Wednesday *Playing with the Terrible Trio*

Dear Diary

After all the excitement of yesterday I've been very tired all day. Luckily napping is one of my many specialties! And when I wasn't sleeping I was thinking about sleeping...

...or begging for food. Mum is such a meanie though, my begging never works! I always have to work for my treats.

But it wasn't just a lazy day. I got to visit my lovely friends Ruby, Hugo and Alice at Aunty Paula and Uncle Robert's. Last time I visited Alice was very grumpy at me. She had a bad experience with a nasty dog so she is a bit of a worrier now. This time she was much braver and even played with me for a little bit before she remembered she had to growl at me. I'll win her over soon though!

As usual Hugo was VERY excited to see me. Mum is very relieved that she made me have that yucky operation just before Christmas, even though Hugo doesn't really know what he's doing. Mum and Dad found it very funny. I'll admit that I did lead him on a bit, giving him kisses as soon as I arrived!

But when I got tired of his slightly inept attentions I showed him that I'm really the boss.

Everyone found this very amusing and then it was time for treats! Yay treats. It all started off well with a treat scramble from Aunty Paula. We were all excited and played together nicely.

Then mean Mum decided that I had to show everyone how I get treats in my house. I had to sit and wait.

I had to lie down.

I had to roll.

And I had to give Mum a paw.

Of course I did it all, and then I had a quiet word with lovely Ruby. She is an old wise lady who I'm distantly related to. She's a Vidlynn like me!

After all the humans went inside to sit round and drink tea I found a rawhide chew in the garden! What a score. So I ran round and round and round while Hugo chased me more. Finally we both got bored of that went inside. I'm glad we did because when I got in there the two mean cats that live with Ruby and Hugo and Alice where plotting something. 

I'm not sure what it was, but I was extra cautious in case of a surprise clawed attack. Hugo, bless him, just looked please with his supposed conquest of me. Ha! He mainly conquested the lawn.

It was a great night and Mum and Dad really enjoyed it too, which is always a nice bonus. I think that next time we visit I might even be able to persuade Alice to play with me too.

Friday *Serious Working Type Dog*

Dear Diary

Today seemed to be quite a serious day. Things started well enough with the breakfast hunt, but then Mum was stuck on the phone thingee again. When my collar and lead came out I naturally thought we were off on another awesome adventure, but nooooooo! Today Mum made me do serious walking on a lead. After a bit of an enthusiastic start and some going round in circles in front of the house, I soon realised it was serious walking time and did a really good job of walking on a loose lead.

When we go to the local little park it was full of children so Mum didn't let me off. What a jip! I love licking children. Instead we ran together, which must have looked funny cause Mum was looking all fancy for work. After the park the serious walking continued until I thought I'd finally found a badger hole. It was deep and disappeared under the pavement and wasn't there last week. 

I had a little investigate but Mum said it wasn't a badger hole, it was just another earthquake hole and I should be careful. So I was.

After we got home and I got treats and snuggles for my good serious walking (we only had to turn around once) it was straight back out to visit all my friends at the Tannery pop up shops. They are having something called a sale which Mum was quite keen on, but I don't care about that sort of thing. I had lots of snuggles while Mum shopped at Flock, Dead Set and finally settled on some bracelets from Where the Fox Lives (I didn't find any foxes though so I think that shop might be lying). I thought they were pretty cool so I tried one out. I'm a rock chick!

After a serious lunch where I sat like a good girl on a chair the whole time, it was off to the office. Boring. And serious. Seriously boring.

Mum did lots of work and I did lots of sleep. Then we all went upstairs for a serious meeting, which was actually serious and even Mum was bored. 

Finally my friend Steve came up and that was better and he played with me and got me excited. For a while. All that seriousness was quite tiring so I'm glad to be home and curled up between Mum and Dad on the couch. That black cat has jumped up next to Dad though. I'm trying to be good, but he keeps hitting me with his tail and poking me with his paw. Such a dick. 

Tuesday *A Nap I Think*

Dear Diary

Yaaaaaaaaawn. After yesterday's excellent fun and games I've been very tired all day today. I couldn't even be bothered nagging Mum for breakfast, although when she did decide it was time to play hide and seek with my chicken necks I was very happy. But after breakfast it was time for a nap.

Next thing I know Mum is flapping about, putting my collar and lead on me and rushing out the door. I really couldn't be bothered with all this fuss so I napped in the car too.

We picked up Dad and I thought we were going to the beach because that was the road we were on, but then we turned off and I got taken to a strange office. It was Mum and Dad's architect and I was very good and helped make lots of important decisions and also gave the architect some great ideas. He decided I should stay with him, but Mum wasn't very keen on that.

When we got home there was a parcel from the UK in the mailbox! Yay, the book from my lovely overseas friends Lottie and Duke. Gorgeous Lottie is currently battling a horrible cancer so you should all go to their page and send her lots of healthy healing vibes. So the book is all about Dachshund Spines and Mum and I sat down to read it immediately. Well I kind of lay down to read it if I'm honest. 

