The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

sparkle_23

There's power in my house and it better stay that way! My mam just text me Sayin "don't overpack you will prob spend most of the time in bed with the cats" dammit how did she know!

I don't mind the weather being bad as long as it's not snowin with windchill of -28.... I'm so tired of snow!

ferretone

aonb wrote: »

Everything you say here makes sense. You know your dog. The problem comes when someone with no knowledge/experience comes across your dog unleashed, and freaks/assumes KILLER RB!!! Some of the dobermans are the lovliest gentlest dogs - like yours. I often find other people are a bigger problem than a dog

I agree with you completely, that I wouldn't want anybody to come across even my gentle old girl running amok, and get the wrong idea. But what happened there was quite literally a one-in-a-thousand event.

On a normal day, she'd be frisking about, some 10m in front of me, unless she was having a particularly feisty day, in which case I'd be jogging along to keep up with her. In either case, when I'd see someone up ahead, I'd recall her to my side, and distract her with a game until the people had passed. If we're walking on the roads, which are extremely quiet in our area, and a car approaches, she races to my side, and stays until the car has passed. She wears a high-vis coat, both because she needs it against the weather and for the obvious visibility benefits.

If the people have an on-lead dog or small children, or are old, frail or disabled, I'm particularly careful to recall her early, and keep her earnestly distracted. If they have an off-lead dog, I just keep a careful eye on the body language of dog and owner, and play it by ear, allowing them to approach and sniff if all seems well. There are a few dogs and owners I know quite well, and then they are allowed to have more prolonged sniffing sessions, and even play a bit in a few cases where I know Lola is comfortable that those dogs aren't rough.

It normally wouldn't ever happen that she was loose like that and potentially approaching people in unknown circumstances. That was an extreme event, and one that I won't be allowing to happen again in a hurry, I can tell you!

SillyMangoX

I've become a bit obsessed with knitting in the last few days because of the power being gone, my ball of wool went missing this morning and I couldn't find it anywhere. I heard a strange noise coming from behind the curtain, Dude had stolen my wool and was kneading and sucking it!! Anyone want a soggy scarf?:P

Pumpkinseeds

My husband just learned that leaving a cup of coffee on a table in next to his Kindle fire when there's an energetic kitten galloping around the room is not a good idea, good job the coffee was cold:D

Tea Tree

2 orthopaedic dog beds from tk maxx @ 12 euro each.
1 dog blanket from pennies @ 4 euro

Cut blanket in half and sew each half up to make 2 covers.

= 2 new extra soft and cosy dog beds for €28.

Neither dog will lie on them yet:( they prefer old, worn and stinky it seems. :rolleyes:

Pumpkinseeds

Jesus, I'm so sick of only having people with unsuitable homes contacting me about Molly. Earlier I had someone call me and on the surface things seemed fine, until they told me where they live. It is a crap hole estate with lots of cats running around and absolutely no way in Hell that I'd let her live there:(

baby and crumble

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Jesus, I'm so sick of only having people with unsuitable homes contacting me about Molly. Earlier I had someone call me and on the surface things seemed fine, until they told me where they live. It is a crap hole estate with lots of cats running around and absolutely no way in Hell that I'd let her live there:(

I wish I had a better place, I'd be on it like a shot. I hope she finds somewhere awesome soon!!

SillyMangoX

Short notice but there's a cat show in limerick tomorrow (well technically today) if anyone wants to go and see some adorable kitties

Pumpkinseeds

I'm so glad that we got the cat kennel for Toby, he's using it a lot at night, since he won't come in the catflap at the back of the house, even though it's propped open and he uses it during the day. I've put a towel and fleece blankets in to keep him warm and we'll get some vet bed and insulate it too. I was getting up on and off every night to check if he was sitting at the front door, especially in the bad weather.

Now he's snug and warm and I can get some sleep. I'm dreading tomorrow. We've got to get Jazzy to the vet in Limerick to have his teeth checked. Somehow or other I'm guessing we're looking at a good 200 euro worth of work. Seriously, it's so stressful to get him in the big carrier that I should probably start drinking heavily tonight and keep drinking all night:D

Pumpkinseeds

I dropped Jazzy off at the vets at 9, he meowed his little head off all the way there. Poor little guy. I've to phone them at 2 to see how he is, I'm always worried when they're anaesthetised. The 4 of them were jumping on me in bed most of the night since there was no food down. Toby came home with his eye gummed up. It seems worse when he wakes up but then he can open it. I'll clean it with some cold tea later and see how it is.

tk123

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I'm so glad that we got the cat kennel for Toby,

Does it just look like a normal kennel or is it specifically for cats?! I have visions of a kennel with a fish painted on it instead of a bone lol! :P

SillyMangoX

There's the makings of a mother cat in our dog. I was bringing Dude for his walk and I usually try to keep the dog away because she herds the cats, but she walked up today real slow and gentle, nudged Dude till he lid down, licked him all over then licked his bum till he peed! Needless to say dude was not one bit impressed :P

Pumpkinseeds

tk123 wrote: »

Does it just look like a normal kennel or is it specifically for cats?! I have visions of a kennel with a fish painted on it instead of a bone lol! :P

Hee, no, it's a redwood cat kennel. It has a flat roof that they love to sit on as well. We got it from Amazon Uk, wasn't cheap at 75 pounds but I didn't like anything else we saw. It came with a catflap which we removed as he doesn't like catflaps much.

Pumpkinseeds

Poor Jazzy had 2 back molars removed:( He's had an antibiotic injection and a painkiller injection. He's shut in the safe room upstairs and he's not a bit happy, keeps trying to tunnel his way under the door. I've boiled him some chicken breast for later, I'm surprised he's not hoarse at this point. He's probably not going to trust me for at least a month.

