Fully Vetted

Feliway is a marvellous product.  It is a natural way of calming cats.  Some clever person has bottled the pheremone cats emit when they are relaxed and happy and turned it into a plug-in diffuser that spreads happy cat vibes all over your home.  It has countless uses for stressed-out felines; when you move house or when you are trying to introduce a new household member (such as a baby.)

DAP  is the canine equivalent of Feliway.  The clever people bottled the pheremone that mummy dogs emit when they are feeding their babies. 

The animals have been very calm about our new arrival. It makes me wonder if I’m emitting some pheremones at present.  If I am, the cat seems to like them

I’ve had a baby!  As far as I can make out, babies are just like kittens or puppies.  Cute, adorable, cuddly also expensive and messy.

Betty’s Babies - 5 old weeks today

…the cat plays… on their beds

I blame it on his mixed up kittenhood.  He was fostered at such a young age by us, the Spaniels are his only point of reference.  

He also chases sticks and eats dog biscuits.

I am now the owner of 2 designer dogs after parting with large amounts of cash in the pet extraordinarium, a new posh pet boutique that has opened down the road.

I was toying with the idea of buying the old boy, Spot, a winter coat as he does tend to feel the cold, especially if he gets wet. So I popped inside the shop for a quick look.

Once browsing their range of doggie coats I became totally seduced by the designer collection. There were a range of very warm and practical coats that would have done the job just fine but something had caught my eye ”The Sherlock Holmes.”  Never mind that it was more than twice the price of the other coats. Spot just had to have it.

Took both dogs into the shop so Spot could have his personalised fitting carried out. They were very welcoming towards dogs and even had a special jar of biscuits to share with them.

And this is where it gets a bit silly…

.. I started trying coats on Sproket. He never feels the cold and loves getting wet but he just looked so sweeet in the latest doggy Parka.  So I parted with even more cash than intended. Ooops. 

(Is it me or does Sproket look a shade unhappy at being dressed up?)

One downside is that Spot’s fetish for rolling in poo and Sproket’s need to cool off in Muddy trenches will mean the designer coats will be trashed in no time at all. 

And finally, a plea to the shop.  I hope you are still as welcoming towards dogs after Sproket spotted the toy stand.  He is rather exceptionally obsessive and I’m sure other dogs will be much better behaved.  It was the tennis ball bucket that set him off and I’m so sorry that he dived headlong into the whole thing. I hope it didn’t take too much time to clear things up.

Born 28th October and still hiding under the bed. 

Betty actually seems to have got together with a very large black tomcat and produced 4 black kittens and 1 tabby kitten.  Photos to follow when they emerge…

Betty is eating and drinking well and is keeping condition on. I always recommend a very high calorie diet for animals feeding their brood.  They can loose an awful lot of weight trying to feed so many, particularly when they get bigger.  Hills Kitten food is ideal for nursing queens.

Betty is pregnant. She turned up at the surgery 1 week ago and appears to have no owners coming forward so we have opened a special maternity wing in The Kitten Academy (AKA our nurse Ros’ house)

I scanned Betty’s tiny tummy and can see 4 or 5 kittens.  I think she will give birth in the next 4-7 days and am a little concerned that the kittens seem Huuuuge for teeny Betty. So there are my predictions…

…but as to what will emerge?  Can’t tell you how exciting it is to see what little kittens will be produced. Has tiny fluffy tabby Betty got together with large fat ginger tomcat to produce rainbow colours of babies? 

I’ll keep you posted.  And by the way, think they almost all spoken for, particularly if we increase the pressure campaign on Keith Saynor.

In the late 1930’s  Mr Tibshelf, of Tibshelf kennels bred a Labrador that turned out brown instead of yellow or black. A stroke of marketing genius occurred that day when he decided that this would be called a Chocolate Labrador. 

Chocolate Labrador, what a better name to conjure warm fluffy feelings of love. A brief look at Chocolate labs registered at our surgery show they are particularly popular with first time dog owners.  Possibly this group of people have a more romantic notion of pet ownership and are won-over by the sexy name.

But people, be warned, Choccie Labs are crazy creatures.   I can’t confess to have done any precise research into the subject but they do seem even more exuberant and hyperactive than the average black or yellow lab pup.  I can’t decide if that’s because they’re owned by first timers (and possibly the tiniest bit spoilt) or if there is a gene responsible for this. 

The breed are also the highest claimers on pet insurance policies according to petplan insurance company.

All that said, they are  lovely creatures but please don’t overlook the more boringly named yellow and black labs when considering a pup. I wonder if their rise to popularity would have been as steep if they were brown labs?

Today I was sat with one dog on my knee (not strictly allowed in this household but he caught me at a weak moment) and the other sat on my feet.  I was able to stroke one dog with each hand,  which is why the old adage 2 hands, 2 dogs is so true.

These dogs had just eaten their dinner and finished off a chew. They were content. 

Something was bothering me in this happy moment though;  Why weren’t they purring?

Cats’ purring stems from kittenhood. When they feed they purr to reassure their mother they are getting fed ok.  It is a response that stems from being content and also follows them into adulthood.  It’s lovely.

I was never bothered about this before but now the fact that dog’s don’t purr really concerns me.  Is this my transition from dogist to catist?

I have been dog-sitting this week. Pringle has joined the Spaniels.

Pringle is a typical Jack Russell.  She’s game for absolutely anything. Totally tireless , irrepressible. However, as the well known saying goes; two’s company, three’s a crowd…

This saying bears a lot of truth when it comes to canine companions. Staying in control of three dogs is totally impossible. This is how it works:  You just about  persuade one dog to obey, turn your attention to the second dog to ask it to do the same and by the time you have their attention, the third one has distracted the first…and so on… There is no way of staying in control. I have come to the conclusion that as we have 2 hands, we should only ever have 2 dogs.

I like Pringle in a funny sort of way. I admire her spirit and determination however I can’t wait for her to go home to leave me with two naughty but sort-of  under control Spaniels.