You know my views on human beans - they are mysterious, strange, unpredictable, of limited intellect…. but necessary.  Even with my experience of their traits, I am still, quite often, surprised at their behaviour.  However, on investigation, it does seem that strange behaviour is often borne out of good intentions.   Take this week, for example. On Tuesday, I had my normal breakfast.  (I call it ‘breakfast even though it is my main meal of the day since you humans will then know that it was in the morning after waking from sleep.)   The food, which looked as it norm ..read more

I told you last week of my new trick of standing on my hind legs to reach things above my normal height - and also told you that my beans were not impressed. It seems there is no pleasing human beans. This week I stumbled across something which smelled very nice - in next door’s drain.  I was just starting to test it for taste when TOWTSH (John) shouted loudly at me to leave it alone. Now, assuming that it tasted OK - or even good - I might have stumbled across a new food source which could have saved them money. But they wouldn’t let me experiment.  I gather they think that a drain ..read more

I’ve learned a new trick.  Belatedly I admit …. But I’m a cautious dog, rarely experimenting, so new tricks don’t come easy. Anyway, I know you’re eager to learn what it is that I have learned. Well, I’ve learned to place my front paws on a raised surface and stand almost vertically.  This means I become quite high and previously inaccessible objects, surfaces (and even food treats) come within my reach.  It has expanded my world view (and my diet). What is the view of my human beans on this trick? They are not impressed.   They just shout ‘Gina’ in an accusatory way, or ‘D ..read more

Fill has returned.  The pup of the house (i.e. John & Jacky’s child - see I’ve remembered their names) is back from his travelling. He’s been away for (very) long time. ‘Fill’ seems such an odd name but that’s what they call hime. (When he’s dead, will they change to past tense snd call him ‘Full’?) Listening to him talking to his parents, it seems he’s been to Japan, Australia (East Coast), New Zealand (both islands) Australia again (Central), Tasmania, Australia again (West Coast) and Singapore (to visit old work colleagues snd old haunts). As a dog, this means little to me (worl ..read more

You all know my name is Gina.  After all, this is Gina’s dog blog. However, posh, real dogs like me have a formal name and an informal name .  My informal name is Gina.  My formal, pedigree name is Ewtor Encore … Ewtor being the pedigree line of my ancestry. However, that is not the surprise of this blog post. I’m not sure why I haven’t realised this before but evidently my beans also have names.  It seems that TOWTSH is named John snd TOWTLH is named Jacqueline, but is known as Jacky.  (I don’t think Jacqueline is her formal name as it doesn’t represent a true pedig ..read more

Yes, it’s been another quiet week.  No trauma, no incidents, no excesses, no problems  and no vets.  The two beans have had a cold and that seems to render them quiet, subdued …. and, if I’m honest, boring.   I asm sure there is a happy medium between manic and moribund, between panic and peaceful.  I tried thinking of food analogies but all I could think of was to say my week has been kind ‘of parboiled’.  ……. semi-prepared for eating I’m not sure how I know the word ‘parboiled’ since all my food is fully prepared and served cold - no cooking involved. The coo ..read more

Why do I make that statement? Well, TOWTSH has been watching something on TV called ‘Rugby’.  I believe it’s a sport but it looks to me like a cross between catch-ball and World War 3.    It’s fast, furious, violent and … mad.  Why anyone would partake in rugby for ‘fun’ , I don’t know. To make things worse, there are two versions, each with its own  set of arcane rules. I’ve watched a few matches over the last few weeks but I still can’t tell when the judge/umpire/referee is going to blow his whistle and stop play.  I imagine there are university degrees in ru ..read more

There are X words for snow in the Eskimo language - where X is a large ,positive integer somewhere between 7 and 100 (depending on who tells you this ‘fact’). I only say this because TOWTSH seems to have many words snd phrases to describe rain. TOWTLH will ask him, “What’s the weather like?” and he might  reply with one of the following stock phrases. It looks like rain. Its raining Its throwing it down Heavy rain. It’s not actually raining but it’s in the air. Rain coming from the West It’s raining cats and dogs. The precipitation level is high. Start building the Ark. Why are there ..read more

Sometimes things happen in pairs and it may be assumed by observers that there is a causal relationship between event A and event B when their sequential occurrence is perhaps mere coincidence. Take last Tuesday night, for example. For the first time ever, I somehow got trapped in the dining room. The door is normally left open so I can roam at will and, especially, get to my water bowl in the kitchen. For some reason, the door somehow became closed (just a draught ….  or something more mysterious).  I panicked (a little) and started scrabbling (is that a real word?) at the door tr ..read more

The English language  is arguably much more complicated than Dog. Yet, perversely, more dogs understand bits of English than human beans understand bits of Dog.  Dogs walk to heel, fetch, roll over and so on based on a very brief English command. Yet humans still feed dogs according to a timetable rather than on demand/command.  Because I write this blog, I have picked up quite a bit of human vocabulary.  In fact, judging by the people I see on TV, I think my vocabulary is larger than that of many humans.  I am disappointed however, that I am unable to vocalise the w ..read more