News Hound Ady & Flo www.sunlive.co.nz

The bosses sailed away for the festive season but apparently life aboard a floating object is not ideal for an exuberant dog. I was shipped off to stay with my favourite uncle and Ady in town, which has its own challenges.

The ham bone and turkey remnants had been neatly dispatched, as I jumped into the mobile kennel with a few of my treasures so I would not get lonely and miss home. Not likely with me being able to wrap uncle around my affectionate nature. Unfortunately to a large degree it did not go according to the script, with us constantly trying to train each other, and he had some pretty strange rules.

(a) I was not allowed to try to crawl into his freshly-made bed after swimming and sliding around in the mud flats.

(b) Walking in front of him when he was carrying heavy objects (it was only the rubbish bin, and how was I to know it was full?) was a no-go zone.

(c) Licking his face at 2am in the morning is apparently not the done thing.

(d) Eating his ice cream isn't either. Big D got away with it, so where is the consistency?

(e) Warbling through the night in my dulcet tones at any sort of noise outside is banned too. Apparently Ady and I trying to out-do each other at who is the best watch dog.

There were others, but that is enough for now. You may ask ‘where was the belligerent German while all this was going on?' Well, apparently she is very aware of her boss man's idiosyncrasies, so stays out of his way! To hell with that, it's not what Labradors do!

City life is not all it's cracked up to be, as there are more things to bark at in Te Puna, but it was cool being with Ady 24/7, chasing hares and spoiling Ady's fun while she was on the scent of all sorts of birdlife. Man, that dog could smell a pheasant fart 10km away. No wonder she did not want to get into the mobile kennel with me after I had been rolling around in horse dung.

Come to think of it, neither did uncle, and I wondered why nobody was going anywhere until after I got tossed in the river. Agh it's all about growing up!

We hope you all enjoyed yourselves over the Christmas period, and are keeping out of the heat.

The fish pond works for me. Ooops another one of uncle's stupid rules. Who does he think he is, the fun police? But we had a lot of fun and good times though, and it's easy when he has tripped over me and spilt all the rubbish all over himself, to walk up and lick his face, and say the Russian judge would have only given you a score of six for that trick. He laughed, it's all in the training. Us canines call the shots, not the twoleggers!

Take care all and remember those immortal words from Big D, do it to them before they do it to you.

Cheers all.
Flo.