Today is a big day in the CstM house because today is the day Susie turns 7. Susie for those of you who don’t know is a little long coated dachshund who I’ve had since she was a tiny pup. I went to the breeder and looked at Susie and all her siblings. Most of them were crying not liking being picked up by a stranger. But Susie was all quiet. She did however cry all the way home so my mum asked dryly if I couldn’t have picked up one of her siblings since then at least she’d have been cried out.
I am one of those weird people who talk with their dog. The neighborhood people have been treated to me in a high pitched voice going “Run Susie! Run like the wind!” when we’ve been out walking. I also tell her where I am off to when I leave her alone. Always with a promise of a swift return. I once even went as far as telling her that I had my phone on me so she could always call if she needed anything. Even I had to stop up for a moment after that one and wonder “Did I just say that to my dog?”. And yes, yes I did.
She is also the main reason I have a TV. Well besides being stuck paying TV licence and having a program pack as part of rent so it was silly not to own a TV since I was already paying as if I had one. But the one who uses the live TV part of the TV is Susie when she’s alone. She always watches the state channel usually sending stuff like The Flying Doctors, Downton Abbey and Antiques Roadshow. My mum vetoed against the channel sending all the CSI and like shows as she figured crime and death wasn’t too good for a young dog all alone.
Now today we are trying something new. We are doing one music post with only one artist. Today is Hannah Schneider, an artist I am very fond of. I have seen her a few times live and she is absolutely brilliant. I don’t know how you can pack that much song into such a petite woman.
Raindrops
This is the first song I ever heard from her. It’s usually not the one I start out showing people but I figured we’d go by chronological order and please my inner “OCD”. I’ve sent some of her videos to Twitter friends and one commented that I should be getting a PR pay for my work in spreading the HS hype.
Old Enough
Now this is my personal favourite from the first album. I love the silent Danish counting in the beginning and just how this song in some ways remind me of myself. “I’m old enough to know better” “But I’m young enough to do it anyway”. I think most of us know about that.
In the Line of Fire (Kitchen sessions)
This one I know all the lyrics to by heart. Well that may actually count for most of her songs.She made an extra cd called Kitchen Sessions where she kind of redid her two first records in a more rustic way.
Everything (Live)
I must say that my favourite album is the 3rd and newest. It has a natural blend of the first two but also opens up a bit more to the world and drawing inspiration from it. Butterfly Lovers is a great example of that but YouTube said no so instead you’re getting Everything
Dreaming Kind
Now if I remember correctly you may have to do some yes I’m over 18 thing to see this video as it contains wild and crazy things like smoking and a nipple! What kind of evil ways am I leading you lot?
Now it is a pretty good song too.
So who else out there have pets?
underdogs bite upwards 
My dog didn’t watch telly until I showed him Hush Puppy, a DVD made for dogs!
Most of it is boring, for him and myself, but when chirping birds appear, he furiously tries to bury his way into the screen with his front paws and then he’ll look round the sides and back of the telly to try to get to them. He also attacks the screen when the tropical fish come on.
I suspect there are much better doggy DVDs than this, but he is now more inclined to watch other DVDs, especially if a dog appears.
I’m sure I’ll need to replace the telly when he finally ploughs through the screen. I hope I won’t need a new dog as well.
I keep intending to video him and put it on YouTube with advertising so that he can finally pay for his keep. Freeloading fleabag…
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Doggy dvds? Well why not. Susie just tend to curl up either on my lap or next to me when I watch tv.
My parents have a dog who watches tv. They can’t watch animal programs since he barks like mad and tries to attack the animals in the tv.
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I have three cats, Emma 17 has dementia so I am a bit stuck at home since I can’t leave her for long. Strange only my pedigree cats got dementia, I had a Siamese who made it to 21. Also have a Ragdoll 7 and a rescue moggie 9. I talk to them too but none are interested in TV though the Siamese liked watching football. They are a tie but I wouldn’t be without them.
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I don’t know how much she actually watches when alone. I think she likes having the noise. She doesn’t really tell me.
I had to Google the ragdoll cat. They look really cute and fluffy and huggable. But then so do most cats.
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Ragdolls are lovely cats and Theo just loves everybody, regardless of whether they like cats or not, have one visitor who hates them but even he has to say hello to Theo to get left alone. In some ways they are a bit more like dogs than cats.
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Ohh! Perhaps a cat who will like me 😀
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I currently have no pets (apart from the spider under the sofa) although I have a feeling that might change soon.
