Dunure Castle

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Paul

We’ve noticed that in our part of the world early morning weather can be really nice even when the rest of the day stinks. Ordinarily we let those brief fair weather opportunities go to waste, but on Wednesday of this week all that changed.

From Beanie & Biggles’ perspective the first sign that things were different came when – at 4am!! – I got up and opened their crates to let them have a snuggle with Susan while I went for my shower. The beaglets never normally get snuggle time this early on a morning. Occasionally they’ve attempted it of course. For example, it’s not unknown for either or both of them to announce an urgent need for the loo, then on their return from the garden conveniently forget that they’re supposed to go back into their crates. But to be officially allowed in bed at such an early hour? That was an agreeable development!

It was even OK a little later when they were be punted out of our bed and relocated into their baskets in the lounge, although Beanie had to explicitly request a blanky to cover her (a princess should never have to ask for such things). What was NOT acceptable, by any stretch of the imagination, was the further upheaval of being told it was time for walkies then being bundled into the car while it was still dark.

Walkies? At this hour of the morning? No, not acceptable at all!

We made the surprisingly short drive to Dunure along almost deserted roads (save for a milk delivery van being piloted by a lunatic) and arrived with 20 minutes or so to go until dawn. Unaccustomed as I am to being up and about so early, I was amazed how much light there was. I’d come armed with a torch but there was absolutely no need for it. While Susan prepared the Beaglets for a jog on their bungee lines, I headed down to the beach with my camera to get some shots of the castle in the dawn light.

About 15 minutes to sunrise…

Here it comes…

The castle in dawn light, which lasted barely 5 minutes!

Once the magical dawn colors had faded I headed back up and caught some shots of Susan and our pups doing laps of the undulating terrain around the castle. As it turned out Beanie and Biggles were thoroughly enjoying their super-early outing, but this new territory was far too sniffy to fully appreciate at a running pace. As a result Susan had a lot of stop-start Beagle behavior to deal with.

Sniffing Beagles underfoot – hit the brakes!

The classic split. Beanie pulls to the side, while Biggles tanks downhill.

That’s more like it!

As a cool-down we all had a walk together, exploring more nooks and crannies around the castle.

Walking the maze. While humans can find navigating to the center of a maze quite difficult, Beagles do it with ease.

See? You just clamber over the walls. What could be easier?

Just as the first local dog walkers were turning out, we were packing up and heading back home. About half way through the return journey heavy clouds flew in, then came the rain, and it never really let up for the rest of the day. That didn’t bother us though; we’d had our dose of sun, and it was time for a catch-up nap anyway.

Intruder Alert

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Paul

We’ve often mused over what career Biggles might choose if he were human. Rocket scientist / brain surgeon would be unlikely, but he’d be a natural as model. As a fireman, his remarkable peeing ability would let him put out fires even when no water supply was available. Sadly though, I think there’s only one role that really suits him: bouncer. He’s certainly been practicing his repulsing skills this last week or so. Our gas boiler’s been on the blink, and each Scottish Gas engineer brave enough to try to fix it has had to get past our little tricolored doorman.

Sorry mate can’t let you in, yer far too casual

The first three engineers got the standard “not with those shoes” patter that’s used for the postie and milkman, but the final guy got the harshest reception ever. Biggles watched him from the lounge window, becoming more and more insensed as he approached the house. When the man came in there was a woofing of biblical proportions, then Biggles charged towards him, completely forgetting about the closed baby gate barring exit from the lounge. There was a loud thunk! followed by the sound of ringing metal as Beagle bonce met tubular steel. The lower part of the gate was unseated from the door frame by the force of the impact, but Biggles himself was undazed and continued to woof, whine and bay at the poor engineer. Even Beanie joined in on the act. What had the guy done to deserve this? Well as far as I could tell his main crime was growing a beard. If there’s one thing that can really wind up Bouncer Biggles, it’s a beard. Or someone with a bicycle helmet, or an umbrella, or the wrong color of jacket, or a flapping carrier bag, or.. well let’s face it, the list of things that can set Biggles off is extensive, but this time it was the beard.

When the engineer disappeared into the utility room to do battle with our boiler, Biggles felt the need to burn off his frustration in a “harring” session with Beanie. What’s harring you may ask? Well it’s a noisy squabbling/wrestling match that begins with two open mouths pressed together and the sound of helium-breathing pirates.

Haaarrr!!

Quite what the gas engineer thought was happening when he heard all the crashes, bangs and wailing coming from the lounge is anybody’s guess, but against the odds he restored our boiler to health and emerged triumphant from the utility room only to receive a further irate woofing. After ~~he’d gone~~ Biggles had seen him off, the two woofers had a hectic play session in the garden to round the day off.

Om, Nom, Gone!

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Paul

Every time I’ve seen the ad for Pedigree Jumbone – the one with the Beagle – I’ve always been highly skeptical. Our two regularly make light work of toys and chews that are meant to stand up to hours of abuse from far bigger dogs, yet here’s an advert claiming that a Beagle’s chewing gear is not up to the task of a jumbone? No way could I believe that, but I never put my belief the test, until now.

May I present the Pedigree Jumbone “Maxi” – designed for proper big doggies rather than small-to-medium woofers like ours.

This particular jumbone was a gift to Beanie & Biggles from Zak, one of their pals. Since it is intended for larger dogs, I decided to share it between our two but cutting it in half was surprisingly difficult. I took a sharp carving knife to it but encountered stiff resistance immediately. I soon found however that once I’d scored it with the knife I could easily break it in two with my hands. This discovery didn’t bode well for the “it goes om & nom & nom” claim, but there was of course only one way to find out for sure.

A few seconds into the trial there were fragments of the jumbone’s inner core on the carpet. Obviously this thing was seriously tasty, but how long could it last against Beanie & Biggles’ battle-hardened chewing gear?

30 seconds into the trial. Amazingly it’s still there and not substantially reduced in size

Have Pedigree actually made something tough enough to occupy a Beagle for more than a couple of minutes? Will Beanie really fare no better than the Beagle in the advert?

Err, no. Not really.

At the 90 seconds mark all that remained of Biggles’ jumbone was a crumb or two, and trust me, one lick later they were gone.

Beanie finished a close second, and still well under two minutes. In my book that is not “om & nom & nom & nom & nom & nom” etc. That’s barely one and a half noms at best. So either Pedigree have found a Beagle with defective chewing equipment or they’re openly telling porkies. Still, the jumbone appears to be tasty, possibly even tastier than the bed from Biggles’ basket, though not nearly as long lasting.

The bed from Biggles’ basket, in Beanie’s gob.

Vetbed. It really does go om & nom & nom & nom & nom…