My parents got a new westie earlier this year and Corbie met him for the first time when I went down south to visit my parents in August.

They got on great straight away and it got to the point where Corbie wanted to sleep and eat together! Bless them :)

Alfie came up to stay for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago, and enjoyed his first trip to Scotland. The boys got along great again, and Alfie enjoyed emptying out Corbie´s rather large toy box hehe

I´ve uploaded a photo of them together here:<a href=" http://www.petstreet.co.uk/picture/340764.Corbie%20&%20Alfie"> http://www.petstreet.co.uk/picture/340764.Corbie%20&%20Alfie</a>

We next see Alfie at Christmas, and it is also his birthday on Christmas Day - lots of fun :)

Earlier this year I donated a prize of a pet portrait for the Pet Idol competition.

The winner was Sue Bray, and I did a portrait of her dog Storm.

You can view it in my album here : http://www.petstreet.co.uk/picture/340774.Storm%20-%20Pet%20Idol%20Winner

Corbie went on his first proper holiday in September. Usually we stay with family or friends, but this time we got a lovely cottage near Kyle of Lochalsh and had lots of fun exploring the Lochalsh and Skye areas.

Corbie had a great time, apart from scraping one of his paw pads the first day we were there. We had to do shorter walks so it didn´t hurt him too much. Mind you, when he was out and about, you wouldn´t have thought there was anything wrong with it! It healed up very quickly once we got home.

We had a close-encounter with golden eagles whilst hiking up a hill on southern Skye. It was truely amazing. They are such beautiful birds, and very large.

Corbs enjoying swimming in a mountain lochan, playing on a sandy beach (and rolling in the sand!), and exploring all the new smells.

We loved it so much we are going back to the same place at the end of March!

Good luck to everyone who´s entered the Pet Idol competition, with the potential to win one of my portraits of their pet as the prize.

I look forward to seeing the winner and hopefully, creating a masterpiece for his/her owner to treasure.

My parents last week finally got their new westie puppy.  Hamish died last July and Rufus the previous August and they were such a big part of the family.Anyway, they were not having much success with getting a new pup. I was trying to make sure they found a good breeder who ticked all of the right boxes.  The first showed her westies and her bitch was expecting a litter, but the pups all died :( She then recommended another couple who were due a litter.  Unfortunately, the one boy in that litter died.Anyway, my parents were on holiday a couple of weeks ago and they got a text from the breeders who lost the boy asking if they would be interested in their 5 month old.  They were finding their older dog was being increasingly dominant and aggressive towards having another dog in the house and they decided it wouldn't be fair to keep him, especially when any of the girls came into season.  They were going to show him and he was going to ring craft lessons.  My parents said yes and little Alfie came home last Sunday! They are completely head over heels in love with the little fella, and he had been so well loved and cared for by the breeders. They gave them a cd with all of his puppy photos on and he will be going back in a few weeks so they can hand strip his coat :)

I was so pleased with the Best in Show winner - the giant Schnauzer. I've backed him the last couple of time he got into the final, so to see him win at last was great. I also wanted the Sameyoed to be reserve, so very pleased about that too!I was a bit disappointed at the lack of labs shown on the TV coverage on Gundog day - and they always completely miss out the Gamekeepers ring.