Rainy Day Nose

It only took ten minutes and I had fun.

Little Messages of Love

You know how I know my mum loves me?

She feeds me care-its.

Every morning she shaves them,
washes them, and cuts them into pieces
(but not always into heart shapes).

She puts them with my kibble and bran.

I love care-its.

Other message foods she give me are

• let-us, which means let us play, or let us go for a walk, or let us go for a ride. I love to do all those things.
• oranges for orange-ya-glad about something or other. I'm glad I live with my mum and she's glad I live with her.
• ap-pulls for when she's gonna pull out my hair. She calls it stripping me. It's a good thing she only does it once a year because I don't like it too much. She says it keeps my coat black and wiry, which doesn't matter to me.

She never gives me grapes or onions because she says they could kill me. She also never gives me chocolate but one time I found some just layin' around and I ate it. Chocolate is my favorite treat but no matter how cute I am, mum won't give me any. She puts it up high or hides it a cupboard or closet.

I'm a really good Airedale because I never steal food from the kitchen table and I never counter-surf. But if the food's on the work table where mum works on her computin' and quiltin' and family history I think it's for me and than I take it.

Does your mum feed you care-its?

Rosie the Nurse

posted by my mum

It's taken me a lot of years to learn to read dogs -- their body language and their behaviors as pack animals. This photo was taken many years ago when I was still young in Airedale/dog language. I didn't read Rosie very well then. I just thought it was cute that she wanted to lay by her sister.

When I looked at this photo just recently everything fell into place. Rosie's human sister, about 3 years old, had been sick and found no comfort until she finally laid down on the floor near Rosie and slept. There was Rosie, protective, caring, gentle. I see now that Rosie might have been saying, "I've got it, Mum. I've got everything under control. I'm taking care of her and I'll guard her until you get back from making the beds."

Rosie was a character. I'll tell you more about her some other time.


This is a post for Sepia Saturday #139 which features a poster depicting a dog donating a bone for the war effort. My tie with the Sepia Saturday theme is that dogs give in many different ways. Rarely will an Airedale give up a bone but in other ways they can be completely selfless, especially when it comes to a beloved family member.

This is me, Hannah, speaking: you should to go visit Sepia Saturday and see if there are other Airedales or their mums or pops contributing photos this week. Or maybe just some other dogs.

Garden Party - the 2012 Airedale Rescue Quilt

My mum's too busy to write a real post for us but we wanted to tell you about this year's rescue quilt. Today's the first day everyone knows about it. Isn't it beautiful? Mum couldn't get the whole quilt on her screen when she took this screen shot. The whole quilt has a green border and my mum says the quilting is gorgeous. (You can see it below right.) I would like to have this quilt to keep me warm in the winter.

I'm in the quilt! Can you guess which Airedale I am? I was just new to my home when my mum took the picture that became the block. You can find which block it is at either of the sites below.

I think you should go have a look at the new blog for it and then to the rescue site. You'll be able to see each block up close. Then I think you should donate $$$ (or $$$$$$$$$) so maybe you can have it in your home. (And then if you don't want it you can give it to me. But I don't know why anyone wouldn't want it because it is so fun and beautiful.)