Presents from Norwood!

JD - Hi everyone - oooh, we are SO behind with our blogging! There is loads that we want to tell everyone about, but our administration staff - erm, we mean FH - has been falling WAY behind - sigh....!

Max - Yes, we're sorry that we've been tardy with keeping up with your blogs recently, we're going to try to visit everyone to catch up again this weekend!

JD - The heat isn't helping either! Oooh, it's SO hot here right now, all a pup wants to do is sleep!

Max - FH has been good with this point we suppose. She's been taking us out for our morning walk extra early so that we miss the real heat of the day and we've been getting ice cubes, cold carrots, cold cucumber and cooling watermelon to eat to cool down!

Nom, nom, NOM! Ooooh - chilled watermelon is SO refreshing!

JD - Anyway, the most exciting bit of news is that we got a parcel the other day from Norwood! It was our prize for coming first in the Action Fick section of his pawsome Pawdance Film Festival. We've been nagging FH to take photos of it ever since it arrived - gosh, we were everso excited when it turned up!

JD - "Ooh, Max! There's a froggie sticker on this parcel!"
Max - "Well, that can only mean one thing bro' - it must be from the super-cool Norwood!"

JD - "Sigh! We're posing like 'nice boys' FH - can we open our parcel now??!"

JD - "Oh WOW Max - we got a trophy, with our names on and everything!"
Max - "It's got two stars on the trophy, obviously! 'Cos of course WE'RE two stars!"

JD - "Hey Max - MY name is on the trophy FIRST - ha!"
Max - "Sure, JD, but the SECOND star on the trophy is the BIGGEST star - so THERE!"

JD - "This is the coolest trophy in the World!"
Max - "It sure is JD! But I feel tired just remembering all the running about we did for our 'Chariots of Fire' flick - I just need a little lie down for a sec.....!"

JD - "And here's the certificate we got!"
Max - "Oooh, we get to have our photo taken with Norwood - neat!"

JD - "We also got a doggie calendar...."
Max - "....yeah, for about two minutes! FH has taken it into work - humph!"

JD - "Um, you can't see our goodies very well in this photo - we also got a really fun bubble set - very green and frog-like...."
Max - "....and there was a cool 'magic towel' - it was very tasty, you can see me chewing it here, before FH took it off me. She's SUCH a kill-joy!"

Max - "And finally, our favourite bit - nommy paw-baked biscuits. These are SO yummy - but our mean FH is rationing them -humph!"

Max - "NOM!!!"

JD - "Gimme the biscuit, gimme the biscuit, gimme the biscuit....!"

JD - "NOM!!"

JD - Thank you SO much Norwood - this was such a surprise, we LOVE all the goodies and the trophy is simply pawsome!

Max - Oh yeah! FH has taken the trophy with her everywhere and has been showing it off to everyone. We don't think there's anyone left in Clacton who hasn't seen it, he he he!

JD - We had SO much fun with the Pawdance Film Festival - we certainly didn't expect prizes!

Max - In other exciting news Miss Mayzie's exciting Dee-En-Ay contest reached its conclusion earlier this week, with pups from all over the blogsphere joining paws to help those less fortunate than themselves.

JD - We were proud to make a donation to Dog's Trust on behalf of Miss Mayzie and this morning FH made a transfer of £123.50, which was 50 pennies per Dee-En-Ay guess that came in !

Max - Mariah's Promise and All Paws Rescue also benefited from Miss Mayzie's contest - isn't Miss Mayzie just the most lovely doggie ever?

We were proud to have been involved in Miss Mazyie's Dee-En-Ay contest!

JD - We have some very exciting news that we're going to tell you about in our next post....

Max - ....it's to do with a 'third doggie'! Can you guess?!!

JD - Anyhoo - before we leave we just wanted to post this photo of us that MH took yesterday after our morning walk with FH.

Max - It's us trying to persuade FH not to go to work! We thought that if we weighed her down she couldn't abandon us......

Max - "Okay JD - I'll lie across her lap and pin her down, if you could just position yourself across her shoulders and hold her down that way....!"
JD - "....I'm on it bro', I'm on it! She can't possibly leave us now, surely??!!"

