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Can you see why we're super excited? Biggify the picture to find out...

Let the PAWTY begin!!

JD - Hi everyone! We're kicking off a weekend of celebrations for Blogville's Crossed Paws Organisation to officially mark the end of a very successful fundraising event for Richie and Ronnii!

We're proud, proud, PROUD members of Frankie's cabinet! Our aim is to help out - one paw at a time!

Max - It's been a JOY to be a part of the fundraising, which has consisted of a prize door banquet raffle which raised $400.00....

JD - .....an amazing auction which raised $1,715.75 - please check to see if you're lucky enough to be a winning bidder as PayPal buttons have now been set up against each of the 76 items donated....

Max - ....and the kissing booths which will close tomorrow at midday GMT and which have so far raised a whopping $361.00!!

JD - Please note that the bake sale is an on-going fundraising project for pups and kitties in need so we are not including the totals in this event.

Max - Thank you to everyone who has donated recipes - we haven't had a chance to concentrate on this much because of the auction and the kissing booths but we plan on working in pawtnership with Oskar from PBU to run this site as well as a pet recipe cook book to raise money for pets in need so watch this space!! So if your recipe hasn't appeared on the site yet please bear with us - they will soon!

PBU - a pawsome site for pet bloggers!

JD - So, the grand total raised so far, including donations from some wonderful people out there (who wished to remain anonymous but you know who you are!) is....

Max - ....and this is truly stupendous!!!!....

JD - ......$2,501.75 - wow, wow, WOW!!

Max - So here's the 'finance bit'!! To ensure everyone is aware of what happens to all funds raised by Crossed Paws here is what will be happening with the money that you have so kindly pledged....

JD - Firstly, as we are using PayPal to collect all the funds we do need to remind everyone that 10% of everything donated is kept by PayPal - sigh! But as Frankie wisely said 'to make money sometimes you have to spend money' and PayPal is the most reliable way for us at Crossed Paws to collect funds.

Max - That does mean that our useable total raised is $2,251.58 - but we still say WOW!!!

JD - Now, the outstanding vet bills for Richie is $1,320.00 which means we can pay this off - YAY!!

Richie is ready to pawty, pawty, PAWTY!!

Max - This still leaves a whopping $931.58 raised for Richie and Ronnii! As you all know these two cute furballs have known health issues so we wanted to raise extra monies to hand (or should that be 'paw'?!) over to their vet to ensure mama Tea doesn't have to worry about the future.

Ronnii is catching up on some zzzzZZZs ready for the pawtying ahead!

JD - However, mama Tea is so kind and generous and knows that there are other pets in need out there. So she would like to pledge $425.00 of the monies raised to Miss Judy which she so desperately needs at the moment to help with her kitties - and hey, we're not speciest, he he he!

Max - Which would STILL leave mama Tea's vet with AT LEAST $506.58 in reserve. (We say 'at least' because of potential donations that could still come in!) This means we've helped mama Tea, her furbabies AND many kitties - wonderful! We sure do hope you're happy with how these funds are being used.

JD - So - onto the celebrations! Yeah!!

Max - We now officially declare the auction closed! So we ask those of you who have winning bids to use the PayPal buttons that have been set up against your item to pay - this makes it easier for us to keep track of your details to enable your item to reach you quicker!

JD - As a HUGE thank-you to everyone who has taken part in this event - which will be those who bought tickets for the raffle, those who donated items to the auction, those who had winning bids at the auction, those who were in the kissing booths and those who purchased smoochies from the kissing booths - we will be running a prize draw.

Max - The name of one lucky pup or kit will be drawn - by our very own Richie and Ronnii! - and will win a tag of their choice from Sugar's Paw House, which has been donated by the beautiful and huge-hearted Sugar!

One lucky pup or kit could soon be the lucky owner of one of these pawsome tags! (Click on the piccie above to find out more about the very talented Sugar's Paw House)

JD - We will be sending a list of names through to Richie and Ronnii and they will make the draw next weekend!

Max - Tomorrow we will be closing the kissing booths and to mark this occasion the hugely talented PAWSBANG will be playing live so please DO drop by for this pawsome gig!

