Lucky 13th Birthday For Biggles

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Paul

Some say that luck follows from an open and positive state of mind – something I’ve always felt is a defining characteristic of The Bigglet. He really does live in the moment; he’s always ready to take advantage of opportunities that land at his door, he always rejoices in the good things that happen and quickly moves on from bad experiences. It’s a great way to be, and it really seemed to pay off on his thirteenth birthday.

After all the restrictions and stress of lockdown I really wanted to mark his birthday by doing something special, like getting back into the hills. Ben A’an was the obvious choice; it has big hill views but is an easy climb, taking less than an hour from car park to summit. These attributes also make it a very popular hill, best left for weekdays and unpopular times unless you like a crowd. As it turned out Biggles’ birthday landed on a Saturday this year – hardly ideal – but I hoped we could offset that by making a sunrise ascent. That hope took a dent when we pulled into the dedicated car park at 5am in the morning and saw a number of other vehicles, with several groups of walkers already setting out. Biggles of course wasn’t bothered by the other cars and walkers; he was just happy to going on an adventure again after such a long dry spell. He took lead position and kept it every step of the way up!

Over the previous walks we’ve done Biggles has become my trusted little pathfinder, able to pick up even the faintest of trails – a skill that’s come in handy more than once. This time around it was completely redundant; the path up Ben A’an couldn’t have been be clearer. Nevertheless my boy seemed keen to show that he hadn’t lost his ability – in fact he was trying so hard to be the ace navigator that he actually strayed from the path a couple of times. I corrected him but it didn’t phase him in the least; he just changed direction and trotted back into the lead position as if nothing had happened.

Come on Dad, keep up!

As we approached the top I could see that the other walkers had already congregated on summit and my heart sank a little, but this was my boy’s birthday and our luck was in; this morning – against all odds – there was a rare and beautiful cloud inversion, and the best possible viewing point wasn’t from the summit, but from a slightly lower and unoccupied point which we made our own.

After we’d enjoyed the visual feast I unpacked a more conventional treat: duck and venison doggy sausages. I wish I could say the pups really savoured them, but in reality it was more of a chomp-chomp-gulp situation, but tails were wagging so it was all good. Our run of luck continued shortly after this when most of the people on the summit decided they’d had enough and headed down, allowing us to grab a quick solo moment up there after all.

The string of fortunate events continued when we got home; the blackberries at the back of our garden had chosen today of all days to ripen. A private off-lead berry picking session was clearly in order!

Back inside, Biggles had a long chew session with his birthday present – a buffalo horn. Given his liking for cow hooves I’d figured that he’d really enjoy a more exotic animal part, and it looks like I was right.

Worn out from all his chewing and with a tummy still full of blackberries, Biggles rolled onto his back and displayed his furry joy department to the world. He’s done this many times in his life and never once received the admiration and respect that such a fine example of Beagle manhood deserves, but today his luck was in one more time. I was the first to be mesmerised by the spectacle, and when I ran off to get my reading glasses for an even closer look, Susan took up prime viewing position. For the next ten minutes all our attention was on Biggles’ pride and joy, and he was loving it. He barely even noticed me grabbing the tick removal tool and unhooking the whopping great blood sucker that had attached itself to his nethers.

Even when luck comes disguised as a deer tick attached to one’s naughty bits, The Bigglet is ready to make the most of it. Happy 13th birthday my lucky little boy!

Countdown to Poppy

Posted on August 28, 2021 by Paul

We’re just a couple of weeks away from getting our new pup, who we’ve named Poppy. We’ve been to see Poppy’s litter at Tannahill Beagles again, and though we still don’t know which of the 4 tricolor girls will be ours, we do know she’ll be gorgeous, because as you can see from the photos below they all are.

As you might expect we’ve been making preparations for the new arrival. I’ve tightened a couple of loose slats on our garden fence and we’re working through the house to remove potential puppy hazards,. Additionally Susan has been preparing a little den for Poppy in our lounge, so that Beanie and Biggles can get used to the new layout before she arrives.

