My favourite human has been laid up sick for a month. No, not the dreaded Coronavirus, but she has had pneumonia, and has underlying lung problems. She has spent many an hour nattering to old friends during this time. Last week, two of them told her of the silly panic buying that was going on because of Coronavirus. One of those friends is in the UK, and the other lives in Australia. She thought that a little strange, and asked second favourite human if that was going on here too. No. So they came to the conclusion that the old buddies were perhaps over exaggerating. They specifically ..read more

 Guess who has just been to the vets? Moi! No, I am not sick.. I have been for my yearly jabs, and for my rabies shot for my pet passport.. I have a little confession to make. this is going to sound really bad. But it is not my fault (for once!). My humans had no idea that I even needed a pet passport, so I have globe trotted with them quite freely without any papers at all. My favourite human is English. She thought us dogs only needed a pet passport to visit the UK or enter one of the external borders into the Schengen zone. Nope, we need them for the internal borders too. Here I am ..read more

 I compiled these questions from around the internet in various blog and Facebook posts. So I thought it would be fun if I answered them. That way, all you fans can gain a valuable insight into my busy life. This is very serious, and I am answering with 100% honesty. You may of course copy this questionaire and post on your own blog or social media, with your own answers of course. So, here goes!   1. What is your full name? Brutus TheTzu. Although officially it is Brutus van Putten. 2. What does your name mean? I think this one is logical. It means brute! In Latin, it means heavy. My humans m ..read more

 My favourite human is sick at the moment, and has been for a few weeks. So I have mostly been keeping her company and chilling on the bed. I haven't been getting my usual excursions either. I cope quite well with this, and I absolutely love cuddles, and snuggly blankets, so I'm quite happy to chill. The other human rescues me and takes me out to catch up on the all important pee mails throughout the day. During which, I'm rather prone to getting the zoomies. All this also means the 2nd in Command human has been experimenting in the kitchen. He is really not gifted in that department, but ..read more

 CHOCOLATE I think we all know that chocolate is bad for dogs. It contains theobromine, as well as a small amount of caffeine. Ingesting small amounts of chocolate, depending on the dog, may cause no apparent harm. Or it may cause vomiting and diarrhoea. This really depends on the size of the dog, the type, and how much chocolate they ate. White chocolate only contains a small amount of theobromine, whereas milk chocolate contains more. Dark chocolate is the worst ..read more

 Enduring all the big storms we've had lately, and with more on the way, I believe, it got me thinking. How much I like the snow. I mean, it's a blast. The humans go all daft, and childlike. They even make snowballs for me. I can act like a puppy again. I still act like a puppy anyway, but when it snows, the humans seem to love when I revert back even more. Who am I to upset the food givers, and snowball makers?! So, feeling a bit blue about the lack of it this year and all the storms in its place, I asked the humans to dig out the photos of me from last year in the snow ..read more

 I don't know about you, but I am seriously fed up with all the storms we've had lately. We've had several gales here since Christmas, that the Netherlands didn't class as storms, but those blustery days left me feeling a little windswept. Then we had storm Ciara. That was a real storm. Even Dutch weather and news sites said so. It was bad on the coast, but milder inland. Well, we live inland and it wasn't mild here! Ok, we live in the country, so it probably felt worse for us as it's so open. We aren't sheltered from the many buildings in bigger towns. We have open fields all around us. Storm ..read more

 Hi there. I'm Charlotte, one of Brutus's human companions, and the editor of this site. After a very busy week, and barking at the gale force winds and garden fence creaking and groaning throughout the night, he is taking a much needed nap. His week was full of the usual antics, bed time zoomies, and just his usual daftness. He loves to do silly things and make me laugh. So I thought I would create a post on facts about Shih Tzu's, which many of you perhaps don't know. Until I became Brutus's owner (I prefer to call myself his companion really, as how can you truly own another living creature ..read more

 I just had the zoomies! Feeling wired! For those who don't know what the zoomies is, it's when dogs (or cats, for that matter) just start running about like we're possessed. We have a crazed look on our faces, and we'll often crash into things. During my zoomies, I will often grab one of my toys and dart about with it in my mouth. Zoomies lasts for a couple of minutes usually, and it's often because we have pent up energy to release. I for one, try to save it for a moment when my humans expect it the least. My sister, the cat always performs hers at about 3am, waking the entire household up ..read more

 Obivously, I don't play the flute. My favourite human does. She plays in a wind orchestra, so she needs to practice daily. When she's practicing, I feel the need to join in. I mean, it's a pack event, right? So, I sit by her feet, jumping up at her, adding to the harmonics. I think I sound awesome too, I might add. She says I add a touch of dissonant harmony. Well that must be good! (feeling pleased with myself). I throw my head right back, and howl as loudly as I can. It is most definitely a competition. I can go louder than the flute! Whoever says Shih Tzu's are quiet breeds, needs to re-th ..read more