What's in a name?

Hi every one,

Its nearly Christmas and at some stage over the holiday I'm going to see my friend Boris, he lives with his Mummy and Daddy close to Cambridge, he is a Ridgeback and Mastiff cross, a real hunk! This is us the last time I went to visit him, now you may be wondering why I asked the question 'Whats in a Name' well I don't understand, that I know Mummy and Daddy as Mummy and Daddy, but Boris know them as Lesley and Paul, weird why is that? Likewise Boris knows his Mummy and Daddy as Mummy and Daddy but I know them as Sharon and Gary, why do Mummy's and Daddy's have two names. I'm confused.

The real reason for the question though is, when we are all together, why does our two names cause so much laughter amongst our Mummy's and Daddy's and all their friends, what is funny about two dogs called Boris, Becka can anyone tell me. I think its something to do with Sharon being a Wimbledon tennis line judge, but as I don't know what tennis is I'm only guessing.

Boris' Mummy and Daddy are different from mine, you see he is allowed to sleep on the furniture at home, probably because he is so big he sort of sleeps where he wants, but my Mummy and Daddy have, on the other hand, banned me from all the furniture and beds in the house. When I last visited Boris, however I discovered the delights of the sofa and despite the fact that his Mummy and Daddy can't move him off his favorite spot on the couch, he was willing to give it up for me, thats real Girl Power! That's my bed that he curled up on below me, I think this is where I should be, but Mummy and Daddy disagree, so once I got home it was back to the bed on the floor. I'm really looking forward to going to see Boris again!

We are preparing for Christmas at home, we have a big tree in the lounge! I sort of remember this from last year, doesn't smell much like a tree though, at least not like any of the trees outside. Father Christmas is coming again this year, I remember him from last year although I never got to meet him he brought me lot's of nice pressies, chewy things, toys and some really tasty treats. Apparently I have to have been a good girl or I don't get pressies, and you will remember I did chew big lumps out of the kitchen a little while ago, but we had some more snow recently (remember I told you about snow) and Mummy and Daddy like to watch me play in the snow so I may have redeemed myself. I think I have, Mummy and Daddy seem to have very short memories when I'm naughty, which is lucky. I'll let you know what I get for Christmas in the New Year. Hope you all have a super time I know we will Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Love Becka XXXX

Question?

Hi everyone,

Its me again, I have a question, whats 'engaged'? Mummy and Daddy got one whilst they were away in Cardiff (at that Millennium Stadium place) and they have been really happy ever since. I've been chewing big lumps out of the kitchen and except for one telling off I've almost been getting away with it!

Can anyone tell me where I can get some more 'Engaged' from, it seems to make them very happy and I might need it in the future, always good to be prepared.

Please let me know.

Love

Becka xx

Baby Sitting

Hi Everybody,

Well I had an eventful weekend, Mummy and Daddy went away for the weekend and I had to look after Natalie and Gregg whilst they were gone. I don't know where it is but Mummy and Daddy went to the Millennium Stadium to watch the Welsh Rugby team play Argentina. They took some pictures to show me, but apart from lots of grass to run around on and big men to chase after, it didn't look like much fun to me, I can do that at home. Still each to their own, I've posted a couple of the pictures to see if it appeals to you, the flames look a bit scary though.

Anyway back to looking after Natalie and Gregg, the first I had to do was to introduce them to Sheila and Graham next door, which Gregg seemed to understand, but Natalie was not impressed with, she told me off and I had to stay in my bed for a while once I got home. Still if I do nothing else I do cute really well and it seems I was forgiven pretty quickly. However, later that same morning Gregg had gone to work and Natalie was in Mummy and Daddy's bedroom doing her hair, when I found this new toy on her bed, seems dogs are not supposed to clean their teeth with human tooth brushes. No one told me! surely this nice minty tasting brush thing was the ideal thing to clean up with before going out to meet other doggies in the park. Apparently not! back to my bed for the second time in a morning, for someone I was supposed to be looking after she is very scary.

Anyway it took a bit longer but seems I was forgiven again and when Gregg came home we all went to the park with Gregg's mum and her doggie, not very social though, still I just went off and played with all the other doggies in the park, which Natalie thought was great fun because she chased me all over the park, eventually I let her catch me and it was time to go home for tea. Pizza! I like Pizza, she must have really enjoyed our run because I got some pizza and lots of cuddles on the floor with both her and Gregg.

Sunday we went to the Bird sanctuary, I like this park because there is hills, trees, lots of fields and usually plenty of other doggies to play with, and there was, we had loads of fun and apparently I was really good, well I thought I'd give them a bit of a break they had a big day yesterday and they are only young after all. Mummy and Daddy came home in the afternoon and we had big fussing, lots of tummy rubs and cuddles, although Daddy walked in and within five minutes had found my gateway to next door and blocked it up again, Meany!

I'd better go now, I think Natalie and Gregg may need baby sitting again soon so Mummy tells me, something about taking my Nanny and Granddad to the airport, I'm not sure what an airport is, but Nanny and Granddad seem to go there a lot. Still it does have the benefit of having Natalie and Gregg to look after, I don't mind really they are quite good kids.

