MY HOLIDAY PART 1

Hey, Milo here ! Yesterday I got home from my first holiday ever with my humans. We stayed at a place called Annie's Cottage in Bairnsdale. Annies is a thirty thousand acre working sheep farm that is owned by a family that has put a little cottage in one of their paddocks for people to stay in during their holiday. So on the 18th Dec I watched as my human Ros started packing up a few of my things like my bed, my toys plus a lead and my food and food bowl. Everything a doggie needs for going on holiday days. So after I had checked and made sure my human had packed everything I would need off we headed to Annies Cottage which is a three hour drive from where we live.

Isn't it so cute? It's a great spot to go on holidays. It has everything that humans and doggies could want. There was even a dog run there waiting for me with beds plus food and water bowls.

Isn't it so cool? So the day we arrived my humans had to unpack and stuff so I stayed in my new home and left them to do the unpacking. The day we arrived there wasn't much time for any adventuring as it was quite late when we arrived so we just had enough time to unpack then it was bed time. The next day Ros and I were up very early in the morning to start exploring this awesome place. The first awesome thing was that there were rabbits everywhere. I had a blast chasing them but they were always just too fast for me and would run back to their homes and despite my many attempts to convince them to come back out and play they just wouldn't.

Come on bunnies! Come out and play! I promise to be nice! Unfortunately they didn't come back. I was most disappointed. Ros and I kept going and we ran into one of the people who owns the farm and I got very excited becuse he had his own doggie with him.

His name was Riley and he is an Australian Kelpie. That is one of their working dogs that helps to round up the sheep on their farm. Riley was very nice and we became instant best friends. While the humans were chatting Riley and I had lots of fun playing chasey.

Come on Riley play with me !

After playing chasey for a while we both stopped to have a drink at a horse trough. After getting a big drink we started playing again only this time we played tag. Riley lay on the ground while I walked around him trying to touch him.

So after all our playing Riley wanted to show me around so we went off to do some exploring together.

After having a look around, Riley's human said it was time for them to go back to work so we and the humans said goodbye to each other. Ros then decided it was time to go for a walk. There were some amazing country roads near Annies Cottage with beautiful scenery and vegatation to explore. Our two favourite roads were Lathams Lane and Robbins Lane. Our first walk was down Lathams Lane. It was amazing and there were so many new smells that my nose got a huge work out. This is the road just outside Annie's Cottage that leads down to Lathams and Robbins Lane. Look at the amazing views you get on the sides of the road.

Isn't it a fantastic view? So off we headed on our walk down lathams lane. It was a ten km walk all up and had some great views.

We were almost there when we stopped because Ros wanted to get photos of my handsome self. I had to stand-stay while Ros took her photos of me. I got lots of pats for doing such a good job.

After the photo taking was finished we kept going and we had soon arrived at Lathams Lane. It was a fantastic road that seemed to go on forever.

We had been walking for a while when again ros stopped and wanted to get my photo. I thought that I looked very handsome in this photo.

After the photos we kept going and going and going when finally Ros decided it was time to turn around and go back towards Annie's Cottage.

So we turned back around and started heading back toward Annies. I was quite hot and bothered by this stage so on the way back Ros kept her eyes open for a puddle that I could lie in. After much searching a puddle was found and I immediately made myself at home. We stayed there for ten mintues so I had a good chance to cool down a bit.

After I had cooled down we kept going and after a little while we had got back to Annie's Cottage. Once Ros had closed the gate we headed off to my dog pen so I could get a huge drink and have a big sleep to recover from my huge morning.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about the first day of my holiday. There is heaps more for me to tell you about my holiday at Annie's Cottage. I hope you had a great Christmas and I wish you a happy new year filled with great adventures with your humans.

GOODBYE ANGUS

It is with great sadness that I report that we had to say goodbye to our beautiful Angus a few days ago.We took him to the vet and he fell to sleep in my arms. The vet left us alone for a little while and then came and helped lift Angus onto the back seat of the car. We then slowly drove home all still crying our eyes out. We got home after a taking a little while to say a last goodbye we put angus in his hole still wrapped up in his blanket and slowly filled in the hole. It was a very sad day but I am glad he is no longer suffering now and I bet he is up at rainbow bridge eating all he can and no doubt being delighted that he will never again be in trouble for eating bags of dog food or cream cakes off the kitchen table that our friends had brought to share with us for lunch. He was my best friend and I'll miss him so much. He was such a beautiful boy. Anyone who met him loved angus. He had just the most gentle and beautiful temperment. He loved everybody. We once took him in for show and tell at our school and when we went to visit the prep class there were about thirty kids in a class with the teacher trying to keep them under control. We took angus into the middle of the cirle and he lay straight down on his back with all four of his legs up in the air. Well that was too much for the kids and they dived bombed on top of him much to the teachers concern. Angus though, having the undivided attention of all these little people was in heaven and stayed like that for a good hour much to the delight of all the kids. He always was the most gentle boy and once when I was very sick he slept by my side for the entire time only leaving to eat and to go to the toilet. He had a wondeful life filled with lots of fantastic adventures and he was spoilt rotten for all of it. Milo is very sad and quite lost at the moment. He just doesn't understand where his best friend has gone and why he suddenly can't find him anywhere so he has been getting lots of cuddles to try and make him feel a little bit happier. Well bye our beautiful boy. Miss you heaps; love your human family.

