Where was I?

Well, nothing special… the worst attack of laziness of my human and … tah dah… you no longer know anything about me!

I am fine, now, but I made my humans tremble a bit – or perhaps a bit more than just a bit – in the last month.

I guess everything started after a nice saturday walk. It is really freezing here in this season. We had gone for our walk and we had gone to a nice place where I could run freely. I guess I was very warm after running around. Later we stopped at a pastry and coffee bar where I could not get inside, so we sat in the tables outside – for dog owners and smokers.  The idea was to stay there just for the time to take the coffee and pastries (one for me too ), but a couple of friends of my humans appeared and … the five minutes had become 45 minutes… I must have caught a cold, I had run plus I had no coat on me!!!!

Or this was what my humans first thought when I started acting weird on the sunday… I am not the most slobbery among danes, but on sunday morning I was really slobbery… I wanted to go out and when in the garden noone was able to catch me to come inside… Very weird… I never want to stay alone in the garden – they have to force me to do so…. The only way to catch me was to take the leash and pretend we were going out for a walk, so I would go to the gate where my human would grab me….

Note from my human: Everything can happen but that your dog, the one you have with you since four years, changes temperament so suddenly is very strange… plus all the slobber… not only that… she even started to tremble a lot…  We called the emergency number on sunday afternoon and than we took her to the vet the monday morning immediately after…

But my conditions were not improving and I started to ache in the back. Whenever my humans touched me the back I would ache… I started not to lie down… well the minimum possible…  I could spend hours around the sitting room like a horse…

So we decided to make some xrays…. This is my beautiful spine:

You might spot that there are some new calcification between the disks… well those can cause ouchies. Problem is that the vet suspects that I might have had an inflammation among the disks.

It is quite frequent for us big doggies to have arthrities, some of us have the luck of getting it later, I started a bit soon… Now we have to keep monitoring my situation to understand how fast the process is. Hopefully I can cope with it as many other doggies are doing.

In the meantime I am taking supplements to help me recover and slow the process down.

One of the things my human is also looking at is that she needs to make sure that I am always warm… so … for my additional misfortune she started dressing me up!!!

This is my very first coat – it is really one year old and my human had purchased it because it should protect me also from light rain:

Let me take you to my catwalk of my dog coats!!!! Here I am ready for the outfit of spring 2012… Light raincoat that has soft fleece inside that you can remove when it becomes warmer

Don’t you think I look a bit dressed up like Dracula???

Front view

Side view

This coat is very good, but it is not too comfy to be kept during the night. The wrap around the chest is not very reliable. So my human had the idea to try and create one herself for me… What a bad idea…!!!

Well she had already tried once can you remember? For those who missed it check my post “Who do I look like today“!!!

But it was not really that nice, plus it was done quite quickly and it broke after a day… it was a blanket turned into a pijiama and the sewing was not so strong…

I hate dog coats and dresses – I really HATE them !!!

But I do not have that much of an option have I since I cannot undress by myself!!!

So my human started to train to become a pro in dog coats… see her in action:

She really believed she could do it…  Can you see her concentration?

Well, I tell you apart from some curtains this was her first attempt with the sewing machine… not only this… but she worked out the model of the coat by herself… she did not like my dracula coat, but starting from that and thinking about the horse’s blanket she created this….:

What do you think, do you like it? Well at least it is really very warm…

Catwalk this time is the street:

Some clients wishing to check the product:

Hei, do it politely!

A bit of respect for a lady!

But my human was not happy yet – she believed Honey’s pijiama must have been more comfy than mine… So she tried again!!! See the result:

Catwalk takes place in the kitchen this time!!!

Well the model is nice, I love the collar, I like the grey finishing touch around my legs, but it is a bit too strict… and I am not too comfy…

My grandma was a bit envy, so she helped my human and I got another coat… this is very girly… it has ribbons on the neck and on the back. Catwalk in the sitting room this time!

Lovely eh?

So lovely I tried to escape to the kitchen… with no success…

Can you see how nicely this covers my behind? Human and grandma human made it like this so that it can not move around…

My human says she has not got anything so colourful and nice for her to wear in the summer!!! She says I look like I am headed to the beach! I think she has some problems…

But again, I do not feel too comfy in it (no one will ever be), it is fine for the day, but for the night, I feel too tight…

So… another creation on its way: how do you like this one?

and now… a behind the scene exclusive shot:

Coat was still in creation and I was following my human to the bathroom to beg her to free me….!!!!

