Hairy Maclary.... The dog isn't called Blitzer Maloney

[5FootMama]

He's called BITZER Maloney.
I have been reading this as Blitzer for about 8 years until my friend queried this the other day 😬

Whoops!!

Is it actually possible to read this book without employing a different accent for each dog name? I don't think it is.
Bitser Maloner = Southern Irish
Muffin McClay = Yorkshire (sort of breathy/hoarse)
etc

*Bitser Maloney. Damn my fat fingers.

I love these books.
My mind was blown when I found out that a "dairy" in New Zealand is a shop like a convenience store / corner shop!!
I'd always pictured Hairy Maclary in Donaldson's dairy surrounded by milk churns

We had trouble with the rhyming a few times🤣
One of the books rhymes door and paw as a couplet.
Obviously N Zealanders can do this !
We tried and tried to make it work and had giggles doing it.
(West Coast Scotland accents don't rhyme door and paw🤣)

@SquishySquirmy

"Bitzer" was a common name for a mongrel dog, I thought? Eg, "bits o' this, bits o' that"

Oh my god, how dim am I never to have realised this!

Yabu, but I'll let you off because it implies you are familiar enough with the book that you no longer read it, just quote from memory which demonstrates good taste.

A modern version wouldn't work, the owners would be joining the procession to screech he wasn't a mongrel but £3k worth of pedigree labra basset Bernese border lhasa doodle poo

Used to love all those books and videos. My favorite was Schnitzel Von crum and his basket being changed. We lived in New Zealand when my first two's Ds's were toddlers. I ahve saved all the books for any future grandchildren ! Timeless classics.

All skinny and bony!

Oh I've always read it as Blitzer. Blitzer Maloney all skinny and boney. Schnitzel von krumm with a very low tum

I had no idea they were NZ books. That DOES explain Donaldson’s Dairy.
My favourites are the Popadom Kittens.

I love these! Although being a cat person, I love the Slinki Malinkis even more 😁 Early bird is brilliant 😂

In fact, it should be obvious from my username how much I love them 🤣

Muffin Maclay like a bundle of hay! DD loves these books!

I always have to giggle when I see the Hairy Maclary books in the Scottish section at Waterstones.

And Custard the labrador in the vet's, with whom nothing rhymes....
Also Noodle the Poodle and Barnacle Beasley.

My favourite ever children's books. I did think they were Scottish though

My kids know if I've had a bad day they come to me with Zachary Quack as it never fails to make me smile 😃

@FlatterNow

In fairness, I have spent a lot of today trying to get 6 year old DD to pronounce the 'n' in 'Schnitzel Von Krum'

My kids loved these. Slinky Malinky, Scarface Claw and all the gang. Great books

The love of these books inspired my username!

One of the books rhymes door and paw as a couplet.
Obviously N Zealanders can do this !

And South Londoners :)

I can still recite huge chunks of these book having read them to three children. They were amongst my favourites as they flowed so beautifully.

I washed SoupDogg's cushion the other day and, as I put it back in the bed I thought "was it cosy and comforting? No, not a bit." 😂

I have a scottie and. I really really wish I'd called him Mclary. Similarly DD has a sausage she regrets calling frankfurter and not Schnitzel Von Krum.
Best books ever those.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

Ahh but they bow in the face of Slinkey Malinky who can Open The Door .

My own two Slinky Malinkys are raging that I have round ceramic doorhandles that they cannot leap on to lever open (and they're a bit on the chubby side anyway)

Have to agree, Slinky Malinky is the best character of all.

I love these books. I was stood waiting for my bus home from work a few weeks ago and saw a woman walking a dog which looked distinctly like Hairy Mclarey. I was far more excited than a grown woman should be. The owner was a little when I told her who her dog looked like

“Drowsily warm with dozens of bees.”

That’s how we still describe the weather if the sun is shining & we’re having coffee on the patio. Shhh, our kids are now in their 20s…

Hairy McLarey & Zachary Quack was a favourite at bedtime.

I love that these are popular in the UK - do you all know Donaldson’s Dairy is a corner store? I always think of it as such a kiwi thing.

@AlanThePig

I have a scottie and. I really really wish I'd called him Mclary. Similarly DD has a sausage she regrets calling frankfurter and not Schnitzel Von Krum. Best books ever those.

I've got a dachshund who has been called Schnitzel Von Krum a time or two by the parents of admiring children.

Our previous dachshund must have heard us reading the books when DD was small ... once when I was packing our suitcase for a holiday I found he'd tucked himself into it. Forget me not, indeed.