Wordless Wednesday

Pet Pride - It's the Little Things That Count

JD - Hi everyone - happy Pet Pride!

Max - If you haven't joined in the fun of Pet Pride yet please DO swing on by and check it all out. Bozo is a wonderful host and we've made a lot of great pals because of him - thanks Bozo!

JD - For today's Pet Pride we want to show you a photo of a water pump....

Exhibit A - a water pump!

Max - ....here it is! This water pump is on the sea-front and is positioned by some beach huts enabling families to fill up their kettles and allowing anglers the opportunities to fill up their buckets and wash off their catches.

JD - Now, you might be thinking 'big deal!' - he he he! - but take a closer look at the photo....

Max - ....and you will see that some wonderfully kind person at our local council office made the decision to chain a water bowl onto this pump for all of us doggies to use when we're out for our daily constitutional! Isn't that great?

JD - Although female human always takes a portable drinking bowl and bottle of water with her whenever we're out, we nevertheless know about this pump and always like to stop off for a slurp....

Max - "Slurp, slurp, slurp.....!"

Max - ....you can't beat freshly pumped water! Ahh, refreshing!

Max - "Mmmm - delicious! I'd say that the 2009 freshly pumped autumnal water is definitely one of my favourite vintages....he he he!"

JD - We'd like to say 'thank you' to whoever it was at our local council who decided to make this small but meaningful gesture!

Max - We sure would! We reckon it was someone who has a doggie of their own and that they are very proud of their doggie! And that, dear blog readers, is what the spirit of Pet Pride is all about!!

Join in the fun at Pet Pride....

International Schnauzers And An Award - Sofa So Good!

JD - Hi everyone! We feel that we should warn you that this has ended up being quite a long post!

Max - It's because we have a lot of news!

JD - It's been a really busy week for us, what with us helping our humans with the sheds and the building works! And you know what - today we're having a tremendously exciting day!

Max - We sure are - and it's not even lunchtime yet!

JD - It all started off with our usual morning walk....

Flossie - "Wah! I wanna play with Ty!!!!"

Max - ....we met up with a lot of our friends - Ty the husky puppy (hasn't he grown?!) and Dylan the Tibetan Terrier with his little sister Flossie (who got a bit jealous of Max and Ty touching noses!)

JD - Dylan asked female human if he could have a close-up photo - she was happy to oblige as he's super cute. Do you know, at a local country show Dylan won first prize in the 'puppy the judges would most like to take home with them' section?!

Dylan - "Cheese!!"

Max - Our chum Neo was there - you might remember him as the doggie who is a little obsessed with his tennis balls. He was very happy this morning as he had TWO!

Neo - "Back AWAY from the tennis balls! The tennis balls are MINE, okay...?!"

JD - And I made the wonderful find of a discarded sock! Oooh, it was smashing to play with!!

JD - "Mmmmm - discarded sock! Hint of cheese with just a tang of athletes foot - my favourite!!"

Max - So, after all this fun we eventually decided that we had better take our female human back home as we know she can start to get a bit grumpy if she doesn't get her morning cuppa by a certain time....

JD - ....indeed! We find that humans are usually happier if we train them around a set routine you see, he he he!

Max - And do you know what we discovered when we got home? Do you?

JD - Erm, they probably don't Max! I think you'll probably have to actually tell everyone or we might be here for a while....

Max - Oh, okay then JD! Well, we got home to find not just one, but TWO parcels waiting for us!

JD - We were SO excited! One of the parcels was from a far away place called Singapore....

JD - "Oh, what is it, what is it?" Max - "Sniff! Sniff!" Hmm, smells familiar, but I can't quite put my paw on what that smell is JD...."

Max - ....and the other parcel was from another far away place called Australia!!

Max - "Oooh, smells divine!" JD - "Hey - have you seen this little sticker here Max....?"

JD - On this second parcel was a small address label, which also had the picture of the most beautiful Schnauzer nose in the World, so we knew immediately that this parcel was from the wonderful, the intelligent, the beautiful and amazing Sasha - sigh!!

Max - "Oh yes! What a pretty little nose....sigh!"

Max - We know that the parcel from Sasha is for our birthday next week so we are not allowed to open it until then! We're so excited - we're going to take loads of photographs of us opening it and we'll be blogging about it next Sunday when we're all mature and grown-up as we'll both be one year old!

