a little while ago one of my mother hares and baby hares went to their new home to help celebrate a very special, very precious, new addition -
aaaaaw! - a tiny Italian Greyhound called Dobby
can you see him??
isn't this wee chap just totally adorable?!
you would never know that he was locked in a cage in a puppy mill for 5 1/2 years. Unreal eh?
And because of the psychological and physical damage - no teeth, damaged jaw, for starters - his pink tongue hangs out all the time.
and he is a tad bit messier at dinner times than his 2 new brothers, as he tries to pick up his food
Dobby does stretchies every morning!
stretchies are an absolute essential if you have been caged up your whole life
Evan, his darling brother, is giving praise and encouragement
and Dobby is such a star that he has his very own facebook page - All Things Dobby
ofcourse I went there straight away to see what handsome little chap would be befriending my hares - and my heart melted when I saw him, sleeping with a pillow made just for him - with his 'Supa Tongue' out one side!
and boy oh boy! did I laugh out loud!
oh okay, I lolled :)
and aaawed and lolled and aaawed, and lolled some more :)
(I never used to do no lols)
but after my introduction to Dobby I am happy to say that I now lol - and even 'bol'!!
not sure what 'bol' is?
sure you do!
- it's doggy talk for lolling - 'bark out loud!' ha ha!
and here is Mother Hare Pretty
isn't she gorgeous! and with a lizardy on her side
(oh, okay - it's a brontosaurus...!)
and ANTS on her cheek
a this is her feisty son Audacity
anyone with a name Audacity WOULD have to be feisty eh?
and here are their stories - written especially for Dobby, just by me -
Mama Hare Pretty
When Pretty was just a baby she
was out with mama one morning, being shown which plants were good to eat and which
ones were not good to eat at all.
Ofcourse at that tender age
trying to take in so much information was really a case of in one tiny ear out
the other, but at the end of the morning she did manage to remember a couple of
plants that were edible.
They stood out from all the
others because when she was inspecting them with mama, mama pointed out the
interesting little creatures scurrying busily along their stems and across the
leaves in a soldierly fashion and Pretty was really fascinated by this.
Mama said that those tiny
things were ants and ants were not to be eaten by hares so she must avoid them.
Pretty pursed her tiny mouth
and nodded her head obediently as she watched them wind their way across the
leaf, oblivious to the two furry onlookers.
The very next day she scampered
eagerly over to the undergrowth to look for some ants and in a little while she
spotted a huge procession making its way up a stem and over the large expanse
of an enormous leaf.
Pretty asked them where they
were going and what were they doing and why were they doing it and a few other
not-really-pointless, but a little tiresome-at-times questions that babies
unceasingly ask without hardly waiting for the individual answers to come back,
but the ants did reply and she did remember what they were saying and she did
ask follow up questions so they were rather impressed by her inquisitiveness
and friendliness.
One of them even fell out of
the line and came over to her to introduce himself. He was ant 63,549 and stuck
out a tiny hand in greeting. Pretty smiled happily back and stuck out her paw,
upon which ant 63,549 grabbed one of the strands of fur and gave it a shake.
Pretty is all grown up now and
a mother herself and she has taken her baby on the same plant identification
lessons that her mama took her on.
Audacity was a little taken
aback when she pointed out all her ant friends and told him that they were not
for eating. He had wanted to try one but he didn’t let his mama know that.
Anyway, Pretty has become
rather an expert on all things ant and short of helping them build their nests,
she has spent many joyful hours with them as they traipsed thru the undergrowth
on their collecting missions.
She even helped in the
gathering of some nesting material for them and chewing it into smaller chunks
for them to drag it into their tunnels. And in return she was included in all
their parties and got to meet every new baby that was born.
Or hatched, because ants were
just like baby birds – they hatched.
Ofcourse she did tend to get
their names a little mixed up at times, but that was only natural because there
were thousands of them and only one of her.
Pretty is looking forward to
resting cosily on your armchair by the French windows with a view to the
garden. She’d like the door left open a bit thanks as she will be out every day
to keep her ant friends company and to play with her leveret in the sun in your
back garden.
Audacity has made many new
friends, especially those small thin green ones, what are they called again?
Anyway, she is looking forward to playing games with Audacity and with her new
sons too.
She’s absolutely delighted to
have three young sons to look after. She can’t wait to introduce them to all
her ant friends, even though one of them does have a rather large, over eager
tongue that drapes out all over the place and she’s seen a couple of ants being
accidentally caught up in it.
Not that she’s blaming anyone
ofcourse, but she’s just saying.
Baby Hare Audacity
Before Audacity was big enough
to go to kindergarten, his mama took him out on a few excursions of plant
identification lessons. She had had her lessons when she was barely out of the
nest so she made sure to start his when he was a little bit bigger because that
way he would take more in, she hoped.