PAWSBANG will be playing out the official closing of the kissing booths JUST for you - make sure you don't miss them!

JD - We LOVED the kissing booths - what an amazing idea that was of Frankie's! And to think that smoochies are STILL coming in - what a hot blooded lot you all are out there, tee hee!

Max - Oh gosh yes, that was a GOOD afternoon! We visited ALL the ladies for a super-smooch - well, it WAS all for a good cause, tee hee!

JD - I visited Morgan for smoochies twice - *blush!*

We crash out after a WONDERFUL afternoon at the kissing booths!

Max - And I visited Christmas and the Girls AND Minnie twice - *wistful sigh.....!*

JD - In total Blogville has notched up three hundred and sixty one smoochies - hubba hubba!! Well, it IS almost spring we suppose, he he he!

Max - Please DO swing by tomorrow for the kissing booth party - we can't wait to boogie along to PAWSBANG, he he he!

Please help!

JD - Hi everyone! We're sorry we haven't been around to visit you recently but it's because we've been busy on something very important!

Much as we like to spend most of our time at the beach we have recently been working on other things too!

Max - Yup! Our beautiful pal Blueberry recently had surgery for cancer and the huge hearted Frankie Furter had the wonderful idea to hold a Christmas Auction to help raise funds for her treatments.

JD - Frankie and the Slimmer Pugs got chatting about this and asked if we'd host the auction page, as we did for Shelby's auction earlier this yer.

Max - Well, we were honoured to be asked and immediately agreed so we've been spending the past week setting up the auction site.

JD - It's now live so please check it out by clicking on the piccie below!


Max - We need your help to spread the word about this, to bid on items if you can and to donate items for it if you're able!

JD - We've already had some AMAZING auction items donated - the kindness that's out there in the dog-blog community is just PAWSOME!

JD cosies up to his beautiful GSD pal Lily! Just like the dog-blogging community Lily is very generous too - she recently donated some items to Shelby's Christmas Raffle. Don't forget to buy some raffle tickets - click on the picture above to link to the amazing prizes you could win! Closing date for Shelby's Christmas Raffle is 4th December.

Max - We're hoping to add items to the auction fairly regularly so please do keep on checking back. Why struggle with busy shops for your Xmas shopping when you could buy something amazing at Blueberry's auction?!

JD - One thing we'd like to ask is that you check out the 'thank you' page of the auction site as it's our shout-out to everypup who has made this wonderful event possible - we think you're all great!

Max - Blueberry's Christmas Auction will run until 12th December so we probably won't get a chance to blog much ourselves until then as we'll be concentrating on the auction site. But being part of the auction is great fun so we don't mind!

JD - Oh! Before we go we just HAD to share how excited we are that we've gone into triple figures with our followers for 'Schnauzer and Schnauzer' - wowzers!

Max was so stunned to find that 'Schnauzer and Schnauzer's' followers had gone into triple figures that he keeled over, he he he!'

Max - 100 followers - we're beside ourselves with excitement! Seriously - our tails nearly wagged OFF when we realised!!

JD - In the meantime please DO check out Blueberry's auction. You can help by spreading the word or by bidding or by donating items. Everything helps!

The sun always shines on the righteous - he he he!

JD - Hi everyone! We wanted to share some photos with you that FH has been taking of us over the past couple of months.

Max - As Winter draws in the days are getting shorter and we now have to go for our walks in the dark - boo!

JD - However, before this happened FH and us really enjoyed watching the sunrises so she took lots of snaps to remember how beautiful the start of each new day is, er, was!

We wait patiently for FH to take our photo!

Even though we're just small silhouettes in this photo (when we should be the featured stars of the show!) we still really like this photo of low tide and the pier

A bit of a 'windy woozle' situation in this photo!

FH LOVES this silhouette photo - just look at how blue the sky is! JD is enjoying an early morning paddle on this very clear, very COLD morning!

The boys take a brief breather as we all wend our way home after a very enjoyable morning romp!

