We are going ….

We are terribly sorry we haven’t been able to visit any of you of late or reply to your mails.
The last couple of days have been extremely busy. We just finish ticking off one list when a new longer list crops up from nowhere!!

We are trying to get most of our ‘Shift to Delhi’ related issues sorted before we start for Goa.
After all, Goa is supposed to be a sabbatical and we don’t want to spend our time there thinking and planning about what needs to be done when we are back in Hyderabad!

We just want to cut down our ‘To Do’ list to a minimum so we can relax, explore, take photographs, eat and just enjoy the sea….

Oh! We forgot to tell you!
We did find a really nice sounding place to stay in Goa.

The lady Mummy talked to informed us ‘No swimming in the Pool’ and ‘Damages must be made good in cash’.

We really do not understand what pool she was talking about.
The sea? But she can’t stop us from swimming in the sea, it doesn’t belong to her.
Was she, by any chance, talking about the swimming pool in the resort? But who cares about a tiny swimming pool when you have the WHOLE sea to yourself?
Silly woman!

And what is this thing about damages? Why should she think Mummy and Daddy would damage something? Mummy does sometimes bang things when she is angry but they are pretty well trained and not inclined to ‘Damage property’!

We think the lady in question will learn to trust us better after she meets us all.
The most important thing is that she said ‘Yes’ in spite of all her apprehensions.

It is supposedly a studio apartment close to the sea and we hope to go for our morning walks in the beach! Mummy is rather excited that she will have a nice little kitchenette to try out all her yummy sea food recipes!!
Hope this place lives up to our huge expectations!!!

Our car got a make-over today.  Brand new tubeless tyres which are far safer than the ones with tubes and a huge lying-down space at the back.
Yes, the rear-seats have been removed and a comfortable new mattress installed so we can sleep if we want to.

It will be a long drive, nearly 14 hours. We mean to start very early on the morning of 25th, say around 3 AM, so that we can be in Goa by evening.
But then, we have also kept the option of making a halt midway if the journey gets too tiring.

We are a little worried about Shadow. Though he is very tough and smart, he is still just a puppy. This is going to be his first real long trip and we are worried he might tire.

We will be carrying our satellite net connection and are hopeful we shall be able to sit by the sea and blog by moonlight!

But just in case the net fails us and finding an alternative gets too cumbersome, we want you to know that we might disappear for about a week because we are going on a BEACH HOLIDAY!

YOO HOOO…!

We promise to come back with heaps of new stories to tell. Please be safe and keep wagging till we see you again…

Wags,

Buddy, Ginger and Shadow

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY BOY

When Buddy came to live with us some 13 months back, I wasn’t very happy. I had been the sole princess of all I could survey for so long…
But today, I know he knows that I think he is my most exciting playmate, my forever friend and the BESTEST brother a girl can ever ask for.

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And I want to Wish my dear brother a VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Buddy, We all love you heaps. And we feel blessed to have you in our lives.

We were lucky to get this cute picture of him as a tiny little puppy from his earlier family. Oh! Wasn’t he just too adorable?

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Here he is today, all grown up and handsome and so adorable still.
Can you imagine, he turned five yesterday ? He neither looks nor behaves his age though!

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There was no birthday cake. If you remember, his tummy wasn’t very good till a week back and we decided it would be prudent to let him be on the ‘careful’ diet he is on.
The cake has been postponed, not cancelled, Buddy. Mummy’s promise!

We both got vanilla ice-cream and cream-milk (Instead of the low calorie, low fat milk Mummy usually gets!).
In the evening, we started off in search of a quiet and peaceful place fit for a special birthday walk.
After a long drive, we found this little rocky hill with just a few scattered groups of people enjoying their own private picnic. They seemed totally disinterested in us which suited us just fine. (Though Mummy always wonders how anyone can not want to come talk to a lovely Labradudette and a Handsome Labradude!!)

We had a lovely time exploring the new place and as dusk set in, we walked into the sunset and bid the birthday-sun goodbye for yet another year.

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Back home, there was Ginger-Garlic Chicken for dinner. After a hearty meal Buddy went off to sleep, making sure to confiscate the book mummy is reading so she won’t shirk from typing this birthday post for him!
(She is still late though. This was supposed to be published yesterday night, on his birthday. But we guess we can excuse her. She had a lot to do)

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Buddy’s Birthday Wish:
To go visit a beautiful quiet beach, splash in the waves, listen to the wind sing, watch a sunset and leave some paw-prints for someone to remember him by.

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Buddy’s Birthday Resolution:
To donate to the local Animal Shelter

Mummy has promised to help him keep his resolution.
It will be easier than to fulfil his wish. The nicest and nearest beach is about 750 kilometers away. But Mummy has promised we will make it happen too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN, BUD BOY
May all your dreams come true.
Heaps of licks and wags,


PET PRIDE is where you can get your birthday registered.

Go meet BoZo n his Human who hosts this meme.

