Am I Bothered About The EU Ban On High Powered Vacuum Cleaners?
Of course not! Except that it has produced some entertaining articles, like this one in the Guardian.
I have a company clean my house. I get two girls for two hours for well under a hundred. And they bring all their own equipment and cleaning materials.
Idon’t have a dog any more, but one of our bassets, loved being vacuumed and would stand by you waiting patiently for her cleaning.
The Scotties Steal The Show
It is generally reported in the media, that the Scotties stole the Opening Ceremony of Glasgow 2014. Look at what the Aussies said for example.
But it would appear, that finding enough dogs might have been a problem, as according to this article, they had to bring in Archie from Ringwood in England.
Perhaps they should have shared the duties around and perhaps got in a corgi for the Welsh team to add a touch of humour near the end.
Queen Elizabeth would have been amused!
It will be interesting to see if sales of Black and White whisky increase.
A Dog Of A Film
The Times today gave the film Pudsey: The Movie, the score of zero stars. The review included this paragraph.
Given the half-chewed dog’s dinner of a movie that resulted, it seems likely that makers of Pudsey the Dog: The Movie decided to maximise their investment by getting Pudsey to write the screenplay as well
No wonder, it’s being advertised on a high proportion of buses. The busometer is never wrong.
An Unusual Cold War Story
I’ve just read this story on the BBC, about the personal relationship between Nikita Krushchev and John F. Kennedy and especially about a puppy given to the Kennedys by Krushchev.
You can draw a lot of interesting conclusions.
Going North And Going South
These two paintings were on display in the Nation Railway Museum at York.
The artist was George Earl and the paintings are mentioned in his Wikipedia entry.
I found the paintings notable, as there were certainly Red Irish, English and Gordon Setters in the paintings. There could also have been Red and White Irish Setters too!
Two Gordon Setters In Germany
C and I have had several setters and the only one, we never owned was a Gordon Setter.
They are now quite rare in the UK and I’ve not seen one for some time.
So I was surprised to see two very friendly ones in Germany.
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- A Gordon Setter On The Munich U-Bahn
The puppy was only ten weeks old.
How To Put Down A Dog
Most of our dogs have lived a long life, with one basset and a couple of setters getting to past thirteen, which is not a bad age for a dog.
But one incident of the end of a dog’s life stands out. Charlotte, our English Setter, who is pictured here, was probably about fifteen and for several days, she’d hardly touched her food or ventured outside her bed in the kitchen. Our amazing horse vet, Philip, who’d passed through in his usual hurry, a couple of days before, had told us that she didn’t have long and to call him, when we thought the time was near. So that evening I’d called him about six and he said he was busy and would turn up later.
I was writing software and eventually Philip turned up just after midnight. He ascertained that Charlotte hadn’t probably more than a few hours and then did what he had to do.
Normally, Philip didn’t have time to stop, but I asked him if he’d like a drink, suggesting tea or something stronger.
He had probably had a bad day, so asked for the latter.
Between us we finished off the greater part of a bottle of Irish whiskey!
I would like to think, that when my time is up, that I could go in the same dignified way that Charlotte did, with the pain for those present helped in an appropriate manner, by either alcohol, coffee or cake!
Who’s Be A Politician’s Dog?
I just had to link to this set of pictures from the BBC. Look at the one of MP, Gregory Barker with Otto.
Germany’s Development Minister’s Marie Antoinette Moment
Marie Antoinette famously set that people could eat cake, but this story from Germany, is in a similar vein.
Germany’s development minister has suggested that horsemeat mislabelled as beef should be distributed to the poor.
Dirk Niebel said he supported the proposal by a member of the governing CDU party, and concluded: “We can’t just throw away good food.”
The opposition dismissed the idea, but a priest said it should be considered.
He does have a point, but surely the suspect beef could be used as dog or cat food, rather than given to those, who might not want it.
After all if it has horse in it, what other things are there. I bet there’s a load of gluten for a start.
An Olympic Boost For Rare British Dogs
This article in the Independent suggests that those rarer British dog breeds like the English Setter have had a boost in 2012.
And the Olympics could be the reason!
I see a couple of English setters round here and they really are the friendliest of dogs. We also had two, when our children were in their teens and you rarely find one, that can’t get on extremely well with everybody and especially children. They also don’t shed hair like other breeds, I could name.
The Anonymous Widower 