Didja read it???

Look at us!  We are Scot!  Nana always knew that but I will tell you one thing for sure...



I.

AM

NOT

EATING

HAGGIS!



And I am not wearing a kilt either.  Neither is grandpa.  No way. No how.

PBS!!

World -- August 7, 2013 at 11:25 AM EDT

Golden Retrievers Go 'Home' for Gathering in Scottish Highlands

By: Lorna Baldwin

Golden retrievers from around the world converged for three days in July in the Scottish Highlands to honor the birthplace of the breed. Photos by Lorna Baldwin.
TOMICH, Scotland -- Around 11 p.m. the crowd raised their glasses as the last of the light faded from the Highland sky to toast Lord Tweedmouth. Dogs were everywhere, and nearly all of them were golden retrievers. They came from around the world to pay tribute to the man who first bred them here in the mid-1800s. Some were almost white; some had a more reddish hue and others fell somewhere in between.
The dogs and their owners strolled down the very same lane that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once reputedly learned to drive on. Their destination, Guisachan House (pronounced Goose-a-kin), was brightly lit in a changing array of colored lights against the darkening Scottish sky. It was a mostly quiet affair.
A quiet nighttime stroll of dogs and owners winded up the lane to the ruins of Guisachan House, where owners toasted Lord Tweedmouth, the man who first bred golden retrievers there in 1868.
Almost unbelievably, the dogs didn't bark, and their owners spoke in hushed, reverential tones as they made their way along the drive up to the now-ruined house.
It was one of the opening events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Britain's Golden Retriever Club. And because Scotland is the birthplace of the breed, hundreds of dogs -- a new record of 222 dogs, to be exact -- and dog owners from around the world made the pilgrimage to the tiny conservation village of Tomich, next to the Guisachan Estate, about a 200-mile drive north from Glasgow. Some came from as far away as Australia. Others traveled the length of the United Kingdom to attend. And there were also Spaniards, Danes, Austrians, Japanese, Italians, Canadians and a contingent of about 50 Americans on hand, among others.
The golden retriever breed originated in 1868 when Lord Tweedmouth mated a yellow Wavy-Coated retriever named "Nous" with a Tweed Water spaniel named "Belle."
Guisachan was the home of Dudley Coutts Majoribanks, the first Baron Tweedmouth, from 1854 to 1894. It was here he famously bred the first golden retriever. Crufts catalogue, considered the historical British authority on all things canine, cites Lord Tweedmouth's stud book. Tweedmouth notes the mating took place in 1868 between a yellow Wavy-Coated Retriever named Nous and a somewhat rare, and now extinct, Tweed Water-Spaniel named Belle. That breeding produced four yellow puppies: Crocus, Cowslip, Ada and Primrose. It took another 64 years before the breed was officially recognized in the United States by the American Kennel Club.
Golden retrievers are the third most popular breed of dog in the United States, according to the American Kennel Club.
Carol Nolte came all the way from Maineville, Ohio, for what she calls her "golden retriever mecca." Nolte's love affair with the dog began when she was a little girl and started showing and breeding, even winning the right to compete at Westminster's junior show in New York City.
Guisachan House, now in ruins, was the gathering point for hundreds of goldens and their owners in July.
Nolte and her husband Joe keep about a dozen dogs of their own in Ohio. The dogs didn't make the transatlantic trip, but Nolte and her husband wouldn't miss it. "For years golden enthusiasts have been coming here," Nolte said. "I'm guilty. We came here about 10 years ago for the first time. It's a good reason to get together to have a party."

Buckets of water sit in the fields ready for the golden retrievers to quench their thirst.

The party lasted for three days in July, with haggis hurling, tug-of-war and a dog show all on the agenda. Under warm, sunny skies, the dogs watched as their owners donned kilts, stepped onto overturned half-whiskey barrels, raised a wee dram (for the uninitiated, a shot of whiskey), and then hurled the frozen haggis down a long, grassy lane. Visitors from around the world tried their hand, but as might have been expected the winners were both Scottish. The male winner, Warwick Lister-Kaye, was actually born in a house that was once the old kennels at Guisachan. Tug-of-war was a hit too, with the Scottish women handily beating the American women and other nations pairing up against each other in raucous but jovial battles.
Spectators watch as a woman launches a frozen haggis down a grassy lane in the haggis hurling competition. Haggis is the national dish of Scotland, a mix of sheep's heart, liver and lungs encased in the animal's stomach.
The culmination of the gathering was reserved for the dogs with the Club's championship show, held in the nearby village of Cannich. And then the dogs and their owners began their journeys home, many saying they would be back to the birthplace of the breed they love so much.
More than 200 dogs and their owners gather for a group photo in front of the ruins of Guisachan. Photo by Carol Nolte.

