Today we hear from Finbar on the ground in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His human, Dr Rena Maguire, is a member of the Viking Dublin Dogs' Researcher Pack. Finbar keeps Rena on the straight and narrow!
So let's hear from Finbar...Rena translated as best she could - AWWOOOOO!!
Image 1: Ladies, my rugged outdoors look.
My morning starts with a long refreshing piddle in my back yard, before my serving women feed me and inject me with my insulin. I stretch and get ready for data-gathering sessions in my favourite parks. As a dog of science, versed in archaeometric methods, my nose tells me most things, and sniffing has become very important to me as my eyesight declined. Sniffing, in fact, is my equivalent of checking my Twitter likes and replies.
Image 2: Resting between meals and walks. It's a very important part of the day.
I hang out with my girlfriends (most of who are small, white and floofy – ladies, call me if you match this description) and my wingmen Alfie and Rollo. Then it’s time for home and more food and perhaps a wee nap in between my walks and battle practice with squeaky things which keeps me ninja-like for apprehending marauding rodents, as in my senior years I have become more mellow with cats, even having friends such as Marvin, Hunter and Tia, who are all right fellahs despite being cats.
Image 3: The Homies. A good pack of lads. Nearly like Vikings. But smaller.
Image 4: Marvin. He's alright like. For a cat.
Sometimes I like a little practice of the oul’ romance on the arm of a human, which keeps my paw in for the canine laydees. The humans protest loudly, but practice makes perfect, and it’s well known I am, in fact, perfect in every way.
Image 5: If it was good enough for Burt Reynolds years ago, it's good enough for me.
My walks, food and insulin keep me fit and healthy, as I have a demanding academic schedule each day. I often offer feedback to the human servants worriedly mumbling their latest writings, or conference papers, although frankly I could do better. Perhaps I’ll offer an insight into some Germanic dogs, like the now-extinct Ratfanger pinscher, which affenpinschers like myself, my cousins the Brussels Griffs and Schnauzers are descended from – a noble, early medieval bloodline. Skulls of those ancestors have been found in the Jura Mountains dating as early as 3000 BC. I do wonder, as I’m cuddled by humans in bed of an evening, if some of my daring predecessors hopped on those dragon-prowed Viking boats to Ireland or further afield. We’re an adventurous bunch, affies, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all!