Easter greetings.

A few days ago we had some nice Springish days. Yesterday, however, winter came back a vengeance. ~3" of snow in one day and all the fluffy down jackets in storage!

Dave is an Easter chicken and says peep.

Minus 14? Perfect temperature to go kicksparking!

Finally after much dillydallying, snow has finally come to Linköping. And no one could be happier than our very own Mr Dave T. Dog Snr. At last he has an opportunity to wear his extensive hand-made, limited edition, winter collection, much to the envy of the local pooches. And it's not only Dave showing off his elegant fashion taste, he gets a chance to flex his mucles for the ladies, just don't tell Dave that the jacket covers most of them! But we're sure his athleticism still draws breaths of wonder as he swoops past those admiring dames.

Minus 14 on the thermomoter means we need to do some warm-up exercises. Or, in Dave's case, he gets to be a bed muffin for ten minutes. A quick muscle rub down later and we are ready for the local race track, or, in Dave's case, the local duck pond.

Warm-up session.

View on youtube for maximum quality.

Dave's steering is still a bit rusty, he's mostly interested as to what's in the forest instead of running. But with some more kickspark sessions we're sure he'll be a regular Husky in no time and be in great demand for expeditions to unexplored frozen wastes! At this stage, however, we seem to be doing most of the running...

28 years young!

The little shiny eyed pup that was found wandering the streets of Ireland has now survived for three years on this planet. In human terms that's 28! Dave is now in the stage of life where he wears black turtlenecks and hangs around in poetry cafés trying to unwind the tangled threads of life's meaning. Mostly, however, he just eats a snausage and has a nap.

The Stress Diet
Dave's most recent adventure, outside of his birthday, was traveling to Finland for two weeks over the Christmas period. It proved both successful and stressful. He lost over 1kg even though he was getting more than his normal measure of rations, we think this was due to stress. We were either in a train, bus, ferry or a car for over 48 hours in total, not to mention staying in strange places every night and criss-crossing our way through the urban metropolises of Stockholm and Helsinki. Upon returning home, Dave's bum was really wagging like a mad thing and he slept like a log. Now we can concentrate on fattening him up again.

He did have some fun though, he met some dogs from koirat.com, a Finnish dog forum, and our hosts on two occasions also had a dog, so Dave met lots of new friends, as did we.

A selection of holiday pictures...

Helsinki.

 

Rolle, our host for 4 nights.

Oulu Policeman.

An old friend of Elisa's, and dog.

Koirat.com dog Peppi.

Long train journeys are boring.

Have a Christmas ball!

Dave gets a pressie. It was a piggy.

More traveling boredom.

Dali the host Dog and Dave the guest Dog.

Rough seas.

Homeward bound.

Showing the kids a thing or two.

Not the best provisions for animals on the train.

Super best friends.

Dali learned some good behavior from Dave.

Happy Holidays!

Dave "Mona Lisa" The Dog

My heart is still beating fast and I am about to faint!
As most of my friends know, I hate Christmas and all of those meaningless gifts, stress and money spending...well, I didn't expect EVER to get the AMAZING surprise I experienced today!

Dear Martin gave me a REAL Art Piece that I am going to cherish forever <3. He knows how much I love Stephane Tartelin´s drawings and Martin contacted The Artist himself, and luckily he had time for a private commission.

I must run as soon as possible to the framers and get a really nice home for this "Mona Lisa" piece! This is the drawing that someday will be wanted in Musée du Louvre, and hopefully as speculated upon - Who Was That Dog - What Stories Are Hidden Behind His Smile?

They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, "No, no, no"

The vet said that Dave seems to be getting stronger in his knee muscles. This is the third time that Dave has been to rehab and he's progressing really well, he now uses his back legs a lot in the water. The main problem is that he gets cold quite fast and shivers like mad. That's why he had to have a custom hat made, as shown in the previous post.

So thanks to the power of snausages Dave is on the road to recovery.

Dave, now with ears.

Dave has been getting swimming therapy for his dodgy knee. He is so cold afterwards that he has to now wear this lovely hat. It looked stupid when he didn't have any ears. So ears were made. He doesn't look stupid anymore.

EDIT: Dave has a luxating patella.Or a loose knee-cap in layman terms. It can be quite serious if gone untreated, but thankfully Dave just has a level 1 knee. It can go to level 5. So he has some XP to gather! No, hopefully not. He's in rehab, part of which includes swimming. A full rehab post is in the making...with pictures!