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Hello friends.

We’ve been wanting to for a while and have decided now is the time to start a new blog.

It’s still a work in progress but you can find us at http://www.laaldogblog.wordpress.com

Hopefully we’ll keep it nicely updated and get to visit our blog friends more regularly.

Well, It has beed a while! But of course, I couldn’t let a Crisp-mas go by without checking on my family. Cos I is sure they need some Crispmassy help from me, Ludo!

Let’s have a look and see…

Arran be looking pretty fluffy as usual and I hears he got the new-ters and is doing well.

Molly and Faline my rabbit-dog siblings are relaxing as usual. Crisp mas does not be so exciting for them and they is getting old. Molly has cataracts now but he gets by ok!

Wait, what’s this! An interloper in my Crispmas pics!

Oh, That’s just Arthur, my new baby brother. As you can see he a not-a-sheltie. He being a good friend for Arthur and I has given him some Crisp mas tips already. Mum says he pretty like me as a puppy and so I will allow him to be in the picture. He goofy and sweet and he makes my pawrents smile so I guess he ok. He 7 months old now and growing up quickly.

I want them all to be happy at Crisp mas time.

Thinking of you all from across the bridge, my dear friends. Thank you for thinking of my too.

Love, Ludo.

Well, I said I had some pictures to share of Ludo’s last day with us, and here they are.

We decided a couple of days before that Ludo was in too much pain and not able to enjoy things like he wanted to and so we had booked his vet appointment. He was such a brave boy, right to the end and if anyone had seen him in good moments they would have thought he was mostly fine, maybe just a bit hobbly, but the good moments were getting fewer and fewer.

I took the day off work and we headed down to the beach with a picnic.

The sun was shining down on us and it was such a beautiful day. The water sparkled in the sunlight, there were other happy dogs around and I let Ludo chase the ball as much as he wanted to. It felt like I was getting a little glimpse of where Ludo would be headed next and I am so happy we got to have that happy day together.

We started off with an ice cream. The locally made kind and Ludo got a whole cone to himself. He couldn’t believe his luck! (Arran had a little bit in a paper tub)

We sat on the rocks and watched the world go by. A whole class room of school children were doing something with geography near by, but they didn’t come too close. Then Ludo sat and watched my lunch be eaten and helped out with the challenging iced bun cake part of it.

It felt like we were the only ones there and I thought of all the fun we’d had exploring these shores together.

I wonder if all those people know what a special day it is today…

Belly full of ice cream but ever hopeful for more.

Arran explored for a bit on his own, but we managed to get one photo with all 3 of us together. It felt like rather a timeless moment.

But time waits for no Mum, especially not when you have a shetland-rabbit dog, waiting to continue their last adventure!

Let’s go have fun Mum!

Wait for it…

Catch me if you can, Ludo!

The rock pools looked so inviting. He couldn’t swim but he still enjoyed a nice wade through the water…

Someone got very sandy! He usually liked to roll around on the dry sand or grass after being in the water to try off his face, but his tumour was stopping him going too far over so I dried him with some tissues.

I’ve zoomed in on this head shot, because I could see myself in his eye. :)

Running to the horizon

Seaside shelties

We stayed for hours, I didn’t want it to end, but it had to, as all things must.

My boy

So, he went with sand in his fur and some cheese in his mouth and I think he would have been pleased with that.

Thank you for sticking with me, through these sad days. My friends, what would I have done without you all and your kind words and your loving of Ludo?

I’m not quite sure what to do with the blog. It’s always been his. So I think this will be it for Seaside shelties. Arran still has some things to say, so maybe we’ll start again someplace else. I’ll be sure to let you know if we do. But for now, I guess all we have to do is wish you lots of Lickies, Love Ludo and Mum. (and Arran and TND and Molly and Faline too. xx)

Signing off.

Ludo was helped to the bridge at around 6pm yesterday. His cancer was just too advanced for him to be able to enjoy life in the way he wanted so we decided it was time for his pain to end. He went very peacefully, with his family at his side and some cheese in his mouth. I hope he knew how much he was loved and how much he meant to us.

