The Biggly Boy is two today!

We had a little celebration, actually kind of an agility party, a couple of days ago when the weather was behaving itself. While we were putting up the balloons and agility equipment, Biggles made himself comfy on a couple of canvas chairs we’d left outside to dry after their thorough soaking at lure coursing on Sunday.

The chairs are kind of wobbly and I didn’t think he’d be keen on them, certainly Beanie wasn’t, but he loved the way the seat bottom molded to his shape. They do have one major design flaw though:

Comfy seat – but I can’t reach my beer!

We had two guests for the party, fellow Beagle Bundy and Ru. They each had a go at the agility course and did very well, albeit with a couple of false starts.

What do ya mean I’m supposed to jump it?

OK, got it!

Just like Beanie & Biggles, Bundy had absolutely no fear of the seesaw

Ru was a natural at the jumps!

Obviously no birthday party would be complete without a cake – a sardine cake in this case!

Of course any time you get three Beagles round a table with a tasty, smelly cake on it you can’t really expect to see good table manners.

It’s impolite to howl when the service is a little slow

One shouldn’t chew with one’s mouth open

I’m sure there are also rules about not resting one’s chin on the table..

..not swallowing one’s food without chewing it at least once

..and not proceeding to consume one’s plate immediately after finishing one’s cake

The noise those three Beagles made was deafening. If I ever get to see a full pack of working Beagles going on a hunt I’m going to need earplugs. And through all this, Ru sat quietly by his owner’s side and didn’t misbehave once.  Non-beagle owners have no idea how easy they’ve got it!

Despite the noise and dodgy table manners, I couldn’t help feeling proud of how Biggles has turned out. He’s come on in leaps, bounds and boings since we got a little help with his possessiveness. Admittedly the life expectancy of teatowels, toilet rolls and dishcloths is still rather short in our house, but Biggles is now far more willing to give things up and follow our directions even when there’s no immediate reward in sight. As far as I’m concerned he’s the best Beagle boy there is!

I’ve been trying for ages to get a video of Biggles’ “boinging”. Usually he stops when I turn up with the camera, but today he was so intent on his goal (a tub of margarine!!??) that he didn’t notice me…

We didn’t even know about it until a few days ago, but every year around this time Irvine holds a 12 day festival known as “Marymass”. I’m not quite sure about the origins of the festival; the name suggests a link with the Virgin Mary and a bit of googling confirms this, but there don’t seem to be any religious overtones now. If anything, it’s more of a fusion of pagan and country tradition.

Regardless, there’s folk singing, parades, strange contests (greasy pole climbing and “duck races” anyone?), a festival of light procession and a firework display.  We quite fancied the festival of light and the fireworks, but these are hardly suitable for doggies, so much of the day was spent getting them nice and tired out so that they’d happily nap through the distant bangs & whizzes in the evening. We took them for a long walk on Irvine moor – the site of the firework display – and gave them lots of play time in the garden.

As the evening grew closer they could tell from our preparations that something was afoot, but they still managed to get themselves thoroughly tired out and happily went into their crates for a sound nap. As soon as they were settled, we headed off to Irvine moor.

Earlier in the day the moor had been empty save for a lone van and a guy slowly assembling the firework gear, but now the area was buzzing with people, music and fairground activities. As darkness started to fall people lined the streets around the moor, and the fairground music gave way to the  drummers in the festival of light procession.

Almost as soon as the procession ended, the firework display began. A selection of well chosen Jean Michel Jarre tracks came booming out of the loudspeakers, and the sky lit up:

MaryMass 2010 Firework display from Paul Roberts on Vimeo.

It was really, really impressive. Of course once it was over we had to find our way back across the moor to our car in pitch darkness. Fortunately there were plenty of young Jedis ready to illuminate the path with their lightsabres.

When we got home there were no obvious signs that Beanie Biggles had been distressed by the fireworks, but they did greet us very enthusiastically. Beanie put her paws up on our shoulders and kissed us both, and Biggles wagged furiously. It was late, but we couldn’t really put them back to bed without a little something to chew on…