Hibernation and a big black bird

I know I haven't posted anything for ages (my mum has had some personal stuff to deal with), but whenever we can we have tried to visit your blogs as reading your stories makes us smile. 

Enzo and I are both well. We've been hibernating for winter. It is warm inside and our beds are comfy, although we are happy to play outside in the rain too, which is why we sleep with extra towels and easily washable covers on our beds.

Hopefully we will be back to posting about our adventures soon.

In the meantime I thought I'd tell you the biggest black bird flew overhead today... it was above the clouds so all we could see was a dark shadow with a strange sound. It was the first Boeing 787-9 to be delivered in the world. The Dreamliner came to our small country all the way from Seattle! *

My mum, who is not normally a plane spotter, told me way back when the first Concorde came to Auckland and she and her father climbed onto the roof of their house to see it fly over. They weren't mad - other neighbors were standing on their rooftops to to get the best view as the plane circled around Auckland. Then when she worked in London in the late 80's/early 90's every night around seven a Concorde would fly over, so to her it became just another plane. One day there will be more of these big black birds here (as our airline has ordered ten) but for now having one here is somehow really special.


Woofs
Riley

*Video of the plane landing and inside the bird. Photo above is off the NZ Herald website 

Wordless Wednesday

Spring gardening

On Friday afternoon I went with my human to advise her on what she needs to buy for our garden. It is spring here in New Zealand, and I had lots of fun checking out the plants, smelling the roses and getting pats from other people at this dog friendly place. We went home with some seedlings, a lovely new rose bush, lots of vegetable seeds, moth traps for our apple tree and some seed raising mix.

(You can click on these photos to make them bigger)

 

So tell me do you help or hinder your humans gardening efforts? Enzo likes to dig big holes in the lawn when no one is looking, but I prefer to keep my human company while she is trying to make plants grow in the garden. What do you do?

Woofs,

Riley

Wordless Wednesday movie - Two salty dogs last Saturday...

On holiday...

Last weekend I was away at the bach ("bach" is the Kiwi term for a small holiday house) sleeping under the stars (on the deck on soft outdoor furniture - normally I'm an inside dog), enjoying BBQ food, going for long walks with Enzo and my humans, meeting other dogs on the beach, going for swims and even chasing Enzo and seagulls up the estuary (which is on the other side of the peninsula).

  

(Enzo proving that he can run twice as fast as I can,  and four times as fast as the male human!  Of course Enzo forgets his name as soon as he sees a seagull, and I only remember to stop running and turn around when they call out my second name which is "Food")

I ask you, what more could this Golden Retriever want than to spend summer by the sea? I'm counting down the days until we  escape Auckland and go there again.

Enjoy your weekend wherever you are,

Woofs,
Riley

And now for something completely different...

here are some old photos of me, taken in 2010, when I was four which is a few years ago as I turned seven this week!

I had a sore back and one of my back legs wasn't too good, so after x-rays and talking to my vets my human took me to a heated dog swimming pool, where a nice lady dressed me in a fancy red coat, and then got in the water with me. I had so much fun fetching my floating toy that I forgot I was exercising!

My leg is fine now but unfortunately the business closed, so I don't get to go there anymore.

Woofs,
Riley

I am not usually a political animal but ...

http://animalstrike.co.nz/

Wordless Wednesday

Dog saves cat - would you?

Yesterday our mum saw the story of how a cat’s life, here in New Zealand, was saved by blood donated by a dog. She thought the concept of one species helping another like this was pretty amazing, so wanted to share two links to the story (TV3 news and "The New Zealand Herald") and ask what your relationship with cats (or dogs if you are a cat) is like?

I normally just watch my neighbors cats wandering across our property or sauntering up and down beside the fence without much interest. If I had to choose between getting close to a cat or getting some dog food I would choose dog food every time.  

(Here I am trying to ignore a furry beast. Usually 

cats are more interested in me than I am in them)

However Enzo runs as fast as he can to great any cats that come over to visit, then after they get run to the other side of the fence, he runs back and forth beside the fence and woofs as loud as he can at the cat (or cats) on the other side.  This always makes one of the cats return to the fence to try to pat his nose with her paw through the fence palings.

 (Puppy Enzo meeting our grandparent's cat)

(This photo shows the start of Enzo's obsession with cats)

Our mum hears the noise, then rushes outside worried by what Enzo is up to or what he might do. She waves her arms around a lot, and make even louder noises as she calls Enzo away from the fence!  

So what do you do when you see another species close to you, and would you give them your blood? I would help a cat if I could, and my mum says that she would give me her human blood if it helped me, but she is not sure if she wants my blood due the fact that her doctors can get human blood from strangers.

Woofs,
Riley

Green dogs.

Here are some photos from our winter walk this morning around Cornwall Park. This is one of my favorite places to walk in Auckland, and I've posted about this park before (Climbing a volcano,  Winter, My Sunday walk in the Park, Spring is here) if you want to check out the view from the top, and what the park looks like in other seasons.

As long as dogs are on a lead we can go where ever we want to including in paddocks that have sheep, cattle and even roosters! There are so many smells to explore, things for me to sniff out and roll in. However my human always finds it amusing that she has to carry plastic bags to collect any deposits Enzo and I make (and then place these bags inside a green dog) while carefully watching where she walks so she doesn't step in the massive cow deposits and what the sheep have left behind in the same field!

Enjoy your Sunday.

Woofs,
Riley and Enzo

PS On our everyday walks around the neighborhood mum always uses plastic bags to tidy up after us so the streets are left clean. At this park she also always cleans up after us, but she is amazed by how much the cows and sheep leave on the grass that doesn't need to be picked up. Of course, for our noses, what the sheep and cows leave behind is extra  interesting!