Thank you for sticking with us. We made sure we…

Trying…

Hurro furiends,

It me, Ludo!

Since I last posted I is not been doing so well. My cancer being very annoying and ouchy and not feeling comfortable at all. I is trying to not notice but it getting very hard. I still like to try and go out for walkies but we doesn’t seem to get far and I need to go to the toilet all the time, even though I can’t!

Mum has been trying to help me take my mind off it by…

Last weekend some of Mum’s sisters visited and so we had a big family walk at Lake Ennerdale. Auntie Toni couldn’t come but Mum’s nieces and nephew brought Poppy along. Poppy is the other sheltie who looks a bit like Arran.

Grandpawents dog Rusty comed too and we met Auntie Tracey’s dog Wilbur who be a shitzu x yorkshire terrier and Auntie Tricia had Lily who a staffie x jack russel. It be a typical Cumbrian day. Not quite raining but just about to. Although it did get a bit sunnier at the end.

Here we is!

Arran, Poppy and Lily led the way up front with MY TND I does not mind being at the back though. We made our introductions and Arran told Wilbur off in the car park and told him he gonna be the boss but after that we all got along just fine.

We went for a splash around in the lake, us shelties mostly stuck together. We has a little chain. I get the little stick then Arran steals it from me and then Poppy steals it from him.

I tried to have a swim but Mum called me back in cos she said I looked too low in the water. I guess my tumour be weighing me down. Rusty swam though. He be very fast in the water. He needs to go swimming more as, I is sure you can see, Grandpaw has fed him too many treats. Nanny paw (she called herself that in my comments, hehe) tells him off but he does not listen.

a swimming jack Rusty terrier (even Rustier now)

The Aunties wanted to get a photo of themselves in front of a mountain, it makes them look really tiny. I think they need some practice in how to enhance scenery. They is not so good as me, so they didn’t get a treat after posing.

Wil and Lily had a great time visiting their first lake. Lily lives in Mum’s old home town down south and there not many places to let dogs safely off lead. A lot of parks has changed their rules to either not let dogs in at all or not let them off the lead. Mum said that would has made her and Auntie Penny sad if it been like that when they lived there. Lily did very well running around off her lead and comed back nicely even though she really likes saying hello to all the other peoples walking.

Mum decided we should all post together on this bench and everyone said to her they’d never be able to do it. Well, we got one photo of us mostly all doing lookings in the right direction, but has a look at these outtakes and you decide who the bestest dog be… Me! hehe!

We only went for a quite short walk around the top corner of the lake, but I made it the whole way round. I just went at my own pace and the peoples did too.

This week I had some bad days. I started getting very uncomfortable and restless at night and making Mum get up with me and being very clingy. Mum and TND got very worried as I had a lot of problems trying to do a poo even with the medicine and I went off my food and they thought maybe the cancer be obstructing my bowel. But yesterday I ate some fancy food TND got me and I managed to pass out what needed to come out! I felt much better and today I has done some more. I even went up and downstairs a few times when the peoples were not quick enough coming and getting me and yesterday I went on the beach and even did some running. TND has accused me of faking it!

~Lickies, Ludo!

Where do you sleep?

Hurro, Ludo here!

A few posts ago I talked about quirks and habits. I has had to change some of mine these last couple of weeks. I cas not to runnings around now and I has to wait at the bottom of the stairs and grumble until someone carries me up them.

But I can still do sleepings. I has always slept in a most comfortable place on the back of the sofa (all different sofa’s but TND’s sofas…

I told you I was going camping right? Well something really exciting happened after camping at the agility show. My TND turned up and instead of going home and the people’s going back to work we went to a hotel! Mum and TND said it be a trip just for me because we has not beed on a hol-ee-day for a while and I love going to hotels!

First of all, I had a nice time camping. I did not get to do agility, but I got to go on some walks and hang out with Mum and I got to sit and watch whilst she helped on a ring and watch some other dogs and bark at them. We made our tent nice and cozy although Mum did not let me sleep on her pillow like I really thought I should. It rained a lot on the Saturday but me and Arran didn’t get wet, only Mum and it dried for us to go for a walk and cook Mum’s dinner. Mum and Arran didn’t really get their act together to do any winnings but Arran did manage to get one 5th place rosette and it does be a very big show with 10 rings so Mum thinks he did well. (Of course, I got 3 rosettes last year…)

The show just in between Cumbria and Lancashire and it on the canal for nice walkies.

