Rigg the Pig

Actually, Whitevanwoman had a day out with the search dogs – I had to stay in the white van for most of the day L.

When we met up with everyone in the morning, I thought I was going to be doing some search dog training again; it might be 3 years since I stopped being a trainee search dog, but I haven’t forgotten anything and I really really wanted to have a go again but apparently I’m too old now! Huh! The cheek of it! Too old indeed! I’ll have you know I’m still in my prime and my searching and barking skills are as good as ever as Whitevanwoman still plays search games with me and I get plenty of barking practice out in the back yard. OK, I’ll admit I’m carrying a little more weight now than I used to and maybe my fitness level isn’t quite what it used to be but the same goes for Whitevanwoman – after all, she’s no spring chicken anymore!

But I saw lots of old friends again and was delighted to see them – Body Mary and Body Rod (my favourite bodies) and search dogs Ben, Vinnie, Flash, Kess and Pippi – and I met some new trainee search dogs too (all collies except for German Shepherd Vinnie but no mongrels. I think Whitevanwoman was pleased with me because I was on my best behaviour and played nicely with everyone till I had to go back into the white van when the search dogs started work.

Whitevanwoman didn’t have very far to walk to her first Body hiding place and because it was a lovely warm sunny day, she was able to lie there for a couple of hours sunbathing and relaxing (she says it was the first time she’d been so relaxed for weeks). She even said that on days like today, it’s much better being a Body than it is being a trainee search dog handler. I know she misses search dog training as much as I do but I think we have both learned a lot from our trainee search dog days and maybe one day I will be able to help her train a new pup as a search dog. I quite like the idea of being a Search Dog Instructor Dog.

In the afternoon Whitevanwoman got sent up to a Body hiding place way up high on the fell, nearly at the top, and she stayed there all afternoon whilst I had to still stay in the van. I could hear all the search dogs “speaking” when they found the Bodies and was really envious of all the fun they were having. But later on when all the Bodies had been found, Body Kath and Body Anette let me out of the white van and then I suddenly thought I heard Whitevanwoman shout my name. I listened carefully and then heard her “come here” whistle very faintly coming from high up on the fell. I couldn’t see her and I could tell she was a long way away but I set off at a run up the fell in the direction of the whistle. Every now and then I heard her shout or whistle and then I picked up her smell and legged it towards where it was coming from. Eventually I saw her waiting for me – she was SO pleased with me for finding her and for running all the way up the fell without stopping and we had a lovely walk down off the fell, and I played and ran round with all the other dogs so it wasn’t such a bad day after all.  

I had a lovely few days with Mil last weekend – her naughtiness made me seem ever so well-behaved and I spent the whole time wearing a saintly “butter wouldn’t melt” look. Here we are together on my coal bunker (I allowed her to share it) – Whitevanwoman ended up putting some trellis against the wall after Mil had made several unauthorized visits over the wall to see Emma (I have never dared do that!).

Rigg and Mil on lookout duty

I think Whitevanwoman was ready for Dave to come and take Mil back to her own kennel on Sunday evening – she said it’s made her remember just how much hard work it is having a puppy around and that she’s not ready for that just yet. (I think she is still really missing Old Lanky a lot and feels that it would be disloyal to get another dog just yet.) She says that puppysitting is like babysitting – she really enjoys it and it’s good fun but it’s nice to be able to hand them back and have life go back to normal.

Plus, she has promised that it’s going to be just me and her this summer and that we are going to have some adventures. I’m quite pleased about that because although I do like puppies (see the photos below of me yesterday with Biscuit’s puppies – Blue who is now called Bob, and Purple who is now called Lachy, short for Lualach), and it would be fun to have a puppy and good to have something to be Top Dog over, the only time I’ve ever had with Whitevanwoman as her only dog has been since Lanky went to dog heaven. It would be nice to be her only dog for a bit longer and not to have to share her with another dog. Old Lanky was her only dog for 7 years till Sheepdog Penny came along in December 2001.

I’m having a great time at the moment as Mil is staying in our kennel this weekend because her owner Dave is away. Here’s a photo of Mil with Dave earlier this week.

Dave and Mil

Mil came to stay last night and I think she found it a bit strange at first but after I had made sure that she knew that she wasn’t allowed in my bed (I’m not having her copying the cats), she soon settled down in front of the fire till bedtime.

Whitevanwoman says that Mil isn’t a dog, she is a Lick Monster and that she is even lickier than me. She said that she has suddenly realized how well-behaved I am. I was pleased to hear that but also a little bit put out that she hadn’t already realized how well-behaved I am.

