Free as a bird now.

We will always remember you Tippy.

The First Photo.

This picture of Tippy with daughter Fallon is one of the first pictures taken of her. She never was one for having her picture taken, even when made to sit still for the camera her head would usually look in any direction but that of the photographer.

God Bless You Tippy.

The pictures you are going to see of Tippy this week were the last ones ever taken of her. They were taken outside our house just a few weeks before she died.

God bless you Tippy our little wonder dog.

The last picture of Tippy.

It's a year tomorrow that Tippy was taken ill with pancreatitis and as a result of this and her other problems was dead four days later so this will be my last Sunday post on this memorial to her.

Tippy's last video.

Unfortunately I only have two video's of Tippy, I've already shown one and this is the other - this is actually two short video's joined together and were taken just a month before Tippy died.. Please excuse the washing on the line. The fact that one of our dogs great pleassures in life is hanging out the washing just goes to show easily you can make your dog happy, it's just a shame they have never learnt how to use clothes pegs.

Tippy Posing

This blog is fast approaching the end of the road so these two photo's are the last of the older ones I have of Tippy and to me they are a reminder of a wonderful weekend we spent with her in North Yorkshire. Here she can be seen posing at the beauty spot called Sutton Bank during a tour of the area which ended by spending the night at a B&B and an evening meal in a village pub which of course Tippy enjoyed with us albeit under the table.

On the face of Tip.

This series of pictures is of some of the expressions on Tippy's face, there were of course many more that sadly went uncaptured, one such expression being when she was grinning. You've no doubt seen dogs do this, they show all their teeth a bit like as if they were snarling. Tippy used to do this when you returned from somewhere without her, she would show her teeth and wag her whole body - Tess just wets herself! I'm hoping this sort of excitement will maybe turn to a smile later in life.

Caught napping.

This week my pictures of Tippy are relaxing pictures. As we have seen these past months Tippy worked and played fast and hard but like any other dog there were times whan she just wanted to put her feet up and relax. As I've mentioned in the past she seemed to acquire a chair in every room downstairs and wasn't fussy about who's bed she slept on upstairs given the chance. The only restrictions placed on her by us as to where she went depended on how muddy she was. I've heard it said that dogs shouldn't be allowed here there and everywhere because of this that and the other but to us she and any other of our dogs are treated as any other member of the family - I will get shouted at for going upstairs with muddy feet just the same as any of the dogs will so provided she respected the rules of the family she was allowed to go wherever the family was allowed to go and so Tippy could just as often be found fast asleep on one of our beds as she could outside under a bush on a hot day or on the back seat of the car while out for a drive. Below are some of the places where Tippy has been caught napping.

Good friends.

This weeks pictures of Tippy are really just a reminder of what a great dog she was with regard to other dogs. Within the space of a month she went from being the only dog of the household for ten years to being one of three dogs and she never kicked up any sort of a fuss about it at all. Her and Tommy became great friends and I think he helped her to come to terms with her retirement from being a working farm dog and she in turn calmed Tommy down from being the wild dog that he was when he came to us. Vicki and I always thought they became like husband and wife, Tippy certanly used to keep him in order and well and truely rounded up.

Some favourite things.

Like any dog Tippy used to have her favourite toys, below are some pictures of her enjoying play time. Her most favourite toy of all time was the tennis ball and loved nothing better than performing alsorts of acrobatics as she jumped to catch the ball, unfortunately this was never recorded as it was before the days when we aquired multi-functional digital camera's. Another favourite pass time was having a tummy rub, you should never turn down the chance of a good tummy rub because one day you won't be able to and then you will wish you had taken the time.

Saying it all without words.

I'm sure that most of you will recognise this picture as the one in my profile. It was taken by my ex-friend Jo when her and David came over to visit one time. I like this picture because I think it says everything about all the featured subjects.

Watching.

This picture of Tippy was taken during the same holiday as last weeks pictures, I love the way she is peeping over the rock making sure she has us all rounded up and under control.

Teaching Tommy holidays are for.

These pictures were taken when on holiday in north west Scotland. It was the first holiday that we took Tommy with us and as you can see from the the pictures and a previous video I posted Tippy had a great time running round keeping him under control and showing him what to do on holiday.

A weekend break for Tippy.

This weeks picture of Tippy was taken at Sutton Bank near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. We were on a weekend break and stopped off here for a walk. Later that day we found a bed and breakfast that took dogs although we often went bed and breakfast and Tippy would just sleep in the car, she was a very good dog and made no fuss of anything you asked her to do, in fact she was probably happier in the car than in a strange house with strange noises. For the evening meal we went to a local inn and they let Tippy come in were she lay under the table as quiet as a mouse.

