Sunshine award.

I've just got a very big surprise off one of my newest visitors. Keeping Up with Cockapoos very kindly awarded me the Sunshine award.

Now I've got to forward this award to ten blogs and answer these questions:

Favorite number: 7 because that's the number of days i spend with my staff.
Favorite Non-alcoholic drink: Water of course.
Facebook or Twitter: I use both but mostly Facebook.
My Passion: That's a tough one but probably geting dirty is at the top of the list.
Favorite pattern: Snow flakes are quite nice.
Favorite Day of the Week: Every day spent with my staff is a favorite day
Favorite Flower: Lilly.

Now to forward to ten blogs. Some of these blogs are new and just starting out.

Milo's mad life.

Oscars Antics.

In the Dog House.
Bellas blog. 
Aston's blog feat Rio Chihuahua.
Life With Dogs.
My Dogs Love Me.
Two Little Cavaliers.
Raising Rama. 
The life of Kelly and Chibi.

BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday.

Helping to unpack the shopping.

Cody the Life Guard making sure i don't drown in  the bath.

I thought this was a lovely story.

My weekend.

The weather's not been to bad this weekend. Not exactly what you would call summer but at least it has been dry.

I've enjoyed this weekend Dad got me ready for my walk than he put my car harness on me to keep me safe on the back seat. Which usually means one of three things I'm either going to the vets but my vaccinations aren't due or I'm poorly so i ruled that one out, I'm going to dog training but it wasn't Tuesday or I'm going for a nice drive away from my usual territory, luckily for me it was the later.

As i was looking out of the car window i didn't know were we were going until we pulled into the pet shop car park. I like going to the pet shop my nose goes into overdrive with all the smells, I'm like a kid in a sweet shop, most people compare to being more like a bull in a china shop though. I found this nice juicy bone on the shelf with my name on it, i thought it had been left especially for me, so i picked it up in my mouth to see if it was fresh, well the staff test the fruit and veg out at the supermarket to see if there fresh so why should it be different for me. I think Dad was to embarrassed to take it of me and put it back on the shelf after i had drooled all over it so he ended up buying it for me, I've stored that little trick in my memory bank to use again.

Than it was back in the car, i thought he had lost the plot on the way home when we started going the wrong way, but i was wrong we went to the Botanic gardens where i could stretch my legs.

Dad likes looking at the plants here. I'm sure he's hoping i will dig some up for him, but I'm far to polite for that behaviour, well at least when I'm out i am at home it's a different story.

Than we had a look at the peacock.

Than we had a walk around the lake.

It was a lovely walk especially with being off lead. There was lots of other dogs out  for there walks as well which was great plenty of bums for me to sniff, if Dad got up to half the things i do he would be arrested or get a black eye off some one. 

Than on the way back to the car just as my Dad was praising me for keeping clean it all went horribly wrong, it was at this point he was probably thinking i wish i had kept her on the lead. The good or bad thing about all the rain we've had depending on which way you look at it meant everywhere was waterlogged. I spotted puddles in the distance so i was off and running it wasn't until i ran into it i realised it was mud.

I'm off and running.

This photo looks like I'm trying to fly. Ears up ready for take off.

Oops i didn't realise it was that dirty. I'm sure i must have some Hippopotamus in me.

They say where there's muck there's money, it wasn't true in this case, just a horrible smell and boy did that stuff smell. Smelly water seems to attract me like a magnet.

After a good clean. It was time for a good scratch and a lie down.

In memory of Lennox.

This post is in memory of Lennox. Who wrongly got pts at 7am BST or should that be murdered.

As you are all probably aware Lennox lost his court battle to live because he was deemed a dangerous pitbull type breed  by Belfast City Council (BCC) despite dna tests proving he never had any pitbull in him & was in fact a American bulldog cross labrador. Even his dog license  has him marked down as a bulldog.

Nothing about this case makes any sense to me, a BCC expert reckons Lennox was the most dangerous unpredictable dog he had ever met since when have the council employed dog behaviour experts, and where is the proof did he ever bite anyone not as far as I'm aware. Even Victoria Stilwell presenter of It's me or the dog and Cesar Millan presenter of the dog whisperer offered to rehome Lennox in America with all expenses covered. Why did they not get a proper expert like Victoria or Cesar  to asses Lennox in my opinion there could be two reasons Lennox had already died while being confined in his concrete cell due to not receiving proper care in which case BCC should be charged with animal cruelty, or he was never dangerous and they didn't want to look like incompetent fools and liers. According to BCC he was far to dangerous and public safety had to come first.