I think Whitevanwoman is a little tired today because during the night Mil kept reminding her that she was there by licking Whitevanwoman’s face every half hour or so, and then Mil decided at 6 am that it was time for us all to get up. I did try to get her to understand that Whitevanwoman doesn’t do 6 am starts but Mil wouldn’t listen and I think her persistence paid off in the end as Whitevanwoman crawled out of bed grumbling much earlier than usual (Note to self – remember to try that myself in future).

I took Mil to play with Biscuit’s puppies today – Red and Black have gone to live in new kennels now so there’s only Purple and Blue left now. They are 9 weeks old now and beginning to look like proper little terriers and we all played together in the garden all afternoon in the session. Here’s a couple of photos of Purple and Blue watching me and Mil chase each other this afternoon

and here they are having a quick scrap

We’re still feeling a bit sad because SidPuss is still missing. Last night, me, Mil and Whitevanwoman went out to look for him but we didn’t find him and no-one has seen him. It’s very strange for him not to come home, because since Lanky went, SidPuss has never missed a night in front of the fire. Miss Tibby seems to be missing him too, because she’s just been moping round the place all week and isn’t showing much enthusiasm for anything at the moment.

I know those cats do take liberties sometimes but I wouldn’t want to lose another kennelmate so soon after losing Lanky. And if SidPuss isn’t around, that makes me the oldest because Tibby is only 2, and although being the oldest means that I can boss her around, there are also drawbacks to being the oldest too – like always being the one to get the blame, and always having to set a good example to the younger ones. I’m not sure if I want that responsibility.

Whitevanwoman is getting very worried (and I am too) about SidPuss as we haven’t seen him for over 3 days now.

Although he is very like the “cat who walked alone” in Rudyard Kipling’s “Just so stories”, in that he likes to do his own thing, as and when he wants to, he does like to lie curled up in front of the fire at night and now that he is nearly 12, he doesn’t go off exploring and staying out overnight as much as he used to. Whitevanwoman says that he has never gone off and stayed away for this long before and she doesn’t know if he is just full of the joys of spring and busy socialising with other cats or whether something has happened to him. She has seen him exploring the woods on the other side of the main road and also exploring the woods on the other side of the railway line so she knows that he often takes a risk with the traffic and trains, but having grown up next to a very busy road in town before we came to live here at Balamory, he has always been pretty traffic savvy.

This is what he looks like so if anyone sees him, please let Whitevanwoman know

It’s very strange not having SidPuss shouting and mewing for his breakfast in the morning and Miss Tibby Tabby seems a little lost without him too. She doesn’t roam very far and likes to just hang round in the back yard or the garden without going any further afield, and since SidPuss hasn’t been around over the past few days, she has hardly left the house. I have never understood why there is one rule for dogs and another for cats – we dogs aren’t allowed to come and go out as we please and to roam around the streets and countryside the way cats are allowed to do so. It really doesn’t seem fair to me and it only serves to encourage cats to think that they are superior to dogs.

Here’s a photo of SidPuss sunbathing in the yard whilst Molly sits and stares at him – she always does that when she comes round to see us, but SidPuss doesn’t usually bat an eyelid. He knows that so long as he sits still or moves very slowly, he is safe. In fact, he is so chilled out here that he sat like this, with his front paws crossed, for ages, and Molly did too, shaking and quivering in anticipation of him moving.

SidPuss knows that running away from a dog is not a good idea for a cat, because most dogs can’t resist that urge which is inside all of us to chase a running creature. Humans don’t seem to have that same urge but it’s very strong in some types of dogs – sheepdogs like to chase running sheep (aswell as small children, bikes and even sometimes cars), terriers like to chase rats and rabbits, and Spaniels like to chase after birds to make them fly up into the sky.

Just about every dog I know likes chasing after tennisballs and sticks (but there’s not many who are so good at finding them and fetching them as me - I learned that skill from old Lanky – Whitevanwoman says she can still remember teaching him to “fetch” when he was a little puppy about 4 months old and he was excellent at fetching). Just about every dog I know has chased a cat at some point, too, even if they don’t admit to it.

I know I do get a bit fed up with SidPuss having a swipe at my tail sometimes, and I think its a real cheek that the cats sleep in my bed when they have perfectly good beds of their own to sleep in, but I do hope that SidPuss comes home soon. I won’t object to him sitting on my coal bunker again

I have been quite good recently sharing my bed with both him and Miss Tibby – here’s me and SidPuss sharing my bed on Friday night, the last time he was home (it’s now Tuesday night and we haven’t seen him since)

and here’s a recent snap of me and Miss Tibby cuddling up together – note how I’m squeezed in around her, she refused to move over. The cheek of it! Whose bed is it anyway?

