Loving my Oldies

Exactly. Too many people "paint by numbers". We are dealing with living, breathing, emotional creatures. They need comfort, love and attention and surety.

Oh FFS - it probably all happened in seconds.

Ghastly. Thank god Bosca is one tough laddie. My first (now retired) veterinary surgeon had a situation like this - a neighbour shot one of his client's dogs with an arrow.

Oh boy!! I can relate to so much of this particularly getting the names mangled - LOL :D ;) . I call Danny "The Fun Police" because he gets soooo jealous if the others start to play. It is just so thrilling to see how wonderfully well it is going and how Tango looks to you for guidance and approval. Love it all. You're more than welcome sebastion - I love sharing them. I just hope people don't see me as one of those 'look at me posters" I've seen mentioned in dark disapproving tones now and again round these parts I just cant help but want to tell people stuff LOL Well if you stop telling people stuff, you'll soon hear from us with plenty of . I don't think I read more descriptive material on DOL. I can just "see" it all

GayleK is going to send me one of hers so it will be interesting to see whether Mufti likes it. I didn't realise they were made from those granules. At a market a few years ago, I bought a couple of headbands/neckbands for human use because I feel the heat terribly. I used them for a while when I was gardening, but frankly they felt awful . I ended up tossing them out.

Where is the best place to get them, please?. I want to get one for Mufti as I am concerned how he is going to cope with the coming summer.

It is just heartbreaking.

And without too many spectators, sadly.

Great stories, s/chick. Loved the one of Tango getting the better of Dylan and leaving the puppy boy moaning and whinging in a basket on his own. Those three seem to be a great pack and terrific that Rusy can come along for the ride. I think I'll have to start going back to where I used to walk my lot when I first moved up here. Nothing as wonderful as your walks, but at least a teensy bit bush-like.

Gosh, I'd love a dog like that

This is almost tempting me to book a holiday just so you can come and stay Moi aussi - Elina a couple of years ago, I had a Belgian couple come and house sit for me. Perfect English like yours and background of growing up with animals. It never crossed my mind to worry that they weren't Australia. I posted on Happy House Sitters, I think the website was called, and they were exactly what I wanted. I did google their names however and came up with several references to them on google which was wonderful. Good luck with following through with all your plans. Just a few words of advice: NEVER NEVER hitchhike.

Love what's in it

Oh, excellent! Thank you. There you go Emm. That's the sort of photograph we will be expecting in time - LOL.

Agree with this. :D Wondered what had happened. Yes, we definitely demand updates

I'm with Raz here. However, prepare for each eventuality: 1. For leaving him with your parents: spend plenty of time with him there and leave him overnight and longer as the time for you to leave gets closer. 2. Start getting him used to a crate. Frankly, I think you'd be nuts to pass up on the job (although t-time has a good suggestion :D ), but in the meantime practice 1 and 2 with your dog.

That's because the media concentrates on shock and horror, because they grab people's attention. Yes, it is depressing and makes one feel sad, cynical and desperate, but if we don't know about these things, we can't protest the very very weak laws around animal cruelty and lobby for harsher penalties.

God it makes you sick to the stomach to think of the fear, cold and pain they suffer. Some stupid stupid people are probably giggling their stupid stupid heads off somewhere now.

It is interesting how plastic bags morph into fascinating things to be growled at, chased, frightened of, etc etc etc When I visited Tasmania some years ago, I was soooooooo depressed. It was so beautiful, yet has such a dreadful history. Wild horses wouldn't have dragged me to Port Arthur and as for the exhibition showing in Hobart about the Thylacine - well that just about finished me. So how can you say, "Absolutely not!!" And then go on to say they are reacting to unobserved stimuli.

admittedly - but they are also a lot easier to handle in some respects and have not the weight behind them if there is a collision of sorts. Basically - get whichever dog suits the circumstance I wasn't thinking chi or pom or silky or JRT..... my 'small' is probably your medium ! At 88, I can't imagine Nan will be doing too much lifting - LOL. A larger dog can get onto the couch by him/herself and if necessary, Emm can make a little ramp. By medium, I mean about Cocker Spaniel size . I am well aware of how the size of a dog is in the eye of beholder - LOL.

You weren't being selfish; you were trying to look at it sensibly. And sensibly, you came to ask on the right place. Very true. However, don't go for a small dog - go for medium, medium/large. Little dogs get under people's feet and so can be quite dangerous. The dog has to be seen - LOL.

What a great name. I hope he doesn't shorten it though

Before the limit of 4 dogs came in, it seemed to be the thing that dog walkers did: pick up half dozen dogs or more, drive to the local park, open the door of the van and all the dogs would pile out. I've seen it more times than I could count. I used to think that the dogwalkers must have nerves of steel because I would be just about cr--ing myself worrying whether any of the dogs in my charge or other peoples' dogs would get hurt.

http://www.engeneic.com/canine_cancers.html

I thought I recognised the company name. The company I used to work for (a venture capital funds manager) invested in Engenic many years ago. I've been gone for nearly 6 years and it was well before I left.

It is only the reporting that has increased. The sanctioned cruelty to animals has always been mindblowing . In our society, we consider ourselves civilised and therefore we have insisted on rules and regulations to try to prevent and educate. However where money is involved, the sanctioned cruelty continues, note the live shipments of livestock and the thousands of innocent dogs and cats and other animals who are imprisoned in pounds every day of the year and then killed. I can only repeat what I've said in other threads: weak people who want a sense of power will only pit themselves against the weak and defenceless.