Also Thanks to Cookie who is flagging off a new meme ' PHOTOS of ALL FIDS 

Sand Bubbler Crab: FACE OF THE WEEK #2

Our ‘Face of the Week’ this time, is this little fellow-‘The Sand Bubbler Crab’

Remember our trip to the beach? We found him and a number of his friends pottering around, religiously making these lovely patterns.
Mummy told me to stand absolutely still and not dig after him so she could get a few photos of him. And being the good girl that I am, I let her.
I am glad because I think he is a very interesting and artistic little fellow and I am very pleased to present to you his exclusive photos, up close and personal!
Don’t you think the patterns he makes are exquisite?

We researched him for you. And here are some cool facts about our ‘Face of the Week’.

1. He is also called ‘The Soldier Crab’ because he sometimes moves around in large herds.
2. The small balls of sand he forms are called Crab-Pellets. He scrapes the sand into his mouth, sifts any organic, edible matter and rejects the sand grains in the form of a ball!
3. He breathes through his legs! He has a little membrane in his legs which helps in exchange of oxygen.
4. He has some stiff hair on his underbelly that helps him stick to the sand and draw water from between the grains of sand for rehydration in the heat.
5. He is very sensitive and quickly withdraws into his burrow at the slightest hint of movement may it be life-forms around him, a flying leaf or a plastic bag, only to re-emerge
6. When the tide comes in, he withdraws inside and seals his burrow. And he waits for the next low-tide so he can go back to his pottering!

Even as we watched, a large wave washed off his beautiful handiwork, bringing with it a small conch but making our little friend disappear into his home.
Till the next tide, I am told?

Pee Ess: Thank you so very much, Dear Pawple, for the understanding our predicament (and inconvenience due to our Secretary-Editor’s busy-ness).
We are glad to have so many Furiends who understand. Btw, we still are struggling to catch up with you all, but rest assured we will definitely make it.

If you want to see more faces, please visit 'Spacial Peepol' . Maybe you will want to join this meme.
Wags,

REMEMBERING A FUN TRIP.....

What do you do when you want to go on a holiday and can’t see any chance of one in the near future?

We Labra-Dawgs don’t sulk. We are like forever happy! So keeping in tune with our character, we decided the best thing to do would be to reminisce about one we enjoyed earlier.
When I say we I mean me- Ginger, Mummy and Daddy. Buddy hadn’t yet come to live with us when we went on this trip I want to tell you about.
This holiday was really special for me, because I saw the Sea for the very first time.
We live pretty far away from the coastline and though we all love water, it isn’t possible for us to go on these trips frequently.
So this trip was extra special.

It was morning when we reached our beach. We had been travelling all night and were pretty tired. So when Mummy said ‘We are here, Gin-gin’, I was relieved.
‘Oh, Thank dog, I can catch up on my sleep now’, I thought. My eyelids were drooping!
But as soon as she let me down from the car, I could smell something very different in the air.

Sniff, sniff….SNIFF.

I was super excited now, I’d never smelt something like this. So many pee-mails, all so different! And what is with the ground? Sand and sand and more sand everywhere. My paws sank in and I made Mummy laugh because I was walking funny!
And then I saw it….that vast stretch of water, gurgling and whoosing, and the never ending sand for miles!

I rushed in, all wobbly and funny till suddenly this huge wave came rolling towards me.
My Gosh! I stepped back, a little scared.

The sand now felt firmer, the water cold and I tested it marching up and down along the waterline. Mummy and Daddy found all this rather funny.

Daddy went straight to the sea, beckoning me to follow him.
'What? You are not even going to change? What about breakfast? And can’t you see how tired and sleep-deprived I am?'
But no amount of doleful pleading could cover up my apprehension.
And can you believe it?
Daddy actually carried me, a labradudette, and jumped into the sea!!!
‘The indignity’, I thought, wriggling, protesting!

(Swimming lessons in the sea)

But then, the moment we hit the water, my apprehension was gone.
And I discovered what the sea was all about.
We had friends with us. Mummy and Daddy’s human friends and their Labradude Mogli and Labradudette Krazy.
Krazy and Mogli had been to the sea earlier and were used to the waves. They too helped me get over my trepidation.
As the hours passed, I slowly understood why Mummy loves the sea so much.
We had fun- running in the sand, digging for shells, finding crabs and watching the fisherman bringing in their boats full of freshly caught fish.

(Krazy and Me)

(Cooling off with daddy)

(Crabs!!)

(Ice-cream break)

(Racing Mummy!)

(I won!)

(Finally!Lounging...watchin the sea)

(Who's browner? Didn't know a Labradudette can get tanned!)

(See that pile on the left? That is just ONE fishing net!)

(The fishermen,hauling in their boat)

In the evening, we took long walks on the shore, testing the water bare-paw, feeling the cool breeze and taking in the soothing sound of the waves rolling.

(Dusk...)

The sea brings out the poet in you, makes you feel in tune with nature. But since I am no good at poetry, I need to borrow someone else’s words to tell you what I could feel.

‘I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by’.
-John Masefield

It was too short a trip, if you ask me. Just two days. Mummy says we will go back, this time with Buddy. The athelete that he is, he sure would love to run on the beach and swim against the waves.

**Touche**

Wags,