PLAYDATE WITH AMBER

Hi Milo here. Yesterday I went for a lovely walk with my human Ros down to the local oval. The oval still looks lovely with the grass still nice and green because we have had some rain.

Doesn't it look beautiful ?

Once I was allowed off I started to explore straight away. There were so many new scents to smell that my nose got such a huge work out that I was worried it was going to fall off. So after all the sniffing I decided it was time to begin playing so Ros bought out my toy that she had bought with her and the fun began.

After playing ball for such a long time I was getting quite hot so I decided to go and have a lie down in one of the many puddles that were there.

So after cooling down Ros and I went to have a lie down in the shade as she thought I was still a bit hot so we had a nice rest under the shade of a huge native pine.

Having a rest. We had been at the oval for a long time and i was quite tired so Ros decided it was time to go home but then in the distance we spotted another doggie that we sometimes meet down at the oval and we always have a fantastic play. So we went up to say hello. We began to play instantly. So after saying hello we began to play chasy instantly.

We were having so much fun that we had not noticed our humans had kept walking so we went to catch up with them.

Humans wait for us !! Once we had caught up with our humans we began playing again straight away. This time I tried to share my favourite ducky toy with Amber but I don't think she realised what I was trying to do so she kept running so we had another great game of chasy.

We had been playing nonstop for almost 54 mintues then all too soon it was time for amber to go home and ros said it was time for us to go home as well. We'd already been there an hour when amber turned up so I was very tired by then. But before they left I made sure to say goodbye and ros got a nice photo of her face so you can all see how pretty she is.

Saying goodbye to Amber

Isn't she beautiful ? Once we got home after having a big drink i fell asleep straight away dreaming of the fun I had and I have my paws crossed that the next time we're there she will turn up so we can have another pawsome playdate.

ANGUS HAS CANCER

HI Angus & Milo's human here. Well where do I start with this news? Angus has lung cancer :( It all started six months ago when out of the blue he started coughing in the middle of the night. He would only do it when he was lying down and then only once or twice so we didn't think it was anything too serious but as time went on and there was no change and he only seemed to be getting worse we started thinking maybe there was something more serious going on. He would have strange days where he would refuse to get off his dog bed and seemed hot to the touch almost like he had a tempreture but then he would be fine the next day. Numerous vet visits never showed anything horrible. So we were sent home with antibiotics as they though a virus was the cause. They did help him and even stopped the coughing but when they ran out all the symptoms came back again. Then ten weeks ago he had been better then he had been but then overnight almost he suddenly went down hill and had two horrible days in a row. He was just flat, had no energy to do anything and spent the entire day on his dog bed panting as though he had just run an olympic marathon and he just didn't seem comfortable no matter what way he lay and he felt hot again. The Dogs were booked in for their yearly needles the next day so we were glad that was the case as something was very wrong. Then the next day he seemed a tiny bit better. He wasn't as hot as he had been the day before but when they were taken out to have their breakfast angus just didn't touch it and that just wasn't him. If you have ever had a dog that loves food you understand that when they turn their nose up at dinner something is very wrong. Angus loves his food. He once ate an entire 16 kg bag of dog food all by himself. He got in big trouble for doing that and once stole an entire chook off the table that was meant to be for christmas lunch. He seemed most pleased with himself for that. So today was the vet appointment. They were taken to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital. They arrived at lunch time and they were taken into the consultation room to be looked at. Angus went first. They listened to his heart and it was going miles too fast. Then they took his temprature and it was 40 Celsius - far too hot. So they said there was something really wrong and they were going to keep him overnight to find out what was wrong. They then took him straghit back to the intensive care unit to be put on a cold water IV to try and get the temp down. Milo checked out fine. So that day after we had left they did all sorts of tests to find out what was wrong; they did xrays and an ultrasound. It was discovered that he has lung cancer that can be very aggressive and it's also in his lymph nodes and that was the reason he had been coughing all the time and he had lost a lot of weight and was down to 30kg. So Lort Smith Hospital gave us four choices for him. Send him to a specialist hospital to try to have the cancer removed, two lort smith would try to do it them selves , three was bring him home for a week to say goodbye and then take him back to lort smith when he went down hill and the last chocie was putting him down straight away. We chose number three. It felt like the best choice for him and he was happy to be home again. He had about five different medications that he had to take and we had to promise to give it all if he was to come home for the week. The meds were a combination of pain meds , anti inflammatries ,cough syrup and a combo of pain - anti inflammatry. He didn't like any of them but with some help of vegemite he took them like a good boy. I slept on the floor with him next to his dog bed that week. So the end of the week rolled around far too quickly so he was taken in but we were given a very nice surprise. They thoughat that he was doing so well that they gave him an extra four weeks so after changing his cough meds for a new stronger one he was allowed to come home again. We were of course over the moon by this turn of events. He was much better than when we took him the first time any of our friends who had seen him when he was really sick coudn't believe how good he looked and how happy he was again. Even Milo seemed happier that angus was feeling better. Then when the four weeks ran out we took him back and were given another six weeks and they even said he should be fine to come on holidays with us at christmas time. His next appointment is November the 19th and he has been doing well so hopefully he will get even more time. He has even been on a few walks which he has loved. He has his good and bad days but he is a very happy boy. So he has been getting lots of extra cuddles which he has been enjoying and getting even more spoils then he was already. Well bye now from angus and milo's human.