Watchdog

Beagles are hunting dogs. That's in our nature. But beagles also make good watchdogs. Don't be fooled by our medium size and gentle faces. When the situation calls for it, we will protect our humans and our territory. Woe behold any stranger, man or beast who infringes our property.

Beagles are attentive...


We will bark, and believe me, beagles have deep barks which belie our size.

We will bark in the car...


We will bark at the squirrel in the tree...


We especially get upset at the monkeys in our backlane...



And the naughty monkey who boldly strolls on the wire in front of our house


As you can see, between the junk mail delivery guys, the mailman, cats, squirrels and monkeys, this beagle is a very busy watchdog.

After all that hard work...


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Thor passed this wonderful award to me. I am so proud to be a member of the international bloggers community and would like to share this award with other worthy bloggers!


The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Copy the image, rules and questionnaire.
3. Post in your blog.
4. Answer the four questions.
5. Pick 7 friends to share with.
6. Come back to BLoGGiSTaiNFoCoRNeR at http://bloggistame.blogspot.com/ and leave the URL of your post in order for your blog to be added to the master list.
7. Have fun.

Questions and answers:
1. The person who tagged you? Thor
2. His or her site title and URL? Thor's World.
3.Date you were tagged? May 16, 2009
4. Persons you tagged? Penny, Poppy and Patches, Tuffy and the Dog WOods Pack, Sapphire, Jazz and Dixie, Amber Mae, Biggie Z, Dughallmor Beagles

The Dogma of Kess' Mama

My Kiwi beagle pals, Cookie and Cinnamon tagged me to show where I sleep. Now, if you've read my post "Let sleeping dogs lie", you'll know this beagle sleeps anywhere and everywhere. In fact, my name should be "Kess ZZZs" coz I love to snooze.

My humans have this weird "dogma" (principle, tenet or arrogrant declaration of opinion) about where their beloved beagle sleeps at night. Firstly, I am not allowed to sleep on their bed. Instead, they provide me with my very own beds, which is comfy, but hey, its' not the same as their bed!

Bed #1 - is my kennel on the porch. My kennel also has a top, but for photography purposes, mum took it out so that I can be seen clearly.
You can tell from my expression that it's not my favourite bed. I much rather be in the house than on the porch. Unfortunately, it's my regular bed. Here's why:

Kess: "Mum, Why can't I sleep indoors every night?"
Mum: "Kess, you know that dad and I travel regularly. When you go to gramps' home when we're away, dogs are not allowed into their house. So, you have to get used to being outdoors at night."
Kess: "But, it's not fair..."
Mum: "I'm sorry Kess, but surely it's better to be able to roam freely in gramps' garden than being boarded at a kennel."

I guess that's true. this beagle would be miserable being boarded in a kennel. Besides, it's fun staying over at gramps because they feed me all sorts of cool treats. I even get to enjoy afternoon tea when they have their tea. At home, I only get breakfast and dinner.

Bed #2 - is my couch cum day bed cum rainy nights bed.

My humans provided this bed for me in the living room so that I wouldn't go on the couch. In the earlier years, they had to train me to stay off their couch. It took a while but their efforts paid off. I love my own little couch and haven't had any urge to climb on the human couch.

On rainy or festive nights (i.e. firework nights), I get to sleep indoors. This is when my couch cum day bed gets converted to a night bed. My humans will bring my bed to a little corner on the stairs outside their room. Sometimes, on out nights, I have to wake them up by pounding on the front door in the wee hours in the morning when it starts raining at 2 am so that I can come in. To avoid having their sweet dreams turn into a nightmare, my humans have taken to sky-gazing every night before they go to bed to see if it will rain that night. It the skies are red, it's in night for me. Woo hoo!

And now, I would like to tag the dynamic duos: Agatha and Archie, Maggie and Mitch , and Cocoa and Barley

~

My friend, Happy passed this award to me. Thanks Happy!


There are some rules for passing on this award:

1. Post it on your blog and link to the person who gave it to you
2. List 7 things you love
3. List 7 blogs you love
4. Email or comment on those blogs to let them know you've given them an award

I love:
1)FOOD, glorious food, in all shapes and sizes
2)Tummy rubs - in fact my favourite trick is to sit right in front of mum when she's on the couch to get her attention and then flop down for a tummy rub
3)Playing with my humans - fetch and "get me out of the T-shirt" are my favourite games
4)Long walks - especially when we go hiking in the hills
5)Sleep - lots of it
6)Car rides - love the air conditioning in the car!
7)Chasing squirrels and cats and postmen and delivery men....

I also love:
1) Cookie and Cinnamon
2) Laney
3) Khyra
4) Key West Collies
5) Joey
6) Fred
7) Martha & Bailey

Now, I know that some of you may already have this award but I just wanted you guys to know that I love your blogs!

P.S. Update on the Pulau Ketam abandoned dogs. Todate, about 30 dogs have been rescued.Read more about it on Malaysia Central.

Dog Eat Dog

This is a disturbing post simply because it's more than just an idiom. This is an actual event happening in a small fishing village in Malaysia just as I write this post. The idiom "Dog eat dog world" signifies a world in which people fight for themselves only and will hurt other people. It means that you must first watch out for your own interests, because other people will be watching out for theirs.

The story on the plight of a group of 300+ stray dogs in Pulau Ketam that were shipped to another uninhabited island without food or fresh water source first broke earlier this week by Malaysia Central. The villagers of this small fishing village claimed that the stray dogs were becoming a problem - defeceating everywhere and even attacking children. Their solution was to capture these dogs and ship them to a nearby uninhabited mangrove island, left to die because there are no sources of food or fresh water.

The main press, including the Star newspaper later picked up this story. See "Plight of the swamp dogs", "Rescue Group Swings into action", and "Dog runs deeper into the island on seeing rescuers". Animal activist Sabrina Yeap who went to the island to rescue the dogs said that some of the dogs have died of starvation while others drowned in their attempt to swim back to Pulau Ketam. It was also reported that the surviving dogs had resorted to eating the carcasses of their dead counterparts. I guess these dogs did what they needed do to survive.

It is a sad day indeed to see how cruel humans can be.