Sue Goes to Pets at Home

Yesterday I had an errand to Pets at Home in Newry to get some dog food. I brought Sue along too for the run and the pet shop experience. Pet shops, like farm supply stores, are dens of temptation for me. There was lots of temptation for Sue too, with aisles of toys and treats and even a few small furries to terrorise.



These are a couple of the small furries in question. They are very cute!



We went to the grooming area upstairs to ask some questions and the woman who was there said that she had a dog in at the moment who looked just like Sue! Once she had disappeared into the back room to fetch the lookalike, I wondered to myself what she was going to bring out. What dog was going to look just like Sue!?

Out she came, being led by a familiar, strapping young gentleman - Bruce!



Of course it was Sue's brother who looked just like her! He was in for a grooming session and I had no idea! The one day I go to this new, far away pet shop is the one day that Bruce happens to be there for his first groom. Honestly! Bruce and Sue were happy to see each other, anyway.



Downstairs and still reeling from bumping into Bruce, I attempted fish photography... sort of successfully?







Fish photography is hard!

Based on good behaviour, I told Sue she could choose a treat to bring home. There were lots of treats to choose from, but in the end she got a honking duck.






She also made yet another friend - this time an Old English Sheepdog puppy.



Bad news for my bank account, I saw nice leather collars in leads in lots of colours and couldn't resist. Like I said, den of temptation. When I took the leads, collars and Sue's duck to the till there was a dog there. This is beautiful old lady Holly. Such a sweetheart.



Sue loved her shopping experience. I'm hoping to book her in for a groom soon so she can experience that and I can experience a farm dog that smells good. I wonder what that's like...

Sue is such a goof.



We went for a walk around the business park, and on our way back to my car I spotted that familiar, strapping young gentleman and his glamorous owner getting into their stretched limo small hatchback car.



Bruce was fresh out of the groomers and smelled amazing! Freshness was wafting off him! And he was so soft and fluffy! He even had a little bandana on. Both puppies were ready for home, so we parted ways - again - and headed for home... only for me to wind up behind their car for a lot of the journey home! They left five minutes before I did - where did they go!? What were they doing!?



Sue had a lot of fun at the pet shop, just like she has fun everywhere! She also got a lot of compliments and cuddles from very kind people and there were comments too about how cute she looked in her pretty bandana, which was a gorgeous one from Wolfpack Pet Wear.

Wordless Wednesday #98: Enigmatic Ears

Sue Helps Out

Sue loves to help feed Ollie and Jack.



As with every other living thing she encounters, Sue wants to be their friend.





Ollie and Jack get very excited at feeding time.













Sue loves licking noses.









She does leave the lambs when the kettle's boiling, however, as she knows milk is on the way and there might be some left over...





Ollie always drinks first. He's so messy! Milk just goes everywhere.



Sue would like to help with that.



Jack gets fed next, and Sue takes this opportunity to clean him up.









Back in their pen with fully tummies.





Sue plays with the milk bottle.



More kisses.









I'm very proud of Sue for obeying my "stay" command for these shots.





Her stay is coming on pretty well, actually. We've just got to keep working on it.



Those ear positions seem to be here to stay for a while...

Drops in Downpatrick

On Friday afternoon I had important business to do in Downpatrick (paying the license fee for each of my dogs) so I brought Jess along so she could try out her new snood. She's a great traveller, settling down for the journey. Since putting on weight after being skin and bones, she has gone up a collar size which I am very happy about. Now all of the dogs (apart from Sue, of course, although she's not far behind) are roughly the same size.



When I was getting the snoods for the lambs, I got one for Jess too, in a very nice shade of green.



The path up the hill towards Down Cathedral was lined with hundreds of snowdrops. It's always so great to see signs of spring after a long winter.



(That's the Cathedral in the background.)



Jess posing at the wall.



The secret to taking pictures of Jess, in any setting, is a toy of some kind. She just loves toys of all shapes and sizes. In between shots she can carry the toy around. She's an incredibly anxious dog and just carrying the toy seems to calm her down. On this day I was using a squeaky hamburger.



Any dog of mine worth their salt knows to jump up on things and pose without my prompting, so of course when Jess saw a wall, about three feet high, she jumped up on it and dropped her toy in anticipation of some posing. What she didn't know was that there was a twelve-ish foot drop on the other side. She jumped onto the wall and wobbled at the top, so I yanked on the lead to steady her so she didn't fall. At the same time she dropped the burger for me, which rolled over the edge and dropped the twelve-ish feet onto the driveway below.

I thought the hamburger was lost but we were able to walk down the driveway and retrieve it.



Jess was happy to have it back.





Hamburgers aren't just comfort food for humans.