There be lots of shelties there. Can you spot us?

We beed very happy to see TND. I love staying in hotels and we stayed in a very nice little Inn in Kirkby-Lonsdale called The Sun Inn

We had our own goody bag in our room

The peoples bed did be very comfy and we had a nice quiet room where we didn’t has people walking past so Arran did not do guarding of the door. The Inn had a little section of the dining room just for peoples who wanted to sit with their doggies so we got to eat breakfast and dinner with our pawrents and we got lots of lots of tidbits.

I got duck and fish and chicken and creme brulee. I even got to eat some wheats (I intolerant to wheats)! The people working in the hotel all be very nice to us and of course you has to be nice to them acoss they bring the food!

Give me food!

The next day we went for a walk around the Forest of Bowland, I can still do walkings but I is not very good on runnings as I am too ouchie and I has to go nice and slowly but my peoples doesn’t mind. When we headed to the car me and Arran both said ‘no we wont go!’  and pulled back on our leads. But it ok, because we just went on a walkies and did not go home and we comed back to the hotel again!

Let’s go on an adventure!

Stones from old houses that got removed when a reservoir got made.

We got back to the village and had a late lunch in a dog friendly Cafe called The Crossing Point. I got in everyone’s way but I is pretty sure no one minded. The waiters just stepped over me. Well, you cas not see what be ON the table if you sit under it like Arran does. Kirkby-Lonsdale seemed very dog friendly. It had some nice independent shops which Mum liked to go in and a nice smelly old church to explore and lots of walks around it.

The next morning we explored the village and went down to the River Lune  to see ‘Ruskin’s view’ He thought it be a lovely ‘English’ view of river and pasture.

At the bottom of the ‘Devil’s steps’

I had a super ‘last-trip’ thank you so much to The Sun Inn for letting me and Arran come and stay.

Arran sniffs me all the time now!

Good bye Sun Inn

I wanted to thank all my friends who has gived me power of the paw against the cancer lumps. I is sure it working to keep me comfortable but the vet says nothing can make it go away now, not even good wishes, and I know I has a whole bunch of those. . My ‘golf ball’ in my groin seems to get bigger every day and I has new sores on my front leg. I has some more medicines to keep me ‘comfortable’ but the vet talked with Mum and TND about supporting their decision once they decide that I is not comfortable anymore.

Right now I am happy! Mum says she is not ready to say Goodbye yet so she hopes I can stick around for a bit longer. You know I will do anything for treats right? So I is sure I can do sticking arounds too!

~Lickies, Ludo!

When I went to Oxford

Hurro, Ludo here!

You know, Mum was looking through some of our photos the other day and she realised there a lot of stuff we planned to blog about and she neglected my blog never got around to posting. So here an adventure from 3 and a half years ago, afore Arran comed along, when I went on Holiday to the Cotswolds and visited the city of Oxford.

Oxford a city in the UK and it famous for it’s…

Golf balls and POTP

Hurro,

It me Ludo!

I thinks I is going to have to ask for some Power of the Paw I… At the weekend I started feeling a bit ouchie on my tummy and not wanting to move like I usually do. Mum noticed me looking at it and she did not be very happy when she looked at it too. We went off to the vets on Monday and Mum got me to do my bang – upside down trick and my vet looked at my tummy too. The vet…

I started doing KC agility competitions last year (I did 3) and this year I have done 4 and my Mum – Ladee has hardly let me say anything about agility. In agility I compete in small size, whereas Ludo competes in Medium, so we are not up against each other, but I bet I would beat Ludo because I am faster! Ludo had won up from grade 1 to grade 3 so I had to start at grade 3 too. That’s just how it works!

Me and Ludo at Lune Valley’s show last year.