OK let’s have a look at this…

Hmm.. I have to say this is looking a bit suspicious Dad

We also introduced Beanie and Biggles to this sorry looking pink comforter:

We’d left it with the pups on our first visit to acquire their scent, but apparently their Mum (who is an absolute sweetheart) gave it what might be described as “The Beanie Treatment”. It’s now missing a head and various other bits, but it’s back with us, and oh boy does it whiff! It smells so bad that Beanie was cautious about sniffing it for a while, even though she regularly sniffs Biggles’ bum without any adverse reactions. When we stuck it in the door of the playpen, she kept looking at the toy and then at the playpen as though putting the clues together in her little ginger bonce. Biggles on the other hand hasn’t a clue what’s going on, but he got a treat for sniffing the comforter debris so as far as he’s concerned, it’s all good.

If there’s a treat involved, I’ll sniff anything and like it Mum. That said, it does smell considerably worse than my bum.

Another piece of the puzzle clicks into place in Beanie’s head

And yep, I think she’s worked it out..

Any other owners-to-be for members of the Tannahill “V” litter can see more of their photos here: https://cloud.degoo.com/share/3l9wsvaqUG9lqkz3czkpXw

And here’s a short video clip of the pups doing their thing:

Woof you silly bugger! Woof!

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Paul

From time to time I have mentioned in the blog that His Royal Highness The Bigglet is a bit of a woofer, or even a lot of a woofer. He’s now just days away from his 13th birthday and though he’s calmed down a lot, he is still a rather vocal little boy. I doubt there’s anyone in our village that doesn’t know when it’s doggy breakfast / dinner time, and it still amazes me that our postie feels the need to ring the doorbell, because we can rarely hear it over the woofage. For all that, Biggles often falls silent at times when woofing would not only be warranted, but also very desirable.

Case in point: last week while we were busy down at the bottom of the garden, Biggles decided he’d had enough of the little alpine strawberries we grow for the pups; it was time for some of the full size things growing under our bird netting. Being The Biggly Boy and current holder of the “Best Lead Tangler of 2021” title, he managed to get one of his rear paws caught up in the net. This would have been the perfect time to call attention to his plight with a bit of woofing, but he didn’t; instead he silently panicked and made a bad tangle worse. By the time Susan caught his struggling form in of the corner of her eye, he’d already managed to tear a nail bed. I grabbed him and held him still while I extracted his foot from the Gordian knot he’d made; expecting an infection to develop on the wounded tootsie, Susan made an appointment with the vet. The UK’s infamous Covid “Pingdemic” delayed this appointment by pushing the vet into self-isolation and we subsequently cancelled it as tea tree oil baths and doggy antiseptic ointment had made further help unnecessary. Regardless, the fact remains that there’d have been nothing to worry about if his Biggleship had woofed in a timely and appropriate manner. One could further argue that the net tangle wouldn’t have happened at all if he hadn’t tried to nick our big humie strawberries, but he is a Beagle so that point is somewhat academic.

Another conspicuous example of non-woofing while in a predicament happened the other morning. I opened the crates so that Beanie and Biggles could join us in bed – which they did – and then of course The Bigglet got a bit too warm, rolled out of bed, and landed on the floor with a loud thud. That was not the predicament by the way – that was completely normal – nope, the predicament happened when Biggles started rolling on the carpet. The roll became increasingly energetic and grunty, until about a minute later I heard a hollow metallic thud after which.. silence. Uncomfortable, worrying silence. I poked my head up above the covers and looked in the direction of the most recent commotion and there was Biggles, trussed up like a turkey in the power cable (unplugged, fortunately) of a fan we’d been using during hot nights earlier in the year. His rolling had apparently been so vigorous that he’d ended up at the other end of the room and somehow wound himself up in the cable. He was looking back at me with an expression that said “Dad, I’ve done it again. Please help!”.

But still, no woof.

Now I can appreciate that in the wild a woof for help when in a vulnerable state might gain the unwelcome attention of predators. That said, Biggles is not in the wild and he doesn’t have predators (well, unless you count his sister Beanie) and I’m convinced he knows this. After all, I’m pretty sure wolves don’t hunt socks and howl when no-one comes to purchase them with a biccie. So why doesn’t he once, just once, woof for help in a genuine emergency? I guess it’s just another aspect of the unfathomable mystery that is Biggles’ brain.