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[Mart]

Update on Cookie. He's healing up, yet again after scratching his head raw again on Fri/Sat. Fingers crossed that it can heal faster than he can damage it. He is an obsessive washer, and that seems to increase focus on his sticky head.

He's now met Buster a few times, and is quite relaxed, but the ginga ninjas are still hissing at him, and running back out of the room. But staying longer each time, and he's chirping at them, so it'll be fine.




Got a call yesterday from Guide Dogs, asking us if we can help out, as a Guide Dog owner has had to go into hospital, and the gorgeous dog needs boarding. Our 'spies' have already told us that he's an absolutely lovely dog. So we may be up a doggo early next week. And we're waiting to hear the news about Vesper and his bad legs.



Quick note to all new members, this thread is actually for anyone and everyone, not just my news ...... but it may appear so, as I hog it so much.

[Mart]

Silly Cookie still managing to skin much of his head, but I think he's healing faster. But he's so damn flexible and clever that our only win so far is trimming those back claws (when he's not looking).

In bigger news, and big (who am I too judge!) is the key word, we now have a new guest Toby. He's with us while his Guide Dog owner is in hospital. And we've been asked by GD's to try to get a little (lot) of weight off him. But he's gorgeous, friendly, sweet, and playing with our boy Buster. But he does get puffed out.



His prettier end:

[Mart]

News update.

Toby guide dog is doing great, he's enjoying life with us, and the cats are getting used to being barked at. Hopefully he's starting to lose a bit of weight. Target is to get him down about 8kg if possible, depending on how long he's with us. Somehow managed a walk yesterday whilst only getting rained on a bit. Both doggo's needed a good dry, so got to model some fleece coats.




The news on Cookie isn't so great. On Friday his latest scab/mat started to crack and peel, and his teeny hernia from neutering got a bit bigger, so I asked to take him to the vets as TLC clearly wasn't enough. The vet was quite concerned, and after basic treatment on Friday, he went back Mon morning for 'proper' work. By the morning he'd ripped off most of the scab, and looked very bad. Vet thought that he may have to do a graph, possibly taking tissue from his upper back, and spinning it round to cover head/shoulders.

Of course, and to nobody's surprise given our appalling past success rate at fostering, he's gotten under our skin now (as well as his own), so I offered to pay for treatment as it could get high. But .....

Better news on pick up, under general anesthetic the damage wasn't right the way through the skin tissue layer, so it can still repair/regrow without full graphs. And his hernia, was gone, just a small protrusion following the neutering. So we got him back in a body suit (which he previously pulled down), and a hood (cone of shame, that would rest on the wound) ...... but the vet stitched the cone to the top of the suit - what a great and simple solution.



I crated him last night, as he was groggy, but went to keep him company and watch some Youtube (RE and EV vids .... of course) early this morning, and he was as sweet as ever, laying next to me on the floor.

Fingers crossed, the dressings, and body armour, will keep him safe, and in 10days we go back, hoping to see the skin repairing itself.

So all animals doing well. But ironically, not so much the humans - Wifey went to school on Thurs, she volunteers to help infants with reading, and (yet again) by Fri morning we were both rotten with colds. I'm sure kids are just walking bags of germs at that age. Gonna try First Defence, the nasal spray this week, maybe dose ourselves up from Wed evening through Fri, and see if that works.

Right, time to feed/fuss the doggos.

[Moxi]

Good to see the dogs and cat are doing well, fingers crossed for you that the cone and body armour stay in place and work!

Here the new bio heater (Bodhi) is getting big - will get a photo later - he's very adept at taking food out of Freddie's hand (much to Freddie's upset) at the table so has been banned from being under the table until he's got past the snatch and grab "mugging" stage.

The chooks are starting to reduce their laying rate as the days grow shorter and so far there are still no rats in the chicken run - the last rat, a young pregnant female that had travelled in to the area was humanely dispatched around five weeks ago with a single shot.

Stick insects are all still doing well, indian and black beauty varieties, I tried some spiny stick insects in with the indians but that was a war zone and I now look upon the indians as less docile than they appear and more aggressive than the books suggest as everything should have been ok but wasnt

The tropical fish are fine if not slightly suffering from filament weed growth (I think Henry has been doing some secret extra feeding!) and Enfys the Albino corn snake is now 1 and a half years old and an impressive 60+cm long, shes just gone in to her blue pre shedding stage and has hidden herself under her slate rock outcrop until its time for her to shed in around 4 days time - if the shed is complete I will be able to measure it and see how shes grown.

Lastly the kids..............yeah they're still quite feral

Moxi

[nowty]

The chooks are starting to reduce their laying rate as the days grow shorter and so far there are still no rats in the chicken run ……………………

When we recently visited an ex work colleague of SWMBO in Poland their neighbour had chickens but had received a tax bill from the authorities. It seems if you grow stuff in polytunnels or have chickens, your buying less from the shops so you get taxed. The authorities used to fly helicopters and only hit the largest “offenders” but now they use drones and target more folk.

[Moxi]

Just goes to show that you should never count your chickens........ MiL came round twenty minutes ago to say she had seen a rat near the bunker, so I gave it 10 minutes to settle and then walked across the road to look inside the Chicken run and sure enough a 5" (excludes tail length) yearling rat was sat nibbling pellets and corn, back to the house to get the rifle and magazine, then back over to the front Garden, hide in the corner, load the magazine, cock the rifle, stand up take aim and now I can truthfully say theres no RATS in the chicken run (until we see the next one )

I wont post a picture as some folk find such things distressing but again it was a one pellet clean shot and a humane dispatch.

Clearly the colder weather has the juveniles actively searching for their own winter feeding areas and burrows. I suspect I get the alpha female evicted competitors from a nearby farm as we are seldom free for more than 6 months at a time and often quite a lot less.

Moxi

[Mart]

Animal news from Cardiff, with Cookie cat having his dressings changed, and he's healing well, but probbaly another 2 or 3 weeks for it to all heal. He's in excellent spirits and putting on lots of weight. He also likes to help with any goings on, such as unpacking boxes:




Toby guide dog is still lovely, happy and chunky. His default position is still a complete splat;



Sad news, his owner has passed away. So we are waiting to see what the news for Toby is. He's a dream to have, and at 8yrs old, he won't go for re-training, Hoping the GDO's (guide dog onwer) partner will want him, but we don't know anything about them / circumstances. So we get to enjoy and cwtch him for now.

The rescue is still super busy, with way too many mum's and kittens. I collected 23 bags of pellets for them last week, that used to last about 6 weeks at about 1/2 bag per day. But now it's 1 per day (15kg of wood pellets).

[Krill]

I've been trying to get a decent picture of these two for a while



They were both feral at 8 weeks when we got them five years ago, but Monty at the back is still not really our cat, very much his own master. Winston at the front is an absolute house cat, no interest in wandering off, just wants a comfy bed. Unfortunately for him he has been putting on weight so now he is on a diet, the vet was not impressed when he went over 8kg. Neither of them care fo sitting in laps: if we didn't feed them I think they'd both bugger off.

[Fintray]

8kg

[Krill]

They are both big cats. Monty is 7.3kg and does not look overweight at all. All the energy bill savings get spent on the food bill instead!