Baby Ronnie the WHQ Puppy
For Ronnie’s most recent adventures, see Chapter Five further down the page.
Chapter one - Animals are cool & they enrich your life…
Here at World Headquarters, we have a long history of using a variety of animals in our publicity, so we thought it was about time we got us a mascot.
This is our little baby, Ronnie. She is a Pharoah Hound puppy & will be featuring on many of our flyers from now on. Above is her hanging with the 13 other members of her litter, not long after she was born. Below is the first snap we took of her once we got her home, in bed, taken at the end of January 2010.
As you can see here she is still just a little baby, but she’ll grow, along with the Club, over the next 15 or so years.
Her ears (which as you can see in the photo above were all floppy…) suddenly started to stand up like some kind of crazy & astonishing bat… This happened one ear at a time (as demonstrated in these photos below, taken in the first week of February).
First it was her right ear…
But her left stayed all floppy…
When we got home at last one night, from our weekends shenanigans, we were very pleased to see that her second ear was playing ball & had just started to stand up. Her first one was now up like a proper batwing & for a moment we thought the second one might not go for it… But, check this snap taken at 6.30 on a Sunday morning!! (February 7th 2010), hilarious!
This is one of her really early snaps, pre batlugs…
Here she is on one of her first trips out, sporting her rather fetching little jerkin that she wore, as she was little & did not have any fat to keep the cold out.
In just a few weeks she went from this little cheeky individual pictured here…
To the stately young hound pictured here, monkeying around at the beach…
She has sprouted up & it seems like you can almost see her growing.
She just gets longer & longer every day & has developed a kinda weird, long necked, mountain lionesque look, which you can see her rocking in this little snap below…
She was now eating so much, we thought it was time she started work to earn her keep. So this was her first modelling assignment, starring in our April 2010 advertisment in the Crack Magazine.
She enrolled in puppy school for a few weeks with all her doggie chums. Here she is being bad, trying to eat out of a bin when she should be getting ready…
Her puppy classes were at Croft Medical Centre in Cramlington, where she hooked up with all her pals. They are really good classes & if you are thinking of getting a puppy, you should check them out.
She loved it & won an award for ‘Most Playful Puppy’ when she graduated.
She had such a great time that she is now weighing up her options & is considering staying in further education & taking an agility class.
This was her second modelling job, for the front of one of our Summer flyers.
She can be such a little naughty, but she is also such a complete cutie & we all just love her to bits x.
Chapter two - Growing up, traumas & travels…
One of Ronnie’s favourite places is the woods. She is a hound so she just loves the whole outdoors groove.
She regularly goes on epic walks to far away places where she can run wild & free & just enjoy being an active young dog, out & about in nature.
Summer 2010 was good & Ronnie was hanging out up on the Northumberland moors.
She really is growing up & is starting to lose a little of her puppy face & evolving into a really beautiful elegant girl. She seems to look like different things at different times, but most often she looks like a little kind of pointy eared deer.
Here she is doing her ‘Queen of all I survey’ routine up in the mountains…
When she was little she hated water, but now mainly by copying from behaviour she has seen other dogs exhibit, she has got over that & has a paddle & even a swim if it’s nice & sunny, to cool off while she is out on her important manouvers.
At around 6 months, we decided to take Ronnie to the Vet to have her spayed. She was from a litter of 14 & as there is no way we could look after that many dogs, we thought it was best. Her pups would have sold for a small fortune, but we aren’t into that & wouldn’t have been able to bear seperating her from them, so off we went. First, the Vet shaved her leg…
Then her tummy & made this great big cut & took out all of her reproductive bits…
Looks gruesome, but it’s astounding how quickly she recovered & was up & around within a day. She got a little bit of an infection in her wound, but the Vet gave her some bomb antibiotics & she was right back on form & running around off her lead within a week or so.
Now her scar has healed to the point where you can hardly see it & all her hair has grown back.
At same time the last of her little needle teeth fell out & all her big, grown up teeth came in. What a fine set of pearly white gnashers she has!
She utilises them for the destruction of her toys & anything else she can get her sticky little mits on.
Here she is performing her speciality trick of getting a squeaky toy, then disemboweling it to remove all the stuffing, to get at the little plastic squeaker inside.
In July 2010 she went to Suffolk on her holidays camping. The weather was boiling hot & she had a good root around the countryside. She was up first thing crack of dawn & on the go all day.
She camped on a working farm & met all the animals like dogs, horses, cats, chickens, pigs & a litter of 8 black labrador puppies like this little guy.
It was a great experience for her that really broadened her horizons & she just ran around exploring all day, trying to hunt for things to chase, or to chase her.
