Mags

Hahaha!! What a crock. Cats and dogs are very different creatures. I gave been rescuing cats for about 8 years now, including strays who have been free to roam as they please, and they ALL love being indoors. As said previously, yes you do actually have to make an effort and not just chuck food out, but its worth it. I can leave my door wide open and the cats don't try to go our. Why? Because they are perfectly happy inside!! Totally agree with Kirty - ours even prefer inside to the enclosure and they are all muscley and fit as they have posts and trees to climb - and think nothing of running at speed through the house. Always surprises me when people say their cats try and duck out a door as none of ours do. Met their needs, enrich their environment, give them a healthy diet and a clean litter box and they have a very good quality of life and it is long and healthy. Can't be bothered doing these things - then imo don't bother getting a cat.

How we were brought up too however there seems a total disconnect with many people and animals in general these days and there also seems to be an all about me attitude by many. They care nothing for you or your dog just what they (or their children)want. I am to the point I will tell people not to pat my dogs, to control their children - sick of them running screaming up to my dogs and slapping them or hitting them with whatever they have in their hand and then running off still screaming. Have similar situations at cat shows where you have to be watching like a hawk as people seem to think it OK to open a cage and pull a cat around because they want to see??? or demanding you do what they want. I am clearly getting old and grumpy because I see no reason at all why my rights in regard to my property (ie: my animals as that is how they are viewed by the law) should be trampled on because of what other people and their children want. I don't have a petting zoo I have animals that are part of my family whose needs & welfare I will put before strangers' wants. If they want a dog/cat get one or be polite and ask the owner (in a pleasant tone) if you can interact with their animals. I also refuse to put my animals welfare at risk because if these idiots get hurt I and my animals will be the ones held responsible. Should add that I am very happy to spend time with pleasant people who genuinely seem interested in my animals and treat them (and me) with respect.

Our two are Katie (grey) because she wouldn't answer to the name she came with and I stood there saying female names and when I said Katie she turned and walked straight to me so Katie it is. And our Pap cross is Bertie - short for Bertrum Wilberforce Wooster because that's who he reminded us of - dapper little man that he is. We had a lovely ACD a few years back whose name was Lachlan. A friend was pregnant and when she had her baby her OH rang to tell us they had a little boy and he was named after our dog

Glad she made it through the op thinking of her and sending lots of positive thoughts - hope the antibiotics and fluids get her through. My girl was on a drip & antibiotics for 5 days post op. But I was very glad to hear your girl was eating - Evie refused to eat whilst in the hospital but once home walked in the door and started demanding food straight away.

Goodluck for the little one - hopefully the vet has her on IV antibiotics and fluids which will help (been there ourselves in Dec with a closed pyo in one of our entire MC girls)and bloods will show she is well enough to do tomorrow. Problem with our girl was her white cell count which went ballistic after her op (which she came through well) so she was in hopital on a drip and antibiotics for a week before being well enough to come home. Fingers crossed all goes well for your girl.

Oh my Kirty at least the tip of the tail still looks cream - great pics from everyone. Our tiny Pap X helped me dig out a flooding storm water drain in our yard the other day - he was swimming in what was knee deep water that was brown with soil. Had a lovely time but what a mess his black and tan coat was just dirt brown.

Tried it on the Maine Coons as the dogs are too busy playing outside to give a rats. A vague ear twitch was it.

I'll be there on both days with one of my Maine Coons. Don't forget to come visit the cats - but please don't bring dogs into the cat hall.

Ours have always been on a leash and carried - sat on our laps and not the clinic chair or floor until fully vaccinated plus 2 weeks. Parvo always has an issue around here when we have had puppies so we also stick our head in and make sure we have the all clear before going in.

I said in the backyard but it really depends - we are never gone long and if the weather is bad they may be inside. Bertie in his crate and Katie asleep on her bed in the family room (she gets comfy and doesn't seem to move).

Whilst I understand where people are coming from with the better to rescue more than those needing surgery etc. it is not always about thinking with the head. I know we have personally rescued several dogs over the years because we couldn't walk away from them - did we consider their health problems yes and we took them on anyway because for whatever reason we couldn't walk away from that particular dog. Our tiny Pap X was one of these dogs. My OH who has never looked twice at a small dog saw him and that was that - he was not being left to be pts. I was OK with that as I assumed once we got him better, trained and a good weight he would be moving on - that is not happening he is my OH's dog - and that is fine too he is a lovely boy not the type of dog I ever thought we would have as a family member but a wonderful companion for my OH who he follows everywhere. He also gets on well with the other fluffies and the grey which is important to us. We all know we can't rescue them all but we choose for whatever reason who we will rescue. I assume sometimes rescue groups find a dog that they feel the same way about. I don't blame them for coming to their rescue - they do a job that at times is soul destroying if this stops them burning out so be it. And then their are those that do breed rescue - they will take one of their choose breed over all else and that too is their choice. And sometimes there are too many for them to rescue them all but even after they are full they still some how manage to find space for the odd oldie in need - why because they have to if they are to keep rescuing at all.

