Happy Birthday to Max & Blue.

I can't believe that Max & Blue are a year old already! This time last year I had a lovely, biddable chocolate Labrador bitch and now I have these two cheeky, badly behaved black Labrador dogs. As we often say "who would have thought they would have lived so long" lol!! If you met them you'd understand why they're sometimes referred to as the devil and his brother!

As you can see they're having a very hectic birthday - not! Max is lying in his bed near me as I type and I think Blue is lying on a chair in the conservatory. I love it when they're peaceful as they were when I took this photo this morning.

I think Blue is on the right on the red bed and Max on the bone bed. Blue is slightly taller and heavier at about 40kg and Max is about 36kg.  That probably sounds as if they're overfed and fat but they aren't. They're just big tall, long dogs. Funnily enough they don't always eat 2 meals a day. Quite often if one doesn't eat neither does the other one. Weird or what? They don't steal each other's food although they would steal each other's biscuits or treats. We've never had a Labrador like that before. Any we've ever had used to dive into their food and hoover it all up almost instantly. Labradors don't have a reputation as dustbins for nothing!

So they're a lot of dog to try to walk! I've had a sore left arm which I blame on dog walking. Pulling is bad enough but it's when they take a sudden dive that it really hurts your arms. Trouble is they're very determined and suddenly take a notion to leap into the grass or across the road. I have to be very careful as there are lots of sheep and lambs at the farm next to us and sometimes 1 or 2 get out of their fields. If the dogs saw them there is no way I could hold onto them and that would be very scary! I often have scary moments involving meeting cars, bikes, quads, people, tractors other dogs. In fact I usually get back home exhausted and glad to be safely home again without any disasters.

But of course we wouldn't be without them no matter how naughty or destructive they are. Cushions are a particular favourite. They can take things out of the washing basket (a tall one) and leave it standing upright. Max regularly steals my handbag and takes it into the back of their cage without spilling anything. And don't even mention slippers, shoes, boots or socks. This morning Max stole my dog walking hat out of my hand! Blue is more inclined to look a bit ashamed if he gets a row for being a bad dog but Max's answer to everything is to smile and wag his tail.

I'd like to take more photos of them but if I see them doing something funny it's usually too late by the time I press the button. And does anyone else find it difficult to get a good photo of a black dog or is it just me?

Now I must go and see if I can finish some of the cards I started yesterday! I was at the first meeting of the WRI for this session last night and tried to get round some blogs when I came home but my broadband is so bad recently that it takes ages and I'm really behind with my visiting. I'm keeping up with my DT work so that's something. At the WRI 2 ladies from another WRI came along and gave us a cookery demo. Fantastic...you always get to taste everything. And then we had tea/coffee and homebakes. It was good to get back and catch up with everyone again.

But I'm waffling so I'll go and do something useful now. Hope you like my boys!