JD - .....but sadly it didn't work. She still left, muttering some excuse about having to earn money to buy doggie biscuits and cheese - sigh!!!!

Max - It's so sad how FH keeps on abandoning us! Do you do anything to try to keep your humans at home too?

MIA, some sad news and some very unexpected news

JD - Hi everyone! We're sorry we've been MIA recently - FH has had a really hectic week, speaking at a lot of conferences, not in her usual work place, so she hasn't been around to blog for us OR to help us visit your blogs! We are MOST indignant!

Max - FH hasn't even had a chance to walk us during the week, MH has been giving us our daily constitutionals! MH really looks out for us, he's great!

JD - We know that FH is a bit grumpy as she's really missed spending time with us - we're glad her conferences are now over and we can get back to some serious FH time again!

Max - Whilst we've been out of action quite a lot has happened. We got a very sad piece of news earlier this week. One of the very first doggies we ever got to know, our great pal Scottie, moved onto the Rainbow Bridge - he was a feisty Westie of 11 years of age.

JD - Run free at the Bridge Scottie - we're going to miss you SO much, you taught us so many things, like the good places to sniff and how to woof at trains!

Scottie and JD investigating some pee-mail

Max - Some other unexpected news is that we won the category we entered in Norwood's fabulous Pawdance Film Festival - we're in shock!

JD - Yup! FH suddenly remembered the festival this morning, so she quickly logged on before she went to work and nearly fell off her chair to find out that we were in 1st place - but only just! I think we won by the skin of our teeth, but even so we're thrilled - thank you SO MUCH to everyone who was kind enough to vote for us!

Max - It now means we're in the final - eeekk! There are LEGENDARY doggies in the final, like Honey and Mango! We're SOOOO not worthy! But hey, if you want to vote for us again please feel free to do so, he he he!!

JD - Right, we're going to spend the weekend catching up with ALL your blogs - we're SO sorry we haven't visited you for so long. Gosh, we've missed you all SO much!

Max - Before we leave here's another little video of us. Honey did a post recently about a 'bomb proof stay' so we thought we'd post our 'flood proof stay'! You can even hear FH squealing near the end!



JD - We're off now to catch up on all the adventures you've had that we've missed!

Chalk and cheese - Post 2, our outlook on life!

FH - Hi everyone! Firstly, apologies for not getting round to visit your blogs much this week - we've had a bit of trouble with our Internet connection, probably due to the volume of users on-line locally because we've had a general election. As I type this our country has no one in charge!! It's a hung Parliament - the next few weeks should be rather interesting! Anyway, things are slowly getting back to normal broadband-wise so we'll be visiting again soon!

Secondly, when I set this little 'chalk and cheese' project up for the boys I had no idea that this was such a British phrase! I love what I learn from the blogsphere - we've experienced this before when the boys did a post entitled 'elevensses' about their mid-morning snack!

Right, today's 'chalk and cheese' is about my boys' outlook on life. I thought it would be fun to ask them to both write a short account of the same day, entitled 'What I Did Last Saturday'! JD - over to you!

JD - Thanks FH! Okay everyone, here is my essay....

What I Did Last Saturday - by JD Schnauzer

Last Saturday Max woke me up at 5.30 am when he decided he wanted to play with squeaky chicken. Don't get me wrong, I love squeaky chicken as much as the next dog, but I suggested to Max that as it was the weekend our humans might appreciate a lie-in. He just laughed and started woofing loudly about FH loving mornings. I did try to shush him, but when my brother gets something into his head it's pretty hard to distract him.

Some cute photos of us will be dotted throughout our essays to keep you entertained! Here's JD showing that his legs are about twice as long as Max's!

FH appeared about 5.40 and let us into the garden for our morning wee - I wait patiently for my morning cuddle which we always get just before she lets us out. She always cuddles me first - I'm not sure if Max has noticed this but it makes me feel very happy and waggy!

FH always takes us out for our morning walk really early, so after she's put our leads on us she straps us into the backseat of the car and we set off to the nature reserve. Mind you, it took us about 5 minutes to get out of the front door on this particular morning because Max kept on wanting to go out before FH, so she had to keep on telling him to sit and wait for the release word. I waited patiently until he got it and then we both trotted to the car together.