This was one of the last sunrise photos that FH took of us - we were on our way home and more than half of our walk had been in the cover of darkness. Two weeks later FH took the photo below, in the EXACT same spot at the EXACT same time....

....obviously, we were facing in the other direction for this moonlight shot, but it is the same place (well, okay, we were at the bottom of the hill in this photo, in the one above we were at the top of the hill!) As FH says - the World turns, same time, same place, different season!

And to finish we leave you with a sunset photo, just for a change, he he he!

Max - And hey - we've started to notice a strange phenomenon in our photos, which is that in 90% of them my brother JD is ALWAYS on the left with myself, the handsome (and modest!) Max, ALWAYS being on the right.

JD - It's not ALL the time. For impromptu snaps, like our last Wordless Wednesday, we mixed it up a bit with Max on the left and myself on the right! But it seems that whenever we're called upon to pose for a photo we insist on ME being left with little bro' right!

Max - Well, people and pups often say they can't tell us apart - even though my brother is practically a GIANT....

JD - Hey!

Max - ....so we thought this would be a good way to help everyone to identify us, he he he!

Wordless Wednesday - boys will be boys!!

A happy and uplifting photo story

Hi everyone - JD and Max here! We asked FH if we could please do a cheery, uplifting post as we notice there seems to be a lot of sadness and pain out there in the blogging World just now. So we'd like to share this with you - it's a great story without a word being said apart from the dialogue at the end.... you might have already seen it but even so we think it's great and worth seeing again and it may just bring a happy tear to your eye...

It was a German tourist who jumped in and saved the dog. Upon getting back up on the bridge he checked the dog out and told the owner "zer dog is okay and vill be fine!" So the owner asked if he was a vet?

He replied "Vet? VET? I'm soaked!"

We are TWO today!

JD - Hi everyone! We know we're on a blogging break....

Thinking about our blogging buddies!

Max - ....but we insisted that FH post some photos TODAY because it's our 2nd birthday!

JD - And we wanted to share with you some of the great pressies we got!!

Max - Because our wonderful, beautiful, generous blog sweetheart Sasha and her dapper, dashing and kind brother Rupert sent us some really fun gifts!

JD - They did, they did! And we LOVE what they sent - check it out...

JD - "OOOH - for ME??!! Really??!!"

JD - "Why, I don't mind if I do!!"

JD - "Now THIS is what I call a cool starfish stuffie!"

Max - "Oh, oh - I wanna play too - gimme, gimme!!"
JD - "Oi, gerroff!! S'mine!"
Max - "I think you'll find Sasha and Rupert sent this stuffie for BOTH of us JD....!"

Max - "Humph - well, if you're not going to share the starfish stuffie then I'M going to claim this cool moo-ing cow stuffie - so THERE!"

Max - "Um - MH - you can let go of the cow stuffie now, there's a good human.....!"

JD - "Ooh, THAT looks fun too - oooh, let me have a go on it too!"
Max - "Hey, not FAIR JD! You wouldn't share the starfish - gerroff my cow!"

Max - "S'mine!"
JD - "No - S'MINE!!"

Max - Sasha and Rupert - we can't thank you enough for these amazingly cool toys - they are SO much fun!

JD - You are the best-est pals a couple of schnauzers could have. And the prettiest (with gorgeous eyes!) and most dynamic (and licky!) pals too!

Max - Yup - you two ROCK!

JD - We also got a new toy from FH and MH - it's real fun to play tug and chase with - check it out here....

Max - "Um - what exactly IS it JD?"
JD - "I'm not really sure Max, but there's lots of ends for us to grab hold of which should make it fun to run around with!"

Max - Also, even though it's not HER birthday FH got a really special parcel a few weeks ago from The Slimmer Pugs! We helped her to open it - we're good like that, he he he! They had sent her some really wonderful pressies. We're going to do a proper post on them when we're back to blogging, but in the meantime here is a picture of us helping her to open the parcel!

"Oh wow - there is SO much great stuff in here FH.....!"

JD - FH got a bit leaky when she opened the parcel as she was so blown away by how kind and sweet The Slimmer Pugs are. Thanks guys - you are so wonderful it makes FH all smiley and us all waggy just thinking about you being our pals!

