Udaipur is known for its lake, home to the opulent Taj hotel that sits in the middle of it. The hotel was the location for the Bond movie Octopussy, and all around the town are signs advertising this - presumably a way of establishing credibility with the Western tourists who visit.

My mum says Udaipur is one of her favourite places in India - even though she’s not a Bond movie fan. The dogs certainly look like they love it!

I got this email from some new friends recently. Aren’t I lucky!

By the way, Zeus is on the left in the photo and Raven is on the right.

Tipu lives in Ganeshpuri with his human mother, Yogini (who runs a great guest house, and makes the world’s best chai). He has a bit of a cough that the doctor hasn’t been able to fix. Even Sylvia’s healing session didn’t fix it, but he probably adored the attention.

Tipu doesn’t let his cough get him down. He gets on with his life - checking out new visitors, running out the front gate to see what’s going on in town, and making sure he doesn’t miss out on Yogini’s great food (he’s almost on the podgy side - quite unusual for an Indian dog). And when he needs a bit of a rest, he has a good lie down.

Sounds like a pretty good approach to life, don’t you think?

This little puppy was sitting on the road by a pile of rubbish in the Indian village of Ganeshpuri. There are many street dogs in India and most females look like they’ve had several litters. While breeding goes unchecked, little fellows like this one don’t have a lot to look forward to.

In a country like India, these little puppies have the odds stacked against them. Fortunately, they don’t know. For the moment, they were contented - as contented as you can be with a half-empty tummy.

Not all the dogs in India have a hard life. This is Rani, and she’s a very fortunate dog. She lives in Ganeshpuri with her human mum, Yogini, and is well fed and loved. She also has some doggy brothers and a sister: Shakti, Ilu and Tipu.

Rani is a very regal girl, but she has a gentle heart and nature.

And don’t you just love those crossed paws!

Life for street dogs in India is very harsh. Most have bad flea infestations and mange. They are malnourished and eat only the meagre scraps that no one else wants. Many are injured, with damage to their feet and legs from being run over by vehicles on crowded roads.

My mum sang “Happy birthday” to me about five times while I ran around all excited and jumped over all the furniture.

Then she took me for a ride in the car to the local pet shop and let me pick out some treats.  While I was there, there was a cage full of kittens playing.  I really wanted to get into the cage to play with them, but the lady in the shop wouldn’t let me. I also wanted to eat a big birthday cake like the one in this picture. But mum said she wouldn’t buy cake for a dog. She said it would rot my teeth.  Argh!

• At the intellectual end of the spectrum: Maggie the mathematical dog
• And at the other end: Boing, boing.

And not to be left out of things, here’s two videos of my own:

• What I do with toys - part 1
• What I do with toys - part 2

Have fun!

Teddy showed my mum some of the toys he got for Christmas. He got a squeaky chicken, a big blue fluffy bone, and quite a lot more. Teddy’s a spoilt boy. But mum says I am too, so I guess we’re alike in that way.

And Teddy has a few quirky little habits like me - he was sticking his nose in mum’ pockets to see if she had any hankies he could play with, or tissues he could eat. I have to confess to having a bit of a penchant for eating tissues myself. I don’t know my mum freaks out about it. It saves her filling up the rubbish bin with them.

Mum took a few photos of Teddy today - they’re on Flickr if you’d like to have a look.