Monday, 28 April 2008

Old dogs......and new tricks...


I think I am becoming an "Old Dog"..... firstly there is my very obvious grey patch... nothing a bit of dye can't fix. Then there is the fact that I am learning new tricks. I am in my final year of Vet Nursing and really feel like I am out of steam. I have been Vet Nursing for 20 years.... since the time when no one really had qualifications... so I am now studying and am nearly finished... roll on year end ...roll on..... Only books I am gonna open after that are FICTION.

I find that working, kids, home, dogs,cats, birds etc etc.... is hard to juggle. I sort of need more than 24 hrs in a day. So if my blog has been a bit "slow" thats why!

J met a boy "online" a year ago, after a year of getting to know each other E has come to meet us. He is from the Netherlands. So 2 weeks ago E arrived to meet J and see if the online romance was real........ Well it has been a pleasure to meet E and have him stay. After 2 weeks he is part of the family and we are going to be very sad to say goodbye next week. They are making plans about repeat visits.....


Its weird how small the internet makes the world... communicating with people on the other side of the world is as easy as if they lived next door. Due to the internet I have found friends I have not seen for 20 years..... Very odd... but strangely fun! I am having a ball catching up with old friends , seeing how they have changed, what they have become, their kids...

In fact just this week I am meeting an old school friend who is holidaying in Australia...we have not seen each other since High School....

The cats are good, the dogs are fine....the kids are great......D is "cancer" free so I guess we're good!

See ya
Si

Sunday, 20 April 2008

It just takes time.....

Having a multi-cat household is tricky. Cats (except for Lions) are generally solitary creatures who prefer to have the house to themselves. So the intricacies of getting multiple cats to live together in harmony is a very delicate balance.



Our latest addition Ty, has finally become part of the clan. In fact there is a bit of a "Siamese Sect" forming. Poor kitten is excluded from this "Ol boys" club. Ty now shares beds with Blue and Bindii but Kitten and he have agreed to disagree. They still hiss and have a little altercation whenever they pass each other in the corridor.



Ty is a survivor, in a few short months he has settled in and managed to get the household under control. He had never had anything to do with dogs...... now he has two Greyhounds under his paw. The 3 Siamese play together, sleep together and share food bowls.



He is a lovely cat, rather opinionated but very loving. He likes to sit on my tummy every evening and watch my soapie "Home and Away".

I am currently on 10 days leave to write 3 exams and do 2 case studies.....aaargh! So I better sign off and get to work............

Si

Saturday, 05 April 2008

Out and About with Greyhounds.....

Most days Karma and Shani go walkies. In fact if you mention the "W" word they leap to their feet and start bouncing around. They can also spell W..A..L..K...I..E...S, so don't try fool them by spelling it, they know. Once you have said the word its on, you have to go walkies or else.



Fortunately we live in a very beautiful place so going walkies is a treat for the "peeps" as well. Some afternoons if we are feeling lazy we go up to the school field which is fully fenced and we let them run, this does not take long. They gallop circles around us for about 5 minutes and then they are exhausted and home we go.

I always thought that my two had forgotten about "chasing" stuff, but it is there in the deep recesses. Recently we had a plague of mice, they even tried to move into the laundry to eat the cat food. I kid thee not I personally saw three scuttle past. In the garage is the bird food.... mice heaven. BUT my team aka Karma , Shani, Bindii, Blue,Ty and Kitten got to work. Shani and Kitten are best friends and they worked out a mouse eradication system that was better than anything I could have come up with.

THE PLAN

Kitten runs into small spaces and flushes the mouse out, Shani is waiting and pounces on the offending mouse... and then being a gentle greyhound she gives the "ready to be eaten mouse" back to kitten to eat. For about a week it was hunting , cats catching mice, Shani helping when the cats could not run fast enough. Mouse plague is gone....



All this mouse activity has sparked a distant memory in the doggy brains..... now when we walk along the water's edge they can smell rats under the boardwalk or in the rocks and they look like this......




At night I lock my cats up in the house so that the native wildlife is safe.... one night the cats caught 2 mice whilst locked in the house..... They must be a breed of "Stupid Mice" to locate themselves in a house with 4 cats............

I can't watch, I am not into hunting, but it is swift and final, the mice don't even have time to know what hit them. It sure beats rat bait ......and a slow end!



Ciao For Now
Si