Beautiful Tippy.

This weeks picture of Tippy is quite a recent one, I think I've already said how it was hard to get a picture of her actually looking at the camera so to me this one is a special one, not just because of that but also the look on her face.

Tippy the sheep dog.

Lambing time seemed to be Tip's favourite time of year, she spent all her time outdoors watching the sheep and lambs. She was not still for a minute forever running round the farm checking out all the different pens where the sheep and lambs were housed during lambing time. She gave the impresssion that she knew each one by name and if it wasn't in view she would go and search it out. Also no vantage point was overlooked in her quest for the best view, it was quite amazing to see her leaping from one lot of bales to the next often very high up in the barns. There was the odd occassion when she lost her footing and ended up in the pens with the sheep, there would then be a mad scramble to get out, the sheep didn't seem to mind her keeping an eye on them but she wasn't so welcome in the pen itself.

Tippy doing homework.

These pictures are amongst my favourite of Tippy. As you will see she was a very good dog doing her homework. I don't remember what was wrong with the lamb other than it must have needed warming up, by the look of Tippy's coat it was a wet day so no doubt the lamb suffered because of that. Anyway I can assure you it is a real live lamb and Tippy chose to be there with it, it wasn't something staged for the camera.

You may have noticed that I have made my other blogs private, I have had to do this for personal reasons and I will reopen them as soon as I can.

Sea Dogs.

This picture is one of my favourites of Tippy and Tommy playing in the sea - are they having the time of their lives or what?

All at sea.

I hope you aren't getting to fed up of seeing Tippy having fun at the seaside, I will move on to her doing some work soon so you can see she that she didn't live the life of a playdog all the time. Unfortunately when we were working we didn't always have time to be taking photographs which is why there is a lot of her on holiday. Here you can see her playing ball, running around and playing in the sea.

I hope you don't think I'm going in there.

Last week I showed Tippy taking a swim at the seaside. As she got older she was less keen to venture in to the water. This week’s pictures show her content to watch Tommy slashing around, by the look on her face I get the impression she thought he needed to grow up.

Tippy the Sea Dog.

I always think it’s great the way that dogs can just jump right in to water and start swimming without ever having seen anything deeper than a muddy puddle and without a single swimming lesson and all without the slightest hesitation. As you will see from this week’s pictures. Tippy was no exception to this rule, especially if there was a ball involved. I can remember there was one time at Durness in northwest Scotland when we were playing ball on the beach and at one point it ended up in the sea. As always Tippy was immediately on the case which was great as it meant we didn’t have to get wet retrieving the ball. The problem was that on this occasion instead of for the ball staying put it was going out to sea with Tippy in hot pursuit. I started to have a panic attack when both the ball and Tippy disappeared around the outcrop rocks. Thankfully she was soon to reappear from around the other side with ball in mouth which she dropped at our feet, she was completely unfazed and ready for another shot at retrieving.

Tippy's Top Tips.

Those of you who read my blog will often see Tommy getting involved with the gardening work. Tippy was never an enthusiastic gardener but there were a few occasions when I could get her to pay attention for a few moments. This week’s picture is one such moment. I’ve included the post that the picture was taken for so you can see what it was all about.

Tonight Tippy is going to show you a little something we put together the other day. Me and Tom went to the garden centre as Tom wanted some bonemeal so while we were there I decided to buy some pots to do something I've been thinking about for a while now. I was just going to get three ordinary clay pots, it doesn't really matter what the pots are like as long as each one is smaller than the other, the reason for this will become evident in the next picture. As it turned out there were three pots that both fit the bill and that took my fancy.

If you start off with the biggest pot and fill it with potting compost and then take the next size pot and just put it on top of the one you just filled and lightly press down, this will both firm the compost in the lower pot and also mark where the pot will eventually sit. There should be a part all the way around the lower pot that the second pot didn't touch and this is now where you need to put some plants, I used Busy Lizzies but you could use begonia's or sat Petunia's, trailing Lobelia would be good too. When this is done then you do the same thing again with the second pot first of all filling it with compost as with the first. If you planted the first pot right you should be able to just sit in down on top of the first pot without damaging the plants. See the picture below.

For the third pot you can finish off with the same sort of plants if you choose, I decided to put a Fuchsia in the top pot as I felt it would just give it that bit more height. Below is the finished article although I'm thinking I might see if Vicki can get some some trailing Lobelia from the shop as I think it would be better with something flowing down a bit although in time the Busy Lizzies will grow up and fill out.
This next picture was taken later on in the summer and shows you how it all worked out.
All the best,
Bob.