Little Gifts

I am an ex farm girl who has experienced a mouse plague but still can't use the kill traps because it seems an awful way to go - half the time they just snap down on a leg or something. I release mine in a park near a big industrial bin containing what I hope are yummy mouse type snacks. I know that means they end up at someone else's place eventually but the buddhist in me thinks everything has a place in this world (except cane toads). Maybe there are stray and hungry cats out there thanking me right now! As for baits and dogs or cats - I would never ever even take the risk. Even if it didn't kill them it could hardly be good for their long term health.

When I was a teenager I was running down a hill at a park on the Gold Coast and a big hairy Old English Sheepdog was running up the hill. We collided, rolled down the hill together and it was LOVE! Mind you I only ever had the one OES (which I got to choose as a pup from a breeder when I was 16) as Phobie could never be replaced. We all adored her and treated her like a lap dog - dress ups and shopping trips. I still remember mum making a big silverside for dinner one night (we had guests) and Phobie took it boiling hot straight off the tray in the kitchen and inhaled it. All my other dogs since then have been in need of a home, pure breds and cross breeds, all mainly furry things. My first staffy was 15 years ago and they continue to be the breed I take in when I can because of their general attitude. And the talking - I love that. Since being on DOL I have been following the pug thread a lot and I figure when I am too old to manage a muscly staffy I might take up pugs because I really like their attitude as well.

I started writing about one incident then remembered another, and another, and another. All about one particularly 'unlucky' family member called Bundy (My Rainbow Bridge boy). I never thought I was such a bad mother - I like to think he was more challenging than my other fur babies given no-one else has fallen under the stairs, out of a moving car, got locked in the shed, run into rather than over walls, had dried gyprock all over his face, been left hanging by his butt from the landing. He made us laugh and made my vet wealthy enough to buy her own practice!

We have 3 dog house and not one of them can catch the mice that come and go! And their access point is a hole under the stairs (that goes to under the house) that one of the doggies made as her own version of a doggy door! I use a couple of different traps with varying success. Can't think of the brand names but I got them at Bunnings and they are hard plastic things. One is like a trap that closes over the whole mouse so you can release them somewhere else (but not near my home thank you!) I smear peanut butter inside as the sticky mess seems to need more mouse effort to remove. The other item I bought was around $25. It is like a large plastic book which a smoky grey lid that slides on and off. The mice walk in and can't walk out. I've caught and released quite a few using this thing. No bait required and I have no idea why it works but it does.

I'm here in Brissie and have sent the word around work to anyone I know from the Camira area. BFR also have Spaghetti's info up on Facebook spreading the word further amongst the pet lovers in SEQ. He is the kind of dog you wont see many of so hopefully he gets spotted very soon.

I worked in an office close to home that allowed dogs to come to work (as well as babies and children). If I ever worked the weekend the dogs would come in and have the run of the place. Myself and another lady had dogs very scared of storms so we often went home and brought our dogs back to work with us. It was all a compromise for us needing to work some odd/long hours to meet critical deadlines. I worked at another office for the same organisation and thinking the same deal applied I bought my old boy to work one day because he wasn't doing so well. I sent a courtesy email around saying there was a dog in my pod for the next couple of hours. All these people came round to double check thinking I was sending a fake email! Why the hell would someone do that???? Anyway it was a funny day. I had the boys lead looped around my chair and got called into a fairly major meeting. Since he hadn't moved all morning I went in for my 5 min speech. Not long after, the whole meeting saw him strolling down the hallway dragging my chair, looking for me.....

So many great ideas! We put on the thick doggy PJ's, jackets or hoodies as soon as the temp starts dropping in the early evening. I tend to get them a little larger so her bum and thighs are covered when she is lying down - almost like a cape. Keeping them warm as they get older makes a big difference to their comfort and mobility.

Wear ear plugs to bed and you wont even notice the snoring!

