Clearing Brambles with Annies fan club

[Horus]

Another brief break in the bad weather saw Little Annie and myself out today for a short walk. I took her along a nearby disused railway line that is now a short nature trail and I have shown images of the place before in various guises throughout the year. It is maintained by the local council with some work being undertaken by local voluntary organisations, one such is the ‘Care4ce’ group which I believe stands for “Care For Cheshire East” or ‘Careforce’ a clever use of words and numbers. Some of the people are on the payroll and undertake the supervision of the group, many of whom were in the ‘special needs’ category.

As usual Annie spotted them from a distance and made a bee-line to her admirers and fan club. I caught the group on their tea break and they were all pleased to chat, the chap sitting on the right hand side is exceptionally talented when it comes to numbers and we have a good bit of banter with him asking how old Annie is and when I tell him her birthday he will work it out in a flash telling me how many days that is, or dates for certain pop singers and groups and on what date they did what, he is extremely good at it as is often the case.

It takes us ten times as long to complete our walk as we have to stop and chat every few yards about all and everything, I really enjoy it and they are all lovely people and it is nice to see that they enjoy the work and the socialising that they do with each other and I feel privileged to be able to stop and chat with them. They make big fusses of Annie and each one vies for her attention (which is not difficult for Annie to cope with) and she loves all the fuss she gets, running from one to another, in Annie’s world everyone loves her and she loves everybody back.

I do not want this to sound derogatory in any way, but it did make me smile. As I was walking away and saying farewell to the guy in charge who’s name is Charlie, another of the group, a guy of about 50 years old came up to us and blurted out “Charlie! Tom Jones has just slapped me across the face for nothing!” Immediately another little guy standing behind him wearing overalls, wellies, a donkey jacket complete with woolly hat and his hands stuffed in his pockets who I assume was ‘Tom Jones’ vehemently denied the accusation, I was instantly transported back to my school days as I went on my way grinning from ear to ear.

Annie spots her fan club in the distance


The guys having a tea break, my mathematically gifted mate is on the right


The guys are clearing brambles and small underbrush to keep the ditch clean


Annie greets her fan club



I particularly liked this one as the guy in the blue jacket was a little wary of dogs, but I could see he was keen to join in. One call from me for Annie to come over was enough to dispel his nervousness and add another member to her fan club.

[Grandad]

Horus, that track bed looks much like the one at the back of my home. Great that they keep these open for walkers. Can you tell us anything about the line that used to run along there?

[LovelyLadyLux]

The guys there definitely look like they're doing a great job and the brambles (ouch) look (ouch) pretty (ouch) prickly (ouch)!!

I see in one of the photos another walker + dog pass. Does that bother Annie? Will she run and greet or does she basically ignore other dogs?

I could never break the last terrier of running up to other dogs. He could never ignore another dog and even if he sat + stay it was always tentative until he could BOLT and (I was ever optimistic) sniff but it was usually to pick a fight

[Horus]

@ Grandad, yes I will put something together when I get a minute, just off the pub shortly with my mate

@ LLL, Annie will run up to almost anyone she meets, the problem is she thinks that everyone, dogs included are her friends, so I usually end up calling out to see if the other dog is friendly or not as we approach them just in case. As it is a popular walk for us she has several 'mates' that she sees on a regular basis, one in particular is a little group of about five small dogs of varying breeds and as soon as they all see each other they run towards the other and jump around chasing and playing, it is great to see how well she interacts with other dogs, but then again she has a lovely friendly nature as long as it isn't a cat

[Kiya]

Lovely photos its great to see them keeping the paths clear for everyone's use & your little Annie is a doggy friend to all

[Horus]

She certainly is Kiya, she loves being the centre of attention

[LovelyLadyLux]

@H - what lady doesn't? (like being the center of attention!!)

My Shih Tzu definitely LOVED being the center of attention and would actually put on a performance if she was being watched. She had a favourite old slipper that she would bring to the center of a group of people and then proceed to kill it (not in an aggressive way but with lots of dancing/pracing/vocalizations). As the show escalated she'd actually fling the slipper into the air and then pounce on it and proceed to kill it again. The killing was a series of not so hearty shakes combined with lots of pouncing and prancing. If you laughed (and everybody did) the show could continue for hours. She never did this when her and I were alone. She'd play but never so much as when she had an audience and once the old slipper was sufficiently slimed and if the game slowed she be over to somebody with it in her mouth dropping it at their feet and begging them to pick it up and throw it - but it did first have to be drenched in slime and drool.

[Horus]

That is just what Annie is like, if I have any visitor at all and she thinks she is not getting all the attention, then its straight to her toy box and she extracts just about everything bringing it up to you to play with. This will continue until all of her (numerous) toys are scattered about the floor, but she does like men the best, she fusses everyone and especially my daughter, but let her husband come with her and that is it, she is all over him and her tail will go round and around like a propeller as she climbs all over him.

[LovelyLadyLux]

My Shih Tzu (Muffy) was embarrassing at times as she would not let up climbing all over anybody who would let her. If they never put a halt to the wiggling, wriggle, tongue licking antics the Muffy had no OFF switch. I'd literally have to physically remove her to get her to stop and then the toys, particularly the favourite yet totally gross slipper would come out.

[Horus]

That describes Annie to a T, "no off switch"

[Robbo70]

My rotties love fuss and attention. The only problem being, they are big rotties and rarely seen as cute dogs that people want to fuss. Saying that, a few weeks back at the vets, a little old dear was sat opposite me with a cat in a box. She asked could she stroke Seth, my big doofus soft boy. she then proceeded to squidge his face up and give him a big kiss. He lapped it up and returned said kisses and made her day. Sadly, other people in there had held their breath, obviously waiting for the blood bath that had to happen if you kiss a rottie

[Horus]

Understandable I suppose Robbo and the old dear was probably contemplating euthanasia by Rottie.

[LovelyLadyLux]

When I was a kid we had a St. Bernard. She loved the snow and was terrific outside but once inside we had a towel that we'd wipe her mouth with cause anytime she was close to any of us she'd slime us. If she gave a kiss not only did you get a 2 foot tongue slapping across your face you'd also get wet drooling cheeks and a gallon of slime.

We called her Brandy and whilst Brandy loved everybody and would have happily licked out kisses to everybody she came across not too many people ever appreciated having a drool machine advance on them.

[Horus]

I had a Lassie dog (Rough Collie) also named Brandy, a lovely girl and I still miss her, she has her own little spot in a flower bed