The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

mymo

Any of you dog owners that do a lot of walking, can you recommend good shoes/runners to reduce impact on joints (knees), I usually just wear walking boots. I was just told this evening I have bad arthritis in the knee I've been having trouble with for 9 months , Doc said get some better shoes to reduce impact.

Pumpkinseeds

We have a long kitchen unit that has a light wooden veneer. We've had to patch up 2 sections due to Jazzy pulling it off. My husbands just gone out to investigate the banging noise from the kitchen and found him sitting on the chest freezer after pulling a piece of the wood off that section, he mustn't have been able to get it off on his favourite section, little git. I've never known a cat like him for pulling at things.

We had to put a long rod between the filing cabinet handles, otherwise he pulls the drawers open, pulls out the files and goes asleep in the drawer. He also managed to get into the middle drawer in the kitchen and climb down the back of it so he's in the bottom drawer:rolleyes:

SingItOut

Gonzo is on the mend, he was "barking" last night to let us know the smallest cat was annoying him. The only time I've ever been happy to be woke up by his screeching he's also eating a lot better today.

I switched the dogs back onto select gold and they are a lot fuller and don't beg for food like when they were on clinivet. Alli's putting on weight brilliantly! She's 12kg now so I'm aiming for 15kg. Makes me wonder why the rescue centre said she didn't have a big appetite when I commented on how skinny she was (7kg). She has never refused food and always leaves an empty bowl since she's been with us. They clearly weren't feeding her enough. Anyways she will never go hungry with us! She's getting her stitches out tomorrow, that'll be interesting.

boomerang

mymo, ecco walking boots are fantastic, it's like walking on air! They are mega-expensive but they last for years and years... I'd usually get three or four years out of mine and I wear them week in, week out!

SillyMangoX

I was at a table quiz tonight, one of the questions was what is a sphynx. My parents were in discussion how to describe the Egyptian statue, I said put down a breed of cat. Guess who was right :P Being a crazy cat lady comes in handy at times

mymo

Thanks boomerang, will take a look.
My dad laughed tonight when I said I'd got arthritis, he said "that's what old people get!"

baby and crumble

Been in Wales for a week, heading home today so popped into Pets At Home on the way. Visited the adoption centre and had to give myself and my gf a stern talking to. There was a Syrian hammie in the adoption centre there- he'd had a nervous tic and had rubbed all the fur off his nose and now no one wants to buy him. So so tempted, but it'd be too long for him on the ferry. Hope he gets adopted soon, he's lovely.

borderlinemeath

Is there a full moon or something? All the low level trolling on the other thread is doing my head in! Time to bring the dogs out for their walk!

Pumpkinseeds

Sometimes I just despair. We were walking to the local shopping centre a couple of hours ago and came across a group of young children with a shih tsu type dog. Now the kids were probably only about 6 or 7 at most. The dog had no collar, therefore no id tags and no recall. We walked on and a few minutes later we heard 2 ladies behind us talking to a dog we knew they didn't have when they passed us going in the other direction.

It was the same dog and they thought he was with us, we didn't even know he was there and of course there was no sign of the kids. Anyway the ladies took Gizmo as the kids were calling him, towards where we'd seen the kids. Hopefully the kids were still around. It's an awful shame Gizmo's adults don't care that dogs shouldn't be roaming. Also, I really hate the Irish mentality of not putting id on a dog in case it causes an accident, then there's no way of holding them to account.

Tranceypoo

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Is there a full moon or something? All the low level trolling on the other thread is doing my head in! Time to bring the dogs out for their walk!

Actually there was a full moon a couple of nights ago! That thread was doing my head in as well and I was only following it!

Tranceypoo

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Sometimes I just despair. We were walking to the local shopping centre a couple of hours ago and came across a group of young children with a shih tsu type dog. Now the kids were probably only about 6 or 7 at most. The dog had no collar, therefore no id tags and no recall. We walked on and a few minutes later we heard 2 ladies behind us talking to a dog we knew they didn't have when they passed us going in the other direction.