I feel your pain. My youngest staffy is now 2.5 and we have given up on the yard - while she doesn't eat the plants she has eaten all the garden lights, decking, display items, outdoor furniture and dug holes deeper than herself. Anything not locked away (like the mower or wheelbarrow) is chewed. Oh and that includes all the specific chew toys we got her! Inside she is worse. Only one week ago she was left inside for 3 hours (with the other dogs) and ate every doona and pillow in the house. The problem has definately improved as she gets older but she just seems to be the kind of dog that needs to taste test everything and gets terribly excited (ie possessed) by fluff! She has two other dogs for company who she adores and actively plays with, as well as tug and stuffed toys I play specifically with her with everynight, as well as exercise by herself and with the other dogs. We had to proof our house from her - nothing on low surfaces and things locked behind doors and doors shut as she will get up on anything. She is normally baby sat when we go out or she wears a light muzzle. She is getting better but I don't think she will ever not taste test. You might have a kindred spirit but that doesn't mean another dog will have the same behaviours. maybe look at getting a slightly older dog that you already know is well behaved to guide your younger boy? Always plenty of fantastic staffies looking for rehoming!

I used to work with an accident inspector and learnt a few important things. A big injury causer in crashes is the projectiles inside cars. ALWAYS secure pets, people and possessions. And don't let passengers sleep with their seats reclined - on impact the seat belt doesn't work the same as when a seat is in the upright position and sleepng passengers can slip out of the seat and seat belt and become projectiles. The worst I saw was a chain saw sitting in the back seat with a young girl, short car trip, car rolled several times - I'll let you can imagine what the chain saw did to her. I always keep that one in mind when I am tempted to put anything untethered in my car. So any of you with crates please also think about making them secure - you can't control what other eejits are doing on our roads but you can control your own safety inside. Having said all that, I just bought a new wagon and pick it up this wednesday and I decided not to get the cargo barrier installed because they are a job to remove if you want to use the whole cargo area, and I would use the whole thing, not just the boot area, more often than I have the dogs in the car. I'm hoping I have made the right decision now? Eek! My dogs have always been secured into the seat belts on the back seat so I was going to continue with what works. I was going to make my own fur cover for the backseats with slit for where the belts click in. I dread to think about the outside duco though - do I wrap the entire car in bubble wrap before and everytime the dogs approach it????

My dogs always slept in the laundry at night without a problem. In my current house we even replaced one laundry door with a sliding half door to allow more fresh air to circulate in summer and so that the dogs could still hear and play guard dog for me during the night as I was living on my own at that time. Then one of the dogs got very sick and I had her sleep on the bed with me a couple of nights so I could watch her. Then the old boy was not well so he was on the bed too. Suddenly no one would sleep in the laundry anymore - they were even jumping the half door during the night and coming onto the bed all by themselves! If I shut my bedroom door they would be sniffing and scratching at it all night! When my old boy passed on I decided it would be back to the laundry for all future dogs. So when my next rescue pup came along she went to the laundry first night while my old girl got on the bed as usual. I didn't count on my old girl crying and carrying on all night till the pup was sleeping with us on the bed (even though the pup was perfectly content with the laundry after being in a kennel)! So much for being alpha! Now even my sister's dog sleeps on my bed with my other two and if I'm lucky they leave me some room. I have been known to sleep across the bottom of the bed out of desperation for some fur free sleeping space! The wierd thing now is I can't get to sleep unless all dogs are on the bed with me and I wake as soon as one jumps off.

G of E I am now almost 47 years old and am not the person I was in my teens and 20s. The people I was with in those countries over those years were all the family I had in those days so I did my best to fit in. I ate what I had available - I didn't have the option to go to Maccas or cook for myself. I was a vegetarian for 15 years after that so it obviously had an impact on my life. I do feel bad about my experiences back then which is what I was trying to share - my mixed feelings. The treatment of animals particularly in poorer asian areas is horrific. I saw many things that made me very distressed but the situation is so widespread and so generationally imbedded. I didn't feel empowered as I do now. The rights of animals are very important to me here in Australia but as for other countries I have travelled or lived in it is so very different that I know they don't see it like we do. Asian countries in particular will cage and eat anything. They like things very fresh and believe things like if you eat a monkey's brains then it is good for your own brain. Have you ever seen traditional chinese food? It all has head and eyes and feet on it. Nothing is wasted and nothing is considered morally wrong to eat (unless for religious reasons). I can still cherish animals and recognise that other parts of the world may never share my feelings and beliefs. I also try to accept when I am travelling to out of the way places that their staple diet is not necessarily my own when I am at home - hence the camel eating when I had to. The camel belt? I'm still uncomfortable about that since I don't even buy leather shoes or handbags. Sometimes when you are surrounded by carved bone trinket boxes being sold by very poor people you buy one without making the connection with the original source. I try to learn from my experiences each time.

