Steph M

Thats very little info to garner a response! :) What do you like about Goldens, Pugs or Westies? All are very, very different. What do you want in a dog and what can you offer a dog in terms of stimulation, feeding and companionship? Is it just you and a partner? Do you have kids, are you planning kids in the future? There is a million questions and a million possible answers. Have a look at these; http://www.animalplanet.com/dog-breed-selector/ Answer the questions as honestly as you can, they're easy to manipulate to say what you want to hear if you aren't 100% honest in your answers.

Everybody's making a blog, maybe mine should be about how to make gourmet dog ice blocks HOLY BEJESUS. I WOULD READ THAT. I WOULD.

I like the idea too! Not so much for lasting for ages, but to give them something new and interesting. Ours get the doggie icy poles every summer, always keen to spice it up! Although Lisa makes pretty rad ones...hahaha. I might actually do some googling later and see if husk would be okay, hmm!

List of dogs Steph M- Gus and Rosie Snout Girl- Bert, Sally, Bruce and Poppy Sara - Ollie, the cool pug x List of food Steph M- Potato salad Snout Girl- vego bbq food, meatballs Sara - Dips and crackers and sausages

But the point is we can not guarantee what happened, we don't know yet. Everything is pieced together and a story cobbled together. I absolutely understand people affected would be mad, I would be too I am sure. Doesn't give me the right to comment as an external party who doesn't know what happened. Also it might be a little generous to remember these guys lost their home as well, would you say the same of general homeowners? That they should have done more? Would you assail them with such suggestions on how they could have avoided their loss? No, because it is heartless. I am not suggesting people not ask questions, but not taking facebook as gospel and a little sensitivity would not go astray.

Can we have rolly eye man back yet? I don't even know where to start on this BS. I am unclear about which bit you think is bullshit Steph. Do people think it appropriate he had, apparently, left the property to fight the fires leaving his 16 year old daughter in charge? Imo he should never have left his daughter, regardless of the animals. This info may not be correct, I am just commenting on what's been said here. More that this person is "following up on lines of enquiry" and griding that axe real hard. If the guy was fighting a fire elsewhere and the roads closed on him, I'm not sure what Labradore expects him to have done? I highly doubt half of what has been said here and on facebook is fact, and it bugs me its being taken as gospel and speculated on as such. Its like vultures picking over disaster, who benefits if fault is found with the owners? People are gung ho finding things to pick at and frankly its a terrible loss for everyone, I'd like to leave it be and let it work itself out. The Facebook jury does more harm than good. I'm sure there will be an investigation by proper means in due course. All the speculation is doing in the mean time is making life miserable for kennel owners, pet owners and making it harder for them all to get back on their feet when its all done. I feel for everyone but most of all the pets, those who didn't make it and those who did. Just awful, I'd rather spend my energy wishing peace to those who didnt make it out and a speedy recovery to those who did.

Can we have rolly eye man back yet? I don't even know where to start on this BS.

AlphaBet you are amazing. That post is perfect, I'm glad you guys got through it. I can't believe how awful some people are being. I'd like to see a situation where the owners could sit back and say "we did enough" I don't feel that would ever occur, you suffer loss like that and you're going to obsess over the details and what could have been changed, hindsight is awesome like that. Personally its a horrible freak accident and I'm not about to start blaming someone from my safe bed. That's counterproductive and wasteful.

SG he sounds like a bit of a jerk. If he hits your dogs you have every right to lock him in the run and leave him there. I'm in Melbourne or I'd love to help out! You could all come stay. I'll.keep an eye out for housesitting in the area, I have a few friends up there. NB as per toxic relatives thread we have no bedside tables and apparently that's an issue. Haha.

I wonder if motion sensors below window level would be something that could be utilised? If motion was sensed your keys beeped? I don't even know how that would work. I've forgotten things too. I've forgotten the car before. The whole car... I can see how it'd happen.

Hell yeah! That makes life easy! Nova will be pleased"

We are in! Our two, will try round up some tagalongs from work.

I've gotten little handwritten notes and things before..she really goes above and beyond.

