Whitchester Lodge Duns- revooow

As many of you know,from time to time we take a holiday to cottages around Scotland and I always take the time to review them.
This time we came to Whitchester Lodge in the Scottish borders near the town of Duns. As I'm a dog I always review dog friendly features and have a paw rating system out of four paws.


This cottage had facilities in spades! Really sweet cottage with lovely furnishings, it has an excellently enclosed garden of a good size, perfect for a throw and fetch session. It has a large and warm  boot room to come in to and dog washing facilities outside in the greenhouse.

 Backing straight on to the end of the garden is a huge paddock, perfect for frisbee and at the bottom is a wee river/stream which I might have ventured in to had it not been the depth of winter.
It's a perfect picnic spot in the summer I would think.


Walkies galore around the area with part of the southern upland way just across the road and along that way some interesting ruins to investigate and sniff round.

Inside the house it had hard wood and tiled floors but not slippy under paws which is good. I have encountered that before in holiday cottages where I walk around like it's a skating rink, but non of that here.

Im a fussy dog when it comes to going on holiday, I don't like being isolated from the pack. Andrea (the owner) emailed to say I could rest and sleep in the living room as long as the furniture was adequately covered with blankets etc which was absolutely fab.

A great log burner in the living room was soo cosy in the evenings and just what you need when you get back from a long walk. Dog dishes are provided as well as poo pick up bags (very important).

I loved being able to wander out the door anytime and not need a lead on, I felt I was wild and it was super!!


In the guest book, previous visitors documented ghostly goings on, but nothing had my fur tingling and I slept like a hibernating bear.


Xmas tree was up and beautifully decorated when we arrived and cake provided as well, couldn't ask for more!
4/4 paws.

Eye,m still not well

Back to the v..e..t today for another look at the eye. The eye drops they sent me home with haven't really worked on account of the instructions. Have you ever seen a dog trying to put in eye drops...mighty difficult without thumbs :)
So having read the instructions and having no luck on my own the parents stepped in to assist. Now for those that know me the term wuus is used often as I'm a big spooks, so the final result was eye drops in the eye 15% ,eye drops on the carpet 85%. So given the carpet mites are now fully protected against bacteria and slowly creating a super colony under my paws, we had a wee trip back to the v..e..t.. for an eye ointment.
No clear diagnosis yet but the working theory is conjunctivitis or an allergy...perhaps to the super bugs in the carpet lol.
So 1 week of sticking gel in my eye and then it's a sedation and a look from the surgeon. Hopefully it wont come to that.

In other news mum got flu for her birthday which wasnt nice because I haven't been able to sit on her seat of the couch for days.
Also her Xmas village is complete, it will soon be time for my stocking to go up, but there's a wee holiday away before then.

Vet Visit

Before I wrote this blog I realised that the last time I posted was also an ailment, I guess that's just a sign of age these days.

So about 2 weeks ago I had a swollen eye and after leaving it for a few days to see if it would heal., it hasn't. A small seed was found near my eye last Wednesday ,so again thought I would leave it and see if that had been the cause ,but today still no change.
A wee trip to the Vet, somewhat more traumatic than I would have liked; the other dogs are all crazy, barking and it sounds like torture is going on in the next examination room.
 I was pulled around,squashed in to a corner and liquid poured in my eye, blue lights shined in it and all sorts. Not pleasant!
Also the liquid schtuff turned my eye yellow.

Long story short they don't know what it is but after my 'weigh in' they did confirm I was fat! What a cheek, just went in for eye drops!
So I have returned home with medicine to take and eye drops to have put in twice a day and parents who are on a diet mission....

Little do they know I'm only going to take medicine if they feed me ham, so the diet isn't going to go as they plan.
I have to go back mid week to see how it's getting on, the eye that is...not the diet.

Other than that had a nice walk and a spot of lunch. Just resting now on our new couches. They arrived on Thursday and they are very comfy, although mum has already covered my seat in protective wares..ho humm,  at least it's warm with those on, and no one else wants to sit on my seat :)

bad leg.... update

Good news! after staying off the leg for 24 hours it seems to be healing 😊. I am getting about much better today and my nose is not dry. Getting up and down the stairs ok and even had a waggy tail for mum returning from work 😍.
Is hoping Dad is going to take me for a stroll tomorrow as the boredom is killing me. I am still banned from playing with a ball of any kind, hope this heals soon.