Our morning walk was great! A bit wet as it was drizzling but we had some great rounds of zoomies round the fields and then we had a great exploring session on the beach. Because of the weather we didn't meet anyone else on our walk even though we were out for nearly 2 hours, which was a shame as I love meeting new people and new doggies.

JD smiles for the camera!

When we got back home we had a rub down with the towel monster followed by a yummy breakfast and a lovely nap. As it was a bit chilly FH tucked us up with some blankies - ooooh, it was comfy!

We woke up briefly when MH came down - he'd slept in a bit later as he'd been working late the night before. He played tug with us and gave us a biscuit each - we've got the best MH in the whole World! MH then needed to do a bit of work in his office so I kept him company for a few hours, supervising him and making sure he was okay by doing things like keeping his lap warm by snuggling into it every time he sat down! Max popped in a few times but didn't stay.

At about 3.00 pm FH gave us a bowl of natural yoghurt with a spot of local honey stirred in - I suffer from hayfever you see and I find local honey really helps this. Plus it's super-yummy!

At about 4.00 pm FH asked if we fancied another romp at the nature reserve - we sure did! It had stopped raining when we got there but it was still cold and windy. To our delight Abby was there - she's a great pal of ours, a gorgeous golden retriever and - I'm not sure if Max knows this - I'm totally in love with her! I knew she was at the reserve when she was about 3 fields away because of my amazing nose so I just ran and ran and RAN to meet her! Max tends to hang back when we meet people and dogs so I figure it's down to me to be the sociable one. Abby is SUCH great fun, we played and wrestled and romped - oooh, it was great!

Let the wrestling begin!!

When we got home, after another session with the towel monster both me and Max settled down on the sofa for another snooze - we were both very tired. I dreamt about running around with Abby!

I was woken up by Max barking - MH's brother had come round and Max didn't seem to want him to come into the house. I really hoped he would as I was sure he would make a lovely fuss of me. Sadly, MH and his brother both went straight into MH's office and I wasn't allowed in this time which was a shame. Max was still barking and getting himself rather stressed so I brought him over to the sofa, sat him down and started to groom his ears as I know this really relaxes him. After about ten minutes he fell asleep so I snuggled up next to him and before long was snoring myself!

We snoozed through most of the evening and when it was time for bed I settled down straight away in the corner of the sofa, ready for a wonderful sleep. FH tucked me in, told me I was her 'good boy' and her 'handsome boy' and gave me a goodnight smooch. It had been a great day!!

Max - Is it my turn, is it my turn, is it my turn? Gosh, you took SO long JD! Right, here's my essay about last Saturday....

What I Did Last Saturday - How I Saved The World! - by Max Schnauzer

Last Saturday I awoke, as I usually do, around 5.00 am. I did a quick security check of the the lounge perimeter to ensure everything was in order. I then did a toy roll-call and realised that squeaky chicken was challenging me to a fight! Well, as everypup knows a challenge like this can not be ignored, I needed to teach squeaky chicken who was boss! I'm aware that JD tried speaking to me at some point but I was so engrossed with squeaky chicken that I'm not really sure what he was wittering on about!

Max and JD enjoy the plumpness of their favourite pillow - it's big enough for both of them!

FH appeared about 5.40 - I was SO excited to see her that I kept on jumping and squealing and jumping some more. I was trying to tell FH that, once again, I had saved her from oversleeping and being late for work by selflessly barking her awake. She muttered some such nonsense about not working on weekends but I think she was simply didn't want me to get embarrassed by admitting what a huge hero I am! I notice that whenever I'm leaping around in the mornings, reminding FH how amazing I am, she'll always make an immediate fuss of JD, who's just sitting about doing nothing, and only fusses ne when I've stoped bouncing! I reckon she does this so he doesn't feel bad that he's too dopey to wake her up!

A spot of rock-climbing!

After trying (but sadly failing) to train FH on the correct way to leave the house we set off for the nature reserve. It was wet and I'm not a fan of wet things - I ask FH to turn the rain off but she pretends she doesn't understand what I'm on about. I therefore decide to carry out some security checks. I ensure all the seagulls are cleared away, I check the hedgerows for dangerous looking bunnies and I stay close to FH for the duration of the walk in case anything I disapprove of gets too close to her.

