Little Gifts

Don is a stunner but Smoke is like a gorgeous fluffy toy with a heartbeat!

Hey I love opening up a thread and seeing big pics that I don't have to open so post away! I love how you talk about Ernie. He sounds like such a special boy!

Stussy ate so much inappropriate stuff for the first three years of her life that I took show and tell to work most weeks. Despite all her efforts she never needed surgery - my vet being more shocked than me given the kinds of things she would eat - wire baskets, metal bins, those curly low watt light bulbs, cd's and dvd's and the usual suspects like hands free phones, mobile phones and remote controls. I'm sure the hard bits in her tummy were buffered on their way through the bowel by all the stuffing she added to the mix - whole lounge suites, doonas, pillows, etc. I still don't own a doona cover with the bottom clips on it - she still eats them all off so the doonas can fall out and she can eat them while I shower. It's still her thing. She's also eaten a 2kg bag of almonds and a family sized block of fruit and nut chocolate and several jars of Vaseline - all at different sittings of course yet her bowel movements never altered (they just looked different!). She is now heading for 8 and we still don't leave stuff lying around where she can reach it. She has the stomach acid and bowel operation of a superhero! One of my previous dogs tried to eat his way out of the laundry one night and had to pass a belly full of gyprock. By the time we found him some of it had dried on his face and he looked a little like The Joker with a weird twisted smile! This same boy once broke into a bag of kibble and ate several kilos all by himself. He looked pregnant!

Are Dany and Blaze from the same litter?

Well that is brilliant news! Keep it up (or down!) Danny!

One of the risks of encouraging puppy farming is volume - more puppies out there who get neglected, abused or abandoned. I don't think anyone wants that. I find it hard to understand how authorities can't look at the end goal - healthy, well adjusted and cared for animals and work back from that scenario. To get healthy dogs you need to care about genetics and who is breeding with who. To get a well socialised dog you need to ensure it stays with its mother to learn doggy things and you need to ensure it is exposed to sights and sounds and smells and other well adjusted animals of varying breeds. To get a well cared for animal you need an owner who understands the breed they have purchased and who has the funds and interest to keep it in good health and contained on their property. Puppy farms and impulse purchasing will guarantee you none of those things. It seems like it is a problem the government doesn't want to fix.

If it is a metal crate you can get water bowls that clip on to the sides of it so it doesn't wet or interfere with floor space inside the closed crate. I'm sure someone else will comment on the puppy issue but even if she goes to bed after her dinner she will probably need to come out for a pee break before you guys head to bed for the night.

How can companion animals in a farming environment ever meet the freedom to express normal behaviour criteria? Even if they have adequate food and shelter they never have the company and human and canine interaction they need to be good doggy citizens. We've discussed this before and for me it equates to numbers and none of these places employ enough staff to enable every single dog on the premises to have any one on one attention. It is that simple. They can sprout all the bulldust they want but companion animals are not a farming suitable species. Using farming methods to produce them en masse is basic cruelty. What other industry gets away with producing a sub standard product and still charges such exborbitant amounts of money for it? Are us humans really that stupid? I guess we are and perhaps the best way of altering that is education. Where are these people getting $7000 to buy a pup at a random pet shop anyway? Doesn't that make your blood boil if you are a breeder?

I think it's so funny you start with a black dog and end up with a white one! My oldest liver was an SBT who made it to nearly 17 and even the hairs on her bum had turned white! Originally she was jet black and shiny with just some white on her paws and the tip of her tail but here she was at the end. We were making doggy art together on her last day.

I loved looking at the page of all your dogs with jobs. You should be very proud of your and your dogs achievements!

Was Scrappy Doo the one who went to the soldier? All your dogs are just so amazing and I'm sure they don't think of it as work at all!

Weird.

Can still only see the one green cat but I found the 'dumb' SBT!

Canetoad I know Jonah has great body condition but I'm just wondering is the distance you are covering or duration you are exercising him for simply a bit too much for his breed? Could it be as simple as muscle fatigue during a long work out? Is it worth cutting back and seeing what happens with him?

I didn't realise either that the surgery was not needed! Great news though! Must go find this other thread about your poor hand!

