Boat, no, sorry, Dog Blog: A weekend sleepover…

Saturday 11th/Sunday 12th February

Ty and Archie - don't they look fine....

For many weeks now, Sarah (aka Greygal) and I have been plotting a birthday weekend for her husband Andy – for most of those weeks we’ve had unseasonably mild, sunny January weather. This lulled us into a false sense of Spring as we plotted a trip up the Tideway then along the Thames with a side-trip onto the Wey, where we would meet up with cruising buddy Kathryn of nb Leo No II at the Byfleet Cruising Club. We had hoped to get further up the Thames, but there’s a stoppage at Chertsey lock until the 17th March. Still, the Wey is a fine waterway with great walks for multiple greyhounds.

We were still planning our cruise when the weather turned cold, but as long as the marina wasn’t frozen we were still up for an adventure (though the thought of cruising up the Thames tideway in a minus 10 degree windchill was a bit daunting). Limehouse was still liquid up until a few days ago, then it had a thin skim of ice – we booked the lock – then on Saturday morning the lock-keeper rang to tell us that the basin had solidified overnight (it was -8 degrees overnight in Surrey) and that there was no hope of getting Indigo Dream out this weekend.

Luckily we’d made a contingency plan for Sarah and Andy, with greyhounds Monty, Big Sid, Henry, Archie and Herbie, to divert to Surrey and spend a weekend at the house. The advantage of the house is that we have a large garden/field to blast off the hounds’ initial energy (those that had energy – Big Sid is simply the sleepiest hound on the planet and Lou isn’t very well with her arthritis).

Henry making the best of our garden....

The other benefit is that I had access to my well-stocked and equipped kitchen, so I was able to offer a much better menu than the usual Indigo Dream “all day breakfast”. The third unexpected benefit was access to the huge supply of spirits which we seem to have accumulated over the years and which we rarely drink. We hadn’t planned this at all, but we ended up having an impromptu cocktail session, with Sarah choosing dodgy recipes from our cocktail recipe book, me mixing them (being creative because we had very few non-alcoholic mixers) and the men (mainly) drinking them – teamwork in action eh?

We had a fine weekend – we enjoyed both the human and hound company; Lou and Ty benefited from the stimulation of having some lively hounds around the place. Of course, I missed Lynx acutely – this was his sort of party and it’s very boring for me and for the readers not to have his unique account of the weekend. With that in mind, I’ll just let the photos tell the story….

Note: there is a great sequence of photos on Facebook of Henry hound going mad in the snow - http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3380636641630.2162691.1440854080&type=1&l=337e9f531f - it will make you smile!

Ty and Archie were quite a pair - Archie's in the lead here but he is 3 years younger than Ty (and a few kilos lighter!).....

Ty at his best.... and yes that really is our jelly boy looking confident and enjoying a run!

Monty (aged11) and Lou (aged 9) showing that there is life in the old dogs yet....

Herbie, Sarah's newest hound, investigating the squirrels in the woods opposite - luckily there's a fence between them!

Ty was so happy - he really enjoyed being part of an extended pack...

Henry hound was beside himself - he's energetic for a greyhound and ran himself to a standstill over the weekend...

Time for a quick fuss before another charge around the garden...

And they're off for another run....

Archie and Henry - black hounds rock! People visiting rehoming centres just don't want them...

Monty kicking his heels....

One of the excuses for our get-together was to allow Henry to have a run - he certainly did!

Henry having a roll in the snow - for a full sequence have a look at my facebook album - the link is in the text above

Oh yeah - that's the spot....

Sorted!

Monty - I love to see the oldies having such a good time...

Ty showing us his tongue - no wonder it often flops out of his mouth onto the floor when he's sleeping

Big Sid - the 40kg lapdog!

Lou wasn't impressed with Big Sid's performance but does he look bothered????

The morning after.......Big Sid and Henry found it all very tiring...

Ty's favourite bed - I would get him a new one but he loves this one so much....