Remembering Velvet, and Jerry filling her pawprints

 Yesterday was a year since we buried our lovely little Velvet cat, she'd gone missing on the 1st July and our neighbour found her on the 9th, under some shrubs at the front of his house - she had been hit by a car :(  We only had her for two years, but she was the best little cat in the world, she had so much character, and was so gorgeous.  Everyone loved her.  Those of you who used to read the 4 Legged Wiums blog, will remember reading of her antics!
RIP pretty girl xxx
A few photos of her:  

 With her friends Snoopy and Arrow:

 Getting to know Snoopy, not long after Snoopy joined our family:

Jerry has certainly taken the job of Velvet's pawprints very seriously, and he does a pretty good job of it too.  He's nearly as special as Velvet was.  He's about the polar opposite of Velvet as far as brains and intelligence goes though ;-)  Velvet was very clever, and loved to hunt things, Jerry is the dimmest cat we've ever met, and has never hunted even a moth!

Here's a few photos of Jerry and his pack that we've taken recently, they enjoy sharing the warmth from the fire!

It's nearly Jerry's gotcha day, so this can double as a happy gotcha day Jerry post too.

Jerry the dimmest cat in the world

Yesterday I was doing some training with Snoopy, and Jerry decided he'd like to come along and see if the dog's treats were worth eating.  Yet he NEVER eats anything except for his kibble from his bowl.
Have a laugh on his account :-)

Windy Walk at Piha

This week has been lovely, both my husband and I have had the whole week off work - just to relax!  And also because our last holiday (at Christmas-time) was spent looking for Snoopy, so not relaxing at ALL!

The weather has been dreadful this week, but yesterday morning we managed to head out to Piha Beach (on the West Coast of Auckland, it is an iron sand beach like most west coast beaches in the North Island) for a good long walk with the dogs.  It was very windy out there, but it was a lovely walk - and we only saw two other people on the whole beach, the whole time we were there!  Pretty amazing, as in the weekends the beach is full of people, especially if the weather is nice.
It was high tide, so was hard work for us humans walking in our gumboots.  Snoopy and Rocky had a great time, it was Rocky's first time at Piha.  The beach is split in two by a large 'rock' called Lion Rock, North Piha (to the north of Lion Rock) is off-leash, so of course - we walked there.

I didn't take my camera, but had my iPhone with me, and was surprised with how well the photos turned out, especially the ones taken of the dogs running!

Rocky and Snoopy posing, part way up North Piha

 meandering along

 Having great fun playing 'bitey-face' and 'zoomies' together

Me and the terrible two

 Noel-John and Rocky (and a stick)

Now I just wish that I could have every week off work!  sigh, back to work on Monday will be hard!

(photo collages created at www.picmonkey.com - check them out, awesome photo editing and collage creater for free!)

Wordless Wednesday

Sewing for the Dogs

Snoopy needed a new collar and, and I had a couple of metres of this pretty purple/pink webbing left, as well as this cute ribbon that I'd bought.  So I decided to make her a new collar and lead, and recycle the metal hardware from the old ones.
Below is a photo of Snoopy modelling her new collar and lead (begrudgingly, she didnt' want to get off the new bed)
That evening I also made two new dog beds, for their crates.  Snoopy is lying on Rocky's one, and her one (the pink flowery one) is in the background.  They love them, and rush into their crates at night to sleep in their cosy new beds!

Wintery Wordless Wednesday

A Walk in the Park

Today, for the first time in a couple of weeks, we had some sunshine!  It was lovely for a change!  So we took the dogs for a wee wander in a local park.  This park is particularly special to me (Helen), as before it was turned into a park, I used to keep and ride horses here - so it has many memories!
Noel-John's been practicing Rocky's loose leash walking, as far as puppies go, Rocky is very excitable - he's taking a while to get the loose leash walking perfected.  Anyway, Rocky hadn't had a walk with Snoopy yet (only by himself), so today was a bit of a test.  He was pretty good really!  Sure, he'd still get to the end of the leash and have to be reminded what he's supposed to be doing (which you will see at the end of this video), but we're making progress.
Here's a wee video of Noel-John and Rocky practicing loose leash walking today at the park. (with a little bit of heel work in there too)