Beenleigh Vet Hospital has specials on every Wed or Tues for desexing. Dr Renate Atkins has been my vet there for donkey's years and price wise they are very reasonable as well as mighty fine, animal loving vets (and vet nurses). Their number is 3287 2599.

I have very mixed feelings on all this. For about 15 years I was a vegetarian, mainly because I never looked a raw meat and thought mmmm yummy a nice steak for dinner. All I saw was lumps of raw meat rather than food so I gave up bothering. I eat it again now but only when the mood strikes. From when I was 17 to about 25 I lived in Hong Kong, China and here in Australia in asian communities. I know I ate a lot of non-traditional animals including a lot of dog. Back then I was surrounded by strange food options, people who loved to eat those strange foods and conditions that saw what we might consider a pet treated as a commercial product. I commonly saw 'chow dogs' confined to boats and when they were at the right age the family would slaughter and eat them. I saw snakes and frogs killed in front of me, skinned, gutted and sold for cooking. I saw sharks fins and bears paws for sale in markets, I ate turtle from its huge upturned turtle shell, there were plastic containers on the dirty streets containing fish that had to swim on their sides to keep covered by the shallow water. The two worst was the whole fish dipped in boiling oil and served at our table still kicking (which I ate some of) and the live monkey whose skull was sliced off at the restaurant table so everyone could pick out and eat its brains while they were still 'live' (I did not participate in this but my chinese father in law at the time did). I feel bad about all this being an animal lover but know that my asian experiences were really about me trying to desperatly fit in with everyone else. I was the only caucasian and foreigner amongst a myriad of locals and didn't know what else to do but eat what everone else did and try to ignore the conditions the animals were kept in. This kind of thing is not morally right in Australia but every other country has its own view on what is food and how it is treated. I was in Morocco 3 years back I ate camel several times and bought a camel belt. Some people would be horrified but camel is a regular food over there so I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary in that country. I wouldn't eat any of these things out here - I don't even buy leather shoes. And I do care how my meat is killed here in Australia. Hence my mixed feelings on this issue in regards to other cultures and countries. I'm not sure I can tell them what they should and shouldn't do.

Goosey, K9Angel has very recently had a horrible parvo experience with a foster pup called Luki. You could PM her for some words of comfort/advice or check under the rescue area for the thread about Luki. He is doing so well now despite how desperate things were for him not so long ago.

You know there is something else to come out of this. From what has been shared with us on this thread from people close to Jed the RSPCA were there at a time of need for her and her animals. They did what I hope an organisation like that can do - they helped animals and owners in a crisis and then handed the animals on to the longer term care of others in a position to take over. I just want to thank them for that. It shows to me they do care.

I come from a very dysfunctional family and as a result have had some terrible relationships of my own. My younger sister is the same and independantly we made concious decisions not to have children - for us it just seemed like we wouldn't do a good enough job and we weren't willing to risk it given how precious children are. So I've always had a rescue dog or three and my sister has one. I don't feel we treat them like replacement children, but they have given us the opportunity to be safely responsible for another living thing in a way we could not have done with actual children. And their unconditional love and adoration is something we have learnt from over the years. I am very grateful for that and try not to take their presence in my life for granted. Every day has its own magic.

I tried a different approach with my boy. He was scared of thousands of different things and started the panting and trying to crawl inside my skin long before I could hear the storm approaching. Once it hit he would shake uncontrollably. He was rarely left alone day or night because he had hurt himself chewing through walls and barricades over storms and fire works when left unattended and you can't always predict nature. Anyway after a few years of all this I took a different approach. I decided to try and distract him with normalcy. I would talk to him and play with him and call him to walk with me around the house to do little chores with me, I'd give him massages and we'd change his collar or organise his food, whatever I could think of at the time, even if it meant getting out of a lovely warm bed. It wasn't molly coddling though - basically I'd try and engage and get him more focussed on me rather than how he was feeling. He certainly got more manageable but was never desensitised to it all. It seemed like it almost hurt his head rather than caused him fear/anxiety. Eventually I'd only have to focus my energies on him for about 5 - 15 minutes, talking and massaging and he'd settle next to me with only light panting.