Mama would take him over to the
bushes and point out all the different types of plants which could be eaten and
those that couldn’t. Well, ofcourse all plants could be eaten but these other
ones would make you very, very sick.
Then she would point out all
the friendly little bugs and insects and undergrowth beasties and other
assorted creatures as they came across them.
Anyway mama would always go on
and on about the ants, they were her most favourite beasties of all.
Aaeuughhh! yawned Audacity, as
she would blurt out yet another intriguing fact about them and how they were
not to be eaten by hares, hares were not insectivores, they were herbivores,
and ants were always friendly to hares and not to be harmed.
Well, it just happened that one
afternoon Audacity found himself by the undergrowth, all alone, looking at the
plants and at a large procession of tiny ants as they made their way along a
leaf and just out of curiosity he decided to try an ant. Though, good grief he
surely would not be telling mama.
So he waited and waited and
waited until finally he saw the end of the trail and as quick as a flash he
scooped the very last one up in his tongue, quickly turning his head away from
the ant trail lest any of them look back and see what he did, had a small munch
then swallowed it, and then glanced over his shoulder incase anyone else had
seen him.
But he was lucky, there were no
observers that afternoon.
Mmmm, yum, that ant was tasty
and he licked his furry mouth as he smiled away to himself.
Then on the way home he happened
to spot a group of small green lizards and asked to join in their games. That
way he would have an alibi if mama asked what had he been doing.
The lizards were playing a game
of tig. They looked up at the huge hare, huge for them that was, and peered
enquiringly at each other before one of the braver ones squeaked yes, he could
join in.
So Audacity jumped in and
inadvertently stepped on one of the lizards tails. The lizard screamed in
fright and took off, leaving his green thrashing tail behind him, caught
underneath Audacity’s large furry paw.
Well, that was a shock and a
half for the leveret and he recoiled in terror at the tiny thrashing tail until
the others pointed out to him that that was what lizards did when they were
trapped – they gladly left their tails behind.
Audacity felt a little uneasy
at hearing this and brushed his paw over his own small furry tail, thankful to
find that it was still attached and promised to be a bit more careful where he
jumped in future.
Then he asked if he could take
the green tail home, since the lizard wouldn’t be needing it any more now,
would he?
Audacity is looking forward to
sleeping amongst the cushions on your armchair by the French windows. He
doesn’t mind if some of his new brothers join him, as he’s really glad to have
some brothers, what with being an only baby.
Anyway, he sees that they all
have rather long interesting looking tails. That’s rather exciting and he hopes
they won’t mind if ever he stumbles by mistake and ends up standing on them,
just in case, you know, if they come off like the lizard ones do.
And just think how special his
dried tail collection will be then! The green lizard ones have all shriveled up
and turned a browny grey colour, so a long new fresh one will surely add
interest to the collection.
Plus he still wants to keep
adding the green ones, so when they are all out playing he will be looking to
make some reptile friends.
His other reptile friends
stopped playing with him after they all sort of lost their tails one weekend.
Audacity accused them of being huffy and unfriendly and they accused him of
being rude and selfish.
But he’s sure that the lizards
in your garden are much, much friendlier.
Plus he sees that his new
friend Dobby has a very long tongue that hangs out of his mouth and sometimes
it looks like a tail, so he’s decided that when Dobby is snoozing in the sun
after his morning stretching he will mosey on over and em, stand on that large
pink tongue by, er, mistake.
Perhaps it will come off
easily?
What do you mean that’s not
nice, you wouldn’t like it if someone stood on your tiny tongue or tiny tail?
That is beside the point, because if hares were meant to lose their tails or
tongues then they would have been made much, much longer, goodness!
Anyway, mama has been helping
Audacity stitch up a nice pressie for his favourite new brother and Audacity
has managed to sew a story onto the front of it, in pictures ofcourse. He hopes
Dobby can read it and loves it.
and because my hares were going to live with such a handsome chap - I made up, er, Pretty and Audacity made up a small heart shaped cushion just for Dobby - and with a Supa Tongue ofcourse, inspired by his greyhound pillow!
and you can see the story that Audacity put on the cushion?
- 'the hare paw stepping on the lizards tails......' lol! bol! :)
this is Dobby's story beside his pillow - and hey! these supa cute pillows are for sale!
these cute greyhound pillows will be donating $10 each to the National Mill Dog Rescue, the place that rescued Dobby, and that gives a loving future and loving home to every dog they take in.
it's good to see so many people caring, with so much love!
and it's a great reminder to always look for your furever furiend from a rescue organisation
and here is Dobby again,
getter braver and braver every day,
in his loving furever home, where he does his morning stretchies and then spends time in 'da beams' soaking up the midday sun,
and ofcourse, snoozing on his favourite chair with his heart lizardy cushion :) ... bol!
so here you go Dobby - lols and lols
(lots of loves and lols) xxx
