say that they look as good as new even after 3 years because mine certainly didn't after less than 1 year! But if these 2 new ones live up to the expectations that I originally had (and all the praise that they get)  then I'll never need to buy another collar again.

Time for something different. As of late it's been so hard to get kidneys in the shops for Oscar. Liver is the only offal that I can get and it's getting annoying. He's getting too much liver for my liking but he needs the offal in his diet so what can you do? Not feed as much liver and mess up the 'balance' or risk giving too much liver? I do have some tripe though so for now that's replacing a meal of liver each week but that's going to be gone soon too.
I have no shortage of hearts though. The biology teachers in school kindly proved me with the hearts they use for the dissection experiments. It's wonderful to get them for free and already cut in half for me! But I do get the strangest looks from other students when the teachers ask if I want them, or if the see me carrying them to my locker. And if I mention that I give them to the dog RAW they look at me like I'm crazy. The things we do for our dogs....or maybe it's just me who brings lamb hearts home from school for my dog...

To finish things off I'll leave you all with a few festive pictures of my new pet - Oscar the Reindeer!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!