Saturday 30 January 2016

Happy Paws ... and noses ...


A&A: Hallo Sue!

Sue:  Hello. 

A&A: It’s lovely to have you here on our blog. Did you by any chance bring any roast turkey with you?

Sue: No, but thank you for inviting me along to talk to you today

A&A: Or sucking pig perhaps? We’re not fussy, either will do …

Sue: No, maybe next time
A&A: So what’s that you’re holding? We suppose it’s another one of the Madwoman’s mad ideas?

Sue: It’s a Snufflemat.

A&A: Well it’s very pretty. What do we do with it apart from admire it? No, wait, let us guess … it’s a mat, so we wipe our feet on it, right? We’ll need a bigger one than that …

 Sue: No, it’s not for your feet. There’s a big clue in the name … SNUFFLE mat.

A&A: Oh, of course! Obviously we blow our noses on it?

Sue: Nooooooooooo!!!!!!   Not unless you want salty treats!  It’s another ploy of the Madwoman to challenge your noses and brains.  It is made from anti-fatigue matting and high quality fleece strips (which I have to cut to width and length myself), then the strips are threaded through the holes and knotted, and here you have one I made earlier.  The Madwoman can now put treats into it, burying them amongst the fleece strips, and you have to use your scenting skills to find them, then use your brain to work out how to get at it.  I’m told by my doggies that it is brilliant fun as well as there being a treat to eat at the end of it.

A&A: What sort of treats do you stuff in it?

Sue:  You can use all sorts, as long as it is reasonably dry.  I like to use dehydrated tuna cake, but others use bought treats, or your meal kibble – I know people sometimes use the snuffle mat to feed their dogs that eat really quickly as it slows them down.  Wet treats will make it rather smelly and sticky and then it will require washing more often.

A&A: So it’s washable? Not that we hold out any great hope that the ever-slothful Madwoman will actually bestir herself to work out how to use the washing machine … but just in case …

Sue:  Even the slothful Madwoman will be able to keep this clean for you, especially if she sticks to dry treats.  But if she does ever work out how to use the washing machine, she can stick it in there on a wash at 30 or 40 degrees.  Remember to remind her though that when drying it is best to hang it upside down so the fleece strips dry quicker so that you can use it again soon.  If she really can’t work out how to use the washing machine, she can wash it by hand.
A&A: Just one last question … is it possible to buy one which is pre-loaded with roast turkey? 

Sue: Unfortunately not, but perhaps if you ask the Madwoman nicely, she will dehydrate some for you and put it in …. ps. Tell her dehydrated steak is really good too.

Don’t forget to tell all your doggy friends about the snuffle mats, I am sure they would love one too.  I make lots of different sizes, from tiny ones for little delicate dogs, to extra large for your bigger friends.  The prices start at £12 for the tiny ones, and go up to £22 for the extra large.  Postage and packaging is charged extra dependent on size and choice of first class or second, etc. 

To satisfy owners colour preferences, they have lots of choices of colours - some just like a couple of colours, while others, like the Madwoman, like the multicolours ones.

And if they don’t like the snuffle mats, I also make a range of doggy tuggies.  Tell them to go to my Facebook Page:  Happy Paws with Sue, or my website:  www.happypawswithsue.co.uk, or if they don’t have internet access or want to discuss any specific requirements they can email me on info@happypawswithsue.co.uk

Thank you for inviting me to guest on your blog, and may you have many happy hours seeking out treats in the snuffle mat.

A&A: Oh we will! Thank you for visiting and thank you for our Snuffle mat! We’re just off to ensure that the Madwoman puts enough treats in … and maybe to suggest experimenting with roast turkey ...

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Reunited!


Bunny is safely home again,
thanks to the kindly person who left him
wrapped in a bag and hanging on the gatepost awaiting us this morning.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Angel is thrilled to have him back,
and insisted on unwrapping him the moment she spotted him.
And I'm NEVER going to trust the Madwoman with the
responsibility of carrying him again: it is obviously beyond
her abilities and she does not take the duty seriously enough.
From now on I'll be keeping a really, REALLY close eye on things.


Tuesday 26 January 2016

Where's my bunny?

Angel's bunny is missing.
Again.
We blame the Madwoman.
This sort of thing can usually be traced back to her general incompetence.
She has tried to fob off Angel with bunny substitutes ...

That's not my bunny

That's not my bunny either

This is what my bunny looks like.
I love my bunny.
I've had him for six years.
He is my favouritest toy ever.

