Rusty's Journal 2

Well a good few months have passed since my last report and I have to start by saying this journal will cover two holidays. Yes I know a dog can get quite spoilt.

October 2008 and some distant relatives of my humans are getting married, a big bash a lot to drink and a huge bill from what I can gather!!. Jersey (not the sort you humans wear) but the real deal, sandy beaches, gorgeous pedigree pooches and oh they have only just mentioned the drive to the Ferry and the 4 hours on the boat, I hope I have sea legs.

We left home in the dark when all respectable hounds are asleep and drove about 300 miles to a place called Weymouth, didn’t get to see much of it, the beach front, the Ferry terminal and the queue to get on board. Imagine then being told that you have to stay in the car and that on the vehicle deck there aren’t even any windows. Having said that a very choppy crossing later I was quite glad I had not been party to the size of the waves or the sight of them going over the top of the boat and some very “ruff” looking passengers clogging up the on board facilities ( if you know what I mean).

Jersey is delightful, you get off the boat and all you can see is sea and sand and that certainly set the tone for the week. My humans had been in negotiation with some Tourist dept and got me a residence that dated back to the Napoleonic wars. I certainly felt that my guarding skills were put to good use roaming the ramparts and fending off any approaching foes. Not that we saw many people close to where we were staying as it was down a mile of single track unmade road, probably dating

back to that French invasion.

The day of the “wedding” I had two very nice “teenagers” (think that term equates to young potentially irresponsible people) to look after me, I am sure I could have guarded the place without them, but they were great fun and I managed to cajole them into feeding me treats all through the day.

A week on Jersey is certainly an eye opener as to how the other half live; I even met some pooches who had just jetted in from Barbados!!! My humans talked about buying a place but first they need to win something called the lottery?? It would certainly save any more dreadful sailing trips.

We made it back to England though and on our way home we called to see another “relative”, the wife of the one who has fitted wooden floors since I visited his house in Stafford. Apparently he (the owner of the house) is somewhere called Afghanistan so I won’t be seeing him until the summer. I hope by then he has got over my little accident!!!

December, Christmas is over and we are off to Filey. Now this is one of my all time favourite places. There is loads of sand, the sea is cold but okay for a quick dip and my humans ALWAYS stop at a café on the Cobble landing and get a bacon sandwich so I guess I have described poochy paradise.

The house we stay in (I have been before and they have TILED floors) is very cosy and I get to sleep in the lounge, well actually I normally get to sleep in the kitchen but a quick trick with an upset tummy and would you believe it the lounge it is and one of my humans (the female one of course) is on the settee just in case and I have pride of place in front of the fire. I managed to keep up the tummy trick for the first four nights of the holiday (the settee must be quite comfy) but then they took me to the vets and two injections 36 tablets later (and something called a bill) I am on the mend and it is back to the kitchen. God loves a trier!!!

Sleeping arrangements aside I felt it only right to invite some friends over and of course my humans were allowed some friends as well. Theirs stayed, mine got sent home after a day but I am not great on sharing my space for too long as other dogs can take liberties.

My pal TJ enjoyed the beach and I even took her to the café but the humans only had Hot Chocolate so there were no tit-bits which was a bit of a disappointment. Mind you I did tell her the “salty sea dog tale” about when we visited for the day and there was a man on the beach with a long pole on a tripod. He had put his things down and taken the pole down to the edge of the shore, someone told me it was to catch things called fish? Anyway I thought that as he had left his things he did not want them anymore so when I found a sandwich wrapped in cling-film (to keep it fresh no doubt) I did not want it to go to waste. It took me a while to unwrap it as my concentration was distracted by my humans waving and shouting. Apparently when you find things like this your humans have to offer to pay for them!!! Well mine did anyway. I don’t think the man minded.

You can see why I like Filey everyone is so friendly, I have persuaded my people that we should go again next year, not sure the tummy trick will work again

though!!!

Yappy New Year.

Rusty the Roving reporter.