We’ve had lovely weather over the past few days and I’ve been itching to get out for a good day in the fells but Whitevanwoman has been busy tidying and sorting out her kennel – she said that now that it’s spring time, it’s time for spring cleaning. Personally I don’t see the point – it doesn’t look much different and a bit of dirt never hurt anyone. She spent most of today outside in the back yard planting seeds – I spent most of the day outside in the back yard on the coal bunker waiting for Emma to come home from work. Alan was out in his yard too and I kept having a little whinge when he walked past me but he just ignored me and got on with his jobs.

Eventually Emma came home and came out to say hello and give me a cuddle so the wait was worthwhile. then, just as I was beginning to give up hope of a good run, Whitevanwoman got the pink bike out. I bounced around the place in excitement as it was the first time she had got it out this year and I love going out with the pink bike. I had to wait a bit whilst she pumped up the tyres and checked the brakes and I kept getting told off for being giddy, but she was finally ready and we set off – Whitevanwoman on the pink bike and me attached to the Walky Dog which is attached to the pink bike.

Whitevanwoman said that we weren’t going to go far – just a short run round the village – because both of us are a bit out of shape at the moment and need to build up gradually. I felt a bit insulted when she said that – she might be out of shape but I certainly am not, although I do have to admit that maybe I’m not in quite as good shape as I was when I was learning to be a search dog and working very hard running round the fells looking for people. I was very skinny then whereas now I’ve filled out a bit and, to be honest, I think I suit a slightly fuller figure. The extra layer of insulation is a necessity for a dog like me, who enjoys breaking ice to swim in the winter.

It was great to be out on the road again with the pink bike and I was very well-behaved (except when I stopped suddenly to sniff at the gate to Poppy and Molly’s yard as I thought I heard them playing out – Whitevanwoman wasn’t best pleased as she nearly fell off the pink bike). And I set a new “Riggpower” speed record – 14.2mph!

Here’s a photo of me with the pink bike earlier

Today I met Becka – she lives with Belle and Richard and she is a BIG BLACK DOG! I’ve never met a female big black dog before and I was very impressed because she is very pretty and gentle and lovely. Richard calls her “Becka the Wrecker”, but I think he means it in the same way that Whitevanwoman calls me “Rigg the Pig”.

It’s a bit sad though, because about 6 weeks ago, Becka had an accident and now she can’t walk or run around or chase tennisballs any more. When it first happened the vet thought that she had had a stroke (like old Lanky did last summer) which is very unusual as she is only 3 years old and usually strokes only happen to old dogs (and old people). But Richard thinks that she might have run into a tree in the garden in the darkness and banged her head and now her brain isn’t working properly (I run into things alot and it’s never affected my brain but Whitevanwoman says it’s because I have a Staffy skull and that I could run into a stone wall head first and I would just bounce off). It’s only part of Becka’s brain which isn’t working – the part which makes her legs move – the rest of her brain is working fine – the part which makes her tail wag is definitely working ok because her tail was wagging like mad when we met today.

Here’s a photo of her out on the fells in December, just a few weeks before her accident – isn’t she a good looker? In really good shape and obviously a sporty type, just like myself

And here’s a photo of us together this afternoon – she’s wearing a harness so that Richard can lift her up to help her walk. See the difference in the shape of our heads – Becka’s is finely shaped and delicate, whereas mine is just solid and strong and designed for smacking against things.

When Richard brought her dinner out (I was very good and didn’t barge in and eat it, although I could have done and it did cross my mind to do so for just a second), she stood up to eat it. Richard was really really pleased as this was the first time she had done it since the accident and although her front left leg still doesn’t work very well, she was able to stand up herself and stay standing up for a few minutes.

I can’t help wondering if Becka realised that if she didn’t eat her dinner, I would, and so she thought she’d better stand up to keep me away. I think dogs can eat faster if they are standing up instead of lying down, so maybe she was trying to get it down as fast as possible. I always eat as fast as possible in case someone else gets it before me – Whitevanwoman gets a bit cross sometimes because I eat so fast, it gets stuck in my throat and then I end up being sick and she ends up shouting “Get outside, you horrible dog!”.

Here’s Becka standing up to eat her dinner this afternoon

It was great visiting Richard and Becka – Richard used the tennis ball throwing stick to throw my tennisball for me and we played for ages in his garden, until I was puffed out and had to lie down and have a drink. He can throw it miles further than Whitevanwoman so I’d be very happy to go and visit them again. I think Becka would have liked to join in because she was watching us playing and so I let her have a little play with my tennisball for a few minutes by dropping it next to her and letting her hold it in her mouth. Richard and Whitevanwoman both think that she is not going to be a disabled dog for ever and that although it might take quite a while, one day she will be able to go for walks and chase tennisballs again.

