Guest post

Hello everyone, my name is Coco (aka Coco the Wonderdog) and I have been invited to write a guest post today.  I've been staying with my nanny for the last couple of weeks and I've noticed that she spends time looking through blogs in the evening but doesn't write much on her own.  So let me tell you a little about life in Deb's World.  

It's quite a nice place to live, although there are times when the people take my place on the sofa in the evenings.  I have found that it is quite easy to nudge my way up onto their laps by balancing on top of their newspaper or laptop and they soon see the error of their ways.  
The food here isn't bad.  Actually, I have noticed a bit of an increase in treats because my mum isn't always here to ask if it's ok and if I tip my head to one side, raise my eyebrows and look adorable, they find it hard to say no.  

The only thing I don't like here is when they go out and leave me during the day.  I know they are gone for days at a time, but they pretend it's only a couple of hours.  It's hard work being here alone, no one else to share the responsibility of protecting the house and seeing off unwanted cats, birds and postmen.  And I'm not sure, but I think that the penguin who lives upstairs has been sneaking down and sitting in my bed!  I asked ducky and he said that he was only in there once and just for a moment for his photo to be taken but I've got my eye on him from now on.  I think he's jealous because I've been sitting on nanny's lap in the evenings and he hasn't.  I don't think he's forgiven me for that little game we had when I was a tiny pup and we played at 'Coco chewing a penguin'.
I have been busy in the garden while I've been here.  In my photo you can see me helping to collect sticks.  I am in charge of watering the lawn first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and generally checking on the condition of the flower beds.  I tiptoe very carefully in there but am often dragged out by my collar as apparently once your paw squashes a pretty flower, the pretty flower doesn't always bounce back.  How was I supposed to know?  They maintain they have been calling me out for a while but we all know that dogs' hearing is at a different pitch to humans and I really don't hear them.  Apparently this is also known as 'selective hearing' and 'being naughty' as I don't have any problem with hearing the words 'tea time' or 'walkies'. 
Ah, walkies.  I love walkies round here, there's a big park just round the corner where I meet a lot of new friends.  I did look at the dog-gym equipment they have over there but it looked a bit like hard work and I soon lost interest.  There's also a lake and I do enjoying chasing the ducks back in the water.  If I wasn't on my lead, I'd quite like to have a go at seeing what it's like in the water.  It looks a lot more fun than the bath.  Once the ducks are in there, they taunt me with their quacking which sounds a bit like 'nah, nah, nah nah nah, you can't get us in here'.  
Talking of water, another of my jobs is to supervise showertimes.  In nanny's house there are two rooms with showers in and one of them has a door with glass panels in it and the shower is in a glass cubicle.  I like to wait outside and peer in through the door.  Apparently it's a bit 'weird' taking a shower with a dog watching your every move.  There is also a room with a bath in it.  I went in there once as mum and nanny made it sound exciting.  'Come on Coco, let's give you a bath!' they said in the same kind of voice that they use for 'Would you like a gravy bone Coco?' and I got confused.  Let me tell you that baths are very different to being given a gravy bone.  Gravy bones are crunchy and tasty, baths are wet and soapy and messy and are followed by being chased around a room by two women with towels and then being shut in a room while one of them dries you with a noisy hot thing called a 'fur-dryer'.  This is the price I pay for having lots of fluffy white fur and a mum who trained as a hairdresser.
My Uncle Jon lives here as well although he is not such a soft touch with the cutey-pie puppy dog eyes routine.  However, when I play at wrestling Big Ted with him, it's great fun and he loves it when it makes me bark because I don't bark much but save my barking for very special occasions.  He's going on a big holiday soon to a place called Africa.  I don't think it's the kind of place a dog can go as it would involve going back to the vets for lots of injections and tablets and the last time I was there was after the infamous  'eating a bunch of mum's earrings' fiasco, they made me very sick.  And they didn't even find the earrings, I think they may have come out in some other way {ahem}...
Thank you for reading my post, I'll try and cheer nanny up so she gets back to doing one herself again very soon.