Mum was very excited to learn so much and know all the right things to do to look after my back. She's particularly happy that all the swimming, walking, playing and climbing I do will make me nice and strong and keep my long spine safe. If fact she was so excited to see that climbing stairs is good for me she made me run up them twice in a row (but she wouldn't let me go down them OR explore the upstair, spoilsport).

Guess what I did after that? If you said Nap you're right. All that napping is tiring work so an early night is on the cards. 

Saturday *Life is a Beach*

Dear Diary

The hot summer weather has returned to Christchurch and while my northern hemisphere friends are bounding about in the snow I'm bounding about in the sand.

It was a scorcher today so Mum decided it was time to visit a different beach for me to play on. But first we had to go to a MILLION shops, and by we I don't mean me, although I did get to go into the one where mum got a thing for her camera. Mostly I just stayed in the car with Mum while Dad did stuff. We drove around so many places that I thought we were going on a big trip and fell asleep. Finally we got to the beach and it was rad (as one of my favourite UK mates would say). Mum says that I am very lucky to have so many different beaches within 15 minutes drive from our house, but surely everyone has the same thing.

This beach is long, like me, and has surf and lots of people and dogs to play with. I did discover that the sea here is really sneaky. One minute I was telling Mum what a great time I was having, the next it was grabbing me! Cheeky.

I didn't mind being wet cause it was so hot, and I am now an awesome swimming dog who is not afraid of the sea at all. But it is rather impolite to sneak up on a Lady. After plenty of running around I found a nice place to rest and chew on a delicious salty pine cone. I really think Mum and Dad need to sort things out and get a good supply of pine cones in our backyard. Slackers.

Then it was time, again, for practicing posing on a log, especially for my UK friends who know the importance of log sitting. I think I nailed it. 

I am a deep, sensitive soul, mysterious and wistful

After so much fun there really was nothing for it but to sleep all afternoon, but I decided that Mum really should rest after such a big walk so I made sure to lie on her neck as much as I could. Then that evening we had one of Christchurch's infamous earthquakes. This is only the second one I've felt, but Mum says there's been over 11,000! It was a loud roary thing, but I was louder and scared it off with my fearsome barking. Mum and Dad were both grateful, but that stupid black cat didn't even wake up. He should be more grateful to me.  How does he expect to be the head of the pack if he doesn't care about earthquakes? 

Friday *Leader of the Pack*

Brrrm Brrrm

Dear Diary

The rain has stopped! So I got to go for a big walk at the dog park on top of the hills. Here's a picture of the view from the dog park, you can see the whole city, the big water that surrounds us (Mum says it's the Pacific Ocean, I say it's my swimming pool), and in the distance a mountain range. I don't care, but Mum says we are spoiled to have views like this when we walk. 

As you can also see I made new friends on my walk today. Mum says I bullied them but I just like playing and sometimes other dogs need encouragement!

It's a hug, really it is!

I met lots of other dogs too and even watched some big dogs playing (I was just trying to copy them with the little dogs).

After that Mum and I had some quality time together and she helped me work on my supermodel poses, which I think are coming along quite well. Soon I'll be as good as my hero Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund!

After such a fun walk I was pooped, but mum made me go to work! What? We haven't been to work all week, what a drag. Luckily it was Friday so I did my usual job of keeping the peace by sleeping. It is probably the most important job in the office so I take it very seriously. 

After charming all mum's upstairs colleagues at drinks (pretty sure that was the only reason we went to work) we came home and napped in the sun. I'm glad mum likes sleeping as much as I do, although I've heard her mention to Dad that she can't wait till she's better and doesn't have to sleep during the day. I'm not sure what that means, but it seems to me that sleeping all day is the best thing you can do for your health!

It's the weekend tomorrow, YAY! I get to play with Mum And Dad. Happy barks. 

Thursday * Rain! Do Not Like

Dear Diary

I can't believe it rained here all day, I thought this was supposed to be summer. Because it was so yucky and cold I decided I should make up for my bad behaviour of yesterday and give Mum lots of snuggles. She was really grateful and gave me lots of hugs and face boops. Bliss.

Of course I couldn't just behave all day so I had to attack her lovely fuzzy slippers for quite a long time. They taste good.

And of course I had to explore the new lounge layout and try and figure out how to get onto the bench.

Unfortunately, as awesome as I am at jumping, I realise that even my powers of propulsion will not get me to the bench. Especially since Mum and Dad keep so much junk on it, ensuring there is no suitable dachshund landing strip. Rude!

The rest of the day was spent chewing one of my large array of sticks.

I have one for every occasion. Mum thinks the best thing about my sticks is that ALL of the toys she's ever bought me are still in tact because I prefer to destroy these. I think I'll have problems with the one second from the right, it's my latest find and is awesome.

The other great thing about my sticks, and all my toys really, is that Mum keeps them in this awesome toy box that I can fit in so I have to hunt things out. It is great fun and Mum says it's great preparation for when I finally dig up a badger.

It also makes a great raised sleeping platform! Not as good as a bean bag, but still good.

Speaking of sleeping, time to do more of that. Lets hope for more sun tomorrow!