SillyMangoX

A new step in the Dude road to recovery, we retired his crate today! He was having a few test runs in the utility with the others and it's going well except for the odd pee or poo in unusual places so the crate was packed up into the attic today but it also means I'm sleeping without a cat which I don't like :P

Pumpkinseeds

Molly is a lunatic today. She's galloping around like a horse, leaping on every surface she can find and freaking the adult cats out, they don't know what to make of her, I think it's because her playmate Jazzy's feeling a bit sore after having 2 molars out yesterday, at least she's not trying to jump on him. Poppy's not impressed, she's growling at her and the Felix and Toby have decided to go outdoors for a break from her:)

I was wondering why there were so many cat toys on the living room floor today, thought my husband was giving them to her and was going to tell him not to leave so many lying around, then I realised it was her bringing them down in her mouth from the box of toys in her room. She's been bringing down toy mice and fluffy balls all evening:D

mymo

My daughter took dogs out to her friends yesterday, half hour walk out, 2 hours running around on the farm with their friend tess the border collie, they met some chickens fir the first time, Ollie was good and went to the pen for a nosey and walked away, but Tiffi fixated on them and had to be carried away as she wouldn't leave. They saw the resident cats and were fine, met cows but stayed well away thankfully, but when I got home late last night they were rather stinky!
But very tired, still tired this morning!

tk123

Stinkiness and mud is why I've gone to the beach instead of the bigger park the last few weekends lol!! They swim themselves clean in the flooded dunes and then towels on them in the car and they're almost dry when we get home! The water in the dunes has ice on it on Sunday morning so very funny hearing the plink-plink noise of the ice smashing as they ran thru it and then them turning back and staring at the water not sure what happened lol!

EDIT - OMG at the size of these things from zooplus!!! :eek:

mymo

Mine don't swim tk, one doesn't even like my daughter swimming, or anyone else either. He barks like a loon, and goes nuts when they get out of the water.

Poor Tiffi isn't looking her best at the moment, had to chop all the hair off around her eye and side of her face as she has an infection of some sort and her skin was very inflamed around the eye. Will have to give her a haircut at the weekend to try and make her look less weird. Shaved snout and face, with long shaggy hair everywhere else.

SillyMangoX

I have a panto coming up for the next 2 weekends so have been having quite long rehearsals lately, when I came home this evening Dude kept meowing and brrrrrring at me and I couldn't figure what he wanted, but when I sat down he jumped up on my chest, buried his face in my hair, put a paw either side of my neck and fell asleep giving me a giant hug! I think he misses having me around in the evenings

ferretone

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I was wondering why there were so many cat toys on the living room floor today, thought my husband was giving them to her and was going to tell him not to leave so many lying around, then I realised it was her bringing them down in her mouth from the box of toys in her room. She's been bringing down toy mice and fluffy balls all evening:D

The older of our 2 spayed females (around 3 1/2) does this quite often. She was an only kitten, who turned up in the bonnet of my car, aged around 4 weeks, that September. A week later she was fighting for her life with flu, so as things worked out there never seemed a good time to introduce another kitten: we hadn't planned to keep her, but ended up doing so after she developed pneumonia following her spay.

Anyway, apart from our gentle Dobie girl, her main furry companions in the early months were these long, furry, stripey mouse/kitten type toys that we got in Maxizoo. And Kitterton just developed this habit of "scruffing" them around the house, while making this "Mrrrrr" type noise that you most often hear from mother cats. She just does it now and agin these days, but it's quite funny the way you hear her coming all through the house when she's doing it!

loveisdivine

I'm so fed up of people getting pets just because their kids want one. It's totally irresponsible and sets a very bad example. :mad: But who cares aslong as the kids are smiling for 10 seconds eh!

borderlinemeath

Brought 5 dogs to the beach

Coco rolled in horse poo
Another ate a big lump of horse poo
Another ate some dead bird
And another attempted to eat a different dead bird, a fairly fresh looking, still feathered seagull, but I managed to stop her in time.
Benson was the only dog who didn't indulge himself!

Pumpkinseeds

Molly squared up to her reflection in the oven door this morning, I love that sideways jump they do:D.

SillyMangoX

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Molly squared up to her reflection in the oven door this morning, I love that sideways jump they do:D.

Cream did it to me last night when I caught him on the table

anniehoo

^^Look at that fluffed up tail. So not impressed :pac::pac:

SillyMangoX

anniehoo wrote: »

^^Look at that fluffed up tail. So not impressed :pac::pac:

I wouldn't mind but I didn't even give out to him, I just walked into the kitchen and he was sitting there, saw me and freaked out :pac: if you look closely in the background you can see dude peeping around the corner. Cream scared him so he was trying to fluff his tail. Doesn't really work when you don't have one :pac:

Pumpkinseeds

Molly went to her forever home today. She's got a home with a nice family, the lady has experience with cats and has 2 young children and a teenager, so I think Molly will be happy. Hopefully all will be fine and she will be officially signed over to her new family in a few weeks. I feel all emotional now:o

anniehoo

Anyone watching Extreme Dog Styling on Ch4? :eek:

tk123

anniehoo wrote: »

Anyone watching Extreme Dog Styling on Ch4? :eek:

:eek: I am now!

FFS - there's 3 small dogs on my side of the road and one behind us - I'm 99% sure it's the one behind us that seems to be out barking all night long. It's out when I'm home around 6 and I hear it when I open my window at night when I'm going to bed...with 2 dogs in my room. It's a CKC so not like it'd take up a huge amount of space. They're living behind us 10-15 years and the guy has never once even nodded when we pass him in the park so not exactly approachable. Also they have a camera at their door so not like I can leave an anonymous not in their letterbox. It's starting to drive me MAD!!