Clumberdoodle Archie’s 3rd Birthday April 2020

Clumberdoodle Archie’s 3rd Birthday April 2020

On the 2nd April 2020 Archie celebrates his 3rd birthday (in lockdown due to the Coronavirus).

I had bought a couple of presents weeks ago, well before the Coronavirus hit so they were wrapped (yes wrapped) up and ready for him to open today.

Now one of Archie’s highlights of every day is waiting for the postman.  He looks out of the window and sees the red post van parked up the road and then watches the postman delivering to the other houses and barks incessantly waiting for him to hopefully come down our drive and deposit any letters through the letterbox. Archie waits and as soon as the letters hit the floor he picks them up and then runs into the lounge – waiting for a treat. He gets most upset if the postman doesn’t actually deliver anything and bypasses our house and goes next door.

Our regular postman knows Archie loves to pick up the post and if we see him whilst we our out walking he will deposit the letters straight into Archie’s mouth. We are probably one of a minority who if we do not get any personal post then any junk mail will do as Archie is really pleased with anything!!! Mainly that he knows a treat is on it’s way!!!

As there was no post for Archie to pick up Steve had to go outside and put Archie’s birthday card (yes I know – mad) through the letterbox.  Well he couldn’t have a birthday without any post!!!

Then it was present opening time and Archie loves opening presents. He rips the paper off and spits it out all over the floor before finally revealing the presents. He had some nice presents from us and our Son which you can see in the photo below.  Included was a new treat which I bought from the Company – Nutriment which is his complete raw food.  Ostrich is a new source and I thought he would like to try the  Ostrich Spaghetti treats, which he liked.

Then it was the birthday cake (yes I know) with a sausage candle and the obligatory song (although we are doing a lot of that lately as this is the song that you are supposed to be washing your hands to with the Coronavirus).

I have to admit that luckily I did make 2 smaller cakes last year and froze one so all I had to do was to take it out of the freezer the day before (probably just as well I had prepared one earlier as with supermarket shelves empty due to the Coronavirus I might not have been able to buy all the ingredients) which would have been a disaster.  He was incredibly patient whilst we sang “Happy Birthday with the cake it front of him, I then took it away to cut it into a slice for him to eat and needless to say he loved it.  See the recipe at the bottom of this post.

In previous years we would have gone out in the car to take to the beach or one of his other favourite walks but due to the Coronavirus we were only limited to one  local walk a day, but we are very lucky and have a lovely piece of Dartmoor just a very short walk from our house, which we do enjoy most other days, so we are very lucky and we all love it up there.

Then after a sleep it was playing with what turned out to be his favourite birthday toy -a  little squeaky rugby shape ball which he loved.

During play Archie has a trick that if you get on all fours he will jump up on your back whether outside or inside  This is something he decided to do himself with no training from us.  So beware if you meet him do not go down on all fours or else Archie will land on you!!

After all that running around he decided to relax on the swinging chair

The end to a nearly perfect day.

You can read more about Archie by clicking this link ARCHIE THE CLUMBERDOODLE

Doggy Birthday Cake Recipe

1 Egg
1/4 cup peanut butter (make sure it does not contain Xylitol, which is deadly to dogs, but thankfully most peanut butters do not contain this additive).  Plus extra for the topping
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup of honey (optional)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup of whole wheat flour or white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cooked sausage as the pretend candle

Method
Heat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

Grease a 6 ring mould ring, or 2 smaller ones, or a loaf tin (basically anything you have in the cupboard)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg, peanut butter, vanilla essence, honey and oil.  Add the carrots and then sift the flour and baking soda and add to the mixture.

Spoon it into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 minutes (do the skewer test, as with all cakes and if it comes out clean it is cooked).

Cool in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  I then smothered the top with some peanut butter and add a cooked cooled sausage in the top to look like a candle (I did not light it!!)

NOTE: Archie would love to hear from his siblings and if they have any photos to share how they celebrated their birthdays, or just in general how they are all doing – particularly Biscuit, as they met up on a couple of occasions.  Just to recap Archie was born on 2nd April 2017 at Sleepy Hollow in Bere Alston, Nr Tavistock, Devon by his breeder Kelly.

Clumberdoodle Archie’s 3rd Birthday April 2020