Lions and Tiger and Bears, Oh My!

Well, not quite. But certainly dogs of all descriptions. Over a months ago, Furry and I were lucky enough to be invited to a Briard Lovers function. For those who don't know about this breed, you can read Stella Bella Bottom Smeller's story here. We were a bit nervous, as SBBS doesn't have the greatest track record with other dogs. For a neurotic, abused animal, she can get might argey-bargey when it comes to other dogs.

So it was with some trepidation that we headed off to Kepala Doggie Day Spa to meet the Briard Bunch.

After learning the benefits of the 2 second sniff, and working through Furry's neuroses ("What if she bites the ears off a Grand Pooh-Bah Champion Billion-Dollar-A-Squirt Breeding Show dog?"), we finally got up the courage to let the girls off the lead.




Yes. That is a pic of Stella Bell and Mrs Peaches, sans leads, interacting with other dogs. Who would have thought, seven years ago, when we bougfht home that skinny, scared, paranoid, scruffy mongrel, that we'd be seeing this?!

And because I am an adoptee, I got all weird and did this whole transference thing, and got teary. Because finally, Stella Bella got to meet other pups that look just like her! To the point where Furry couldn't tell who was who!

So after a morning of leaping and jumping and swimming and butt-sniffing, we retired to the BBQ area to eat.

I had heard much about the quality of foods served at these get-togethers and I wasn't disappointed. Sushi and salad and cheesecake and nibbly bits abounded. The pups were too bloody tired from all their frollicking to worry about who was sniffing whose butts and lay in the shade having a sleep.

Which is weird, given that this is pretty much a Briard's normal positioning at an outdoor dinner.


Much was made of David's Turkish delight cheesecake. And short work was made of it on the day.


We met an awesome bunch of people, whose passion for their dogs meets our own. Several of them blog, so go and visit Jeremy's photo blog or David's Art Deco building blog

Looking forward to the next meet up!

Families are weird creatures.

yes indeed they are. My history is littered with times where I haven't seen **ahem** eye-to-eye with my fam of origin. Because of various ishews.. some clearly self-inflicted and induced, there has been a history of being on the outer of my fam.

So I was both shocked and chuffed when Furry suggested we invite the fam to Chez Fur for Easter lunch. And equally shocked and chuffed when, en masse, the accepted.

Being the cuckoo in the nest, particularly in regard to food, I dithered furiously over what to serve.

I erred on the side of caution and went with pizzas in the outdoor oven. My table was laid with a variety of goodies, ham and salami, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicums, prawns, cheeses, sun dried tommies, grilled capsicums and anchovies.

**side SOLE note** A V slicer is a SOLE-ful way of preparing veggies. 6 large end-of-season beefsteak tommies can be sliced fine enough on a V slicer to provide pizza topping for 20 people.

$200 got me everything I needed, and as per my previous post, only the pizza bases, anchovies and pasata was not locally sourced. The mushrooms were Victorian (Northern Melbourne).

I am thrilled to say the whole day was a huge smash hit!! Cousin JJ manned the oven like a pro! for a family often obsessed with hygiene, eating with the fingers, from communal platters proved a huge hit. Aunties and SIL's bought fresh fruit and meringues, Mater Beige made her marvelous iceream slice, chocolate googie-eggs abounded and much laughter, mirth and merriment was had by all.

It left me to thinking, about families and all, that despite glaring differences (whether they be religious, ethics, social justice or politically based), that sometime food really IS the great leveler. And that eating together really does (re) inforce bonds of blood.