4 Bungle Stories to make you Smile

Don’t Stop… Retrieving!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Bungle-themed post, in spite of the fact that he appears in almost all the photographs I pop up on the blog and on social media. Let’s be honest, he’s pretty much the star of this show – and everyone’s favourite Goldie. He makes me laugh every single day (as well as my neighbours, who get to see me being humped up and down the street by him) and is literally this woman’s best friend.

Sunny and I were having a chat the other day about some of the funniest things Bungle’s done over the past couple of years and I thought it was high time for a bit of a pup-date and a look back over a couple of his finest moments, as well as some recent corkers…

The Terrifying Child-Eating Lion

If you follow me on Social Media (either over on Twitter or Instagram), then there’s absolutely no way you’ll have missed being spammed by pictures of Bungle in his Lion get-up (sorry, not sorry). Sunny bought the lion mane a couple of years ago after seeing that Amazon Prime advert to surprise me for my birthday, and we just couldn’t resist having some fun with it this Halloween. It’s one of Bungle’s favourite nights of the year because we get lots and lots of visitors ringing the doorbell, and plenty of kids trick or treating because there are loads of young families in our neighbourhood. They all know and love Bungle because he’s such a happy, friendly dog, and so we’re always on the list of houses to stop at. This year, we were prepared. We popped a sign outside the front door with our pumpkins that read “Beware of the Child-Eating Lion”, set up some lion noises to play over our TV speakers, and had Bungle all dressed up and ready to roar.

The first couple of kids were nervous ringing the doorbell, but absolutely loved it when we opened the door and Bungle came rushing out to greet them – so much so that the massive bowl of chocolate I was holding got completely sidelined… for a minute or so, anyway. “Is that a real lion?!” one little girl asked as Bungle slurped at her hand. Some kids laughed and then went straight for the chocolate (“My dog’s got one of those!”), and there were a few younger ones who were nervous until we told them that it was just Bungle dressed up in his own Halloween costume.

Then there were the two kids who knocked the door, took one look at Bungle and then legged it off down the road screaming, “IT’S A REAL LION!!!” Hilarious.

The Cheese Thief

Bungle absolutely loves cheese (I mean, what dog doesn’t?); while he takes begging to the next level with the way he sits in front of you drooling with his big brown eyes, he’s always been really well behaved when it comes to taking food that doesn’t belong to him. He’s never stolen food off the table or the kitchen counters, and so we’ve always trusted him and been happy to leave most things sitting out when we’re in the middle of cooking or eating. Or so we thought.

I decided to treat Sunny to an epic Mexican feast one night – Quesadillas, Nachos, the works – and I’d bought some really nice Applewood-smoked cheese to use (you can’t have Mexican food without cheese, thems the rules). I prepared the Quesadillas whilst Sunny grated a nice big pile of cheese onto a chopping board, ready to top the Nachos. I cooked up filling, fed Bungle his dinner, and then we left everything out to assemble once we were ready to eat.

About half an hour later, Sunny got hungry and told me that he was going to start putting everything together while I curled up with Bungle on the sofa and carried on watching TV. A minute later, there was a shout from the kitchen, “Oi, what did you do with the cheese?” I shrugged and shouted back, “Nothing, I haven’t moved it. You must have.” He shouted back, “Well it’s not here, you must have moved it. Did you put it in the fridge or something?” I groaned as I paused the TV and stomped through to the kitchen to profess my innocence, “I haven’t touched the bloody cheese – YOU grated it, you must have moved it!”

The chopping board was there, the cheese grater was there, but the mountain of cheese had completely disappeared. There wasn’t even a shred of it left behind – just a light glaze over the chopping board where it had been sitting. We puzzled over it for a couple of minutes until I found a small thread of blonde hair hanging off the chopping board. A good few minutes passed while we doubted it, until we went through into the lounge where Bungle was curled up on the sofa and sniffed his very smoky, very cheesy breath.

The Pheasant

We’re really lucky to have an open field within a few feet of where we live and of course, it’s Bungle’s favourite place in the whole world. In the winter he loves heading up there to chase kids playing around on sleds, and in the summer he loves rolling around in the long grass. It’s also my favourite place to walk him because he tends to misbehave for me on the lead (he drags me around and humps my legs and just generally turns me into the neighbourhood laughing stock…) – the field is enclosed, so I can just let him off to run around and do his thing, and usually he’s really well behaved. Usually.

I took him up there one Sunday morning; we walked a whole lap without a problem and I was just about to call him over to put him back on the lead when he went sniffing around in one of the hedges. I stood waiting patiently for a couple of minutes, and then pulled a face when I saw him emerge with what looked like a bright red t shirt. Bit odd, I thought, as I watched him drag it out and trot towards me. I got a better look as he brought it over; it was a red, green and brown t shirt. With a beak. And EYES. It wasn’t a t shirt, it was actually a very dead, very fresh pheasant.

When I yelped, Bungle legged it off into the field – thrashing the limp body of the pheasant around in a shower of red and green feathers. Stupidly, I chased after him. I mean was I actually going to grab the dead pheasant when (IF) he stopped? No way was I playing that game of tug of war. So instead I tried to lure him over with treats. He wasn’t interested. I tried to run away from him. He wasn’t interested (and was now lying down with the pheasant and starting to rip it apart). I played dead, hoping he’d panic and rush over to see if I was okay. He didn’t notice. Dick. Despairing, I eventually called Sunny and begged him to come and rescue me, and as soon as he appeared over the crest of the hill like bloody Julie Andrews about to break into song, Bungle dropped the pheasant and went rushing over to greet him. DICK.

The New Coat

Bungle’s got a lot of floof (the technical term for his fur), and so not only does he shed like crazy (we have to hoover every single day or we get balls of it rolling across the hard floors like tumble weed), but wet walks are a nightmare. His fur seems to absorb it like a sponge, and the fur hanging from his belly soaks up all the wet dirt and grit from the street too.

While it’s just something you’ve got to expect when you get a dog, if there’s anything that can make life a little easier then I’m all for it. Wales is a wet place; it rains pretty much 80% of the year. He’s got a towel jumper that we throw on him if he’s really wet (stops him shaking mud onto my walls), but this year I decided to bite the bullet and convinced Sunny to get him an anorak. With a hood.

Yes, he looks ridiculous – but you know what? It works! Now he comes back from his walks soggy rather than soaked, and I’ll take that. But he gets far more attention than he usually does when he wears it, so he’s happy! 🙂