I have a quirt

Along with my blue jacket, Nana got me a quirt.  I can't play with it, eat it, sleep with it, swim with it, talk to it, take it for a walk, pounce on it, keep it in the fridge with my ice, so I have no idea why I have one. 

 

Nana buys Grandpa useless things too. 

Bye...have a nice day!

So it has been a Very Busy Week...

for Nana.

She had another baby.  Yeah Nana, 'way to go.  I of course didn't get to go.


And she bought me a "cute" thing that cuts into my sense of style.  For a minute, until she figured it out, I thought I was a bronco horse or a brahma bull (if you know what I mean).  Thank Heavens she figured it out. 

let me pause for a minute to say, "I heard you Grandpa, snickering...just you wait until you see what she is going to get YOU!  All I am saying is that we will match".  She is going to sew my patch on it and at least I don't have to wear the neckerchief anymore.  But still....

I don't like it.

One of the most wonderful things in the desert is the chance to see wild life.  Sadly we have not seen any jackalopes, nor a sasquatch.  We have not seen any havalinas either and that is a bit of a surprise. I have seen something that I think is a meerkat that runs across the road.  We got a lot of bugs. I saw a 6 inch grasshopper.  It is all very exciting until Nana blew it all into OrdinaryLand and showed us her pictures (poor quality, I do say so myself, but it is important to encourage her) of the Horses.

We live out under the Dome.  When you break out, you see scrub trees. and sand. And sometimes you see groups of 10 or 15 horses.  But Nana left me again and she was so smart, she stopped the car on the side of the road and got out to take pictures. 

There were only 200 of them...and the Big Black Horse is the Chief of the whole herd and he is running them under the bridge and into the pasture on the other side of the highway.  Nana said she could feel the pounding of the hooves...

She saw them twice and now they are gone.  Poof! Poof!!!  Gone and no one knows where.  Nana is sad about this and, not to tell a story here, but IF you see her going UP and DOWN the road looking into the desert, hit her on the noggin and send her home. 

Miss Krystal helped make the pictures so much better.  Wizard.

Nana leaves me and goes off and does stuff.  I do not get to go...I GET to stay home.  I watch shows on TV about sheep and ducks.  Some monkey.....

But I like Shaun the Sheep the best.  But here is what she has been doing:

She went to some plant store and they have birds there.  This Bird (please note Bird, with a capital B, not a bird with a small b, because Birds can talk and birds can't)  can talk and he was quite specific...

"ARRRK, come back here!"   "Come back here!!"  He is a right bossy little guy. Of course, I didn't get to chat with him. Because I was home watching Shaun the Sheep. 

So unfair.

This is a very special merry-go-round and this bird is Grandpa's bird.  Nana says that she was so proud when Grandpa took flight on the back of the dreaded ginormous hummingbird.  Nana also says that she broke her camera and so you will just have to imagine our handsome grandpa swooping around the merry-go-round. 

I didn't get to go.

I don't get to go anywhere.  Me and Shaun the Sheep.  Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

So this is my Birthday picture...

And yes, Miss Jan, as a matter of fact, I AM sitting on the coach.  It was my birthday!!!

I knew you would want to see my duck...

It does not float. 

As you MAY recall, July 18th was my birthday...

I am now two (2). 

 

 

 

For my birthday, I was reminded that I got chastised by a Person Younger than Me.  I was reminded that I got a duck last week.  I was reminded that I didn't get cake.  I was reminded that dogs do not wear party hats nor have Big Birthday Bashes.  No candles, no balloons.

 

 

I think I will change my name to Eoyore.  Eyore?  Eeyore?  To that donkey's name. 

 

 

Oh?  Nana?  Oh.  Nana said that I got ice cream.  This is true. :)

 

 

 

not enough.