JD - We have to say though, we're a bit grumpy with our human because not one of the parcels that we sent out over 4 weeks ago (to Sasha, Oskar and Ruby and Penny) to celebrate our 100th post has turned up yet!

Female Human - Well lads - I can't do much about the speed of the postal service you know!

Max - Humph! Anyway, we knew that the parcel from Singapore was from our lovely pal Cobi - and it was a wonderful spa treatment for the two of us, some dead sea mud!

JD - We're booked in to have a grooming session on Friday and our human has already told the groomers that we'll be turning up with this treatment applied! They'll wash it off and then give us a lovely haircut.

Max - We can't wait to be pampered with it! We're going to look so handsome - almost as handsome as Cobi!

JD - Is that possible Max?

Max - Well, I did say ALMOST JD! I don't think that we could ever look as stylish as Cobi.

JD - Very true! Anyway - female human told us that she's never had a parcel from Singapore or Australia - ha!

Max - We truly are international Schnauzers, he he he!

JD - Stylish Cobi and sweet Sasha - thank you both so much! We're so excited and we can't wait for 'part 2' of our blog about each of your parcels!

Max - Also, something else very exciting happened about a week ago and female human has been very tardy in getting this news onto our blog!

JD - Yes - we might have to have stern words with her about it!

Max - You see, we got an award from Dennis the Vizla dog! It's the CLASS ACT AWARD and he presented it to us in recognition of the charitable donations we will be making at the end of September in honour of our 100th post!

JD - Thank you Dennis - we are honoured to accept this award! Next weekend (end of September) we'll be posting about how much money we've donated to Dogs Trust - we're very proud to be doing this!

Max - The only requirement of this award is that we pass it onto 6 other class acts!

JD - Gosh! We think ALL our buddies are class acts, so we thought what we'd do was to pass this award onto our 6 newest blogging buddies. So, please accept this award Mr Darcy - hearing about how you help your daddy with his push-ups by sitting on him and falling over him is clear evidence of how helpful and classy you truly are!; Clive - we aspire to become PAT doggies and we view actual service doggies as super-class-act doggies!; El'bow and Hauwii who are the classiest 'little and large' double act we've ever seen; and Nellie and Calvert, whom we feel like we've known for years which is surely a sign of true friendship and makes them a star class act in our eyes!

Max - So please accept this award - we think you all ooze class!

JD - Whilst we're on the subject of our wonderful blog friends, can we please ask you all to pop over to Munchkin Memoirs and vote for our Schnauzer pal Santa in the 'Most Ear-resistible Contest'!

Max - Please DO take the time to vote! We would like to uphold the honour of the Schnauzer and Santa has the prettiest, most amazing pair of ears that we have ever seen on a doggie - he he he!

JD - Finally, we have what we think is really thrilling news to share!

Max - Yes! Recently we have been showing our humans what good puppies we are by no longer chewing or scratching the furniture or trying to eat the newspapers and the CDs, so they have decided to award us the ultimate privilege...

JD - ....oooh, I can hardly say the words I'm so thrilled about it....

Max - ....our humans have FINALLY allowed us to join them on one of their sofas!

JD - Isn't it exciting? Female human really enjoyed how much we cuddled up to her when we visited Pippa at home recently and were allowed on the furniture there, so she really wanted those schnauzer snuggles to continue back home! BUT she also didn't want us climbing up onto ALL of the furniture, so she had a plan!

Max - She sure did! She bought several blankets and introduced them to us as something we were allowed to snuggle on - ooh, they were comfy!

Comfy blankie snugness!!

JD - After about a week our blankets were moved to cover the sofa - and since we knew that these were OUR blankets we knew that it could only mean one thing!

Max - We were finally allowed on the sofa!

JD - We were, we were! We were finally being promoted from the floor....

Comfy blankie snugness on the floor!

Max - ....up onto the furniture!

JD - "Are you SURE we're allowed to be up here Max?" Max - "We're on our blanket aren't we JD? I'd say that was a 'code green'.....!"

JD - "Okay then Max - if you say so I'll kick back and relax!!! Ahhh.....bliss!"

The boys get their heads together for a comfy sofa snooze!

JD - Female human says this has been a good move - we know we're only allowed on the sofa where the blanket is and it means that whenever they have to go out we're a lot less stressed! In fact, we don't even give them a backwards glance when they leave now, he he he!