She got a new collar so she would be all smart for her holidays & she wore it when she went to the beach.
She had a running feud with the cows out the back of where she camped as they laughed at her ears, so she decided to go on a concerted program of mashing them up at every possible opportunity.
She also went to the massive forest & messed on with great big pine cones, which is one of her favourite things to do.
There are so many different natural enviroments in Suffolk that it’s doggie paradise. She went to swamps, beaches, fields, forests, bars, everywhere.
The countryside caper wore her out & she liked to settle in at night for a great big nap. She got a big cage specially for her holidays so that she wouldn’t wander off every night & eat all the animals on the farm. She absolutely loved it & at the end of each day she would go in for her nap & we would cover it with blankets. So she was all in the dark like a little parrot & had her own proper little warm snugglie den, to camp in.
Chapter Three - Ronnie goes north & across the sea in a boat…
For the first couple of weeks of 2011 Ronnie decided to have another little holiday. Xmas & New Year had been a busy time for her, so she went to a remote penninsula in the highlands of Scotland called Knoydart, to chill out a bit & enjoy some solitude.
To get there she had to drive for ages & ages & then go in a boat, as it is so mountainous it isn’t accessible by car.
She went to a very small settlement in the shadow of a big mountain range. It has no shops, a few houses & the most remote pub in mainland Britain called ‘The Old Forge’. Everyone there was really friendly & as always, she made lots of new pals.
Ronnie stayed in a lovely Ecolodge called Knoydart House, which she took to instantly & made herself right at home.
Once she settled right in & got the hang of the place, she was up to all her usual cheeky & naughty little tricks - like stealing gloves & attempting to eat them, so that she got to play chasey & generally go on like an attention seeking mini terrorist…
She also did a bit of mashing up of her bed, like a proper little radge, to pull all the stuffing out of it, just for old times sake.
Once she had wrecked it, she then started doing her best to look like a little innocent angel, in whose mouth butter wouldn’t melt…
The entire area around Knoydart is very beautiful & she absolutely loved it there. It is the very epitome of getting away from it all & much of it is simply breathtaking.
It overlooks a big Loch that goes out into the sea, so it had a shoreline as well as mountains & woods.
It was here down by the shore, that Ronnie found a big fish that had been washed up with the tide. She had never ever seen a big fish before…
After giving it a good sniff to ensure that it was stinky enough, she picked it up & ran off to eat a bit of it & then bury it… She thought she was great!
Knoydart also has very big high mountains & glens, with peaks covered in a thick blanket of snow. You can walk all day & not see another living soul.
Ronnie loved running around on the mountains, sniffing things out, chasing deer & generally getting a proper full on outdoor workout. At first from a distance, the Deer weren’t quite sure what Ronnie was… They didn’t stick around too long to find out though, once she took off after them like a bolt of lightning…
Here she is with her luminous coat on, like a little tiny speck miles off in the distance, chasing a herd of Deer so fast & so far away you can barely make them out…
She really took to the outdoor life way up in the the hills & her fitness levels went through the roof…
At times she was so high up the mountains that she was actually up in the middle of the clouds…
The great outdoors is absolutely her favourite thing & she spent all day, every day, going mental & chasing everything that moved. She was in constant hunting mode & always on the lookout for a quality chase.
She had an unfortunate little episode with one of the free range chickens from the village, the outcome of which you can most probably guess… But with apologies made & compensation paid, you don’t really need any further details.
When she got home from the wilds in the evenings she was really mellow & completely worn out. She is lovely all the time, but when she is all worn out & floppy she is just so, so, lovely & sweet & she smells just like biscuits.
After a couple of really fantastic weeks it was time to get back on the boat once again & head for home..
There is a kind of karmic groove that you get from seeing your dog at one with nature, that can’t really be put into words… You just feel her. She really didn’t want to leave & is already dying to go back there again one day, which she will.
It was a long, seven hour drive back & Ronnie slept & dreamed of chasing deer all the way home. She knew for sure that she had just been on the best holiday of her whole life.
Chapter Four - Message in a bottle…
One day at the end of February Ronnie woke up & decided she would like to go to the beach. She loves to run through the dunes, hopping about on her hind legs like a kangaroo, trying to flush birds out to chase & meeting all her doggie chums, who all hang out there.
So she got in the car & went up to her favourite beach at Newton By the Sea, in Northumberland. After spending the afternoon hurtling about she spotted a message in a bottle, washed up by the tide on the seashore…
It caught her attention & she was very interested in it & wouldnt leave it alone. Then she made it really clear that she wanted it.
So she took it home to see what was actually inside it.