Yet they reckon he was well cared for while being held in confinement and regularly exercised. If he was realy that dangerous and unpredictable why would you put someone at risk walking him.

This is the cell in which Lennox was held prisoner for two years. If i kept Sheba in them conditions i would be charged with not providing proper accommodation, neglect and banned from keeping animals. So why should BCC be allowed to get away with it.

It's as if we're going backwards as a nation instead of forward. I thought racism was a thing of the past yet that is exactly what we're doing discriminating against dogs because they look like a pitbull. Whatever next. 

On Tuesday the Lennox family released a statement on there facebook page saying they were denied the opportunity to say good bye to lennox. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all again for your messages of support. We are sorry to say at the present time Belfast city council seem to be intent on killing our boy. Despite previous assurances otherwise, we have been denied the opportunity to say goodbye. We have also been told that we cannot collect his body and bring Len home. We have been informed however that we will receive "some" ashes in the mail.

Lennox had been a family pet and was a therapy dog for the Barnes family daughter Brooke. Who is now suffering from poor health and poor school grades due to being separated from her best friend. How cuel can you get.

Does this dog warden really look scared. Not.

If BCC now think they can relax they're very much mistaken. The fight has only just begun and we want answers and want them now, hopefully with enough pressure they will cave in and tell the world the truth about what really happened. The whole saga stinks of corruption.

Lennox you might of left this cruel ugly world but you will never be forgotten.

Many thanks to all the supporters from around the world who tried there best to save Lennox from execution. And especially to the Free Lennox - No Olympic Torch for Belfast facebook page who very kindly gave me permission to use there posters and kept the world up to date on developments.

RIP Lennox.

If this case dosen't prove that BSL and the dangerous dogs act isn't working i don't know what will.

Supervising Dad in the garden.

We had a break in the weather on Thursday, so i thought i would help Dad in the garden or should that be supervise. Well you've got to keep an eye on the staff don't you. To make sure there doing there job properly. And I'm good at barking out instructions.

He's getting there with the back garden. Especially compared to what it was like when we first moved in. And he's done a good job of filling in my holes, i haven't got the heart to tell him though that he's wasting his time, they will only appear again. I tried blaming it on the heavy rain saying it washed the soil away in places. But i don't think he bought that one, well you can't say i didn't try, and they do say god loves a trier and i can be very trying at times.

  

I think he's got his work cut out trying to cut this back but I'm sure we will get there.

Hard at work.

I wish my friends would walk by so i could say hello.

I can here noises next door, are they going to come out and say hello.

I think you've missed a bit. Do you like the nice pile of rubbish i made, I'm only joking i never cleared all the branches away, i could of if i wanted to. But if Dad thought i was that clever he would want me to make him a coffee as well and i wouldn't want to do Mum out of a job.

I feel better now after having a drink of water.

I'm not skiving or hiding. Honestly.

Anyone would think it was hard work.

Group hug for a job well done.

Dad's car aka my taxi.

I've got a funny feeling we're being watched.

Thanks to Mum for being the photographer for the day, or as she likes to be known creative director. She's having a laugh isn't she. Just because she's gave herself a fancy title doesn't mean to say I'm going to pay her anymore. It's like me calling myself an observation operative instead of a supervisor.

Happy Independence Day America.

Happy Independence day on the 4th of July. To all my American friends & followers.

Hi America. My history is not very good, digging holes is more my thing i am very good at spreading love though I've got plenty of that to go around everyone.

Because of my history being poor I've had to ask the staff for help on this one. Now to find out if they paid attention at school.

During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the United States independent from Great Britain. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the wording of the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

Adams's prediction was off by two days. From the outset, Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.
Historians have long disputed whether Congress actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, even though Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin all later wrote that they had signed it on that day. Most historians have concluded that the Declaration was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.

In a remarkable coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, but another Founding Father who became a President, James Monroe, died on July 4, 1831, thus becoming the third president in a row who died on this memorable day. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President, was born on July 4, 1872, and, so far, is the only President to have been born on Independence day.

"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known Anglo-American song, the origin of which dates back to the Seven Years' War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut

Yankee Doodle (Lyrics)

Yankee Doodle went to town,
A-riding on a pony,
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni.

chorus

Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Goodin',
And there we see the men and boys
As thick as hasty puddin'.

chorus

And there was Gen'ral Washington,
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his men-
I guess there was a million.

chorus

A long war then was fought and won:
The British were defeated,
And Yankee Doodle was the march
To which their troops retreated.

Your good friend Sheba.