Max - To show you what we mean here are a few still shots that have been taken from this week's puppy-cam....

All puppies must point the way of the chicken!!

Max relaxes full stretch slap-bang in the middle of the sofa - no room for JD!!

King JD and Prince Max! JD loves to be 'king of the castle' on the sofa and often tries to take the higher ground!!

JD - Female human has realised just HOW much I love to snuggle. As you saw from the photo above I DO like to be 'king of the castle' - he he he! But there is a practical side to me sitting on the sofa like this - it's because when I'm perched a bit higher I REALLY can snuggle up very close to female human....bliss!

JD and Max cuddle into Female Human - Max is looking especially pleased with himself but let's just have a little close-up of JD's snuggle technique....

JD - "Sigh....!" And closer still....

JD - "Snuffle...."

Max - So, as you can see, we've had rather a nice week this week! Busy, but very nice!

JD - We sure have - and next week is our first birthday so it's just going to get better and better!

Max - Thanks again to Cobi and Sasha - we can't wait to blog about your parcels next week!

JD - We know this has been a long post so we hope you stayed with us to the end, he he he! Have a nice weekend everyone!

Find out what all the critters are up to at....

Wordless Wednesday

Peek-a-boo!

JD - Hi everyone! Our humans have been very busy recently....

Max - ....which means that they haven't really had much time to blog for us!

JD - You can't really get the staff - erm, we mean - the owners nowadays can you?!!

Max - Female human's job has REALLY taken off so she's been out of the house quite a bit, and male human has moved over to contract work so that he only has to go into the office two days a week - because he's setting up his own business!

JD - It's all very exciting! But it means that there have been a lot of changes around the house recently, including some building work.

Max - AND two new sheds have appeared in our garden! We like the sheds! We like to hide behind them and chase each other around them - he he he!

JD - Yup - the sheds are great fun! So, because we don't have much time to blog tonight (as female human is going to do something called 'circuit training' whatever that is!) we're just going to leave you with a picture of Max, who is respectfully declining female human's suggestion that he comes back into the house from behind the garden shed....

Max - "No, I think I'll stay where I am, thank you for asking!"

Max - Well - I was having a good time! He he he! See you soon everyone - we hope to still be able to visit your blogs and we hope to get back to blogging as usual by the weekend!!

Camera Critters - Visiting Friends

JD - For Camera Critters today we're going to do a post about visiting!

Max - Yup! You see, we've now visited our most favourite ever human at home!

Female Human - Um, lads.....

JD - *Rolls eyes!* Yeah, yeah - our most favourite human after you and male human, we know, we know!

Max - M is our wonderful treat lady and she is the lovely lady whom pretty Pippa is lucky enough to live with, with her big brother Harry and her big sister Millie!

Pretty Pippa poses for the camera!

JD - And last week we went to visit them all! We loved it - and were very pleased with female human for taking her flashy box with her - here a few snaps of our stay....

At M's house doggies are allowed to do whatever they want! Pippa invited the lads up onto the sofa - JD was straight up, Max couldn't quite believe it.....

Max - "Female Human? Can I REALLY come up on the sofa?"

Female Human - "Yes, Max - around here you CAN! Look how much JD has already made himself at home!"

Everybody say 'cheese'!!

JD picked up this 'hopping up onto the furniture' malarkey WAY too quickly.....!

JD - Unfortunately, the photos of Harry and Millie didn't come out very well....

Max - ....which is great really, as it means we simply HAVE to go back and visit again real SOON!

JD - He he he! Happy camera critters everyone!

Find out what all the critters are up to at....

Some enouragement needed....

JD - Hi everyone! Now, a few days ago the wonderful and wise Oliver published a post about how the elephant he had got as a little puppy appears to have shrunk as he's got older.

Max - We have noticed this phenomenon with our toys too and also with male human....

JD - .... but strangely not with female human. She seems to have remained the same size!

Max - She admitted to us recently that before we turned up she was quite a sporty person. She used to enjoy cycling....

Female human looks happy after completing the London to Brighton bike ride in aid of the British Heart Foundation!

JD - .... the odd bit of abseiling....

Female human steps off the ledge....

.... and glides gracefully to the bottom - don't let go!!