Once she got it open she had a little inspection of the message it contained. It was from a group of Dutch children called Miriam, Hilde, Wessel, Daan & Jennifer… How cute!!
They had put it into the sea in Holland & the waves had carried it all the way to Ronnie’s feet in England. In it they put their address, to see if anyone would find it & reply…
Ronnie was well up for that & has sent them a big letter in the post, with lots of pictures so they can all be pen-pals.
Obviously, she then demolished it with her gnashers, as is her way.
It’s lovely karma to reply to them & we were dying to see what the Dutch children thought of their message being found by Ronnie & her reply & request to be their new chum.
There was something just a little bit magical about all this & it felt really nice for her to have stumbled upon it so randomly. It’s like the Universe had a purpose for this situation & Ronnie had to follow it through, to see what happened…
It took a while, but in Summertime, Ronnie’s little Dutch friends got back in touch…
She was very excited to get her letter in the post & will be writing back to them, with all her recent news, most of which, you will be able to catch up on too, as it will be posted up on here. This is the lovely letter they sent to her all the way from over in Holland…
Ronnie is someone who always remembers her friends & she aims to always keep in touch with her magical, Dutch, message in a bottle chums.
Chapter 5 - A spot of modelling, an eventful Irish holiday & a fat lip…
Ronnie has been very busy lately. She loves Summer & has been hanging out with all her doggie pals in Jesmond Dene every day & chasing the living daylights out of the elusive, yet surprisingly large rat population that lives down there hiding in the bushes.
She has also had a few little bits of modelling work over the Summer & now features with a pack of Wild African Hunting Dogs, in the newly completed ‘Masai Mara mural’ (see separate section in Stuff We Like), that’s now at the top of the stairs in the Club.
Here is a snap of her from the mural, chilling out with her African cousins in the pack…
One of her puppy photos has become the membership card for the Medsin society of the University & here she is, once again rocking her one floppy little cute puppy ear…
Another of her more stately poses has become the brand new WHQ Club membership card & she takes over from the Jaguar who used to be on our old cards.
All new memberships will now feature Ronnie on the card & she is very excited to be filling Jaguar’s shoes in representing the Club, as our new Queen & Head of State.
She has also been traveling again this Summer. She went over to County Cork on the south west tip of Southern Ireland to hang out for a fortnight for her Summer holidays. She stayed in a place called Rosscarberry which is in a lovely neck of the woods.
The first day she got there loads of little Irish children kept coming up to ask about her. Dogs are obviously a big deal in rural Irish culture & her unique appearance drew crowds of inquisitive & super friendly kids. Ronnine is very gentle with children and every one of them got the big tail wags that are her trademark. They loved her to bits & were all intrigued & asking what kind of hound she was & if she was there to race..?
She knew nothing about it, but it turned out that by chance, she had arrived smack in the middle of the Roscarberry family festival. This is a majorly big deal for the whole town & local area. The entire community take part in a wide variety of totally crazy, drink fuelled & very much family friendly activities, over the course of one really mad week.
That very night the children told her, there was apparently going to be a massive dog race up through the village square. There was also supposed to even be a pig race through the streets that evening as well. As the day went on & she came back from her adventures in the woods, to visit the local bars, it turned out that everything the little children had said was actually true & the whole town was buzzing with anticipation…
The village square was transformed, with barriers etc. & there were hundreds of people of all ages from around the locality, pensioners, babies, everyone. The whole outdoor festivities didn’t kick off until around 9pm & they went on late into the night.
Loads of people had brought their dogs along to race. After a few pints of the Murphys & intense pressure from the local children, it was decided Ronnie should enter…
All the dogs lined up & it was really, really, exciting. A man had a kind of teddy bear thing on a rope attached to a winch, so he could reel it in really quickly & all the dogs could chase it like greyhounds do, all the way up the village square through the crowd.
As the tension built at the start of the race, all Ronnie’s little Irish friends that she had met over the course of the day began shouting & chanting her name - It was just the most surreal moment… Ronnie is not used to that level of noise, all the crowds & the attention. It was intense - far too intense… Just before the gun went off to begin the race, Ronnie slipped her collar, false started & basically just went completely loopy…
She ran off into the crowd like a radge & missed the whole race, galloping through the streets like some crazy wolf, jumping over cars, barking like a rabid loon & just being really properly mad. It took half an hour to get her back on her lead, it was proper nuts!
The funniest thing was that no one there even batted an eyelid… Had she done that in Newcastle someone would have called the cops & they’d probably have given her the Moatie treatment…
But in Southern Ireland people are really laid back & used to dogs. Animals in general seem really highly valued as part of the culture, so the odd spot of doggie high spirits, right through the centre of town on a Saturday night, is really not a big deal there.
