I am afraid here will be no more Patch Patrols -
In July 2009, after three days of heavy rain, the sun came out in the afternoon at Muirshiel and Patch and I went down to the waterfall path - to look for Common Blue Butterflies.

Unfortunately, whilst I was trying to take photos of the butterflies, Patch had gone ahead to the pool above the waterfall. I had told him not to go swimming, and he did wait for me for quite a while - he was there when I looked up to check - and then suddenly he wasn't!
The river was in spate, and when I couldn't see him, I just knew that he had disobeyed and gone in for a swim - in the pool above a 25foot waterfall - and he had been swept over and down the river.

I went searching for him - in the hope that he had just been swept downstream - but with all the large boulders and rocks below the waterfall - I could not hold out much hope. I found him one and a half hours later, over a half mile downstream. His body was on top of a large boulder but his head was bobbing up and down under the water, so I knew even before I could get to him that he was dead.

I managed to get his body to the bank, and a couple of the other Rangers - Len and Ken, came and helped me to carry him back to the centre.

He is now buried in my back garden, and I still miss him even after six months.

The 26th of April, was a SPONSORED DOG WALK at Castle Semple, and as my human was occupied doing Face-painting [making children look like dogs?, I went along with one of the organisers to help check that the route was suitable for my four legged friends!
It had been a long day, as I had gone round the course twice myself [but with different people, and then John the Senior Ranger decided to take me along on a patrol by the river, where I had had a nice swim to cool off, however, I had lost my doggy bag holder top, so my human Elspeth, took me back along in the evening, after she finished the faces, and I had several more swims in the river - after picking up several bottles and drinks cans from the awkward places along the river bank. And we did manage to find my lost 'top' too - next to the bridge where I had gone in for a dip earlier in the day!!

Having a swim at the end of a long hard day is great fun for me- but my human said it made the car smell a bit on the journey home
- I suppose wet dog fur is an aquirred smell!!




The previous week I had been checking out all the new lambs on the way down the road from Muirshiel - They don't get nervous as long as I stay in the car and don't bark at them!!

Snowy fun

Boy is it cold just now!!

I have been having a lovely time up at Muirshiel, but yesterday I went over to the river for my usual morning dip --- but it was very slippy at the edges. Suddenly there was a loud crack and the groud gave way beneath my paws and I was up to my elbows in very cold water!. Luckily I was right at the edge and able to get back onto the riverside without any problem, but I decided it was too cold to go for a swim today. We went round on our usual patrol, and my hman kept stopping to take photos, sometimes I got into them, but then I gave up and just lay down to wait for her.

In the afternoon, we went up to the old Barytes mine [- a substance they used to use in paint and toothpaste and Barium meals apparantly]. There was snow all over the track as the majority of the track gets no sunshine in the winter - so the snow lies around - although the heather is so deep that lots of it pokes up through the snow cover if it is not too deep. It was probalbly about two inches deep on average - enough to over my paws!

It was very powdery snow, my human tried to make a snowball for me - several times - but when she threw them they just became a shower of ice crystals again - although I stilled tried to catch them! I a just glad she didn't try to throw any of the huge icicles which were on the rock face!

Woof Woof - or 'Hello' in English

Hello, my name is Patch, and I am a Ranger Dog. That is I go along with my human to her work, as a Countryside Ranger, and I do some work with her. Most recently [2008] we have been based up in the hills above Lochwinnoch at a place called Muirshiel Country Park, however perhaps I should start at the beginning - like most good story-tellers.
I joined my present human in 2007, after my previous humans had 'fallen - out' and had both moved to places which did not let them keep dogs!! This was very distressing, as it meant that my sister and I were both taken to the Dog's Trust and left there, in the hope that we would find some new humans who could take us in. My sister got taken away almost immediately, and I was only just settling in there, getting used to sharing the kennel and the short exercise breaks when volunteers would take me a walk to the exercise field and play with me.
I had just returned from one of these walks when yet another new human scent approached me, and chucked me under the chin! She offered to take me for another short walk and we headed back around towards the exercise field - me pulling her along to show her the way, - I was only a 'teenager then being three and a half years old! Anyway, she was strong enough to keep me pulled back and didn't fall over or start running like some people used to, so I liked her.
She must have liked me too as she came back about a week later and took me out to her car for a nice trip. I didn't realise that she was taking me to her home at the time, and that she had asked to take me back to her home on the day she saw me! However the Dog's Trust insisted that they check that the home would be a good and safe home for me before they would let me go.
Turned out they thought it would be ideal when they heard that she was a Countryside Ranger AND she had an enclosed garden which was about a third of an acre in size - plenty big enough for me to run around and stretch my legs when I wanted!
This was back in March 2007 [human time] and I have been loving my life since then.