Phew! Gus is 12 years old today. What a fantastic day. His favourite toys have been bought – a bag of tennis balls. But he only gets one to play with until it’s been “destroyed”. He’ll play “chase” with it for days and days, and then on a whim, the poor thing thats given him pleasure – gets the chop by his teeth! It’s so much fun watching him. We’ll be off for a walk shortly, nice ramble in the woods near our house – he love’s it
Tag: Scotties
Bobby & Finlay’s 8th Birthday
Bobby (on the left) and Finlay celebrate their 8th Birthday today.
We’ll go for a walk, Gus included, in the local woods. Run, hop and wobble over the stepping stones and have a great time sniffing every blade of grass.
Fin gets very mardy as he doesn’t like twigs getting entangled in his coat. We stop often to remove them!!
Then it’s back home for carrot and apple treat, after having the “undercarriages” washed clear of mud!
What a week!
By Gus, Sparhawk Ebony Prince, 12 years old
Wow! What a week we’ve had. I was 12 on Saturday and my younger brothers were 8 on Monday. Mum and Dad pampered us really well – didn’t give me enough food though, but I’ll let ‘em off.
You’ve read about my birthday walk, well we went on another one with my full brother William on Thursday, who, obviously, was 12 same day as me! There were 6 scotties on that walk but we had to take 4 humans as well.
Bobby embarrassed himself by taking a very serious interest in Baxter, one of William’s friends. He decided to appoint himself Baxter’s minder. He just wouldn’t leave him alone – cleaning his ears, sitting beside him, following him everywhere – just like a love-sick puppy! Although I heard Mum say that she could understand Bobby’s interest in Baxter as he was such a little cutie!
Mum has been encouraging us to hop across some stepping stones (which I don’t really like). She says it’s better to cross the stepping stones as we then get more of a chance to run freely across the grassy meadows, rather than being stuck on those dreadful leashes. Still, I try and put up as much resistance as possible which then makes her come back for me and I then get carried across. A funny thing happened to her recently though. She didn’t realise that the stones were icy and she slipped in – twice – whilst trying to get us all across. Now she knows what it’s like to get very wet feet.
Anyway, each day some of us hop across the stones, and we have fun in the meadow. Bobby runs the most and also does the most miles as he zig-zags across the paths. Finlay, mummy’s boy, stays by her side. He gets very mardy with all the twigs getting entangled in his fur. He stops frequently to have them removed. He’s fine on the grass though, but still prefers to stay at her side.
Me, I have the task of “Pathfinder”. Mum lets me choose which paths we’ll take and then everyone follows me – it’s just great. I choose the woody paths on purpose just to irritate Finlay. Bobby tries to keep up with me, but his constant zig-zagging means he’s more often then not behind me. He does sometimes try and steal my job of pathfinder, but Mum always has to call him back onto the right route.
I slipped off the stepping stones on Wednesday – Mum just happened to be taking a picture of me at the time, so you’ll see me not looking my best – is it any reason that I get her to carry me across them! It’s alright for those with longer legs.
Mum went to see one of her friends Wednesday afternoon, who also has scotties. She returned covered in wonderful smells. We all sat on the floor together whilst basking in the aroma of our fellow Scotties. She doesn’t realise just how lovely she smells when she returns from a visit to her scottie friends.
Thursday was William’s birthday walk – mentioned above.
Friday nights are “pie nights” for us: our start of the weekend treat! We have home-made pie from the village chip shop and our usual complete biscuit. Mum and Dad has chicken kebab with chips. We sometimes get leftover chicken meat as well – if they’ve not been too greedy!
Today though is Saturday and it’s a miserable day weather-wise. I pretended to show interest in wanting to go out for a walk, but Mum knows us better than we think. Paddling in little streams, and drinking dirty muddy water in puddles is not too bad, but actually going out for a walk in the rain – well that’s not on at all – thank goodness she knows better.
Finlay and Bobby helped her to fix the front garden fence, in the drizzle, but I stayed in the warm. I think I heard Mum say that there was still some homemade pie for us again, so I’m going to sign off now and start lobbying her for my dinner!
Little Miss Tittle-Tattle of Sparhawk
Izzy was a wonderful Scot. She got on with Agi from the moment she joined our family (Agi being 7 at the time). Not a bad growl was had between the pair of them.
Izzy was more of a “traditional looking scottie” – slightly longer in the back than the shorter “show ring type” scots of the day.
She had three litters (4 pups, 3 pups, 4 pups). Produced 11 pups in all, 9 boys and 2 girls! One of the girls from the 1st litter we kept and called her Kelpie. My Mum and Dad (God Bless ’em) bought Gus (who is now back with us) and from the final litter of 4 boys, we kept Bobby and Finlay. At one time we were a family of 5 Scotties and 2 humans.
Izzy was a wonderful mother to her pups. A self whelper, she excelled at mothering. To the extent that she would still clean Bobby and Finlay when they were fully matured boys – they didn’t mind! She tried this with Gus when he joined us, but he was having none of it. He was a man’s man!
Izzy eventually succumbed to mammary tumours in February 2009 and is sorely missed.
Little Miss Tittle-Tattle of Sparhawk 20th July 1997 – 3 February 2009
Agnes Martimm of Sparhawk
Agi joined us in January 1991. She was a very choosy dog where humans were concerned. She was a part of my family before I finally met Mr Right. She actually chose him for me, as my mum (God rest her soul) would have told you. She didn’t like my other boyfriends, but when the right one came along – she knew, long before I did! There’s something about a dogs 6th sense, and Agi had a plentiful supply of it.
For example, when walking in woods not too far from home, she suddenly stopped and would go no further. So, I chose a different route. We were accompanied by Izzy (my second scottie) and Kelpie (Izzy’s daughter). They thought nothing of Agi’s hesitancy and carried on sniffing.
As the day was wonderfully sunny and dry, I thought to try a different route in the same woods. No sooner had we started on that path, Agi planted her feet firmly on the ground, implying that she was going nowhere.
I decided at that time to acknowledge Agi’s concern. Did an about turn and the three Scots and me high tailed it back to the car. I never did find out if anything funny was happening in the woods – but rest assured, after episode if she didn’t want to go, we called it a day.
She also knew when Thunder and Lightening was closing in. I often had to chase her through woods to calm her down, not knowing why she was so spooked, then to suddenly be surprised by the rumbling of thunder.
She had three litters in her time. I’m sure though that now all the puppies have joined her in the gardens over the Rainbow Bridge.
Her placid, but choosy character, made it a must for me to continue living with Scotties. I’ve come across plenty with a more boisterous, shall we say, character, which might have put me off them, but it is testimony to Agi’s breeding that I am still living with Scotties distantly related to her. God Bless her Soul. One day we shall all be together in that wonderful garden over the rainbow bridge.
Agnes Martimm, November 11 1990 – 2nd December 2002
Valentine Babies
These beautiful little boys were born on Valentine’s Day 2003, and so will shortly be celebrating their 8th birthday. These two tiny Scotties are still part of our family and are called Bobby & Finlay. You’ll see them elsewhere in these pages, but a little bigger than this particular photo!
Sparhawk Scotties 