Richard takes Becka to a special dog swimming pool to help her muscles get better and stronger so that she will be able to run around again one day. Here she is having a swim

Swimming is very good for strong muscles and, as I’m a keen swimmer, you can imagine how strong and fit I am. After we’d been to visit Becka, we went down to the river near Becka’s house and I had a good swim chasing tennisballs in the water and bouncing off the rocks.

I really enjoyed playing with the puppies yesterday. They have all had their jabs now and so I was allowed to meet them. They are all called by the colour of their collars (that is, Red, Black, Purple and Blue) but they have a Pedigree name too and are all named on their pedigrees after ancient kings of Scotland, Robert, Lachlan and John).

I don’t understand all this pedigree stuff and why they have to have so many names. I mean, a dog’s a dog. And not all dogs are clever enough to understand that they have different names. I know Whitevanwoman often calls me different names, like Piglet, Wriggle, or Riggledy Piggledy, but they all have Rigg in them or sound like Rigg so I know she is talking to me. One thing I have noticed is that the longer a dog’s name is, the more money he costs. I don’t know why this is – maybe it’s because if they have long names, it means that they are a “Breed” and not a mongrel (a real dog). For some strange reason people pay lots of money for “Breeds” – even though everyone knows that mongrels are cleverer, healthier and happier. You all know my views on “Breedism”. In terms of value for money, you really can’t beat a mongrel. Whitevanwoman didn’t pay a penny for me, and look what she got in return – I’m not bad for a freebie and I hope she realises that!

One of the puppies (Red, who is also named after King Duncan of Scotland) went to a new home a few days ago so there were only 3 of the puppies there yesterday but me, Biscuit and the puppies all had a great time, racing and chasing each other round the garden and trashing the daffodils. I think the puppies were a little bit scared of me at first because they are so small compared to me, but Whitevanwoman made me “Lie Down”  and “Stay” and before long they were scrabbling and scrambling all over me. Then Biscuit joined in too and we all played together.

They were so cheeky! Climbing all over me and pulling my tail. I had to give little Blue a warning but was he bothered? Not in the slightest. Here’s some photos…

I must admit I did feel a bit like the Pied Piper with the puppies and Biscuit following me round everywhere. And Biscuit is such a floozy – she was desperate for kisses, but I don’t mind female dogs chasing me round like that, in fact, it’s quite an ego boost.

Today me and Whitevanwoman went collecting for the Mountain Rescue team again. This time last year it was snowing on collecting day but today it started off a bit rainy but then the sun came out for a while – here’s a photo of me enjoying the sunshine…

I love collecting – I get very enthusiastic about lying down and rolling over to have my tummy tickled. I also get very enthusiastic about jumping up to give people a kiss but Whitevanwoman doesn’t like me to do that and says “FEET!” in a very strict voice when I do that, which means “Get all four of your feet back on the floor right now!”. 

People often ask Whitevanwoman if I am a Search dog and she explains that I used to be a trainee Search dog but that we had to stop as it was taking up so much of her time (and diesel for the white van!). She explains what Search dogs do when they find someone who is lost in the fells and sometimes she asks me to demonstrate and says “Speak” and so, happy to oblige, I do so enthusiastically. Usually after a few barks she tells me “Quiet”, because some people think that when dogs bark, they are being nasty, and they don’t realise that I am only doing what she told me to do. It seems strange that some people want dogs to bark and some people don’t – but that’s people for you, they are strange creatures sometimes.

I was very bouncy today whilst we were collecting, full of the joys of spring, and so Whitevanwoman said that afterwards I would get a chance to burn off some of my energy. She asked me whether I wanted to go for a walk or for a swim. When she said “walk”, I cocked my head to the right, and when she said “swim”, I cocked my head to the left. What a decision for a dog to have to make! John, another Mountain Rescue team member who was collecting with us, said “Both” – I thought this was the best idea. He is obviously in touch with his canine side.

And so this afternoon we went for a walk along the fell behind our kennel and then down to the river for a swim. We took some tennis balls and I chased round the fell after them, as they went rolling and bouncing down the hill, and then hurled myself into the river when Whitevanwoman “accidentally” threw them into the water.

Here’s a photo of me retrieving my tennis ball in the river…

We did lose one tennis ball but that was because Whitevanwoman threw it too far and it went over the waterfall – I would have gone after it if I’d known where it had gone, but Whitevanwoman said “Leave it” and produced another one out of her pocket. She has magic pockets – they seem to have a never ending supply of tennis balls J