Going to shows is kind of strange. You have to spend a long time driving in the car, which I don’t really like doing. When I first started competing I would get very worried about anything, like people clapping the dog before me, or the people who sit at the ring side, or having to run in a circle on the course and I would try and run away and leave the ring, I also got very distracted by all the pretty lady dogs. I still do a bit and Ladee tries to make me concentrate and not sniff. Then I decided the contacts (those are the big things you run up) were scary, even though they were not scary at training and so every run I would run around the contact and feel really worried. Maybe because I was a bit too excited I leapt off the seesaw a couple of times before it hit the ground and I didn’t like the bang!

About to jump off

worried face!

Ladee thought I was faking being scared out of habit! Luckily we had some nice judges who let me try the contacts again once Mum had called me back and given me a cuddle and I suddenly realised they are ok. Now, Mum picks me up before we take our turn and that relaxes me. Everyday when Dad comes home from work and I get all excited I ask him to ‘pickmeuppickmeup’ and then I sit in his arms for a while. Ladee thinks it is just like being in a cattle press for me, whatever one of those is.

But, I do like to stick to my habits!

Recently I have started to realise that it is actually quite exciting and not scary and in October I got my first ‘not E’ Mum Ladee was really happy and I like to be happy with her and get cuddles and treats. Of course, I get cuddles and treats even if I didn’t pay attention very well, but I can tell when Ladee is more happy than usual even though she doesn’t have a tail to wag.

Then two shows ago, at Platinum show I got my first ever clear rounds and I got two first places, Ludo showed you that a couple of posts ago. We just went to another show called Wigton and we camped for two nights.

Where will you sleep ladee?

Our tent!

I like camping and guarding the tent, although I don’t like it when Ladee walks away from the tent. I can get out under the tent and I make sure I find her and say ‘here I am!’ At Wigton I got a 1st in Agility and it was a clear round. I ran really fast and so did Ladee and I got lots of cuddles afterwards. I just love cuddles, don’t you? That makes me grade 4! Ladee isn’t sure we are ready for grade 4, but we will just have to be! Because there I am.

Ludo had a nice time at agility too. He enjoys barking at the other dogs that are running and just relaxing. He had some rounds of being silly and having fun and not listening to Ladee but he also had a ‘fantastic’ run a combined 1-5 jumping class and he won it! He already had two other jumping wins. (Ladee says you need an agility win or 3 jumping wins to move up a grade at our level) so he is grade 4 now too. He said he was not about to let me over take him. We went to the presentation and clapped everyone. We like barking when there is clapping.

Here we are, modelling our rosettes and trophies from the last two shows we went to.

I got more rosettes than Ludo! I think I will have to have my own display for rosettes and awards. Ludo has one in the spare bedroom, where he sleeps at night.

Our new friend Sophie, from Pendle Pawtography took some photos of us. I had a bit of a stand off with her big dog Theo. He just got too close to my Mum! I like to protect her and stand between her and other dogs that get too close.

In October Grandpaw came with us to a show and we stayed in a pub over night. It was something called a ‘good experience’ for me. I was a little bit unsure but Ludo is always so relaxed when we do anything new that I knew nothing bad could happen.

Since Grandpaw was there he managed to record some videos of us and we have some from other friends of Mum’s too. None of them are our winning runs, but you can still see us, if you like.

http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v260/dilkara/MOV_0081.mp4

Hm, Ladee will have to get another video of me to show you!

There you go, that’s my official, agility update.

Hurro, it me, Ludo!

A bucket list be sort of like a human joke thingy of stuff to do before you die… It not a funny joke, like: squeak-toys-at-Mum-but-don’t-let-her-get-them, or pretend-to-bite-Dad’s nose, but who understands people humour anyway?

Before I had any troubles with cancer mum started doing a post after reading this article: ’50 Things to do in Cumbria before you die’ and we started…

We have had a lovely, sunny, bank holiday weekend so far in Cumbria. It’s kind of unusual to get nice weather on bank holidays in England! I’m not sure if other countries have bank holidays, but I know the US at least has public holidays, so this bank holiday is a replacement for  Whitsun Sunday for us. Is it for you?

Bank holidays usually mean we get very busy at work, but we still got to enjoy…

Here I still am!

