THE TALES OF LILLY

The Tales of Lilly, The Mud Life Dog Sun Worshipping

Hula Girlby Karen Lee Turner

Just over a month ago we decided (well I did) that one of the benefits of having a dog is the ability to enter local dog shows. I don't mean the Crufts-style shows where all the dogs attributes have to be up to an exactling standard, no I mean the type that have classes such as Waggiest Tail, Best Trick and the one that caught my eye, Fancy Dress.

Being a woman who has the penchant for dressing up myself, and have even got the delectable Damian and my mum involved too, I found the chance to have a go with Lilly irresistable. The event was just something that popped up in Facebook, and I thought why not, then completely forgot about it.

The night before Facebook then proceeded to remind me about it, so I grabbed my box of costume stuff down from on top of the wardrobe, and mooched around to see if there was anything I could convert quickly.

Well I found an old grass skirt that I wore around 25 years ago when Damian and I used to work in Ritzy nightclub, and a couple of leis, and decided to make Lilly into a hula girl. I had no idea if she would tolerate being dressed up, but she is pretty chill so I thought I'd try it out in the middle of the kitchen. A bit of trimming later she looked adorable and didn't mind wandering about with it on. Yep we were good to go.

Whilst this was occurring Damian was saying that if I dress her up he will disown me, and will definitely not be involved. Who cares about what he thinks, his two girls were heading to Preston with or without him.

The following morning we headed off to Samlesbury Hall in Preston with a very happy dog (she's always happy, though a tad whiny, at heading out somewhere different), and experienced our first local dog show as proud parents. I'm not sure Lilly had ever been around so many dogs all in one place. She was in mega-sniff mode, and was also being nosed around the derriére at the same time by lots of other doggie snouts, and loving every minute.

I headed to the classes table and was torn with entering her in Waggiest Tail (she is very waggy) or do as I had intended and enter her in the Fancy Dress class. With Damian's disowning words echoing in my ears I hesitated, but when I found out that the waggy class had nearly every dog in the place signed up, and the fancy dress was less subscribed I opted for a bit of dressing up.

We wandered around the grounds of Samlesbury Hall (they have a lot of pretty cool shepherd's huts in a camping area) and mingled for an hour until it was time to get her dressed up and head into the ring.

As we were queueing we were surprised to see Oscar and his owner, who Lilly plays with on the park at home (Oscar not the owner), and we ended up heading in side by side. We walked around laughing and sizing up the competition. There were some damn good, and rather funny ones, my favourites being 2 dogs dressed up as Kevin and Perry from Harry Enfield's sketch show.

Then we all stopped and the judges wandered about, and then pulled his top 5 into the centre, and announced the winner. Unfortunately neither Oscar, resplendent in his teddy bear outfit, nor Lilly's Hula Girl were placed (we were robbed!), but we definitely made adults and little kids smile, so I declare the day a complete success.

Next time I think we'll have a go at waggiest tail as she could've whipped the winner in that class in more ways than one with her tough little birch-like tail.

Keep your dogs cool when the weather is warm.

That's what we are told by the powers that be, but this month we have discovered that it's not so easy with Lilly - she's a sunbed-stealing sun-worshipper worthy of Brits abroad fame.

You see we only have the one Outwell Fontana Lake Lounger (reviewed back in Issue 26) that Damian had won for being a clever clogs during a trade expo. It has a really comfy padded top, and is perfect for a quick loungeabout in the back yard seeing as we don't have grass to lie on. With the weather being pretty glorious during June we got it out and Damian and I took turns to enjoy the luxury, but that didn't sit well with Lilly. Where was her sunlounger?

After using a bit of Lady Di-style sad eyes on me I adjusted my position enough so she could jump up and lie between my legs. She just flaked out and stayed there baking in the sun. Eventually I had to get back to work, and thought she may get up and come back into the cool house, but no she wanted to stretch out and enjoy a bit more sunshine.

Well all I can say is I created a monster!

If we open the back door and go to get the lounger she follows along, and just waits for the opportunity to get on first to claim HER lounger, and she looks so cute that moving her, so we can actually use it, seems out of the question. We do get to use it when she gets too hot and buggers off, but check out the dirty look we get if we try to invade her personal sunbathing space before that.

She knows she is Queen Bitch and we are her loyal subjects!