It was the same dog and they thought he was with us, we didn't even know he was there and of course there was no sign of the kids. Anyway the ladies took Gizmo as the kids were calling him, towards where we'd seen the kids. Hopefully the kids were still around. It's an awful shame Gizmo's adults don't care that dogs shouldn't be roaming. Also, I really hate the Irish mentality of not putting id on a dog in case it causes an accident, then there's no way of holding them to account.

You know I think you're giving the owners too much credit of intelligence, I doubt they put that much thought into not putting an id on the dog, I think they just don't give a flying sh!t!! I'm up to here with people round here and their terrible attitudes to animals.

borderlinemeath

Tranceypoo wrote: »

Actually there was a full moon a couple of nights ago! That thread was doing my head in as well and I was only following it!

Just back in from the walk, delighted it's closed! There's a certain type of poster that sometimes sees a controversial topic and revels in winding people up with their opinions. I think the OP got a terrible going over, considering they admitted liability and said they would be paying compensation from the outset

tk123

Yaaay an hour of being home alone for the doggies and no barking from Bailey until I pulled into the drive...but then Lucy who was crated tried to bite the crate open(!) the crate is a bit bent but she's fine thank god! I have to crate/separate them because the rob each other's treats and don't want to risk Bailey snapping if she goes to rob something back off him. Back to the drawing board

Kablamo!

Happiness is a snoring cat.

Pretzill

Kablamo! wrote: »

Happiness is a snoring cat.

And true happiness is 3 snoring dogs two of which ran me ragged today - I just wish I had 10% of their energy!

Pumpkinseeds

I did the follow up visit on our foster kitten Molly on Friday. She has grown so big. She's gotten tall and long now. The little boy is about 6 and he was telling me lots of stories about her and obviously loves her to bits, his mum says Molly is starting to let the little girl, about 4 I think she is, come near her now. It's lovely to see a parent teach their kids respect for animals.

I was worried Molly would get upset by my visit, not a chance, she had no interest in me at all and took off upstairs in case I tried to take her away. She is spoiled rotten in her new home, as a cat should be:)

borderlinemeath

BBC2, the Louis Theroux programme is on now, LA dogs

borderlinemeath

borderlinemeath wrote: »

BBC2, the Louis Theroux programme is on now, LA dogs

A few minutes in and it's already uncomfortable viewing. The kennel supervisor going on about being the alpha, and then screaming at the dog she acknowledged as fear aggressive.
Shouting at the rescues at boot camp.
Most of these dogs that are 'rescued' are wearing prong collars:(
I can see why that fool Milan is so popular over there:(

SingItOut

I had forgotten about that program! Lucky I had it set to record during the week. Going to watch it now .. Already don't like the guy In the brown shirt (is that the presenter?!) for his "humans come first" speech!

SillyMangoX

Gave Dude his first ever proper bath (well half bath) this evening. Normally I just wipe him down with babywipes and he's grand but he had a load of poo really deeply ground into his fur. I lid him down in the bath with a load of treats to distract him, turned the shower hose up quite powerful but only just warm and rinsed it over his back end. Didn't bother using shampoo or anything but it all just came off So now he is panned out in front of the fire on a vet bed and towel drying himself off Also inadvertently emptied his bladder because he obviously got a bit stimulated by the water moving over him :pac:

borderlinemeath

SingItOut wrote: »

I had forgotten about that program! Lucky I had it set to record during the week. Going to watch it now .. Already don't like the guy In the brown shirt (is that the presenter?!) for his "humans come first" speech!

The presenter (Louis Theroux) was the least offensive person in it:(. The others, as well intentioned as some of them were, had some very outdated ideas of how to train a dog.

Zapperzy

At what age do people normally change cats/kittens to adult food? She's going on 8 months now but still at that lanky kitten stage, thought I ordered enough kitten food last time to see her through for another month or two at the least but I miscalculated a bit and it'l last just about 2-3 weeks. I'l have to put in another order for kitten food but I dunno how long to order for, is 10-11 months too young to change her?

