Tag Archives: dogs

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Welcome Bella

We have a new member of the family. An 8 week old puppy called Bella. She is a Bichon Frise cross Poodle and is, according to Jean, as cute as a button.

Bella has spent two days settling into home and already our routine has been turned upside down.

Poppie the dog doesn’t quite know what to make of her but is certainly making sure Bella knows she’s second in line.

Rosie the cat has spent a lot of time outside – voluntarily – but I suspect their showdown will come soon. Curious Bella with all the innocence in the world versus smart Rosie with claws.

And, of course, Bella is already the most photographed dog in Wellington.

The year that was

Everywhere I look the last 12 months are being reviewed – news, sports, politics – the best of, the worst of – clearly this is the time of year for reflection. Never being one to miss a trend, here’s our year in review.

It started in a cold UK and ended in a warm and sunny New Zealand. Along the way there has been travel, adventure, triumphs and sadness. Going back through the photo album, a few images leapt out.

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Before and after

Poppie went for her groom today. It was a bit overdue so we delivered a shaggy little scruff to the lovely Calley at Smoochpooch. We picked up, what looked like, someone else’s dog!

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This is a post I’ve been dreading

Yesterday we lost our wee girl Daisy. After fifteen years and seven months her big heart finally gave out and she slipped peacefully away. We will miss her terribly but we will always remember the stubborn and determined, but intensely loyal and devoted little girl she was.

Our lovely vet Laura has, for the last year or so, referred to her as our medical miracle – which she was.

We will think of her simply as our Daisy, our little girl.

Daisy  1997 – 2012.

Daisy asleep in the cottage on our clothes – Tuscany, June 2011

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Here comes the sun

From the end of May to the middle of August our house loses the sun.

For the other 10 months of the year it basks in the golden glow but for the darkest depths of winter the sun teases us as it passes over the front fence never coming any closer. This was one of the reasons we decided to spend July in Europe each year usually returning just as the sun started to creep inside again.

Over the last few days we have seen the sun start to return – much to the delight of Poppie who spent this morning asleep on her recently adopted rug on the stair landing, warmed by the sun.

For Jean and I it means that summer is that little bit closer.

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How quickly routine takes over

We’ve been back in our house for nearly three weeks and it’s amazing how quickly the daily routines of life take over. Having said that, in the last fortnight we’ve had a family wedding, my sister staying for a few days and the arrival of painters to turn the house into temporary chaos so maybe that’s not exactly routine.

The girls have settled back in as if they’ve never been away and are back terrorising those who dare to walk past our front gate. If you have seen our dear old Daisy in the last few months you would not recognise her now. Since coming home she’s had a new lease on life – in the video she’s the wagging tail on the right.

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Coming home

Daisy rediscovers the delight of sleeping on our bed

On Friday we moved back into our home. It is almost a year to the day since we moved out and already that year seems like a blur. Since arriving back in New Zealand with five suitcases, two carry ons and two boxes of freighted stuff we have clearly accumulated some more as it required a small van to move us from the home of our friends to our place.

We arrived home with a little more than we left with

It was fascinating seeing the reaction of the dogs when they walked through the front gate. They knew this place – and immediately set about rediscovering everywhere they used to go and the things they used to do. Those that say dogs just live in the here and now are wrong, our girls remembered everything.

Even old Daisy with her heart condition, failing eyesight, deafness and tendency to collapse at a moments notice gained an added spring in her step and sniffed out her old haunts – immediately starting to bark at those poor passers-by who dared to walk on the pavement outside her front fence. I could almost hear them curse “those bloody barking dogs are back”.

As I write this Daisy is curled up in her basket beside me asleep, at peace with the world. And that’s a good thing.

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Freedom!

A few days ago the girls completed their quarantine in Levin and were released with a clean bill of health. We are currently staying with friends and the girls have settled in quickly.

Doing time

It’s amazing how long ten days is. The law change of January 1 meant that the quarantine for dogs coming to New Zealand went from nothing to ten days. Ten days, that’s nothing we thought. But now we are here and waiting for next Monday seems a very long time. We are amusing ourselves visiting the outlet shops in Otaki, heading to the beach – Waitarere to be precise, and generally soaking up the rural lifestyle but our girls aren’t with us.

It feels like the girls are doing time, porridge, a stretch, or whatever the term is for a prison sentence. Each morning we arrive and expect to find them sporting new tatoos or a really short haircut, or to be walking a little funny. We’ve contemplated a prison break or smuggling a file in inside a can of dog food as a way to shorten their stay. As you can tell our minds are wandering. We are really bored with this.

