RILEY (24 Sept. 2006 - 23 Sept. 2020)

My beautiful boy crossed the rainbow bridge one day short of his 14th birthday. Like all dogs "he was here for a good time, but not for a long time" and I really miss him being beside me. My house is now quiet, but it was his time to go. 

Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on Riley's blog over the last ten years. Sharing his life with you, reading your comments and reading your blogs has meant a lot to me.  

Wordless Wednesday

Our carbon paw-print

Spring in New Zealand... what more could Enzo and I want than a walk in our favourite park to sniff the daffodils and see the lambs. 

(That's me standing.. I'm almost 13 years old now!)

However in the news was an Australian article saying "According to research published in the New Scientist, the carbon footprint of a sports utility vehicle driven for 10,000 kilometres for a year is about less than half of a medium sized dog like a labrador or a Golden Retriever" suggesting dogs and cats should become vegan or be replaced by more environmentally friendly pets like lizards to save the planet! 

Our human (who has no human young ones creating their own foot prints) says she prefers walking with us to driving four SUV's and chooses to do other things for the planet, so for now we don't have to become vegan dogs. 

Perhaps this is a future topic for our old friend Bertie (aka Blogville's Scientific Advisor) to investigate even if it is just to check if his own carbon paw-print is the same as a Mini car. What do you think? 

Love and woofs,
Riley the non-vegan Golden Retriever

Surprise… you never know when I might pop up again!

 

Enzo and I were given this present at Christmas. I was told that there was no expense spared by the two-legged ones as this cost them the huge price of NZ$10 (approx. US$7.75 or 6 Euros).

The box says that our Explorer Tent Set, bought at the local hardware store, is suitable for 3-8 year olds but Enzo turned 7 in December and I’m 11.

Oh well, we are never too old to have some fun or find a new place to sleep during summer!

 

 

 At night our toys keep being thrown back inside the hole at the top by the one who is cast on the couch watching TV in the family room (a.k.a. the boy's room), so I’ve taught Enzo how to “tunnel” between the tepee and the orange toy box to help me get our toys as we retrieve our toys, take them to the couch and then have to go and retrieve them again until we have a rest.

As you can see, we have been busy, but we try to visit your blogs when we can. If you are still reading our blog, please leave us a quick comment as Enzo and I would love to hear from you.

Happy 2018!

Riley and Enzo

Summer in New Zealand

Just a quick post to say I am still here even though I don't blog much anymore. It is now summer in NZ. Look what I found last Sunday... a huge pom pom!

The one who feeds me told me she used to make pom poms when she was a little girl. This one is made up of over 3000 pom poms and is called "Pop! Bang! Boom!" It is part of the biannual "Sculpture in the Gardens" exhibition currently on at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Enzo (wearing the Halti) and I also liked the "Howling Together" sculpture, so we let out a few woofs of approval while this photo was being taken.

Riley

Wordless Wednesday

Not a single bark as we fight for Ted. I have the blue collar and Enzo has the black collar.

( https://youtu.be/c1sVzUnVaFo )

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Enzo

and Riley both say "Woof".

We're both still enjoying life in

NZ and reading your blogs even

though we don't blog often.

Should modern artists be worried?

These original works are called “Towel at back door 1”, “Towel at back door 2” (below),

"Towel at back door 3" (below)

and “New dog-deck day 1”.

As you can see I am creating a series of abstract “PRINTS” and having fun experimenting using our hallway, living room and kitchen floors. Enzo is literally following in my footsteps adding to my designs with his tiny feet!

I then shake of my fine fur coat (spraying mud and water everywhere) and  hear loud screams of delight from my human. She's told me she will save the photos of her walls for another day.  I wonder why?

So what do you think of my art and can you guess what season it is where I live?

Woofs,

Riley

New Zealand has The Best Ball Boys in the World

(Riley) 

(Enzo)

Happy New Year! Enzo and I are still here, and are both well. Since I last posted I turned eight in September and Enzo celebrated his 3rd birthday two weeks ago. Time flies. We haven't posted for ages.  Have you forgotten us? We hope not.  Every once in a while our Personal Assistant (a.k.a. Dogsbody) looks at our favourite dog blogs and tells us about what our good friends in Blogville are up to. Unfortunately she is very hard to train beyond the basics of feeding us on demand, opening and closing doors for us several hundred times a day, taking us for walks, buying us toys, playing games with, brushing us, driving us around town, positioning her feet for us to lie on, collecting our fur from the floor, taking us to the beach and on holiday, etc. We keep trying to teach her new tricks like "write more frequently about us on our blog" but she gets easily distracted and mutters something about all the other things on her Roundtuit List. Maybe this year we will get her better trained!

In the meantime, Enzo and I have developed a new interest in tennis (including watching the "Heineken Open" which is currently being played here) after seeing this video for the "2015 ASB Classic" in Auckland last week. Venus Williams won.

Are you a retriever? What skills and experience would you write on your application to get a job like this?

Woofs,
Riley and Enzo

Where's Riley?

Can you find me? 

Click on the pictures to make them larger. 

Hint... I am not the black Lab, but you can see me!

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