Now, you will wonder how comes I get a blue coat…. It is more for a boy… Well, this coat in reality has not been designed for me… the victim is a different one… I am just presenting it! It is really going to be someone else’s coat… I asked my human to give it as a present to Max, my brother, that is currently going around dressed with his human’s pullover… (I hope not too much around)

I truly hope he will send me a picture of him dressing it, but he still has to come and collect it, I would love to show you Max wearing it to check how it fits him! Yes and share the shame !!!

Hope you all liked my selection of Coats and dresses!!!

So Mango, what do you think, can I try an entry as a Fashion Real Victim in your Mango Minster’s 2012 competition ???? I would love to give it a try in the “Too Darn Cute” category…

I am so happy to be finally back, I will come to see your blogs soon, I have months to catch up with, I am so curious to learn wha you have been doing!!!

See you soon,

Lucille

What are you thinking? A date with George Clooney, Brad Pitt or Colin Farrell???

No, nothing like that… I do not really care about meeting them… may be my human would…  but I could not care less…!!!

May be more interested in meeting this “George” who interpreted “Marmaduke“:

Handsome guy eh? And very good, he learnt to surf!!!

Or, what about….. the lads:

Remember them? They are Zeus and Apollo, from the TV serie called Magnum PI!

They and Magnum are a bit aged now. He was not bad either at the time… so my human says:

but he was not really into the lads that much, they kept him away from the wine cellar, their real friend is Higgins who prepared sirloin steaks for them for their lunch:

Sorry to have confused you, but this is not the case…  My shining night life is much simpler than that !

I am a shining star in the night when…..

I go out for my evening walk! No no no… I do not think I am a real star… I am simply shining of new light!!!!

My humans bought me a light for the collar so that if we walk in dark places,  I can still be seen!!!

But I do have quite an intense night life: mainly in summer of course…

I actually owe you some updates about these past months when I was lazy and not posting on my blog. My humans took me out almost every time they went to a restaurant this summer…

Here I am waiting patiently in a restaurant in Peschiera.

I am sitting next to these yummy bread sticks… they are called “grissini” in Italy.I simply adore them… I must not look…

Halloooooooo!!!! I am here…… Grissini are there too… Can I please have some???? I am an angel… but better move a little aside so that I am not tempted to give them a little lick…

But you know what… once my humans finish to eat it is an agreement we have… I also get some yummies…. Don’t you worry, it is a fair agreement!!!

Here I am in Lazise – this time we had Pizza!

So you see, I actually went out with them all the time, except once where they felt really weird about going out alone… I think because they felt really bad about leaving a poor unhappy (spoilt, very spoilt) great dane at home… eh eh eh . And yes also to your doubts about whether I did my very best to make them feel very bad and cruel!!!

They must have thought I was really sad, instead, I took the chance for a very nice and long nap!

Ciao!

Lucille

Due to the lack of decision of my anxious human I am having a new false pregnancy…. so I try and give her a lot of company during the night washing myself, rolling around to make myself a better bed (I do it always but with less frequency), scrolling my “rock and roll” ears…

It is also autumn and I start to freeze, so I roll up as much as I can, making my anxious human (yes the female one) worried about me being cold… eh eh eh… (I also know how to make noise with my teeth to stress out that I am cold)

Result is that I normally get lots of extra attentions, but this time situation starts to get out of control…

I have to call the doggie police for mistreated doggies… Look what they did to me:

I had to wear a Pijamas!!!!!

My human thinks that if I wear a Pijamas I will be warmer and I will also have more difficulties in washing myself !!!

She asked her mum for help and not only did they dress me up (they copied Honey’s pijamas, hope Honey will not mind if we stole her copywright on her night dress) but they also made fun of me… now you decide what I look like here…

Sophisticated look eh?

Here is my grandhuman in action – it was really a conspiracy:

They say I look like the wolf dressed up as the grandma of Red Riding Hood !!!

But I am lucky … at least my grandhuman likes me…

Ciao Lucille

I have been a bad friend for you… I disappeared for a while and I practically stopped coming to see you… but I will be back soon properly to update you on what I have been doing so far.

