Meet My New Mate Scottie

Once, when I had full hearing, I'm sure I heard SWMBO say that she thought she could be a good photographer.  You decide dear reader.  I think I could have done better. This body belongs to Scottie.  I had never met him before but I quite liked his frisky attitude displayed when we were walking together this morning.  He reminded me of when I could gallop all over.  We collected him from his house and walked to The Hogsmill River (world famous I understand - more of which later.)   He was kept on the lead until he got used to us and then SWMBO got brave and let him go with a brand new tennis ball.  Well, that didn't last long.  That dog owes me a ball.  He kept going missing for short periods of time, which apparently seemed likes hours to herself. 

When her nerves could take no more, he was hooked up for the last part of the hour long walk.
Now may I remind you I am 15 and a half years old and I had already been out with Benson to the little park?  Thought I was going to put my paws up and get a little bit of shut-eye at Ben's house but we were off again pretty quickly to meet Scottie.  SWMBO is going to be walking Scottie a few times, whilst his normal (yes, I meant that!!) dog walker is on holiday in somewhere called Florida.

Well if there was ever a misnomer, surely Scottie is one.  He's a Jack Russell Terrier yet called a Scottie dog.  Makes no sense to me.  Cute though - in a masculine sort of way you understand. The camera clicked a few more times and eventually Scottie sat still for SWMBO.

Look at the shadow - hopeless!  This is the creature who lost my new ball.  Don't be fooled by his cuteness.  I told him under my dog breath that he'd have to replace it.  Anyway, it was a glorious sunny day and she was camera daft.  However the fox in a field was too far away and the heron saw me coming, so she didn't get any shots of those.

The Hogsmill - you thought I'd forgotten didn't you?  Well I had to listen to it all during the walk, so why shouldn't you be bored out of your brains too?  William Holman Hunt lived in Ewell and he painted The Hireling Shepherd and The Light of the World from a backdrop along The Hogsmill river.  His pal - another Pre-Raphealite artist, (don't ask me - I'm only the dog in the story) John Everett Millais also painted Ophelia from the bank of the river. His model, Elizabeth Siddal was actually sitting in a bath in his London studio, where she got a bad cold.  Not surprising really. It's said to worth £30 million dog bones now.  Why am I telling you this?  Well as we were rambling along, she was waxing lyrical about all the history stuff and how lucky we were to be walking in such famous footsteps.  Yawn Yawn.  All I could think of, was that the humble Tesco carrier bag had obviously not been evident at the time of the paintings but that was all I noticed today, along with empty beer cans and other detritus which smelled lovely!!