Can you spot the schnauzers?!!

When we get back home we are both attacked by the towel monster - I valiantly fought back to ensure everyone was safe. I then carry out a quick security check of the premises to make sure nothing untoward has happened in my absence and then I settle down for a nap.

When MH appears I get so excited I leap straight at him. He is so delighted to see me that he gives me a biscuit and then plays tug with both me and JD - I suppose he doesn't want JD to feel left out so has to include him in our game too. MH then goes into his office to work for a bit. JD scampers in after him leaving it to me (as per usual) to ensure the house is safe. I carry out frequent security checks, popping in to see MH at regular intervals to give him a status update, I know he really appreciates my diligence!

Around mid-afternoon FH gives us a delightful snack of natural yoghurt with a touch of local honey - my brother has allergies you see but I find this particular allergy rather rewarding, he he he! An hour later FH took us for our afternoon walk - I was pleased to note that she had remembered to turn the rain off for this one!

Max smiles for the camera!

Abby was at the nature reserve with her humans - JD went running straight over to her leaving the security detail to me, as usual. Even though I know Abby and I know her humans you can never be too sure - I hung back and double checked that they all were who they appeared to be before I felt comfortable enough to join in. We had a great time although I had to pause briefly in the middle of a particularly good wrestle to woof at a passing cyclist who looked extremely dodgy - it's a good job the humans have me around to keep an eye on everything!

Max and JD wrestle with a gorgeous blonde!

When we got back home I tried to warn JD about the towel monster but he was too slow and whilst I was trying to defend him the towel monster got me too!

After carrying out my security detail I settled down with JD on the sofa for a snooze - he was obviously having a dream as he kept on kicking me! If that wasn't enough I was disturbed further by MH's brother turning up - he looked a bit iffy to me so I woofed at him to let him know that I was in charge! Amazingly, he took absolutely no notice of me whatsoever and went into MH's office - the NERVE! I strutted around outside woofing and snuffling in disgust until JD came over and persuaded me to come back to the sofa for an ear chew. Now, if there's one thing I'm rather partial to it's an ear chew, so I reluctantly relented.

We snoozed for most of the evening before being let out for our night time wee. I was still patrolling the garden to ensure danger was not lurking behind our rose bushes when FH started calling me in. I insisted on finishing my patrol before I returned to the house - JD was already tucked up and half asleep when I got there! FH snuggled me into a blanket, told me I was her 'brave little boy' and her 'cute boy' and gave me a goodnight smooch. I believe that my continued vigilance successfully averted any possible disaster - for another day at least!

JD - Well, that's a summary of our outlook on life - we hope you liked our stories!

Max - Ooooh, before we go, we'd like to share with you our Pawdance Festival entry! We're so excited about it that we can't keep it a secret! Please CLICK HERE to view our action packed video and let us know what you think - we're very nervous!

JD - We hope you like it - please let us know what you think of our short film and we hope you vote for us if you get a chance!!

Our favourite beach!

JD - FH is trying to get used to using our new-ish video camera to enter a short film into Norwood's Pawdance Film Festival!

Max - If you haven't entered yet you should do so - it's gonna be great fun! Click the piccie below to find out more - closing date is 9th May.


JD - But in the meantime FH is suddenly pointing this new, non-flashy box at s and demanding we perform for her - well, the NERVE of the woman!!

Max - So, whilst she frets over being completely useless with the software we chose a very short clip to post on our blog as we wanted to show you our favourite beach! This was filmed at 6.30 am on Saturday morning, it starts with JD, pans out to show you our super cool wind-farm and then - saving the best for last - finishes with yours truly!

JD - *Rolls eyes!* Ahem - please excuse my little brother - ever since he started comparing himself to George Clooney he's been almost impossible to live with.....!



Max - We hope you liked our film debut! Okay, we don't actually DO much, but we hope you like our favourite beach as much as we do!

JD - You see, we're saving our action-shots and amazing acting performances for Norwood's competition!

Max - ARE we JD?

JD - *Rolls eyes again!* YES Max - sheesh!!