Wordless Wednesday - Bumblebee

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Greyhound Swimming Lessons at Fishmarket Reserve

We started our Saturday with a visit to our favourite local cafe and dog bakery, the Pet Lover's Cafe.

While we were there we picked up a 'float coat' for Barbie to help her feel more comfortable swimming. Since Barbie has no body fat she finds swimming hard work because she doesn't have any inbuilt buoyancy. Seeing that I want to take her out on boats a life vest, and some confidence in her swimming are prerequisites.

After I had my coffee, and Bender spent quite a bit of time playing tug-of-war with the shop staff, we made the very short trip to Fishmarket Reserve on the Swan River to test out this float coat.

As she is not keen on swimming, I had to carry her out into the deeper water. She is very trusting and lets me pick her up without any protest.

I took her out three times, not wanting to overdo it, and by the third time she seemed quite a bit more confident and relaxed. Her heart rate had slowed down a bit and she wasn't showing any other signs that she was anxious or uncomfortable.

She seemed pretty happy to wear the jacket out of the water too, though she wasn't going to be running around in it. I think with more practice I will be more than happy having her on a boat because I will know she can swim to shore if she ever needs to.

Of course, Bender was with us, playing with his toy, as always. 

It was an exhausting morning for them, but I think they both had fun. I think I got a little sunburned though. Damn the harsh Aussie sun! 

Wordless Wednesday: Where is the Love??

Bender Update: Recovered from his broken tooth

Poor Bender. We really didn't realise how bad he was feeling with his broken premolar. He had gone quiet and didn't have as much energy. It seemed to happen gradually, and I thought he was just growing up. He is middle aged after all.

But now he has recovered from having his tooth out, it feels like he's a couple of years younger. People have gone back to asking if he is a puppy. He got out of the experience minus a tooth and plus a few grey hairs.

He will now willingly play tug-of-war with random dogs at the river. He is far less grumpy, and apparently he was very happy to see the Vet. Before he got his tooth out he was scared of her and kept trying to run away. Perhaps he realised that she was the one who made him all better.

Sometimes I wish our dogs could talk to us. He needed to say 'mum I have a thumping headache and I don't feel like doing much, I think it is my tooth!'

It is really just a reminder that if you ever see changes in your dogs' behaviour, don't take it for granted, pay close attention and get them to a Vet - they may pick up on something you will miss. I think Dr Beryl would have noticed his broken tooth if we had taken him in instead of waiting for him to get a puffy lump on his face.

Dogs 101: Wonderdogs, the Greyhound

I know this is probably old, but I only just saw it a few days ago. One of the things in this program I didn't know is that Greyhounds can see 270 degrees. That totally explains how Barbie manages to avoid all the ruffians at the park who try to cut corners in order to catch her. She can see them coming and deftly accelerate to get away from him.



It also made me think that perhaps I have been trying kayaking with the wrong dog?

Barbie is such a special girl. I don't know why anyone would pass up the opportunity to have a dog just like her.

Wordless Wednesday: Are you tryin to replace me?

Foster Creatures: Bumblebee

After my experience with Rodney, I really wanted to help some other homeless animals, but I knew that it would be hard to get a dog that would fit into the household and around my work schedule. I thought that perhaps it would be easier to foster a pussy cat. I wanted a healthy, adult male kitty to see if I could get my kitties to accept him.

Enter: a beautiful three year old Ragdoll boy named Bumblebee who needed a place to go urgently.

I have him set up in the bathroom. He is safe from the other kitties there, and he does seem to be a bit intimidated by Frou's posturing. I have let all the animals watch each other through the doorway. The dogs are fine and aren't overly interested in him, but he doesn't like them at all. He growls and hisses at them. 

Froufrou hisses at him and does her 'tomcat' meow. Mittens is a little more low key. It's only the second day so I think they will adjust. Ideally I will be able to have Bumblebee on my lap on the couch with everyone else. In the meantime he's safe in his room. 

I will have Bumblebee for at least a couple of weeks, because his original owner may be able to take him back. It would be great to see him go back to his original family, but I think he will do well wherever he goes. Being a Ragdoll he is hot property, but he also has a great temperament.

He is the first cat I have ever come across that I feel deserves the term 'boofa' which is a word normally reserved for bully & staffy cross dogs. He is so affectionate that it verges on roughness, the way that he ploughs his head into you and under your arms for pats. 

Fostering him gives the rescue organisation (CJ Animal Rescue) more time to assess applicants for his potential forever home to make sure he goes to the best possible one. 

I think that after Bumblebee moves on I will foster at least one other cat. It's quite rewarding, and I think Froufrou and Mittens will come around to the idea eventually. I mean Frou was absolutely cruel to little baby Mittens when we bought her in from the cold, so I think she will come around! 

If you are considering fostering, and you have some spare space in your house, why not consider taking on a pussy cat? 

Guildford - Doggie Heaven?

There is a brand new cafe open in Guildford called the 'Pet Lovers Cafe' and so Barbie and I just HAD to go and check it out! They have a website here, and they are also on Facebook.

It's at 151 James Street Guildford, and it's a lovely little shop - they have coffees and muffins for the humans, and so many goodies for the doggies.

When we went there was a gaggle of pugs in attendence. There was also this scaredy-cat Iggie who spent a lot of time hiding behind her mummy.

Barbie had a great look around and then realised there was a young Golden Retriever behind the counter so she kept trying to go behind there.

Everyone made a big fuss over Barbie and I bought a couple of presents. Bender got a floaty rubber tug toy (I almost bought him the lighthouse, but maybe next time), and a big wool stuffy bone for Barbie. They have thundershirts, lifejackets and all kinds of dog stuff that I have only seen online.

Doggie-accessory and snack retail is their primary trade and it's really nice to be able to take the dogs into a place which has coffee and muffins on offer as well. I will take Bender there next weekend perhaps.

After the visit to the shop the pavement was starting to get too hot for doggies to walk on (at 10.30am), so I took Barbie back to the car and we drove a short distance to Fishmarket Reserve, which is a great big park on the other side of the railway line. It runs along the river and is low-lying land which is probably in the 50 year flood zone, so it will always be a park and not developed for housing.

The first thing she did when we got out of the car was to lie down in the water to cool off. She has perfected this lying down in the water trick. The problem is that she was only on a short leash and she wanted to go deeper. She couldn't without making me get my feet wet!

I let Barbie off leash a little bit so that she could take a dip in the water without me ending up with soggy sandals. She was very well behaved, though it was too hot for zoomies. 

We sought out the shady spots, but it was still pretty hot, so we didn't stay for very long. Barbie was very happy to jump into the air conditioned car to go home. She will be looking forward to the end of summer, but we have quite a way to go yet.