Guard

I have a huge estate to guard. This is our fence:

And this is me, patrolling the fence:

I just want to state that guarding this domain is a big responsibility and I do not take that lightly. I mean: I put a lot of effort in guarding it properly.

So I am not at all amused by humans who walk by and say “doggie” to me, or even worse: sweet or cute little doggie. I want to make it clear, for once and for all, that I am NOT sweet and certainly not cute! Especially when I am guarding our domain. I am a ferocious guarding dog!!!
Humans can be outright stupid sometimes.

Guarding spot

As you know I am a Ferocious Guarding Dog. A guarding dog needs some assets, in order to get the job done. One of them is a solid set of shiny teeth. And a deep, loud bark. I’ve got both, of course. Another asset is a good spot to do the guarding from. In our old home I had an excellent place for guarding. From there I could overlook the entire territory:

Our new home is different. We do not have a top floor anymore, so there is no high position to guard from. But we do have a huge front yard, so there is more space for me to guard from. There I found a great spot for guarding:

A guarding hole! Excellent.

We’ve moved!

We finally moved to our new home. It was quite an exciting time, a lot of amazing things happened. That is why you have not heard from me for a while. I was very busy.

I was busy inspecting the work. There were a lot of different humans coming to our new home, doing all sorts of things:

I was also busy inspecting my beds. You know: whether they were placed properly. They have to be in exactly the right spot, with enough sunlight, no draft and a good view so I can do some guarding, even when I rest.

I am glad to inform you we are all settled now. My beds are in the right places, my toys and chewy bones and food made it to the new house, too. I am quite content.

Leaving my marks

As I told you in earlier posts, we are going to move house. The house is not finished yet, but M tells me we are moving soon. I am looking forward to it! It has a big garden for me to guard. I can’t wait to chase all the squirrels, rabbits and foxes out of it. There are some juicy cats living in the neighborhood, too. It will be fun!

We are at the new place almost every weekend. M and P work in the garden and I investigate the place. I am busy leaving my marks. Verbally, by barking really loud at humans and animals walking by. Hey, everyone should know we are going to live here! It will be my task to keep intruders out. It is important that everybody knows they will encounter a ferocious guarding dog if they step over the fence:

I am also leaving my marks in a visual kind of way. One can never be too shy on these matters, you know. It is very important to show this space is occupied, by a huge dog (with big feet).

Cold

Last weekend we were at our new house again. M and P worked in the garden and I guarded the place. After a while I felt I had to retreat indoors, to do some guarding there. I also thought this was a good idea because it was kind of cold outside.

However, inside it turned to be cold too. The heating does not work! I do hope it will be fixed before we move, because…. well, I am from Greece, you know. I am equipped for a warm climate. Not the wet cold Dutch weather.

Happily M knew a solution to this. She saw me shivering, took her coat and wrapped me in it! I usually do not approve of clothing for dogs, but when it is very cold it has its benefits. I was glad to have her coat on. Sweet of her to do this, too.

Big Guardening

Sorry you have not heard from me for a while. I have been very busy exploring our new garden! M and P finally took me with them in their many visits to our new home. The new home is practically a building site now, we do not live there yet. It will take some months before we move, M told me. That means I have two houses and gardens to guard! A big responsibility.

I am very exited about our new place. The garden is huge! I have a very nice garden now, no complaints, but the new garden is much grander. It is an estate, for me to guard!

This is it, the front yard:

There is a back yard too:

I already discovered some very exciting things in our new garden. I found shit smelling of fox! Great, there are foxes for me to hunt there! I love that, foxes are my absolute number one chasing targets. I do hope I will get the change to chase one, soon.

Anyway, you will understand that guardening all this will take a lot of time and effort. Maybe I won’t be able to blog in the time to come. But when I have exiting news to bring you, I certainly will. For instance when I caught a fox! That would be nice.

Guardening

We have been out in the garden a lot recently. M has been working with the plants en bushes, making it all look pretty. She likes doing that. My task is to guard our property, so no cat or pigeon will enter it. Nor foxes nor rabbits, although I would like to chase a trespassing fox out of our garden! Alas, there are no smells of foxes or rabbits near our garden, so I guess they avoid us because they know I am here. Pity.

So M is gardening and I am guarding. Which, in a garden like this, is demanding because there are so many sounds and smells  – human and feline – around us. It is guardening!

Camping bliss

We went camping, again! Great! I can’t get enough of it, so I am very glad M likes it as much as I do. Do you know what I like most of it? Every time we go camping is an Adventure in itself, because one never knows what will happen. Last time we had fighting squirrels near the van, for instance. But even if there are no Adventures, I still love it. Because when we are camping we are doing my favorite things. Like sleeping late, together in one warm bed:

And hiking! We found some very pretty paths this time:

What is more: when we are camping I guard the van. I am very good at that. No one dares to come near to our van.

I may look cute, with my pretty ears and long nose, but make no mistake: I am a ferocious guarding dog. I really like sitting next to the van like this, watching the surroundings and staring meaningfully at humans, canines and squirrels that dare come too close. They keep their distance. Good. I love camping!

Tail

In some ways humans are better off than canines. They can always walk off leash, for instance. But if one takes a holistic point of view, canines have the most benefits. We are the ones with the happy simple lives: we guard, play and eat when we want and sleep the rest of the time. Much better than humans, who seem to be in a hurry all the time doing… yes, what exactly? I don’t know. Working, M tells me. Working for what, when they already have a house and plenty of food?

When it comes to physical differences canines are much better off than humans, too. Humans seem to navigate on one sense only: eyesight. Canines have sharp eyes, but also extraordinary hearing and smelling capabilities. Not to mention our seventh sense, which enables us to feel trouble that is coming to us (like a bad mannered dog in the dog park). We have wonderful warm fur (no clothes needed), pretty ears and, best of all: a tail. Humans do not have a tail. And that is very sad for them. With a tail, you see, one can do so many things.

Like using it as a counterweight when something asks for thorough nose-investigation.

It is also a clear tool for communication, as you can see: my friend near the water signals me she is ready for playing and I answer her with my tail in the same position. The game is on, friend!

The tail high up means: I am stronger than you are, try me! It is also a signal of extreme alertness – I put my tail up high when I smell a burglar, or a cat. By the way: in the above picture my friends were not really fighting, they were just testing one another’s strength. The dog in the back thought it pretty silly, as you can see.

A tail is a real asset. It is sad humans do not have one.

 

New room, new lookout

The past weekend was a bit disturbing for me, because all of a sudden M and P started to move things in our home. Not just a little thing, but big things: they changed the complete inventory of three rooms! No canine likes change when the present situation is comfortable, but humans tend to see these things differently.  There was nothing I could do about it.

I went to a room that was quiet and waited what was about to happen. When they were finished moving all the stuff around, they called me to do a thorough nose-inspection of the three newly furnished rooms. I did, of course. It was a bit odd to smell familiar things in a different setting.

I did not see the need to do all this changing, but there is one positive result. M moved her work space to the front of the house and therefore created a new lookout for me! She is working in a room that was not used much before. She will be there almost every day and I can be with her. And guard my territory from a new perspective! I do like that.