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We have a rescue OES (Old English Sheepdog). She was so badly treated that she thought of everyone as the enemy even the vet. A couple of weeks and some ‘difficult’ encounters with cyclists we almost asked them to take her back. We persevered and realised she was not 4 years old as they had told us but probably only 2. OES’s can be pretty demented at that age. Anyways a few years on an she has settled down and though still nervous she is still here. No need for a doorbell, asking if the post has come or if the bins being emptied, she lets us know!
This is a song (well a backing track really, since I still haven’t put any words to it yet – maybe someone can help with that) I put together with my son on bass and moi doing the lead guitar. The picture next to it is how she (Mollie) looked before we picked her up https://soundcloud.com/dwgh/dwg-soap-shop-ii
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She’s a cutie. Has her coat grown all big and fluffy? My dad used to call me an OES when I’d come out with crazy bed hair.
That’s a good song. I’m pretty impressed.
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Happy birthday, Susie! And, yes, I talk (mostly gibberish) to my dog all the time (she understands every word, you know …..!)
One little tip … I’m assuming that your TV is one of the new flat-screen types, rather than the old-fashioned “tube” varieties (which you probably can’t get any more, but you might have an ancient one that you’ve picked up somewhere). If it is an “old style” one, please, please, please don’t leave it on when you are out of the house, even if Susie likes it, and certainly not when you’re out and she’s in. An old friend of mine who was a fire prevention officer once told me that far and away the biggest cause of housefires (when “tube” TVs were all there were), was left-on and unattended TVs! The new, flat-screen types are much better because they generate very little internal heat.
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It’s a slightly fancy but not too expensive flat screen. Nothing but the best for my Susie. 😉
I did however run into the problem of the tv turning off by itself when Susie was home alone, during Netflix marathons or long films. I had turned off sleep mode and it took me a while, a Google search and a dig far into the menu to find an environmental power saving function that meant that the tv would turn itself off after two hours of inactivity.
In these days of tv boxes and other external things does anyone use the tv remote for more than turning the thing on and off, control the volume and switch between devices?
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I read that cats can mimic baby sounds to get your attention; our Pippin goes one better. When he returns from his latest tour of his domain/fight/avian butchery session, he calls out “hello” loudly as he crosses the hall. It surprises guests who are expecting a meow or a purr.
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I read that too. Wow, that’s pretty cool. I can see why new people will get surprised.
Have you seen the video of the dog saying “I love you”?
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You might also enjoy Heather Nova https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ShkfEcKoMI
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Had a Dachshund (Dackel) once.She was mad, as was only fitting for a pet of mine.
She had agrophobia. Would not leave the house. If you even put your hand on her lead, which hung on the back of the door, she would bite your ankles. I mean BITE! Not just a wee nip.
She hated any one going up stairs. If she heard you going down the hall, she would run out of the living room and bite you in the arse before you reached the second step.
The only thing that did not fit in was, she hated guns. No idea why. But even making your fingers into a gun, would get you a punctured ankle.
As I say, a mad dog. Perfect! 😀
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My Susie is absolutely terrified of skateboards. If a kid skateboards by the garden she’ll run inside. Sometimes when we’re out walking she’ll insist on going home if she hears a skateboard.
She is very much a creature of habit. She will start bugging me about bed time if I stay up past our usual bedtime.
Today she was very pushy after we’d been to the local shop. Turns out she hadn’t got her after shopping treat.
She’s a rather picky eater too. Will only eat cat wet food and only the bites in sauce not the jelly ones.
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I also am terrified of skateboards. Strange and dreadful young European Males of many colours are attached to them, wearing odd hats backwards. Their kinetic gyrations are weirdly unpredictable. One gives them a wide berth.
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We have frogs. About 13 years ago, for the (now older) boy, I dug a hole in the back ofthe garden which filled with water gradually. Then frogs mysteriously colonized it. The population is now 12 generations on, about 250 years in human terms, and still there. Almost 100% of it was wiped out in the 2010/2011 winter. We have a mass grave of about 50 frozen-solid frogs but I cannot remember where, it is somewhere under the raspberry patch by now.
We try to train them to eat the slug larvae in the spring. But it’s not very successful. They are too busy trying to mate.
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I’m pretty sure that I as a kid tried to have a pet frog. But I think they’re an endangered species here so you’re not allowed to. At least that’s what my mum told me. I may need to have a chat with her. I have a feeling she giggle and say “took you long enough to figure out”.
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Oh I had pet frogs. In a tin bath in the backyard. I came home one day with frogspawn and have a father who’s just like me 😉
I watched them grow from tadpoles. It was fascinating.
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