Max - We were hoping that FH would help us to visit your blogs over the weekend, but we're afraid she had what she called 'the mother of all migraines' and couldn't even get out of bed yesterday.

JD - She was rather ill - couldn't eat or walk or anything. But we rather enjoyed it because after each walk that MH took us on yesterday we were allowed to join FH on the bed to keep her company and look after her - that's a rare treat for us, we're not usually allowed on the humans' bed.

Max - MH thought it would be an early treat for us for our birthday, as well as helping FH to feel better, so we were more than happy to oblige, he he he!

JD - So we're sorry we haven't visited yet since our break - we hope to next weekend!

Max - In the meantime we'd like to say we miss you all very much - thanks for all the kind comments you left on our last post, the house renovations are going slowly (and noisily and messily!) but the humans seem to be happy with the progress....

JD - ....and FH's work is still crazy, but she says she can see 'light at the end of the tunnel' and hopes to be managing a much less crazy schedule by November.

Max - Which - all in all - means we hope to be back to the blogging World by then.

JD - Paws crossed and all that! In the meantime thank you again Sasha and Rupert!

Max - And thank you The Slimmer Pugs!

A local history lesson - by JD Schnauzer

Hi everyone - it's JD here. Now, since my brother took over our blog recently to boast about his amazing detective skills in 'The Case of The Mysterious Blue Pelican' I thought it would only be fair for me to take over a post of my own to let our pals know a little bit more about where we live. This is because we both love our home town and we'd like to share a little bit of its history.

As you probably all know we live in a place called 'Clacton-On-Sea' but what you probably don't know is that the name of our town dates back to 500 AD - I don't even want to think about just HOW long that is in dog years, suffice to say it was a very, VERY long time ago! Anyway, in 500 AD Saxons - under their leader Clacc - set up residence and named the place 'Clacc Inga Ton' which translates as 'the Village of Clacc's People'. The 'On-Sea' part of our town's name was added by more modern humans, probably to make sure there's no confusion about what all that blue, wet stuff is that floats along side our town, he he he!

I'd like to do a few posts like this about our local history so I've decided to impart a juicy little snippet of information like this each time and then add some photos of historic local landmarks. But do let me know what you think of this post okay? As I wouldn't want to bore you all with local history if you don't find it interesting....

Anyway, without further ado, here are some photos of remaining memories of World War II that we have dotted around our town. These are look-out towers that can be found along Clacton seafront.

A World War II look-out tower - a genuine piece of local history!

Although a bit of scaffolding has been added to this particular one (as it's now used as a bird watching tower by local twitchers!) you can see the series of small 'windows' where the soldiers would have stood to watch the seas for approaching enemies. This particular look-out tower is on the highest point of the coast and is set back slightly further than the others, on the top of a hill. Because of this high vantage point it is in better condition than the others - and it also offers spectacular views, so it is very popular with twitchers and walkers alike. We like it when FH picks us up and puts us on the very top of it....

"Don't look down Max!!! Gosh, it's kinda high up here......!"

...because it means we can really appreciate the amazing views! From this look out tower you can look directly out to sea....

Amazing sea views from the look-out tower, even more spectacular when the weather is as beautiful as it was on this day!

....or you can look over to the nature reserve behind it, where there is a small lake where lots of geese and some herons live! (If you biggify the picture below you can see the bird hides in front of the lake.)

Nature reserve with small lake and lots of very noisy geese!

There are several other look-out towers that were built directly on the beach - because of this they are not in such good condition. These beach-front look-out towers have now been incorporated into our modern-day sea wall defences - we suppose it's an agreeable compromise to ensure a bit of local history isn't destroyed.

Another look-out tower as part of our sea defence wall! If you biggify the picture above you can see the two of us checking out pee-mail alongside it - there's always some really good messages left here!

Even though these other look-out towers are hidden behind the sea defence walls we still think they're fascinating and really appreciate that we live in such an amazing place.

JD checks out the view from a rather crumbly looking look-out tower!