Bad leg

Past few weeks I have had intermittent bad back leg. Although it's fine when I am out and about and not too bad in the mornings, after walkies it's really bad. Mum tried taking me swimming today instead of a walk to see if that was better. I absolutely loved it but as previous days , I Can't get up the stairs can't get on the couch. If I do get on the couch I can't get off again. After some research mum thinks it might be a torn muscle. I'm a bit of a wuss so it could just be a pulled muscle. I got stuck down stairs at the back door tonight for an hour. Anyone trying to help me up is met with sharp squeeking/squealing. I finally made it to the couch and mum set me up with a hot water bottle and my much loved toy duck. See how I am in the morning but I think it might be a call to the V. E. T.

Wool -stock

So, after having two xmas days this year, one at a holliday cottage and one in our own house, a week apart and endless rounds of turkey and pork related dinners inbetween...it was time to walk off some xmas pounds becuase I was starting to look more bear cub than dog.
So we packed up and set off for megget dam in tweedmuir. We have been there many times and it is a great walk, except the fact you need to be on the lead as there are cattle grids and sheeps.

Fogetting the season and how high up the hills are we were not dressed for the mist, which at that height was just actually rain. It seems to me the sheeps are much bolder this time of year maybe becuase they are older but they were anywhere but where they should be....behind the fences.
Now you might think that poses an issue for canines and owners as most owners will proceed with extreme caution approaching unfenced sheeps with a dog as to not scare them..the sheeps that is. But to be honest the sheeps take one look at me and and through rose tinted specticales see bambi. So owner needing to proceed with cation due to sheeps having horns and being bold enough to think I am worthy of them chasing me off.
Anyway all was well, mum did a great job of being scary and encouraging sheeps to move out of the way. However, in doing so a large gathering of them decided to run down the road to where dad was parked up and was setting up the picnic. Im glad to say it was a tuna sandwich as wollen, fur relations could have been strained, had lamb been on the menu.
So as we sat inside the car having our picnic and cup of tea, the indigenous sheeps population gathered around outside, which was not so great for me becuase despite the weather being so foul I still would have appreaciated a sniff around outside and a customery free wander after my dinner.

Walks of the waterfalls

Yet another holiday adventure for me,this time not too far from home near a village called Caputh in Perthshire.  We stayed in a cottage by the river Tay. The cottage belonged to the woman who caught the biggest Salmon fish in the country by line in a river ever. The cottage was spacious and perfect for dogs, it also had a fantastic window seat for mum over looking the river.
The river side walk began from the back garden and went on for over a mile. Mum and I found a secret spot where I could go in and paddle about a mile and a half from the house.
No lead required and I ran around off lead every morning of the trip.

Perthshire has much to offer for walkers and every town/village has a walk or more. Mum decided that each day of the holiday her and I would conquer a waterfall. Starting in Dunkeld on day 1 we reached the heights and we're rewarded with spectacular views whilst doing the Hermatige walk. Mum got lost on the way back and we ended up in the wrong car park so the walk was a lot longer walk than we anticipated. We finished up for tea and a smoked salmon sandwich at the Dunkeld hotel. Dad didn't come with us on our walks as he wasn't well, having saved a chest infection for his holiday instead of contracting it before hand.



On day 2 we went further a field to Kenmore that was an adventure, a miss timed phone call saw dad miss the turning for Aberfeldy resulting in us driving way up in to the mountains on a single track road. The car was piping hot from the brakes by the time we made it all the way down in to Kenmore.

Mum and I walked to the falls of Acharn,  this was a steep climb but importantly a circular, helps mum not get lost.On the way is a hermits cave,mum was too scared to go in on the way up because it was black dark inside but I dragged her through it on the way back and she was glad I did as we found a secret viewing platform for the waterfall and it was spectacular.
We went to the watermill in Aberfeldy for a sandwich and cup of tea after this walk. A Lovely wee place where I can sit out side with mum and dad.

Day 3 we went to Pitlochry and mum and I set off to find the black spout waterfall, this was the least impressive of the waterfalls we saw this week but a nice walk up through the forest.  Mum got lost on the way back (sigh) so we ended up walking round the edge of a big field where we finally met up with dad who was checking out a distillery. We found a dog friendly pub in Pitlochry and I sat out side with mum and dad whilst they had tea and a sandwich. Mum.opted for cake on this occasion but I think she had earned it.



All in all a fantastic holiday great cottage, great walking country I'm rating it 4 out of 4 paws and a waggy tail!.