I will also visit you, I have tons of things to learn about you, what you have been doing, but firstly I hope you are all fine and in tremendous good shape as always.

While I am working on the new post I thought it was nice to just share with you some pictures: my humans say that I look very naughty in them… A naughty school girl with the ribbon at my neck!!!  My human had to wear a white apron with a pink ribbon when she was at the elementary schools… (yes you are right, must have been the beginning of the century ) and my other human a black apron with a blue ribbon!

So, have fun … and see you soon

Here I am fresh and tidy to start the day….

Tired and happy in the late afternoon…

Hurry up, I want to go upstairs, I am tired and starving…

Wild and bored look in the late afternoon when my human was back from work!!!

Ciao

Lucille

Work but also holiday time kept me away from you all . I have not been able to come over and say Hi yet, but I am very curious to learn what you have been doing in the last month! I will come and see you in the next days !

As far as I am concerned, I have been very lucky: this summer, for the first time, my humans decided to go on holiday with me instead of going to visit their “fishes friends”, ie. no scubadiving, but dog trekking and sightseeing instead !!!

Last year my humans went for a few days to a place in France that is called Mentone, on the French Riviera, for a few days on a sailing boat. They found that France is a very dog friendly place . We doggies are not allowed on the beaches (not all of them), some we can go to, some we can go after a certain hour, but the hotel, the restaurants, the pubs, they are all (well, most) wellcoming us, isn’t it great? So this year, instead of going sailing on the boat, they took me with them and we visited Provence. It was a short holiday, only four days, but I had a lot of fun!

My human booked the hotels via web with the “Accord” chain and they specified that the hotels they were looking for had to be pet-friendly. In any case, since I am not a small dog, my human contacted all the hotels we found of interest to us prior to the reservation to make sure there were no size limits to the pets they were accepting, and nobody made a problem to my size (we had instead a problem like this in Italy: a restaurant said they accepted dogs, but when we went in, they were surprised to see me and said they were accepting only small ones , idiots…. I think you either do or don’t… but anyway, that is what happened even if we asked, that is why we now make sure people understand that a great dane will visit them…)

We set off on a tuesday to avoid all the traffic of the weekend (august is a tremendously crowdy period for holidays in Italy and South France) and went to a place called Valbonne that is not far away from the famous location “Cannes” (the place is really famous for the annual “film festival”, every year in May you can find around a lot of Holliwood and Europe film’s stars….).

Here I am comfortably enjoying my journey in the back of Nicoletta’s car:

She has a medium car – may be small for a dane (it is an Opel Astra GTC) – but it is fine for the three of us… We need to travel light, without too many luggages or we do not know where to store them !!! Hei humans, remember to take Mrs Chicken, food and my bowls please!

See I am really comfortable here: I am sitting on my bean bed, so I save space and I am lying on a very soft cushion

Since they were worried the air conditioning might not be cooling me off in the proper way, they made sure we had a stop every 200 kms, sometimes less.

They also took with us a harness and a special leash you use to link us doggies to the seats, so that if I was too hot I could sit on the back sit, and be fresher than behind:

PS: if you use this leash, please make sure you do not use it with a normal collar but with a harness. If anything happens, even just a bad stop of the car, let alone a crush, you would be getting a severe pull on your neck. With an harness you get pulled on your shoulders but that is not as bad! The only problem is that these leashes are for small doggies, they are not very long for us danes…!!!

This is Mrs Chicken showing you what I mean

Stays better on me

And this is me safely lying on the back seats!

We set off quite early and the journey was absolutely fine.

Once in Valbonne, we checked in the hotel (that was carefully selected because it has a lot of woods around and I had plenty of chances to made a walk around the premises to check peemail and stuff like that…  and  for the humans because there is a swimming pool). I will NEVER go in a swimming pool!!!! Don’t you know that us Danes do not need to show our swimming abilities to others?  But my humans thought that was refreshing…..

After that we went to have dinner in Cannes: this is a map of the place!

Here I am with Mario walking along the famous “the Croisette”. Remember that there is a very important film festival here every year, does this mean I am a star too?