That is such an amazing outcome for Rocky! I'm not usually a negative nelly but my gut didn't give me a good feeling about his future originally so I take my hat off to both of you for putting in so much effort to turn this boy's existence into a happy future. You are both good eggs!

Besides no shar pei I couldn't see SBT's either (but I have a lergy and am not feeling human so could've missed it). I did see the cat! Tricky! I also disagree with a lot of them but I guess seeing what they determined as intelligent might put it in to context.

Very cute but I don't think many foxes are this smoochy! I didn't know they wagged their tails like dogs either! https://www.facebook.com/STOPCRUSH.ORG/videos/1051873441504879/

The snuggle safes have instructions on them - you heat them in the microwave and they stay hot alllllllll night. You just might find you enjoy cuddling one in the bed at night too! They come with little fleece covers but they can be used with or without them. They are made of a hard plastic so are good if they get piddled on it can all be washed. My cold frog dog used to sleep in a soft crate. It had a bed and blankets in the bottom and I also draped blankets over it to create a warm den type of experience. First I tried one of those beds that heat up but my naughty SBT ate the bed and broke the power lead where it connected to the bed(not turned on at the time). That's when I got the snuggle safes. They last forever. You can put the snuggle safe in just one corner of the bedding so if the dog gets too hot it can move away, or you could put two in depending on how big an area you have to warm. I've not had any problems with my girl getting too hot and in fact she now sleeps on the bed with me and our other dog as she still wasn't warm enough in the crate. They are very hard though - not gooey like hot water bottles. But they are definitely still warm come morning so beat the old water bottle in that area. I've never left water overnight inside with any crated dogs but you can get water bowls that hang on the mesh rather than sit on the floor area.

Don't get me started about my silly sbt girl! She has a lovely thick coat of fur and ever since she was a pup loves to have a coat to wear even though I doubt she needs one (she paws at me while I put coats on the other dog). On top of that she will actually get inside the bed with me, under all the bedding. I have no idea how she breathes or why she doesn't overheat but she has already started to do it this year and we haven't even gotten cold enough to put her coat on. And yes, she is a spooner whether she is on top of the covers or under them. I am never fur or heat free when I sleep.

We've spent a couple of years perfecting the art of keeping our pei girl warm. She seems to lack any natural ability to do so herself once the temperature drops. She is a horse coat and seems warm enough to touch but can shake the whole bed with her shivers. She also wont settle when she is too cold.So even though temps up here are not exactly freezing she is already wearing a coat at night and it does help her stay asleep the whole night. As it cools further she will switch to her double layer coats, then it will be a blanket over that and on those really cold nights her side of the bed will also be filled with snuggle safes.

I saw you went. Was it good?

I was in Kmart today and they had pug enviro bags for only $2 I may have bought quite a few as my new grocery shopping bags......

LG are you referring to Margot Bernard from Margo's Animal Sanctuary? This lady was living in the Logan Council area and had an interim licence for her many critters. She had a barnyard full of assorted animals. In 2014 Margo was finally pushed by council to downsize and last I heard she had 5 dogs. Around the end of 2014 Margo and her barnyard seems to have disappeared. xx LP xx Yes LP, that would be her. I confess I haven't read our local community paper for quite a while (it has other purposes!) so can't believe she was still going in 2014 and still being chased by council! And given her ongoing rescue status I still don't know a soul who has adopted an animal from her or worked with her in a rescue capacity in that whole time which just seems weird to me. Do you know her or know of her? What do you think about her rescue efforts? Legit or hoarder? She still has a website (did a google) but links to adoptions and pet rescue don't work and some of the other links are just plain odd - you can still donate and play her music though! I found this newspaper article from late last year and it astounds me that it is the same old story - another 11th hour eviction and all these animals need somewhere to go! Perhaps that is the only way she does rehome any? And perhaps she hasn't found anywhere new to start up again? I can't imagine she leaves the properties in pristine condition. http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/logan/eight-rescue-dogs-still-up-for-adoption-from-margos-animal-santurary-in-park-ridge/story-fni9r0nh-1227015403687 And Mita, I cannot even bear the thought of companion animals living in ceilings. So horribly wrong.