The Howl

I'm not allowed a Twitter account, but The Lady Of The House entered a competition on there for me recently organised by Dog's Today magazine.

They wanted to see pictures of pets in the Olympics spirit, so the LOTH sent them a couple of my pictures form the Pet Blogging Games - and we were one of three winners!

The prize was a print called The Howl! You may be able to spot the famous painting from which it took its inspiration.

The LOTH framed it and it has pride of place with all my other treasures.

WIN a fascinating new book - "Animal Grief"

I'm thrilled to see how well Peggy Frezon and Kelly's great book "Dieting With My Dog" is doing and how much support it's getting from fellow bloggers. If you've not got a copy yet you really should.

You may have seen me blog before about Hubble & Hattie - the company who have published Peggy's books and lots of other great animals books.

The company is named after two very special West Highland White Terriers called Hubble and Hattie.

The Lady Of The House has just reviewed a new Hubble & Hattie book called "Animal Grief - How Animals Mourn". 

Don't think it's a depressing read, because it isn't. The LOTH found it really fascinating. The man who has written it - David Alderton - has looked at animals in the wild, like elephants and chimpanzees and whales, as well as companion animals.

He's looked back at what people in the past thought about animals having emotions and feelings - going back to the Greek philosophers - and he comes right up to date with the latest scientific research which actually proves some stuff about animals and their emotions.  But he makes it all very easy to understand and it's liberally decorated with some beautiful colour pictures so it would make a great gift for anyone who loves the natural world as well as a pet lover.

Anyway! Hubble & Hattie have given me TWO copies of the book to give away. And me and the LOTH thought it would be nice if ALL our blogger friends could enter wherever they are in the world. So you can! We'll post it out to you whether you are in America, or Australia, or wherever if you win.

All you have to do is go to this page on the LOTH's Lost and Fond website and fill in the online form before November 12 and TWO entries picked at random after that date will win a copy. The LOTH will email you to get your address if you are a winner. We'll publish the names of the winners on this blog and on the Lost and Fond website too.

I am also going to add this give away to the great new Blogville Community Calendar which Sarge has created - such a great idea to keep up with everything that's going on. Thanks Sarge!

My first rosette

Do I look pleased with myself?

Just a little bit, maybe?

Yesterday, despite the driving rain that didn't stop ALL day, me and the Lady Of The House and the Girl Of The House piled into the car and drove for an hour up to Bakewell in Derbyshire.

I LOVE going out in the car and the journey was great fun. When we got there the LOTH got my big rain coat on and we went in to Barlow Show (which is a three-day horse show) but where my old friends John and Judith from Crossing Cottage Greyhound Sanctuary hold a Greyhound Show and a big information stand every year on the final day.

It was such a shame the weather was so bad because I'm sure lots more greyhounds and their owners would have been there. But we got there JUST in time to enter me for Class 7 - Vintage and Veteran Dogs - Seven Years Plus. And I came second - and won my first-ever rosette!! Well, my first rosette in THIS life anyway.

Actually I deliberately wanted to get second place because I liked the blue rosette best.

The LOTH says she's very sorry that she didn't take any pictures at the show but it really was very rainy and she was busy making sure I was all right with the other dogs and not getting too wet and cold and taking pictures would have just been too complicated.

Here's me and the GOTH pictured at the start of our roadtrip though.

You can see that we are both quite excited.

It was lovely to see John and Judith again. I would have recognised them anywhere - even though they both had big anoraks with hoods on.

The LOTH was also very pleased with how happy and sociable I was with the other greyhounds. I think that meet-and-greet afternoon I did a while back has helped me be more confident and a lot less nervous around other dogs - especially greyhounds.

I'm now really looking forward to lots more dog days out over the summer. There's lots of Retired Greyhound Trust events coming up - plus the Great British Greyhound Walk - which I'll tell you more abut later this week. Maybe the rain will stop for some of them as well.