No, this is not my hotel, us stars want privacy you know…

The place is full of people, lights, doggies…. but I am not allowed on the beach, not even in the evening… not here…

You might be wondering how was my very first night in a hotel? I was the best dog ever… Well, I was a bit surprised at the beginning, because firstly I could not understand where I was… the only thing I could recognize was my bean bed… plus look here how unpolite… they put my water and food in the bathroom…!!!

Not that there was too much choice…  I had issues getting there to eat or drink:

Wow, I am bigger than the bathroom!!!

I slept on my bean bed, next to my humans: I was a bit confused… I kept on  hearing strange noises coming next to our door… so I barked! My humans were very worried that other guests were asleep and told me off very severely. I learnt my lesson, so whenever I heard something that I considered a threat to us or to our room, I made a strange sound, like a bark but very little voice… My humans would pet me and say everything was fine, so I would go back to sleep… I was sure they also heard it to be prepared to fight the intruders!!!

Next day we moved to Avignone… beautiful place…. if you have the chance to go, do not miss it, it is adorable, I liked it and so did my humans.

This is a map of Avignone:

This tower was at the entrance of old Avignone, just across the street from our hotel.

Before entering the old city walls I had my bathroom, really comfortable, grass there was perfect…

Place de l’Horloge

The “Palais des Papes“: it is a huge building where Popes went to stay when they had to leave Rome back in 1309. There is a link on the name that takes you to wikipedia to learn more about it. It is a unique Palace that has been recognized by Unesco for its great importance.

A nearer view of the “Palais des Papes”: it still does not give you the idea of how big it is…

Meeting a british doggie friend that looked a lot like me… well only had same colours…

In front of the famous “half” bridge of Avignon. The real name is “Pont Saint-Bénezet“.It was built around 1171-1185. Floads kept on damaging it over the centuries, till in 1668 a bad fload made part of it to collapse. It has not been repaired since then… you can infact see it does no longer get to the other side! Check the link if you are interested in knowing more about this medioeval bridge ).

But while we were back at the “Palais des Papes” ….:

Look who we met :

Yes, it is really Hsin-Yi!!! If you remember on Honey‘s post, she said she would be away for a while from her blog, because her humans are on holiday in France…. That is true, I can confirm that Honey!

We went for an ice cream together:

and we met for dinner also!

While we were walking to the restaurant, Hsin-Yi spotted a nice little church and we thought it would have been nice to take some pictures of just me sitting in front of it. Next two the church there was a restaurant with lots of people having dinner… Well, I gave them a show of my abilities…. I started with a sit (“seduta”):

than Nicoletta gave me a down (“terra”)

And then she even dared to ask for an “up” or “stand” (“su” – this is hilarious because in the school the trainer wanted to teach me this command with “up” and I could not get it… My human changed it in “su” and I now master at it… Well, can you believe that many doggies in my school are now trained with the “su” command? Noone else uses it in Italy also…. My human should ask for a copyright)

I am good eh? So can you see the guy on my right? Well, he is taking a picture of me… and so were the people at the restaurant… they could not understand what was going on, and because Hsin-Yi had the big camera machine, I think they wandered if we were pros making a commercial shooting…. Great eh???? We had a big laugh at this!!!

See, we were infact laughing at the people that were so interested in us… and I was still standing in the meantime… btw, I had to do it for free, no treats for this can you believe it???? This is against doggies’ rights!

After dinner we went to a cafè to have some drinks: Paul was missing Honey and Muesli a lot, so I tried to tell him not to worry, that they were surely fine!

Poor Mario, Nicoletta was so happy to meet Hsin-Yi that she completely forgot to use the camera machine… so if there are any pictures, it is all for his work!!! Else you would need to wait for Hsin-Yi’s photos!!! She took a lot of them!

Paul and Hsin-Yi also took me a present… Kangaroo’s yummies!!! I loved them!!!! They also took a great belt for my humans to use when we go out walking, useful isn’t it?

It has space for doggies plastic bags (to be polite owners), you can put your keys in, some money, you also have a clip to attach other things, like my owner takes with her a light when we go out late in the night. See all the features it has:

I was so tired for the lovely evening that I collapsed on my bed immediately…. no time to do my guarding duty… I had very sweet dreams!

But I was almost forgetting another nice part of the holiday…. I loved breakfast time….!!!

I was allowed in the breakfast area and so I could have breakfast too… Mario fed me with bread and ham… just because I was on holiday too!!!