Unfortunately for Ronnie she had to go home to calm down, so she missed out on the pig racing that followed… which everything considered, was probably just as well.
So she totally missed the race, but became a local celebrity in the process & the next day was voted second in the Rosscarberry annual dog show, beaten only by an over humanised labrador that could basically do everthing except play the flippin’ piano.
It did so many intricate tricks, you had to wonder if it must have spent it’s whole life practicing them, instead of enjoying the kind if real, wild freedom that Ronnie has. Ronnie doesn’t do tricks, she just lives her life, so second place was cool with her.
Here is the trophy she won, but more importantly while staying there, she won many, many friends among the little children & whole community of Rosscarberry.
During her two weeks in Ireland Ronnie got up to all sorts of stuff. She stayed in two different cottages, both near Rosscarberry. In the first one there were baby cows at the bottom of the garden & surprisingly she got on quite well with them & didn’t try to mash them up. She seems to be able to tell when animals are babies & it’s only really once they become adults that she has a beef (ha! - see what we did there…?) with them.
There was also a straw ornamental duck in the first cottage that she hated & she would have spent hours barking at it if she was allowed. It’s funny how sometimes she just focuses on an inanimate object & rallies against it. She hates surfboards too.
As always, Ronnie spent a great deal of time hunting in the woods. She is a fine sight when she is fully alert, ears up, deep in hunting mode doing all her important things.
As she was staying near the seaside, she also spent a lot of time running on the beach as fast as she could, wearing herself out & skidaddling around up in the dunes.
She is always pleased to meet new dogs & her unconditional friendliness is one of her greatest attributes. Her she is with her new hippy chum who she really took to.
The beaches in this part of Ireland are sparsely populated & very windswept, but due to the effect of the Gulf Stream, they are amazingly warm, even first thing in the morning & last thing at night. Here is Ronnie (you can just see her top left) whizzing around some kind of little spooky driftwood sculpture area she came upon on the beach one day…
She loves to hook up with any new beach chums she meets. Her best chums are always around the same size as her or bigger, as she likes to run, chase & playfight. Fat or minature dogs aren’t much fun for her to play with as she is the cardio queen & likes to run about & mix it up a bit. This Weimarana was great & they went banannas…
Ronnie loves to run & play & it takes other people who have large energetic dogs to really understand her groove. When she is well matched & her chum’s owners get it, they can go on for hours rushing around, chasing & playfighting until they drop.
Really they are really just in their doggie element, having boisterous, high octane, harmless, hilarious fun. It’s all best pals & afterwards they get to be properly worn out.
At night she would go to a little old bar called the Beehive. It was a gem & she loved it & had some nuts there…
There is a large tidal estuary in Rosscarberry, which creates endless seabird chasing opportunities when the tide is out & the mudflats exposed. Ronnie always wanted to check to see if the tide was out & there were birds around, so she could chase them.
She had her little one day fling with the Weimarana, but she also had a full on, proper holiday romance with Ronin the husky. She thought he was a complete dish…
Religion is a big deal in Ireland & all over the place there are statues & effigies of Jesus & his mates. Ronnie isn’t really bothered about religion, she just believes in nature & evolution, but they were still quite nice to see as she travelled the countryside.
While out one day Ronnie had an unfortunate encounter with a big fat hornet. She was doing her usual thing, trying to snap anything that flies by right out of the air & she caught it on the wing as it flew up a tree…
It gave her the mother of all stings & her lower lip swelled right up like a big football…
We had to pull the sting out & suck her lip to get all the poison out. She was a bit subdued for a couple of days, but then recovered like nothing had ever happened.
At the end of her two weeks Ronnie travelled north, to a place called Hollywood near Dublin. They had a crazy little take on the American Hollywood’s sign up on the hill…
Here she arrived totally by chance, yet again, in the midst of a big celebration. All the villagers there were having an ‘old times’ weekend. Only vintage cars were allowed in the village & everyone was dressed up like it was yesteryear.
Old steam engines were going by & donkeys were pulling carts around. There was a load of old, farm type stuff went on & Ronnie thought it was mad & great fun.
There was even a goat, just standing on the wall, but luckily Ronnie was busy tucking into her bone on the ground & didn’t even see it - just as well..!
Ronnie was worn out & stayed for one more night then caught the ferry home. She loved Ireland & will certainly go back there some day soon.
Ronnie is out & about every day so you may see her on her walks around Newcastle. Be sure to stop her & say hello if you do, as she is the the most friendly dog you could possibly hope to meet & would love give you a demonstration of how to wag a tail properly x.