Hurro, it me, Ludo!

Two months ago today the lab place tested the cancer parts of me and gived me something called a prognosis. My prognosis said 2 – 5 months. I is still here and I is still healthy and still being Ludo, just as I always have been and so I just wanted to say…

Here I still am!

We has some things that Mum likes to call our ‘Little Quirks’. They is mostly things which we has got into a routine of doing all by ourselves. I only has a couple and mine started off with a reason.

After our dinner the peoples has their dinner and whilst they is eating, I like to do my ‘bang trick’ and lie upside down. I always lie on TND’s side of the room and I lie perfectly still for ages…

Hover over the photos for information or click to make them bigger.

1. Cammie and Maggie in front of a water tower in ‘The Little Apple’ in Kansas

2. Hailey and Zaphod loving Canada

3. Reilly and Denny improving THEIR beach in Florida

4. Enhancing St. Lawrence River, Canada.

5. Samson and Bonnie enhancing the Sunshine Coast, Australia

6. Phoebe enhancing Pendle Hill in Lancashire, UK

7. Guiness enhancing Lake Murray , South Carolina, US

8. Sarge swimmie-ing in Allegheny river in the United States

9. Bertie enhancing Cruden Bay in Scotland

10. Speedy the Bunny enhancing Wembury in Devon, UK

  Mum picked out card numbers 1 – 10 and gave everyone a number and shuffled them up and I picked one out. Well, I kind of pulled out two, since they stuck together with my saliva so I pulled out number 7 and the piccure what we used for 10 (Uno does not have 10’s) so if Guinness and Speedy could get your peoples to message me your a

ddresses I will send you some Cumbrian things so you can have a little bit of where I love!

  Thanks you so much again for helping me celebrate my birthday!

~Lickies, Ludo!

    pee ess: Some of our lovely entries keep their own blogs where I is sure you can see more photos of the wonderful places they come from.

http://bouncingbertie.blogspot.co.uk http://helenshomeworld.blogspot.co.uk http://www.speedyhousebunny.com http://4dogcraziness.blogspot.co.uk http://sargespeaksout.blogspot.co.uk http://cowspotdog.blogspot.co.uk http://kten-haileychronicles.blogspot.co.uk http://armyoffourdigest.blogspot.co.uk

Birthday girl and boy – Faline and I don’t do silly hats, but it is our birthday, honest!

Faline was 10 years old! She is looking a bit old around her eyes now but she still smells nice and sisfurry and she is very spritely and happy. My Ladee – Mum, picked her a spri,ng time forage bouquet for her cake and I helped her eat it. Molly has been a bit tired and fed up with heat these past couple of days, even though they have things to keep them cool, so he did not join in. For some reason Mum always forgets about Faline’s Birthday. I guess because she is so small, it is easy to miss her.

Faline is actually a lot friendlier than Molly is, she really likes to be stroked and nudged with my nose.

Tiny Faline

Big Faline! Pretty Rabbit-dog sis-fur

Faline, you cannot fit that whole dandelion leaf in your little mouth!

BUT Ladee, the rabbit-dogs want to share their food!

They got some fenugreek crunchies too! Happy 10th birthday Faline!

Three is a very big important number so unlike last year when I didn’t even get to open my own present because Ludo stole it, Mum made sure I got to see my own stuff too. I got a card and a chewy treat from Grandpawents and Rusty and I got two toys and a cake from Mum and TND. The smell of the delicious cake did distract me from the toys a bit. I tried not to be worried that Ludo would take it.

It’s ok, I don’t need to share it with Ludo Ladee!

I really liked this cake and I would like another one! It was really yummy and it had little bone treats on it too that fell off so we could eat them separately. It also made my furs nice and pink. Only, I did have to get brushed and that is not fun.

I got an ostrich

And a seahorse!

Hooray for Birthdays! I probably do not need another one now, since I am an all-grown-up-Scamp.

~Lickies, Arran!

*Sigh* When does it be my Birthday again?

pee ess: We will do another post on Ludo’s birthday competition, ‘love where you live’ very soon to announce the winner of the prizes!

Cake from the Barking Bakery