OMG poor bloody dog and that lady was on the ball she could see something was wrong and raced back to help. The guy just looks like he had zoned out and was just not paying attention to what was going on - was just mechanically going through the steps he has gone through hundreds of times before without actively thinking about what he was doing. Thank dog he was going up not down.

What a great dog. Your Dad was pretty cool too as way back when not many men would put up with being growled at by their own dog.

I am still confused you keep saying you don't want to breed or show but you want to keep your dog entire and breed him at 5 or 6?? That is a very contradictory request. As to me that means you do want to breed him down the track but you do not want him shown to see how he stacks up against other representatives of his breed to see if he is worth breeding. And whilst he may be worth breeding in your opinion despite not being shown or tested for problems in his breed because you want a puppy whose bitch are you going to use and what is going to happen with the other 5,6 or more puppies in this litter. Would it not be much better to desex your boy and buy a puppy from the same lines down the track? I am genuinely confused and do not understand where you are coming from though I will say as a breeder of purebred Maine Coons I can honestly say people who say they don't want to breed but then want to breed one litter are the reason no pet kitten leaves here undesexed. Not so easy with dogs I know.

Frodo's coat looks amazing

Thank goodness you and the dogs slept through it all - last thing you want is to find an intruder in your yard or worse house bad enough to find police officers and a police dog there. We have had someone try and break in and our dogs, both ACDs, stopped them but we ended up losing both of our dogs due to the injuries they received. I would rather lose stuff and still have our dogs. What would our current dogs do - don't really know. Bert (pap x) is vocal if he perceives a threat to his territory and Katie (grey) will back him up with a loud defensive bark if she thinks its serious. They only bark rarely and for good reason so we always check. Katie has swung herself around to put herself between me and a preceived threat, she also gave a huge defensive bark, when we were out walking which scared the heck out of me as it was the first time I had heard her bark like this. Our ACDs weren't vocal and perhaps that was the problem they let someone into the yard because they just sat and watched whereas the dogs we have now would bark which would hopefully keep people out of the yard.

This is such rubbish - typical of bloody councils too lazy to do anything about wandering cats (have to say in our area or wandering dogs if they are outside council hours) but happy to take action against people containing their animals and trying to do the right thing. No wonder people want to trap wandering cats and dispose of them. Wonder if they will come and collect what you trap as why should you have to transport them in your vehicle given the possible disease risk. I sure as heck do not want to be handling or transporting a cat that I don't know that has been trapped as you risk getting badly torn up.

The problem I am having is despite what was happening 200 yrs ago - you are unable to point us at either current breeders or documented histories for these dogs. And that is despite me and others asking you for any information about these dogs as we were genuinely interested. But you just say nothing is documented and vaguely point at western Vic and SA for breeders. Both documented histories and breeders who are still breeding for purpose are available for herding breeds that started in our early colonial days which seems at odds with what you are saying about staghounds as a breed. And I do not understand your comments about working breed registries - whilst conformation registries can be responsible for dogs moving far from their original base, working registries still are just that a registry of dogs doing the job they have been bred for from day dot. Growing up in rural Australia I can tell you that most that care about what they breed keep detailed records of their stock regardless of species. Our family still have documentation from my great grandfather from the first decade of the 1900's which detail his purchases & breedings of not just cattle and sheep but also of his horses and his dogs. I still remember being shocked when I first saw what he paid for good horses and dogs back then especially compared to what he paid his stockman for their labour. And was told his simple philosophy - a good dog (or horse) does the work of three good men so pay for the best you can afford and look after them well for their life time - you will be repaid well and many times over what they cost you.

They look terrific.

great ad but how many are in there - too many to count properly that is for sure.

And what were the owners thinking?? If you have a reactive dog you take precautions when walking it, step out of peoples way, have your dog under effective control, walk it in a muzzle. It is not up to people out walking to stay out of your dogs way it is up to you to make sure your dog is safe. I hope your friend is and not just physically - dog attacks are very traumatic. Unbelievable that the people that allowed it to happen just took off and left her there hurt and bleeding. But seems to be what people do now. A friend and her dog were viciously attacked and the idiot whose dog caused the damage just took off luckily there were others around that came to her aid as she required hospitalisation and was very lucky not to lose the use of her hand, her dog needed vet care as well. What the hell is wrong with these people they clearly know their dogs have problems and yet they do nothing to ensure either their dogs or anyone elses safety.

Not surprisong at all and I totally agree with them sick to death of other people's wandering cats and dogs upsetting my cats and my dogs. If you want a cat keep it on your property - if you can't be bothered doing that then perhaps you should reconsider owning a cat in this day and age. No more acceptable to have roaming cats imo then it is to have roaming dogs. Perfectly happy for roaming cats to be trapped and taken to the pound unfortunately for the cats people that let them be a neighbourhood nuisance are unlikely to pay the fines and get them released.

Wonderful news about Ellie. So happy she is with her forever family another successful foster failure they are the best (as we currently have 2 lol).

Definitely report them they clearly know what he is like and still make no effort to restrain him - getting some one to do something about it now that's another matter. Goodluck

This. We also use give (give us a toy, bone anything they have that I want to see) and off (off furniture, feet off a person)