Seconded! Amazing service, the price is good and the owner is so lovely and helpful!

Yonjuro I suspect that's more to do with the treats than the once a day feeding. I can tell you now, my dogs are not fat and I bet others who regularly feed once a day don't all have fat dogs either. I think that's a huge stretch.

Our dogs eat raw, so if we get a 700gm lamb neck Gus might have that for dinner and no breakie or vice versa, its rare but it has happened. I think the biggest plus we have noticed is that our dogs don't know what's coming so don't sit about and whine for a meal at meal time, but that could be achieved by moving things around anyway. The other thing as well is it depends when we exercise them, I worry about bloat so wouldn't fill him with food after a huge run and swim, so he might only have a treat for breakie that day, or a Kong and a larger tea. Having said that, Gus is 28kg so much bigger than a pom! Not sure how such a little dog would go.

That dog is literally Gus. Or Dug from UP!

Wrong thread, StaffyLuv? Or you're really against doggy gifts! Hahaha. :laugh:

It really is! I am more than happy to package some food up for them, I will contact them shortly, just wanted to see what everyone thought first. I might be missing a total gem!

Hi DOL brains! We just managed to snaffle $10 Melb to Hobart flights thru Tiger for a week in October, I know this is stupidly early but we are starting to think about Boarding the canines. Not sure what we will do with the cats yet, depends how captain neurosis (the most expensive cat ever) is, but they might stay with our vet in case he stresses himself sick. Anyway, we have requirements as follows In Melbourne, obviously, happy to travel to drop them in though Would love somewhere that feeds raw, barf or whole or otherwise. I don’t love the idea of them having to change diet when there’s already a lot going on. Would love somewhere that has facilities for swimming. Gus would be all about this. This is one of my great priorities. Rosie likes to mix, I know this might get me shot out of the sky but she is a dog who takes comfort in other dogs, so if she can have controlled, supervised play times with other dogs I would like to consider that, either way she needs to run once or twice a day and they both thrive on human contact. Really want somewhere that will be happy if I check in every second day. I saw one website that charged extra if you wanted to check in with them! I thought about the pets at home sitter types, but I don’t want them left to their own devices all night. They sleep inside and need to wee through the night etc. I looked into Kepala being first preference but not sure if they can accommodate raw food. I would love, love love to hear suggestions or criticisms, anything is helpful! PM is totally fine by the way!

I would imagine by viewing the parents? I honestly had no idea there was a difference, perhaps if the drooling is such a huge issue you might be better looking at the attributes you like in less drooly breeds? I know nothing about boxers, but sometimes you have to compromise! Haha.

Amen, sistah. :laugh:

Gus handed me a cat poop the other day. I couldn't even be disgusted cause he was SO PROUD. I had to thank him for the poop. Hahaha. I don't get it either. I too love the interactions though, they're such crack ups!

If a person comes up to you while you're eating and repeatedly pokes you and takes your fork and sits inches from you you would be well within your rights to give them a shove. I expect my dog to get basic respect & personal space, and would like to think any children, should we have any, would be taught the same courtesy. All it would take would be one misplaced finger, that's a big powerful dog chewing hard on a bone. All else aside the risk is way higher than I'd be willing to take.

Good for you! You should still be able to live and do things! Don't be guilted about that, sheesh. 5k should be enough to pay a decent deposit on any treatment needed and should costs blow out further, my vet and I am sure many others, will be happy to work out a plan of payment. We have Rufus in at the moment, and we had the money there but the vets were quick to offer a payment plan and were flexible on what deposit we paid. They were fab. Any vet who wouldn't treat your dog because you only had half of the 10k wouldn't be worth seeing again, IMO. Not everyone has that just sitting about, and hopefully they have a foot in reality enough to realise that. I have worked in insurance before and I would never bother with pet insurance. Too many variables, too many loopholes. For us we do the "pocket money" thing too, and we have never been short and their account is way healthier than our savings, even with Rufus the cat in at the moment coming up to 2k fast. Plus, it earns interest while sitting there! Bonus!