Write again soon, lots of love.

Becka

Houdini me

Hi

I've had a great time over the last week or so, unbeknown to Mummy and Daddy one of the fence panels blew down in all that wind and rain and they thought I had got into next door through a fox hole. I had loads of biscuits through the hole before they came round to get me and bring me home, seems they thought that I'd be daft enough to take the biscuit and come through the hole for more, I should co co I'm way too cute for that.

The fun's over now though the man next door and my Daddy put the panel back and just for good measure Daddy blocked up the hole as well. We went out for a long walk on Saturday morning, it was supposed to be in between the rain storms, but Daddy timed it exactly wrong and we both got soaked, I didn't like that at all, it was cold and wet. Whats this thunder and lightning stuff too, very noisy and a little bit frightening, stayed close to Daddy when that was going on (he does have his uses).

No pictures this time, it was much too wet to take a camera out, best go now as I'm hatching my next escape plot, I haven't seen the people on the other side for a while, they are always nice so maybe I will have a closer look at that fence.

Write again soon.

Becka.

Brrrrrrrrrrr

Hi its me again, you remember that the last time I wrote I mentioned frost, ice and snow! well as you can see from the picture the frost and a little tiny bit of snow on the garden looked really pretty, especially against the blue sky. As long as it stayed like this it was okay, I could run around and keep warm in the garden and my balls bounced really well of the hard ground so that made chasing them much more fun.

The hard ground did have a small disadvantage though, it made digging my escape tunnels a bit more difficult, that combined with Daddy getting to know where the weak spots in the fence were made my visits to the neighbours more and more difficult. I did still manage the odd visit though.

Well I promised to tell you about snow! we went to bed as usual on Sunday, it had been very cold all day and this white stuff had started falling from the sky around Tea time, I had a little look out of the kitchen door, but it didn't seem like much to me. Anyway the next morning Daddy came into the kitchen and we went to go out side for our usual early morning greeting and tummy rubs and the courtyard outside the kitchen door was gone! the whole area was covered in a thick layer of white, very cold, fluffy stuff, which when you stood on it, it eat your paws and legs. In protest at this freezing cold assault on my paws, I did the only sensible thing and laid down, refused to move and cried to be picked up and brought back into the comparative warmth of the kitchen.

Later that day, Daddy having called his boss and discovered that the company was shut (I'm not surprised why would anyone want to go out in all that white stuff) we had to go out for a walk. Mummy and Daddy got dressed up in lots of cloths and big boots and I got my lead on, seemed very unfair. We had not got to the end of the path before I started to change my mind about this snow stuff and by the time we had walked to the park, I was in seventh heaven, I could run though all the snow create huge plumes of dust bury my nose in it and generally thought it was the best conditions I had come across in my first year. I'm really hoping that we get to play like this again this winter, it was great fun.

As you can see from the photograph once the stuff had stopped falling, the sun came out and although I never stopped it eating my paws I had great fun in the snow. I'll write again soon.

Becka xx

A little more background

Hi it's me again, we moved into the bungalow at the end of November last year, previously, we had lived in a newish house with a small garden and a heating system that worked really well. We had rooms on top of the ones I lived in but I wasn't allowed up there so I'm not entirely sure what was up there. Now remember this was my first winter and while I had grown a lot, I come from Rhodesia which I think must be a bit warmer that Surrey, because my thin puppy coat was not very warm in the new house. Daddy spent a lot of time running up and down to the attic turning of stop cocks and bleeding radiators complaining about airlocks, before deciding that it was just too cold to have no heating at all and although it was 'Next to useless' it was better than nothing.

We did have a real fire in the lounge though which as you can see from the photograph was lovely and warm and became one of my favorite spots. Daddy had to build it every morning and set it alight every evening, but from my perspective it was worth the effort, see the photograph to see how much I liked it. Must go off now the computer is wanted for real work. Next time I'll tell you about frost, ice and something called snow! I wasn't at all sure about the snow stuff.

Write soon.

Becka

A little bit of history

This photograph was taken in my first garden when I was very little and I still thought rolling around in the flowers was a great game. I'm much bigger now (18 months) and I've discovered since we moved to my new garden that this is really quite childish, there is much more fun to be had meeting the neighbour's, particularly in their gardens! within the first two weeks of arriving, I had introduced myself to the neighbours on both sides and at the back, several times, consequently mummy and daddy met them all too, although mummy and daddy didn't seem to appreciate the introductions I was making for them! They all seem to be very nice people, certainly made me very welcome, although each time I had to come home as soon as mummy or daddy noticed I was gone, they seem to have some sort of sixth sense as to when I'm off exploring.

Daddy spent ages filling up the holes in the fences almost as fast as me, the foxes and the badgers opend them up, eventually, we struck a sort of a truce and daddy left holes for the foxes and put a tunnel in for the badgers, which I generally ignore, although occasionally the urge to explore overtakes me and well you can guess the rest.

As this is my first post I'll keep it short, but I'll fill in some more background soon.

Becka