koalathebear

lilli_star: such cute photos of Ruby and her friends. She is so cute with that doleful face of hers I do think black labs are my favourite even though chocolate labs seem to be awfully trendy of late! She looks like a natural in water - sooooo sleek! ravenau1: Love Vampire Dobe! Not quite the same, but here was Elbie showing his teeth KA - have broken the news to OH that doggies can't come to yum cha on Saturday. He is resigned to this fact :D

He looked like a beautiful, beautiful boy and I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds likes you gave him a wonderful last day and you have lots of wonderful memories of him - I can just imagine the lop-eared puppy ...

CleoJ - OH and I are always keen to try new places. Is Master So's at Kippax open on New Year's Day? Also, Kippax is even closer to us than Jamison or Prince's Palace. Betsy - I think Ziggy is an excellent model. He always looks so happy! With our two, they will do anything for food so a treat above the camera will make them stare like mesmerised zombies into the lens ...

I love my doggies, too - I'm just saying that I can understand the constraints of the emergency rescue scene and that during crunch time, the priority is to focus on humans. It's very easy to point out what should have been done when one isn't the person organising disaster relief. Sometimes there isn't a whole lot of time to plan things out and the logistics are the nightmare during disasters. I was in China during the Sichuan earthquakes that killed at least 68,000. In Dujiangyan, a whole school collapsed with 900 students buried and 50 dead, kindergarten children were buried and killed, gutwrenching stories like this one emerged. The priority was to focus on finding humans that were still alive and getting them out... that being said, after the earthquake the tale of Strong Will Pig did prove very inspirational ...

These threads are always really unfortunate because in most cases, people will state what they actually do and if other people disagree with it, it's not a disagreement about a hypothetical situation but a disapproval of actual practices ... The subject heading is unfortunately laden with judgement given that the Oxford Dictionary defines "cruel" as wilfully causing pain or suffering to others, or feeling no concern about it and "neglectful" as not giving proper care or attention to someone or something. I'd be pretty surprised if many people here were cruel or neglectful of their dogs ... I normally think of cruel and neglectful practices as the ones that generally show up in the "In The News" subforum on DOL ... I think it's important that dogs are fed, kept safe, healthy (good nutrition and sufficient physical exercise), housed in comfortable surroundings and kept mentally stimulated. How people choose to do that is a matter for them depending on their own personal circumstances and the dog in question. Not walking your dog every day should hardly earn anyone the epithet of cruel and neglectful per se and it seems very wrong for Owner A to tell another Owner B that what they do is wrong/cruel/neglectful just because Owner A's dog likes/does something ... There are some people here who think that it is cruel and neglectful for any dog to be kept outside whereas there are heaps of people who keep their dogs outside and the dog is perfectly happy ... Some might even say it's cruel to feed your dog kibble instead of raw.

KA: We're up for it. Dumpling Inn is good and if you go there at 11.30am when they open, it's less crazy and crowded. Do you want me to phone tomorrow to confirm if they're open on New Year's Day? I can make the booking if you like - just let me know how many people are likely to come! OH asked if we can bring the dogs

They may not have facilities to take pets given that for disaster situations, people are usually taken to school/town halls and the like. You can't really have dogs and humans all mixed in together in an indoor setting. Not all the animals may be house-trained and in any case, there's no telling how the animals will react to so many strangers in such a setting. Even if they set up another section for animals - it could be hard to have cats and dogs together, even dogs together if some of them are timid/dog aggressive etc. Unless they had kennelling facilities with crates and separate cages etc it could be very tricky and in an emergency, the priority is the humans. I don't think you can blame rescue services for focussing on humans first even if it's a heart-wrenching situation to be faced with. And for those who refuse to leave their animals behind, this might potentially be putting rescue workers/emergency personnel in jeopardy as they try to negotiate etc ... It's a really tough situation all round and I am not really sure what I could do. I might ask that we be evacuated with our dogs but say that we won't join the main group but perhaps they could drop us off somewhere else or something Logistically I'm not sure how that would work and I sincerely hope I'm never in that situation.

