I love Dogs me...

Well said Tinny, the one thing I've loved over the years on this thread is the genuine support & affection each has given. I've seen folks names on here that have not appeared elsewhere on CT. Dog lovers are a breed apart. If your heart is big enough to love Dogs then it is the basis of a wonderful person. To all I thank you for enriching my life. May your 2017 be all you deserve, & you do deserve a lot

I echo those thoughts and thank you all but, in particular, Rocky for starting this thread and contributing so many heart warming tales.

Heartily agree, Rocky's tales are an expression from the inner person, put into words that most of us find difficult to do. So the next best thing is reading of them, and others stories then relating quietly our own walks with a little more enrichment.

Dave, it's the support of folk like you & the other great contributors on here that drives me. The gift of sharing is just that-a gift. Like minded souls sharing a passion, the passion of our love of Dogs

Anybody see that great tv programme on ch5 tonight where a university tested different dogs and found that dogs are in general much more intelligent than their owners give them credit for.  Was very interesting.

Cheers ..............k

I've never doubted it Kennine..my dog was intelligent enough to know her owner was inferior to her from the start and that she could get anything she wanted when she wanted......hell how I miss that dog.

Kas x

We are now into the year 2017, the sun came up & it will go down, the moon was in the sky, the beautiful Trees are still here & my awe inspiring landscape was as beguiling as ever. Years move on but the endearing beauty of our Countryside & it's wildlife don't change. My Dogs were with me as we stepped out for another ramble in the East Yorkshire landscape, twas ever thus. Life just can't get any better than this. It seems Young un & Her Mum agree, they both scooted across the meadow on this fine January morning. The sun had just peeped above the horizon & chased away the peaches & pinks it had painted on the underside of the scudding clouds. Summer is ok, Spring is good but Autumn & winter are spectacular. The Dogs bounded back to me & jumped up for an ear rub, some folk don't like Dogs to jump up, me? I positively encourage it, I love the closeness I feel to them both as they lay their bodies along my legs enjoying the closeness we share. Then they're off again. I shared their 10minutes of craziness as they bounded around jumping over each other, racing around in complete abandon, a pleasure to see them so happy. We skirted the copse & headed due East towards the coast, the most I saw was the rear end of a Deer as it slipped into a distant wood, that & a little Jenny Wren as it skulked in the understory of a hedge, that's the way it goes, right time & right place does not always happen as this morning proved. It was no less a walk for that mind. The North Sea is alive & well I could hear it's roar as it crashed on the beach driven on a storm out to sea. We turned North at the Horse paddocks, no Horses again, over an irrigation channel & West to home. As I got to my home sat above the ivy clad arch was a single Robin singing out His mournful fluting Winter song, a fitting end to a wonderful walk. The dearth of wildlife is not uncommon at this time of the year, late Summer is the same as the wildlife hide from the heat. The time that comes with a guarantee for wildlife spotting is Spring. Enjoy your day.

As we ( my dog and I ) enjoyed our walk this frosty morning seeing nature in it's winter garb,   I was thinking about the relationships that dogs have with humans and how much of that bond is apparent. Those wonderful, intelligent animals enjoy sharing their lives with us. There are too many examples to list them all, but the work of Guide dogs Hearing dogs, Police and Customs dogs, Dogs which are used in hospitals to comfort sick humans, are but a few. 

Cheers..........................K  

Thankyou for that story of your dogs simply enjoying life, Rocky. The picture formed of them scampering around full of the joys of.....January, is a great one and brings a smile to the face.

Your turn to see the wildlife will come another day.

May you and your dogs have a great year in 2017.

We will thankyou, you too Mucker. I reckon it'll be a corker too