Max - .... and she even took part in the odd triathlon - but only ever as part of a team as she's admitted to us that she's a bit scared of swimming!

Female human and her triathlon team mates - female human looks extremely relieved that it's all over!

JD - She doesn't like swimming? After all that effort she's made this year to get US into the sea? The NERVE of the woman!!

Max - He he he! But what she loved to do most of all was to run!

JD - She sure did! She's run a few half marathons....

Female human (front middle) looking very happy after completing her first ever half marathon. We apologise for the quality of this photo - it was taken before she had a digital camera (THAT'S how old she is....he he he!)

Max - And she's even completed the London Marathon before too!

Female human poses with her gorgeous pal W - we've been told that she just kept muttering 'never again!!' whilst this photo was being taken, he he he!

JD - But since we've been around the most energetic thing that female human has done is take us for walks.

Max - Whilst we appreciate the walks that she takes us on - some of them over 2 hours long as she just enjoys being outside so much - she's told us that she's put on quite a bit of weight as a result.

JD - Nearly two stone apparently - good grief!! This obviously explains why she doesn't appear any smaller now that we're bigger!

Female Human - Hey!!

Max - He he he! But we hear that she's signed up to do another half marathon in January next year and she'll be going to Spain to do it - very nice!

JD - She did actually take part in this half marathon earlier this year - it was the last athletic thing she did with us around.

Female human (kneeling front left) posing with her pals prior to the Santa Pola half marathon.

Max - So she needs a bit of encouragement to get back out there - she says that she's so used to 'just' walking us now (cheeky human!!) that she needs more than a little push to 'get back into it'!

JD - Well - I LIKE her cuddly....

Female Human - Aw - thanks JD!

JD - ....because she makes an EXCELLENT cushion - all squidgy, soft and comfy, he he he!

Max - So, we just thought we'd ask all our pals in the blogosphere to encourage female human to get those trainers on and get out there pounding those streets again!

JD - Come on female human - if we can do it then you can too!!

Gotta run, gotta run, gotta run....!

Happy Birthday Fatty and Ally!!

JD - Hi - and thanks to everyone who popped in to join our celebrations over the weekend!

Max - We had a great time! And as we type this 44 comments have been left plus 40 signatures in our guest book and THAT means a grand total of £84 to Dogs Trust - thanks everyone!

JD - Don't forget - you can still leave a comment on our 100th post or sign our guest book as our humans won't be donating until the end of the September.

Max - Plus, female human told us that as there's two of us she's going to double up the amount - we're feeling very proud that Dogs Trust will be getting a minimum of £168 - thanks everyone!

JD - Anyway - onto some more exciting news!

Max - It's our good pals Fatty and Ally's barkday today - hooray!! Well, for us it's tomorrow but as they're in Kuala Lumpur it's already tomorrow today for them - um, we admit we're a little confused about all this but we're just going with it....

JD - Fatty and Ally are two gorgeous little schnauzers - we think they look like princesses....*blush!*

Max - So we designed a little barkday card for them and have posted it below!


JD - Fatty and Ally have a great blog - they really are little cuties! Why not pop over and wish them a happy barkday?

Max - We think they're so great that we'd like to give them this award especially for them turning four - Fatty and Ally, we hope you have a fabulous day!

JD - We got the award from the great Purple Hatter - he does great work!

Max - Happy Birthday Fatty and Ally! We wish we could visit you in pupsome to give you some barkday snuggles! *Blush!*

JD - "Come on Max - best paw forward! If we keep walking I'm sure we'll get to Fatty and Ally's by lunchtime....!"

JD - We can't wait to hear all about your birthday - we hope you blog about it soon!

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES - OH YEAH!! Our 100th Post!!

JD - It's here! It's here!

Max - Our 100th post!!

JD - Bring out the balloons....the streamers......the bubbly!!!



Max - This will be our camera critters post AS WELL AS our pet pride post!




JD - It's because - as part of our celebrations - our human is going to donate a pound to the Dogs Trust for EVERY comment that is left against this post so we want as big an audience as possible, he he he....

Max - .... AND they're also going to donate a pound for everyone who signs our guest book during September. We've got 27 signatures so far - so that's a starting point of £27....

JD - .... so please leave a comment, sign our guest book and get your friends, family and neighbours (he he he!) to pop along and do the same. Let's get that money rolling in for Dogs Trust - they do such good work helping to re-house doggies as well as identifying doggies to train as service and assistance doggies!

