Life through the eyes of Scrambles, a Belper-based Cairn Terrier

Firstly we must apologise for missing our column in the last edition – all our doggie friends have given us a good telling off and wondered what had happened to us. We in turn have given our Mum a good telling off and told her we HAVE to get a column done for this edition.

We are at the moment two quite worried little doggies because our Mum is putting all our stuff into boxes and we are sticking like glue to her because we suspect she is going somewhere and we want to make sure she doesn’t forget to pack us. Chaos climbed into one of the boxes last week and went to sleep but Mum said she couldn’t stay there and gave us both a big cuddle.

Our Mum says we are moving and that we are going to love it (we, on the other hand, are not convinced). She says we are going to be moving to a house that is 100 yards from our very favourite park and we will be able to walk for ages and ages without having to drive to it so we are very, very excited about that but can’t help worrying that with all these boxes and things that two small doggies might get overlooked.

We have never lived anywhere else before but so long as our Mum is there we know we will be OK. She has promised to bring my ‘Sluggie’ with us and Chaos’s ball so we will have our favourite toys. She also says there’s something called a conservatory so we will be able to see outside all the time even if it is chucking it down with rain. That will be nice because these humans do have a rather silly habit of putting windows halfway up the wall so we can’t see out – there’s no consideration for us at all!

We did go to have a look at our new house last week (from the outside) and our very best friend Schubert came with us. It was great because our Mum and Schubert’s Mum and Dad took us all for a walk through the park afterwards. We had lots and lots of fun saying hello to everybody and running through as much mud as we could find.

We are fairly sure we are not going to get forgotten but until then we aren’t letting our Mum out of our sight.

We will hopefully be moved and have this all over with by the time we write our next column, so we will give you a further update then and let you know how we are settling in.

Scrambles xx

It’s a Dog’s Life Life through the eyes of Scrambles, a Belper-based Cairn Terrier

Not a great deal to talk about this time around. Our Mum hasn’t taken us anywhere exciting, nothing horrendous has happened to us (but give us time) – well actually that’s not quite true I didn’t fall in the river but …

We were out walking on Eyes Meadow one bright cold morning. As we were charging along the path a couple of ducks flew out in front of me. Being the well behaved hounds that we are I decided they needed to be chased. I am sure I heard my Mum calling, but something she calls ‘selective hearing’ kicked in and I momentarily forgot what “come here” meant!

Off I ran. I jumped in the river after the duck and then halfway up the river decided I didn’t actually like swimming and as I was well out of my depth I panicked. I headed for the nearest bank thinking I would climb up but it was too steep so I clung on for dear life and started to feel very afraid - and I’m embarrassed to admit that I whimpered a bit.

My daft Mum was yelling at me to come back to her but there was no chance I was going to risk getting into that water again and I was getting very frightened. Even Chaos came a little way in but didn’t venture any further.

Our Mum finally decided that I was indeed going to have to be rescued so she peeled off her boots and socks and rolled up her trousers and climbed into the river to get to me. She was saying not very nice words at the time and she has threatened to take me to something called ‘the pound’ if I say what she said. Something to do with the water being very cold and owning an extremely intelligent, clever and brave wee doggie – well that’s what I heard anyway!

Then she decided that instead of trying to pick me up that she would drag me into the water and make me swim back so she grabbed my collar, yanked me into the water (like I needed another dip that morning), and I had to swim back to Chaos who was very worried.

We charged off to dry off in the grass. I did get lots of hugs in between getting told off for chasing ducks. Our Mum’s feet were a very peculiar shade of blue but we did our best to lick the water off them and get them dry for her and I let her know that I was very, very sorry. Our Mum and the air over Eyes Meadow were definitely a little blue that morning.

And just to show you how nice our Mum can be (once she stopped shivering), she even, after getting her socks and boots back on, continued with our walk so we could have more fun. We were however warned that we were going to be glue if we jumped in the river again – not sure what glue is but I suspect this threat is not something we should look forward to with undiluted joy and abandon.

I was very frightened, Chaos was very worried, and our Mum was really annoyed with me, but I think she was just pleased to have me back safe and sound and on solid ground.

I don’t think I will be chasing any more ducks anytime soon though. Oh gotta go -just seen a rabbit that needs chasing!

Happy Hunting

Scrambles xx

(taken from the April / May 2010 issues of All Things Local. The Community Magazine for Kilburn, Belper and RIpley.