I miss my bunny



Saturday 23 January 2016

Pffffft

Having one of those weekends ...
Archie still has a bad back.
And now has an ear infection thingummy too  


And we certainly didn't order this weather.
Although we're pretty certain that we did put in a request
for someone to turn the radiator on.
Well?

Wednesday 20 January 2016

A surprise!

We got a mystery surprise present the other day
It's very pretty ...
But what is it?
I have no idea.
But this floor needs a wash.

Apparently all will be revealed in due course,
when we have a guest blogger, Sue Wilkinson of Happy Paws,
who will be explaining it.
She kindly made it for us, because our Madwoman's
sloth knows no bounds ...

Saturday 16 January 2016

Brrrrr ....

 







Brrrrrrrrr.....
Bit brass wippitts this morning.
So we had our breakfast porridge in bed.
Nom nom nom


 




















Sunday 10 January 2016

Blown away

We accompanied the Madwoman to the crem to see
if our Grandpa Woods' flowers needed redoing yet.
The answer to that was yes.
They had blown away completely.
So had the ones next door.
 
We also found out what happened to all the lost and
unwanted Christmas trees.
They huddle round the bin, still wearing
all their Christmas finery.
The Madwoman was all set to give them a home,
but thought we'd better leave them in case they too had simply
been victims of the windy weather.

Wednesday 6 January 2016

Outstanding treats

We are thinking about enrolling the Madwoman on some kind of class
where she can learn to do sums.
It is quite clear that she has absolutely no grasp of even the most basic of
arithmetical skills - which would be fine if it wasn't that her deficiencies in this area are seriously impacting on our enjoyment of life.
Let us explain: 
We got lots of scrummy treats for Christmas.
They turned out to be outstanding in more ways than one though.

Fish skins! We LOVE fish skins!
And it says we can have 5! Each.
We got one. Each.

Nom nom nom.
Sea jerky! We love sea jerky!
And it says we can have 9 each day.
We got one each.


Yum! Special Lily's Kitchen Christmas biscuits with turkey, cranberry
thyme and cinnamon. They smelled so good the Madwoman even nicked one.
Angel read the packet VERY carefully.
It distinctly says we can have 5 biscuits a day.
Each.
How many did we get?
One.
Each.

Right, you're getting an idea of the nature and scale of the problem now, yes?
This is a pack of luxury chicken, banana, honey, chamomile and lavender biccies.
On the pack it says 'feed any time'.
We got one.
Each.

                                     
This is a pack of bics for Chubby Dogs.
Bit rude, we thought, but a biscuit is a biscuit and if they're low-cal, then hey,
that means we can eat lots of them, right?
Wrong.
We got one. Each.
Can't go wrong with these, surely?
A tub full of liver training treats.
The label says we can have 60 - yes, that's right, 60 - of them a day. Each.
But you can see the pattern that is emerging, can't you?
We got one. Each.
And because they are training treats we had to do a sit and wait for them.



It appears the Madwoman is unable to add up beyond one.
It's a miracle we haven't starved.
We can only be grateful that division and fractions are equally utterly beyond her.
But just in case, we are keeping sharp knives away from her and
we will be buying her an abacus for her birthday.






























































Sunday 3 January 2016

Christmas round up

Wow.
Has it really been that long since our last blog?
Although we have been busy ... hope you all had a good Christmas. 
Ours went like this: 
First of all we had to pose in our new Christmas jumpers.
Nice and warm and snuggly, and its not that we're ungrateful, but we really wanted to get on
with the presents and the turkey.
But oh no. We were redressed in our Tron outfits and forced to
go out for a Christmas walk. The Madwoman reckoned it would help us work up an appetite
for Christmas lunch.
As if we needed any exercise to help us stuff ourselves with turkey ...
Finally we got round to present unwrapping ... we had presents from Grandma, our Madwoman, our Auntie Ju and our doggodmother Sarah. Hope they aren't all expecting
us to write thank you letters. We're only just catching up with our blog and
Facebook pages.
Our Grandma immediately tried to steal one of Archie's presents,
a honking crocodile. She said she was just trying to play with it with him.
But we know better. Pensioners are getting a bit out of order these days.
We politely removed it from her before she could try and
take it home, pretending it was hers. 


Angel sensibly took her presents a safe distance away, out of reach
of Grandma's light fingers ...
And then, at last, it was Turkey Time!
As you won't want to watch us eating, we'll leave you with a musical interlude instead...