On the last day I was really tired…

I was laying my head here and there…

Can you see my eyes want to close? But I never gave in!!!

This is the total journey we made:

I really had a nice time, hope my humans will take me on holiday again soon…

Ciao Lucille

Well, we decided we would try and give it a go!!!

Since we were all amateurs, Honey and her human provided us with tonnes of useful information. If you check on their website you will find an amazing quantity of information on how to learn new tricks! Check this out as an example on how to learn to dance around a cane !

The deadline was the 15th June, so we have been good girls up to now and remained silent, but I believe we can show you now what we submitted to the judges, since we are live on Honey’s blog since a few days ….

It has been everything but easy… believe me… but it has been really funny!!!

This is the best we have been able to put together… Hope you enjoy it !!!

Will let you see some of the “behind the scene” soon, unluckily if we are bad dancers, my human is even worse with video editing !!!

Ciao Lucille

This weekend in particular, we were all here together, but all they were interested in was painting, mowing the grass, putting seeds, cutting plants, planting flowers… So boring…. and me???

I had really a hard time to find something to do… Look at the cat on this side, go and bark to the dogs on the other side… but boy, it is hard to spend a day like that…

So I decided it was high time to do something else… Since I love new places, I thought … I could … go and have a look in a new place… sounds good eh? Of course, the places I look forward to are those where I can find a cat…

Mario was mowing the grass on the front, Nicoletta was with me in the back garden, mowing the grass too… she looks up to check where I was since I was barking and… see where I was….:

I was on the roof of the tools’house!!!!

But … it is not my tools house!!! that is the good part, it is my neighbours’!!!! Ah ah ah!!! How funny eh????

My human started shouting to Mario: come and see what your dog is up to!!! (I become his dog when I am naughty, I am her dog when I am a good girl, can you believe it??)

She was in a conflict to come and rescue me but she was also willing to show him that she is not suffering of unexplainable and crazy anxiety as he always tends to think… he had to see!!!

Once he was there Nicoletta came over, grab me from the collar and managed to take me home… thank god there are two roofs, one higher and 0ne lower, and I did not fall down…

This is how I climbed up or better out and back….

I am sure my instructor, Marco, would be very pleased to see this!!! He always wanted me to become part of his Mondioring team!!! He thought I had the numbers to become very good at it!!! Pity for him my human was more into dancing … What do you think???

You see my back garden is like this:

and I had the idea to use the place as a launching ramp!!! Here I am sniffing flowers next to it after I did the run…

Problem is that Mario wants to put the grass of the garden in a corner of the garden, because we have quite a lot when we cut it, so he says it is boring to prepare the boxes for the people that comes and take it away… My other human says it is such a shame because it is even ugly to see, but he thinks that it is very comfortable…

Well, I think, I actually know for a fact, that is very comfortable… to use as a launching ramp for my explorations!!!!

Mario, to save my … ehm ehm… and his (… from my human’s anger) immediately decided to fix this… putting an additional fence to make it higher… and I was there to check what he was doing (in the meantime my other dog paparazzi human, after recovering from the stressful moment and after stopping to shout against the other human, went to take the camera):

What are you doing, are you also spotting a cat?

Do you want some help?

It is easy you know, I can show you, it takes less than a second!!!!

See??? A jump and it is done! I am back at my neighbours!!!

Ops, it is a bit taller than before… I am not sure I can come back now…Last trip (I think, but I will study further)…. My humans had to take me down in a troubled way… Mario got hurt buy helping me jump, nothing serious, some scratches… but he made quite complicated to me now to travel abroad….

You know, my humans were really impressed by my agility this time… I had always been so respectful of fences… I was raised with baby gates in the kitchen and I never, believe me, never jumped them. But when a cat comes into the scene, I become a different dog!!!

Cats of the world, you are warned!!!

Ciao Lucille

But a bit before that there was the cut off date of Lincoln‘s French contest, remember?

Well, it was already a busy time for my human (what a news) and I had only sent a picture  instead of sending a video as required by the contest…. Here it is:

Well, to my greatest surprise, Lincoln is such a gentleman, that he sent me a present anyway!!! Look, I got mail!!!!

Yes it is all for me!!!! Can you see it is for Lucille!!!!! I am Lucille!!!!