SillyMangoX

Zapperzy wrote: »

At what age do people normally change cats/kittens to adult food? She's going on 8 months now but still at that lanky kitten stage, thought I ordered enough kitten food last time to see her through for another month or two at the least but I miscalculated a bit and it'l last just about 2-3 weeks. I'l have to put in another order for kitten food but I dunno how long to order for, is 10-11 months too young to change her?

I changed all of my guys over at 6 months and they were grand with it!

SingItOut

borderlinemeath wrote: »

The presenter (Louis Theroux) was the least offensive person in it:(. The others, as well intentioned as some of them were, had some very outdated ideas of how to train a dog.

I gathered that after watching it, what was that shelter warden thinking about when she started screaming at that dog! A lot of jaw dropping moments

Pumpkinseeds

I fed the cats and made Mr P a coffee at 6am and then went back to bed. Toby came back to bed with me, I ended up on the other side of the bed as he decided to sleep widthways. He's really gotten settled in over the past month. He's coming into the living room every day and coming to bed with us most nights.

He's been with us for 10 months and spent most of that time on his own in the kitchen, so it's great that he's finally spending time with us.

Tranceypoo

borderlinemeath wrote: »

The presenter (Louis Theroux) was the least offensive person in it:(. The others, as well intentioned as some of them were, had some very outdated ideas of how to train a dog.

I only saw bits of it cos I just couldn't watch the whole thing but I was surprised at Louis Theroux as I always thought he did insightful, well researched documentaries, but I saw a bit where there was a dog who seemed to be kept in a very small crate and the owners got a trainer round and he almost immediately mentioned 'pack leader', I really thought well researched Louis would question this theory and have some information on how it has been disproved many times over at this stage, but no, nothing. Most disappointing.

snoman

Tranceypoo wrote: »

I only saw bits of it cos I just couldn't watch the whole thing but I was surprised at Louis Theroux as I always thought he did insightful, well researched documentaries, but I saw a bit where there was a dog who seemed to be kept in a very small crate and the owners got a trainer round and he almost immediately mentioned 'pack leader', I really thought well researched Louis would question this theory and have some information on how it has been disproved many times over at this stage, but no, nothing. Most disappointing.

Any good documentary maker records the facts in an unbiased manner as possible. It's not for him to educate either us or the subjects. That'd be a different type of programme. However judging by the reactions here it sounds as if the content made it's own point. Haven't watched it yet... sounds upsetting, will have to wait until I'm feeling brave.

Tranceypoo

snoman wrote: »

Any good documentary maker records the facts in an unbiased manner as possible. It's not for him to educate either us or the subjects. That'd be a different type of programme. However judging by the reactions here it sounds as if the content made it's own point. Haven't watched it yet... sounds upsetting, will have to wait until I'm feeling brave.

But the facts are the pack leader theory has been disproved, his usual style is playing dumb, normally he kind of innocently asks a loaded question ie he could have said 'isn't that a kind of old fashioned way of thinking now' or similar. That's what I was hoping for anyways :cool:

snoman

Tranceypoo wrote: »

But the facts are the pack leader theory has been disproved, his usual style is playing dumb, normally he kind of innocently asks a loaded question ie he could have said 'isn't that a kind of old fashioned way of thinking now' or similar. That's what I was hoping for anyways :cool:

Well, hopefully they came across as such tools that it will be perfectly obvious how wrong they are. Must say I'm kinda dreading watching it.

SingItOut

Been trying to get Alli used to sleeping on my bed too so that moone can come back in and sleep on the bed again without Alli barking and pinning for her. I wait until allis really tired and then I bring them both down, moone hops in straight away, snuggles into the pillows and will sleep for the night (often got little terrier paws kicking my back all night!) whereas Alli just comes back to life and starts trying to play fight with moone and won't settle for ages. Time for a plan C! ... She also ate a pair of dads and mams work shoes so there's also that worry she may destroy my room while I'm asleep!