I don't think I am ever going to be able to catch up on this thread. wizzle - what movie did you want to see? We got Dendy Premiere seat vouchers for Christmas and are saving them up for a Worthy Movie. Not sure what movie that is yet As for your dream ... was the 'something nerdy' either doing jigsaw puzzles or making dog music videos??? wuffles: glad you got your car out of the mud. I had visions of you being trapped up North ... That is a gorgeous photo of Ava and her mum. Did they 'recognise' one another at all? I guess they couldn't be too boisterous because isn't Viv 'with pup' right now/in a delicate way? betsy: yes - the bubble machine's for both doggies. We haven't tried it out yet but hope that they will find it funny. It was a pretty doggy Christmas - I gave OH a custom-made puzzle of the doggies and my brother actually gave us a present for the dogs which surprised us a little :D I hope your cold gets better soon - the weather certainly isn't helping with the constant rain. The only plus side about the cool weather is that we can have the doona on the bed. When it's hot, I find it's too hot for the doona but I really struggle to get to sleep if I don't have something kind of 'heavy' blanket-wise. I find sleeping with just a sheet too light but a doona is too warm ... Such a dilemma. I haven't heard of a hammock bed for a doggie. Any photos yet? Our two would tangle themselves up and fall out ... ravenau1: that's a gorgeous leash and collar. How long did it take you to make? Love the photo of Astrid with her new outfit - what lovely teeth she has. Hoover has now lost all of his cute little spiky puppy teeth and has his full-grown Wolf Teeth. Very impressive! lilli_star: glad Roo enjoyed her Christmas and I look forward to the photos :D Sorry about the teeth and the sunburn! Poor, poor you! kumaakita: hmmm that man code gets used here, too. "What shall we have for dinner?" is how he normally phrases it. When were you thinking of doing yum cha? Dumpling Inn only has yum cha on weekends and I'm not sure about the others. We've had a quiet day. Things are getting a little better but I still have what I call 'spells' when I just want to curl up and be alone. I've found doing jigsaw puzzles very therapeutic so spent ages and ages poring over jigsaw pieces of African landmarks.... We took the doggies with us to the Belconnen Markets today because we knew that they would be pretty quiet. As usual, Hoover was very, very calm and placid. Elbie was very, very excited at first and when little kids barked at him, he barked back but then he settled down, too. As part of their continuing socialisation we took both of them (individually) through Pet Barn. Both were perfectly behaved although Hoover stared longingly at a bucket full of pigs ears that were Hoover height and the cat aisle with all of its bells, ribbons and colourful toys had him mesmerised for a bit. We were happy with their behaviour in Pet Barn and will take them on another expedition another day to be surrounded by people.

OSoSwift: Hoover is 5 months old now (23 weeks) and his ears change on a daily basis RallyVally: Puppy Toby was soooooooooooooooo squishable. I enjoyed the Progress of his Ears Tiggy: Thank you! We love Hoover a lot - actually we love both of our doggies a lot. Are you taping Bear's ears? I have been enjoying his progress - especially the snoozing in the garden shot and the digging a hole photos. I thought Hoover liked digging but he hasn't buried himself yet!!! Yes, sometimes I lurk in the SBT thread because I love SBT puppies .. Kavik: Elbie's ears frequently look demented and Hoover looks quizzical. As to the status of his ears .... This morning when Hoover woke up, he had one ear up and one ear down. This is how he has been all afternoon - yup, he's showing off his ink ... The left ear wilted after dinner but has been yo-yo'ing up and down all evening. :D Maybe his Permanent Batman Ears are coming soon. ETA: Elbie has a permanently cold and wet nose. Hoover's nose is frequently dry but is never cracked or anything. Today I used a damp tissue to moisten it and then it seemed to stay damp for the rest of the day after that. Any ideas what causes dry nose in a dog? His nose has always been that red colour - I call him my little Red Nosed Pit Kelpie.

Good point - it's not the first time poor Elbie's been framed by Hoover! Hope the weather improves soon ...

Hoover sleeping on a very uncomfortable pillow ... We accidentally woke him up

Posted in another thread already so sorry for the duplication ... A video of our doggies' first Christmas .Hoover's new reindeer toy quickly lost a foot. The Christmas Penguin ... Quickly lost stuffing ... Elbie looks nonchalant in an attempt to make us think that it wasn't him ... I've already stitched up both toys but reindeer remains footless. Remnants of the doggies' rawhide Christmas card

Too cute. Our two enjoyed their first Christmas, too. Video .

Hi all - thanks very much for all the kind messages and words. Dad was cremated on Christmas Eve but we decided to push ahead and have a gathering on Christmas Day anyway because we knew that he had desperately wanted my little 12 year old sister to have a Christmas given the recent months of sadness for her. It's been a very difficult week but we're getting by. Doggies are comforting as only doggies can be. It was Elbie and Hoover's first Christmas. Video of the doggies having their prezzies opened on Christmas morning.Hoover's reindeer became an amputee and lost a foot during the first day Christmas Penguin didn't fare much better and lost his stuffing on day one No prizes for guessing who the culprit was Remnant of the rawhide Christmas card by the end of the day Hoover looking very attentive in a very Hoover way I love how wistful Hoover looks here, staring at the Schmacko so longingly Doggies looking menacing Chilled out doggies Glad everyone had a great Christmas. Can't wait to see photos/videos.

