The tangled tale of a TV

Well this is a weird one! And it starts way back in time, in fact it starts with a dog called Becket! How does it start with Becket? – are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

So dog Becket comes to stay in 2010. Seemed like quite a nice boy on the face of it. In the reality he was a bit of a challenge and the story starts when he decided to remodel my bedroom by chewing the wall. Here we have some evidence. No it’s not just a funny picture of Becket this is the ‘before’

And here is the ‘after’, spot the difference – yes I know Becket has moved but the highlighted section is his toothy-work!

So strand one of my tangled TV cable is that my bedroom needs redecorating!

But you need two cables to tangle so where does strand two come from? Well it comes courtesy of Her Majesty the Queen no less. As you may recall we all went down to the Jubilee celebrations (I went under my own steam but mum and dad took my boat). And while they were there they made some new friends, Joe and Jill. Just to prove they are a boating link – here they are in St Katherine’s Lock in just about the only sun we saw that weekend!

Now whilst I didn’t make their acquaintance on that particular occasion (because I was otherwise occupied) they were aware of my existence and, of course, were very keen to meet me (well who wouldn’t be?). They were lucky to achieve that ambition when we met, for a lovely afternoon walk at Boulters Lock, later in the season that we laughingly called summer!

So now we have set up strand one and strand two how do they weave together. With it so far? Here goes…

Back to my bedroom which FINALLY gets redecorated into a rather modern lime and plum affair 😯 . I am lucky enough to have a TV in my bedroom (but I’m not allowed access to the remote!) and as part of my bedroom makeover the TV got an upgrade.

Being of a green, recycling nature (ha ha) mum had a think about a new home for the old TV and wondered if Miss would like it (to the uninitiated Miss is actually called Jackie but as she trained me back in my Guide Dog days she will always be Miss to me  🙂 ).

This is Miss and me from a previous blog (also in the sun which wasn’t shining in this venue last weekend I can tell you!)

Anyway Miss decided that yes the TV would fit nicely in her lounge and so off it went…(nice as I got lots of tickles from Miss when she visited to pick up the said item as she hadn’t seen me for ages and needed to make up for lost time :)…)

Then of course Miss had an issue, she had a TV that needs a new home. And, being of a green, recycling nature too she set off to investigate the options. Now of course every walk is a training opportunity for a guide dog and hence in a local town Miss popped into a charity shop.

So Miss meets shop volunteer called Jill (are you with it yet?)

A conversation ensues…

Jill has a friend who has an ex-guide dog who they met on a boat. The dog is called Tex and Jill reads his blog!

Miss knows and ex-guide dog who spends his summers on a boat. The dog is called Tex and Miss reads his blog!

Hey presto the TV cables are tangled and I am the tangler!! Oh the power…

The moral of this rather ‘tangled’ story – I am a legend bringing the people of the world together (well the people of Berkshire, well actually a small bit of Berkshire and a small bit of Surrey). I do wonder if it may be a bit of an odd world ‘Tex-world’. Hey ho, it’s mine and I like it.

So I’m finishing off with a big hello to the unwitting stars of this week’s blog. See you soon!

Hope the rest of you in Tex-world had a good week.

Lots of love

Tex

PS a nice big parcel arrived this week – it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

PPS – there are no recent pictures of me in this blog so here you go…moi and piglet relaxing after a hard day’s fundraising in a very wet and muddy craft village 😕 (well I did the fundraising – not piglet – that would be silly!)

Whole lotta mud!

Well the title says it all really!

Having had a productive Saturday (lots of chores done and new blinds ordered for my bedroom 🙂 ) the decision was that we should go for a family walk on Sunday morning. A decision I very much agreed with. And so, route chosen, we set off.

We didn’t go far just up the road to Twyford but I should rename it Mudford or Twymud – all that seems to shine through from this walk was mud (are you getting the drift yet). Here’s a picture of me and dad on the first (muddy) leg of the trip.

It was just after this that mum decided to examine the gloopy surface more clearly by getting her face rather near to it. Like a faithful hound I did scoot back to see why she had chosen that moment to get up close and personal with the mud, but really my presence was not required as thankfully she managed to pick herself back up without my assistance!

On reflection I do think that when it comes to situations like this I am better equipped than humans to cope with the terrain. Here I have my examples

These are human feet – in big boots, just two wheel drive on this model, deep tread – soon going to get bogged down with the sticky stuff.

By way of contrast these are dog feet (well Tex feet to be precise). Of course I am equipped with superior four wheel drive, light nibble toes and well an excellent manicure if I do say so myself (it’s all my own work!). So I am better placed to deal with the terrain. However there are down side to this arrangement. Namely that when it comes to cleaning the footwear off with a cold hose the boots aren’t attached to the human whereas my feet … well you can guess the rest!

Anyway overall it was a good walk and we all enjoyed it. Dad needed a bit of help with the route but I decided that it was time he learned how to read the instructions so I refused to help!

And then at the end we met these little guys.

I decided they were big dogs and I was prepared to play.

However mum and dad said they were not dogs but ponies and that it was best if I didn’t play with them because they have little pony hooves! But that didn’t stop mum giving them a bit of fuss as they were really very friendly. 🙂

At one point I thought they were going to follow us home (I think we all would have quite liked that – they were very cute!)

So that was the story of my Sunday walk. We headed home having really stretched our legs. I got hosed down when I got back as anticipated  😕 , I think it’s times like this that I wished I could wear trousers (not really – that would be weird). But, washed and dried off, I happily settled down to a good old afternoon snooze – in preparation for starting the working week :mrgreen:.

So dear reader that’s my news of mud! I hope you had a nice weekend.

Love

Tex

A moving experience…

So me and mum have moved out. It was traumatic as really I was very comfortable where I was. But no dad came along, picked up my bed and moved me out along with the things that belonged to mum. So now me and mum have a new home. I have to say she seems quite happy with the set up. As for me, well new surrounding, a new environment, I find it all quite unsettling, but I suppose I’ll get used to it! 😕

Oh…sorry…I didn’t mean to suggest we’d left home. Noooo it’s just our office that has moved. But this is vital because it’s an important working environment for mum and an important sleeping environment for me. It is a very significant space in this house. Honestly reader did you think dad would move me out without a ‘custard-y case’? I think NOT. 😉

So what’s the change? Well I looked back through my photo library but I couldn’t find a suitable ‘before’ picture with my handsome chops in it. So I’ve posted this one I found with some random golden retriever demonstrating howthe old location worked for a dog!

Actually I probably have this chap to thank for my current lifestyle as this is first GD trainee that arrived chez Saunders. This is the legendary Sparkie. Apparently once boarded never forgotten! He, like I, left the GD program ‘prematurely’, he was a bit wilful it seems. Doesn’t look it lying there does he?  Talk about butter wouldn’t melt…

I also found this one of my mate Pearce (in my bed you’ll note – well almost!)

Anyway that was before (about 7 years before in the case of Sparkie). Now for the after…

As you can see the set up is much improved and so is the canine content!

A change in mums work means lots of technical additions but there is still room for my bed and now it has pride of place by the radiator. I like, I like a lot  🙂  As you can see I have had no trouble in getting to grips with the new bed location!

So you see things change (even the dog) but always for the better (especially the dog – but I would say that wouldn’t I).

I don’t think I have much else to report so I will love you and leave you for this week. Hope all is well with you dear reader.

Love

Tex