Max - "Hey, JD - do you think we'd be good guide dogs?" Female Human - "Puff! Pant! Definitely NOT Max!!"

Max - We can hardly believe that we're publishing our 100th post! We could not have done it without all our wonderful friends out there in the blogosphere!

JD - So, to mark one hundred we are going to write about three 'firsts'. Here we go....

Max - The first 'first' we want to celebrate is the very first dog blog our female human ever stumbled across. It was back before she had even decided which doggie to get!

JD - That's right! Our female human had decided she would like either a Daschund or a Schnauzer - so was browsing the Internet one day ....

Max - .... and discovered the beautiful and wonderful Ruby and Penny!

Ruby and Penny - we are two because of them!

JD - Our female human was enchanted - she still is! She (and us) ADORES Ruby and Penny's blog! She fell in love with the two of them.

Max - In fact - did you know if it wasn't for Ruby and Penny there would probably only be ONE of us - how awful would that be? We can't even begin to think about it!

JD - Female human loved how well Ruby and Penny got on and decided to get two dogs. She didn't actually mean to get two dogs at the same time though, that was our choice, he he he!

Max - And hey, do you do know what? It was only because the schnauzer breeder had a litter before the daschund breeder that we're here now!

JD - Yeah - we were nearly daschunds! We're glad our real mum and dad couldn't keep their paws off each other and got 'down to it', otherwise you might have been reading about two other hounds right now!!

Max - Thank you Ruby and Penny! Your blog is great - the excitement when you left us your first message was wonderful!

JD - That's right! But the very first comment EVER left on our blog was .... 'Tally-ho! My mom type person told me to say that!"

Max - Can you guess who that was?! It was the incredibly handsome Oskar!

Oskar - "Tally-ho everyone!"

JD - We LOVE Oskar's blog - it's funny and stylish and he is a great pal. His mom type person is fab too - she's helped our female human with schnauzer-type questions and we've all become great friends. It's just a shame there's a big pond keeping us apart - the fun we could have if we all met up would be phenomenal!

Max - Oskar - you rock! So much so that we've chosen today - our 100th post - to proudly display the Oskar award that you passed onto your pals!

JD - This award was especially designed just for Oskar - THAT'S how cool he is! Thanks Oskar - we are proud to display this award!


Max - And now our last 'first' - our first love. *Sigh!*

JD - We think that you all guessed who this is - we've made no secret of our puppy love for her *Sigh!*

Max - It is the delightful, the beautiful, the witty, the brave, the strong, the charming and the intelligent Sasha. *Sigh!*

Beautiful and clever Sasha - *Sigh!*

JD - Sasha is our first love and will always continue to be so. We realise we will never get to meet so we will have to be content to just gaze at her photos, read all about her adventures - and play with her in our dreams. *Sigh!*

Max - We feel a bond with Sasha! She's only four days younger than us and she joined her new family at roughly the same time that we joined ours so she's been going through the pain of training her human at the same time as us. Her blog is wonderful and her tweets (twoofs!) always make us giggle. She's simply wonderful .... *Sigh!*

JD - Yes - wonderful! *Sigh!*

Max - We have sent each of these three 'fists' a little goodie bag as a thank you - we had hoped they would get it around the same time as this post, but we have a feeling it hasn't arrived with anyone yet!

JD - Sasha explained to us that parcels delivered via surface mail are carried on the back of fishes - she is everso clever, she knows everything!

Max - So we're afraid you might have a bit of a wait - but we really hope your goodies turn up soon!

JD - Before we leave - as female human has some celebrating of her own to do, what with this being the exact date one year ago that she left London and the rat race behind and changed her life for the better by working locally and getting us - can we just say THANKS EVERYONE!

Max - Yup - we love blogging! We've made some great friends and we've enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you for continuing to visit our blog and for continuing to humour us our thoughts and ideas.

JD and Max sleep on their latest blog idea!

JD - Please leave a comment here - and sign our guest book, even if you already have signed it before now, he he he! We want to be able to send oodles of money to Dogs Trust!

Max - Have a nice weekend everyone....

JD - .... and thank you for stopping by!!

Join in the fun at Pet Pride....
Find out what all the critters are up to at....