Regardless of whether you're trying or not, you appear to have succeeded... To be honest, I'm not sure what you hope to achieve overall. Clearly you have some sort of personal antipathy towards the RSPCA and that's fair enough because no one says that you should support them, like them or even think about them during quiet moments of peaceful introspection. If your intention was to state that your personal view is that you don't like the RSPCA ACT then you've satisfied that objective - I think we all got it the first time ... If your objective was to try to persuade people to believe that your views are right or based in any way on verifiable and objective fact, then you're not going to succeed. Given that there are people here who have actually met and worked with ACT RSPCA and are basing their views on their own personal experiences, I'm not sure why anyone would or should be persuaded by posts from someone we don't know, who has offered no substantiation of his/her allegations regarding the ACT RSPCA ... If you feel so strongly about the ACT RSPCA then perhaps you should go and do something substantive about it rather than wasting your time trying to discredit the ACT RSPCA to people who believe that the ACT RSPCA does more good than it does harm ... If your intention was merely to vent spleen then an angry facebook status update will probably more than suffice.

The post was deleted very quickly but it was this one. I think it's just that labradors have become the 'personification' of the friendly, bouncy dog and on DOL, some regard Friendly as Rude. Every time I see one of those threads ('just being friendly', I know where it's going to end up Thank you ;) I was very frightened when we were driving in but am relieved that Papa Koala is still around.

Am here still. We had the crap scared out of us tonight by a call from hospice staff so the whole family went racing in. Thank goodness it was just a false alarm. Came home to hear Elbie barking in the backyard - he really doesn't enjoy being left outside at night Hoover doesn't seem to mind. In other news - this post wins the prize as the post that made my jaw drop in astonishment ... Wowzers!!! I think I might have to save it because it's just so ... gobsmacking ... ETA: I saved it in time. The post got deleted.

Hi - as Andisa has mentioned, please be careful. Off-lead walking should only be done if the dog has 100% recall. With breeds like border collies and Kelpies, they can get VERY excited and stimulated by cars and can chase them - frequently leading to very tragic consequences. It really would be a good idea to wait until Rocket's a bit older and more 'stable' before you take him off lead walking on the road... Please don't take the advice the wrong way, it's just that it's always tragic when an accident happens and even more tragic if it could be avoided. Kelpies sometimes try to 'herd' the cars and will run and run ...

This could be true! Many, many people laugh at their wonky ears - especially the fact that sometimes they're symmetrically wonky!!! I think Elbie's ears are permanent but Hoover's might still develop into Batman Ears

Great thread! I'm glad my two aren't the only spoiled dogs who get blankets ... Here's Hoover all tucked in. Elbie when he was tiny - he's lying on an incontinence mat from Aldi

Thanks. We think so, too That was actually what we were worried about with our tree - that the dogs would want to drink from the tree bowl! Fortunately they have shown zero interest in drinking from it. Hoover's eaten a few pine needles but that's about it. My main worry right now is that I have no idea what we're going to do with the tree after Christmas. I have flashbacks to the short story The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen and would feel like something of a murderer if I dumped it at the tip I suspect it will end up in the corner of our yard to blend into the environment gradually and stay a part of our family

Small success. Elbie's been able to do "are you shy" for quite some time but Hoover kept scratching the ground unless he actually had tape on his face. With tape on his face he was doing the gesture perfectly but without it, he'd just scratch at the ground like a maniac. From yesterday he has been doing "Are you shy" quite well. Video .

When we first got Hoover at around 3 months, his ears were mostly down. At about 4 months and a bit, his ears were like this - one up and one down. One day later, his ears suddenly went up His ears only stayed up for a short while - maybe a week or so. Then the right ear drooped again while the left ear stayed up He was desexed on 10th December and after that both ears went down - which I understand can happen with Kelpie puppies when they're sick etc. Since then, his right ear goes back up occasionally but the left (which has the two tattoos), seems to be staying down. Do you think he's going to have permanently droopy ears? I'm not fussed if that's the case (no interest in taping his ears) - I was just curious. Also, could the desexing tattoo affect the 'droopiness' of his left ear?

That's just his face. Elbie is the one who looks agonised but he will do anything for kibble including sit motionless while a silly hat is on his head Thanks again for the tree recommendation - we love it!

OK, so it seems that my fears were misplaced. Hoover and Elbie are totally fine around a real Christmas tree. We followed poodlefan's advice and got a tree from the Christmas Tree Farm in Gundaroo. OH picked a six foot tall tree ... Elbie barked at the tree when it first arrived but other than that, the two now just play near it but don't try to eat it, knock it over or wee on it. We had some fun around the tree last night. This is Hoover's favourite spot under the tree (right next to his presents!) The dogs are also leaving the presents alone even though there's an edible rawhide Christmas doggie Christmas card in one and a bunch of dog treats in some of the others. Hoover and Antlers Hoover and hat Elbie and hat Doggies Beneath the tree