New Year’s Bay

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Paul

In the past we’ve often celebrated the New Year by going for a good long walk, but this time we hauled ourselves and our sleepy Beaglets out of bed extra early to go do a parkrun at Strathclyde Country Park. This is a different venue from our previous parkruns, and it looks set to be our favorite. For one thing it already has a small but dedicated core of cani-x runners, but over and above this it has an almost ideal course for running with dogs; most of the route is flat and straight with a wide band of grass running alongside it – perfect for overtaking – and the half-way point is clearly recognizable so it’s much easier to pace yourself.

Lining up at the start with my Biggly Boy, I had high hopes for a personal best, but as the starter noted, PB or not all runners were guaranteed their best time of the year so far! It was very exciting, and with Biggles, exciting equals noisy. I did my level best to keep his baying under control using treats as a distraction, and as the last piece of bone shaped biscuit disappeared into the black hole that is my boy’s stomach, we got the “go” signal.

He took off like a rocket, while I took off like a rocket with an ignition problem and a fuel leak, but between us we managed to overtake a fair number of other runners and find our place within the pack. We kept the pace up despite a few patches of ice, and when one of the marshalls offered us a lucky dip from a huge tin of Quality Street, we both resisted temptation.

As we came down the home straight I looked for the little tent that marks the start and end of the race, and when I finally spotted it, it seemed to be a good couple of hundred yards further away than I remembered. This is apparently a common experience for runners at Strathclyde; the organizers insist they don’t sneakily shift it further back during the race to prolong the torture, but I have my doubts! Regardless, we eventually we caught up with the evasive tent, crossed the line and took up position to watch for Susan and Beanie. We didn’t have long to wait – the two of them finished strongly and I got the distinct impression that we’d all be getting personal best times!

The start of the race. With all that grass alongside the track, it’s easy for cani-x runners to run as wide as they need until the pack thins out

Me and the Bigglet slowly moving up the pack!

Susan and Beanie on the outward leg of the course

Many thanks to Ross Goodman and Andrew Jeske for these fine mementos of the run. You can see more pictures from the Strathclyde parkruns on Flickr here and here.

When we got back home, we had a hefty dinner (steak pie & veg of course!) and crashed out in front of the telly, rising only to check the parkrun site for our times. When they appeared, it was PB’s all round: 24.06 for me and Biggles, and 32.19 for Susan and Beanie!

Biggles gets a well earned nap

Beanie hears the camera and strikes a suitably princess-like pose

But she can’t keep it up for long

Biggles reacts to news of his personal best time

What a great way start to 2011!

Christmas 2010

Posted on December 26, 2010 by Paul

We fancied having a nice quiet Christmas Day this time around, but if you’ve got Beagles and the house is full of the smell of cooking turkey, the only way to get some peace is to tire them out and fill their full tummies. For this reason there was no lie-on in Christmas morning! We ejected our two lazy boneses out of bed at a ridiculously early hour (it was certainly well before noon, which is the natural Winter rising time for the pampered beagle) and sent them straight into the garden. As luck would have it they spent a few minutes doing their perimeter checks, then got into a frenzied chase and wrestling match.

They came in from their morning workout assuming they’d get to harass us at the breakfast table then go for a supplementary pre-walk nap just like always, but I bundled them straight into the car and took them to the beach for an hour’s run on the sand. All the chasing and wrestling in the garden hadn’t drained their batteries and as you’ll see from the video the three of us made several unsuccessful “stealth” attacks on the seagulls. It’s worth noting at this point that none of Beanie & Biggles’ seagull raids have ever been successful. I see three reasons for this:

They’re usually tied to me via the Cani-x belt, and I really cramp their style
The Beagle concept of “stealth” is different from ours; it involves baying at full volume the second you spot your intended prey, and certainly well before you’re close enough to offer any threat of capture
Seagulls are totally without honor and think nothing of cheating (aka flying) to avoid becoming a Beagle Happy Meal.

So anyway, we came back from the beach empty handed but just in time for our Christmas dinner. The two B’s got their own version of the traditional Christmas nosh, including a generous helping of Brussels sprouts. I must confess I had serious doubts about the wisdom of giving sprouts to the Bigglet, but so far there hasn’t been any discernible increase in the frequency or potency of his farts. Wish I could say the same about my own.

Beagle Christmas 2010 from Paul Roberts on Vimeo.

After the belly-banger came the opening of the pressies:

Bundy’s rawhide Christmas stockings were a great hit!

Beanie quickly released her Crazy Critter Raccoon

Biggles took a bit longer to unwrap his fox but he was the first to discover it had double squeakers

This present had Beanie puzzled

What could it be?

Aha! A special deaf and flightless species of duck!

Finally the Beagle stealth attack succeeds!

I wonder if Biggles remembers the duck he had as pup?

He’s bigger than he was then and the duck has turned purple, but there’s that same murderous intent to give it a thorough squeaking

With all the activity over and a stomach full of turkey just starting to digest, our two Beaglets felt their eyelids getting heavy. We were similarly sedated by the Christmas pud, and the four of us fell into comas and missed some of the (ahem) “stunning” Xmas telly.

What do Beagle boys dream of on Christmas day?

Peace at last. If you don’t mind the snoring!

Extra Frosted Shopping

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Paul

We got a major chunk of the Christmas food shopping done today. I say “we”, although Susan actually did the shopping while I took our two messketeers for a walk round the nearby Irvine beach park.

Swans and ducks gather in the one corner of the pond that is still accessible

The rest of it is frozen over and covered by a thin layer of snow

The big pond in the park was almost completely frozen over, and someone had clearly ignored all “danger” notices and left a rather interesting pattern on the surface. Beanie also loves to flirt with danger, and as I prepared to get the above shot she darted in front of me onto the pond, hence the cluster of little paw prints by the edge. She was of course on lead so extraction was not a problem, but Biggles’s knows his sister’s penchant for peril and thought it was best to be prepared anyway:

“How do I work this thing?” Or maybe “How do I chew this thing?” is closer to the mark!

After completing a thorough sniff of the lower section of the park (and digging up and consuming an inordinate number of frozen poos) we headed up towards the “dragon” that overlooks Irvine beach.

Almost the second we got up there, Danger Beanie went thrill-seeking, and this time Biggles decided to join her.

Visibility was quite poor up there, but we could just make out a solitary ship braving the unusually calm but misty sea.

By now Susan had fought her way through the checkout queues and made it back to the car park to pick us up. There was a problem however; the shopping had overflowed the limited free space in the rear of our car and taken up residence in Beanie and Biggles’ crates. There was only one solution – I had to have both our doglets on my lap in the passenger seat. It was cramped in there, but very warm and furry. At one point I glanced at the wing mirror and all I could see was noses and ears. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the two B’s; they got a clear view out of the window and gave a thorough woofing to every dog, horse and cow we drove past. The only downside to the cuddlefest was that after eating all those poosicles, both of my little companions were in dire need of a breath mint!