Having said that, the facilities are probably a lot better than the average prison (even an above average prison) and it is only ten days – well, only 3 to go now.

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Heading home

After the best part of 11 months living la dolce vita, the Mowday family are moving on. That meant a tough decision between opportunities that have come up to spend another summer in Italy or a return to New Zealand. And, ultimately, the decision was made by the health of our girl Daisy.

At 15 years old and with her heart condition, we felt she only had one big trip left in her and after some soul searching we felt that trip should be home.

That’s meant fixing flights for Jean and I (the easy part) and booking the girls in for a return journey and a battery of tests and treatments to ensure they aren’t carrying anything nasty back into New Zealand.

We also had to find someone to freight back the bits and pieces we have collected on our travels including Jean’s famous Italian vacuum cleaner.

The big question-mark over any planning was Daisy’s health and her ability to make the trip. That came down to a health check a day or two before we flew. If the vet decided she wasn’t well enough to fly, we were staying in the UK. Like the trooper she is, Daisy passed the health check and the girls departed on the same flight as us from London via Los Angeles to Auckland.

Thankfully they arrived in New Zealand none the worse for wear after their 36 hour flight and are now in quarantine in Levin. For my non New Zealand readers that’s a small rural town about a one hour drive north of our home city of Wellington. We’ve moved into a nearby motel so we can make sure Daisy gets her twice daily medication and to be able to spend some time with the girls as we countdown to freedom in 10 days time.

Walking in the country

This afternoon we took the dogs for a walk in the country. For dogs as small as ours that means a quick circuit around the park at the end of the road. They both loved it. We loved it when we got home and had to clean two sets of muddy paws. Right now both girls are sound asleep, exhausted.

The little freeze in pictures

As expected, we awoke to a white world. Although the snow covering was less than a week ago it was still enough to keep the kiwi contingent in Bromham happy.

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Daisy asleep in a small girls room

Yesterday I was putting together a storage unit for wee Jordan. It was from Ikea (what a fantastic retail operation that is) so was flat-packed and required assembly. Daisy clearly got bored with watching me exercise my limited carpentry skills and decided that Jordan’s beanbag chair was an ideal place for a snooze. So in amongst the chaos that follows a house move Daisy became an oasis of peace and tranquility.

Also an excuse for another cute dog photo.

The big freeze – a kiwi perspective

We were warned for the best part of a week, it was from Russia and it was going to hit Saturday night. Road gritters started gritting the roads mid week and Heathrow cancelled one third of their flights in advance. It was the arrival of ‘the big freeze’.

In the last couple of years the UK has developed a habit of grinding to a halt when the first decent snowfall of winter arrives. Airports close, roads are impassable and trains never leave the station. The country essentially stalls until the snow melts.

This year was a repeat of the past with snow falling all night Saturday. As a result, Sunday was all about warnings to ‘not leave home’ and to ‘reduce your speed’ if, indeed, you had to go out at all. Having said that, by Monday everything was largely back to normal with an inch or so of snow hanging around on the ground. For those up early in the morning, ice was the main hazard.

From a kiwi viewpoint the “big freeze” was actually quite fun. The neighbourhood was pure white when we woke up on Sunday and we’ve had two days of winter wonderland since. It was also a great two days to take some photographs.

It’s been a week of birthdays
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It’s been a week of birthdays

The past week has seen two celebrations at Aspley Guise. Gill had a birthday and, quite rightly, became queen for a day, and dear old Daisy the dog had a birthday – her 15th.

Gill’s birthday involved champagne, a fantastic meal out at The Birch restaurant, presents from all over the world and a good old-fashioned hangover the next day.

Daisy’s birthday involved a cake with candles, doggie treats, presents from all the doggie shops we know of and a hangover the next day due to a late night when the whole team were visiting friends in Ispwich.

Daisy received a new winter coat from Jean and I which, unlike her current one, doesn’t need to removed by it pulling over her head (she bites anyone who tries to take off her current coat) and a new basket for her to sleep in from Gill, Andre, Josh and Jordan.

In dog years Daisy is, depending on the formula used, either 90 and 105. Not a bad effort for an old lady and she continues to battle on despite  her heart condition, poor vision and lack of hearing. The heart specialist in Italy described her as “il cane di miracolo” and she continues to defy the odds and lead a happy and relatively healthy life. The difference between now and a couple of years ago is that her pace of life is much slower.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.