I was so happy that I wanted to tear it into pieces to see what was inside, but my humans wanted to keep trace of the moment and take some pictures!!!!

But I wanted to open it myself, it is mine not hers! There are lots of biscuits inside!!! Very yummy!!! I could smell them immediately!!! And not only them…

Before I ate them all (well, I would if my human had not stopped me), we made a photo of all the presents:

Like a real gentleman Lincoln put a letter inside for me together with his picture, isn’t he adorable? I had a big bag of biscuits and guess what… badges!!! One says “I love Lucille” and the other one has my face on it!!! My human was crazy about them… infact I am sure she will keep them for herself…

Thank you very much Lincoln!!!! Many thanks to your human too that helped you prepare the present!!!

Well I am so happy that I think I owe you something Lincoln… a little surprise….

In all honesty, we were really doing some work to learn a command in french… pity is that the time we have, me and my human, to work together is always so tight… the command had to be “croiset” and I had to learn to cross my paws…

When we were running out of time, my human decided to make a change, and put it into something funny that I was really good at… and for you, here is the video that proves it:

Am I not a great one to do everything necessary to… eat a baguette!!!????!!!!

Pity is that you closed the contest on time, whereas we were filming the last part of this on the 19th… and my human is sooooo clumsy when it comes to video editing that we were far too late for the contest!!!

Hope you enjoy it anyway !!!

Ciao Lucille

Sorry I disappeared again… same story, so boring isn’t it? Plenty of my friends are posting regularly, at least they try to, and I happen to disappear for about 4 weeks… unacceptable I would say… I think I will strike! No more sits, down, spin and let’s see what she does!

Anyway, in case you were wondering where I have been, let me start from the middle of april when you lost sight  of me…

While I was trying to recover from the news that it was not a joke and that Homer was in a far away land called Singapore looking for a new soul mate, only joking, he is my friend and an absolute adorable gentleman that I will truly miss, my beautiful friend and niece Shaina had her birthday party!!! She got 5 years old!!! Yeppa Yeppa!!!

I had been invited by Shaina, even if some humans were complaining about my presence among so many children, but my humans took me and again I gave full proof that we, doggies, can be very educated and polite, that cannot always be said for all humans, you know , whether they are relatives, friends… or enemies!!!

I did have a nice time there, pity I could not break all the balloons that were there, had to keep as much as possible apart, but kids kept coming to me to keep me good company, and we were really good soulmates! Plenty of tricks together!

The good part of being to a party is that there is a lot of food… most of it I cannot have as it upsets my belly, but I did have a piece of cake for me and… doggie biscuits!!!

A week later it was Easter time… you know what evil thing humans do at Easter… they eat… well, my humans do not, but lots of people does … eat… lamb… OK, I eat it and I like it, but my humans are a bit weird about this subject… Anyway, I thought to go back to the place I had gone last year and have a look if the flock of sheep was where I had found it (remember my experience)?

Unluckily they were not there… my human truly wishes this means that there was no market requests…. Would be nice to think this is true

You see I really looked carefully…

I still have other things to tell you, but I must go now…

I have my training to do for the DTWDS and we are pretty bad at the moment, so we need to go practicing… !!!

Ciao Lucille

Well, he is a famous jet set traveller, made more heart broken girls than James Bond, more fans than George Clooney… Let alone being gorgeously handsome !!! He spent a year in Italy, just about the time to steal my heart…. and now rushes away …

That is not true, of course, but we had really become very good friends !

Homer’s human, well known Missus, sometimes also called Vanessa made some great posts about our meetings playing on the beaches of lake Garda, I attach a link to them if you like to have a look at them:

this first one was done last week and we also had a video taken while we are playing in the water (only Homer really is), this other instead dates back a few months, October:

Aren’t we a very nice couple?

We could really get on well, you know…

I could not believe why he liked water and balls so much, but you have to allow men some freedom, when it is not for a fur-four legged female competitor:

Look at the style he has …:

I waited for him to come back and see if he had really found the ball… you know… in all that water you have to be good at it…!!!

Homer, where have you gone?

So I guess I will need to wait here patiently till he comes back to Italy again…

Homer, let us know when you are arrived in…. ????….  Check it out here! We need to know all about your new travelling adventure !

Have a safe journey Homer, same to Bill and Vanessa of course!!!

Arrivederci!

Lucille & Humans