My sister used to work in natural therapies so we have used drops made up by a naturopath for arthritis and epilepsy with great success. I don't have contact with this naturopath now but my vet is now homeopathic so provides things like calendula cream for rashes and nux vomica bole for vomiting. I'm all for trying the natural stuff given that it can hardly be having a placebo affect when our animals don't even know they are getting it. Taking this a step further we have also used crystals on our dogs. Our best achievement has been using magnetised hematite for an old dog with joint problems and some amethyst to calm a dog who acts like a princess. We just choose small crytals we feel a connection with and use fishing line or fine leather to tie the stones on the insides of their collars. We did put a clear quartz crystal on our youngest staffy and she went beserk. She settled down again after the crystal came off. We have been using crystals for a couple of years and have never had a swallowing incident because we don't let them dangle and attract naughty doggy attention.

I bought a dog pram recently for my old staffy girl. She fits but not much room for other crud in there (the snacks and water and toys go in the tray underneath). She is terribly embarrassed about it all but it means she can be with us and the other dogs for longer outings. I was going to buy a second hand baby pram but the dog pram was lighter to manouvre and the sides are enclosed so she can't jump out and hurt herself. My friends think it is hilarious but some times you just have to let the other kids poke fun at you.....

I am quite jealous of this kind of understanding some people have with animals, like they speak the same language. There used to be a local guy in my little town who could turn a wild bird into a pet within a couple of hours. We ended up using him with a galah that had been injured as a chick and couldn't be released back into the wild. It went to a fantastic new home where it adored its human companion. And an ex of mine had a thing with stray cats. He was a chinese guy and would catch all these strays behind the restraurants he worked at. He would catch them with little effort and fuss (certainly no scratches from the cats) and just hold them against his chest till they stopped struggling. Most ended up going home with him or other people he worked with after he had 'tamed' them. I saw him do it dozens of times. I also saw him stop a guard dog from launching an attack on him one day. Animals just acted differently around him like he wasn't a threat. Mind you he was a arsehole as a boyfriend!

I am noticing some change on the vivitonin. My girl has always hated being fussed over (strange for a staffy!). I went to put her jumper on Tues night and she growled at me because she didn't feel like being touched. She has been getting off the bed every night and coming around my side of the bed when she wants to go out for a piddle, although not actually making any noises to wake me. Last night she slept on the floor because she can't get onto the bed by herself and I never woke up. And she has a bit more coordination and has been able to turn around from tight places (no more stuck beside the toilet!). Aside from that I haven't seen much other improvement. Still some huge piddles on the timber floors if I don't guide her straight outside in the mornings or during nightly toilet breaks but still nothing on the bed while we are sleeping. It is probably what I expected but might still get more. Sorry it didn't work for your girl Trish. My girl hates the rain with a passion so if I ever find her standing out in it like yours then I would be really worried!

You know those goats that faint when they get excited? Well I have a dog that gets to that point. She has to take a moment to calm herself down and take a deep breath. It's like she hits adrenaline overload waiting for you to get out of the car, cross the lawn and walk in the door, so that when you are in the door she has lost all functioning. My sister's dog is a talker so whenever one of us walks in the door she is rah, rah rahing away, telling us all about her day. Who could live without the adoration....

I am just addressing this with my almost 16 year old staffy. My vet has diagnosed dementia (there are other indicators besides their forgetting their toilet traning - try the test on www.maturedogs.com to see other signs that are probably evident). After a kidney test she has started on some medication and I will know in a couple of days if it is going to make a difference. One thing I do know is that after day 2 of the tabs she actually got off the bed and peed in a corner of the bedroom rather than just standing up in bed and peeing on my arm, so I'm happy with that! Can't tell you tha name of the medication at present but something like viviton.

I feel like such a hypocrite. I would let science take anything from my own body that they can use because when I'm dead I figure I wont care where or what happens to my bits. But my animals? OMG I don't think I could! I know where they are all buried and even after many years knowing that still gives me comfort. I visit and talk to them still and take the new dogs with me. Likewise I couldn't cremate any of them - I'm a dust to dust girl. Of course none have had a rare diseases - something like that would obviously make a difference. Charles W I think leaving him afte rhe is gone from this life to science would be a very noble and respectful legacy for your boy.