Thursday, January 15, 2015

Becoming golden oldies...

Jamie and Jemma turn six years old in January 2015.  They are faithful and delightful companions who still give me lots of love and endless patience...

Jamie and Jemma are still disrespectful to trees...

They still like other dogs and I am very proud of how easy going and sociable they are with other humans and canines (but cats and rabbits - not so much)...
Jemma still thinks that she has hands and not paws. That's why I need to keep her nails short because when she wants attention she will paw you until she gets it...


Yup, it's true what they say, the dog is man's best friend...


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Beagle Scent Club Gauteng 2013

Deep breath now.....
Hallo world!
It's been a long time, far too long.
I am coming up for air and thought maybe it's time to live a little again (albeit short).

Here's a video I made of what we do at our Beagle Scenting Club.  Keeps the little critters happy, fit and living for each Sunday.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Drama Dog...

I am still reeling from our crash start to the new year.
February seems to be the month for major canine surgery. Last year half of Jamie's toe needed to be amputated. This year was no different.

Two weeks after returning home, Jamie stopped eating and looked off colour. We went to the vet but they were unable to make an absolute diagnosis and advised me to observe him overnight.
It was the worst night both Jamie and I have had for a long time. His condition deteriorated as he began vomiting, cramping, trembling and acting very insecure and needy. I also noticed that he kept going into the "prayer" or "bow" position (forelegs bent at the elbows while the back legs remain straight, a position dogs often adopt when stretching).

We were at the vet's door at the crack of dawn the next day. Apparently these were classic signs of abdominal pain. There were a number of possible causes: Urinary tract infection; stones; pancreatitis, severe gastroenteritis or an abdominal obstruction. To get to the bottom of this meant loads and loads of tests: blood smears, urine analysis, X- rays, ultrasounds and scans before the final diagnosis was made. Jamie had an abdominal obstruction... (OMG!). I remembered warnings about this dreaded disaster from puppy school days when our pups used to chew and swallow everything and anything. It seems Jamie has not outgrown that habit!

The only option was full on surgery.
So Jamie was hospitalised and went under the knife again. The guilty culprit, plucked from his duodenum, proved to be a peach pip.


And if surgery was not bad enough, the vet has insisted that Jamie go on diet!

The poor dog is hoovering my kitchen floor in the hopes of finding the minutest tidbit. How come I feel so cruel, when this is supposed to be in Jamie's best interests? I have become neurotic about letting Jamie out the house. How else can I prevent him putting anything that has not been strictly vetted by yours truly into his mouth, particularly since he acts as if he is starving?

Whenever he looks at me with his "sad eyes" expression, I am not sure if he is feeling sick again or accusing me of dog cruelty.
Forget all the hospital soap operas, I think the stories that go on in vet clinics will make for brilliant TV drama.
(I should know!)

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Help! Held Hostage by a Hadeda...


This has happened for the last six years. Whenever it is breeding season, the Hadedas return to one specific tree in my garden and cause havoc. The Hadeda is a large dark brown/gray ibis with glossy greenish purple wings, a long black bill which is uses to eat earthworms, insects, spiders and snails. It has a loud and harsh call, hence the name and is found in Sub Saharan Africa.

The problem is that they build ridiculously tiny and rickety nests hardly able to house one chick let alone more. It is the third chick that is always the problem. As they grow into fledglings, inevitably one falls out before it is able to fly. I always phone Free Me, a bird rescue centre to ask them what to do. Their advice is always the same. Try and replace the chick in the nest or see if the parents will come down and feed it on the ground.

Mission Impossible !
The nest is way too high in the tree and the parents hover uselessly in the branches idiotically unable to work out how to feed the fallen chick.

I have tried my utmost each year to try and save the chick. One year I spent an entire week totally focused on reuniting a chick with its parents. I would put it on my roof in the hopes its parents would come down and feed it. The dumb parents continued to hover around but did nothing useful except keep it company.
Every time I saw the poor chick getting weaker and weaker, I would capture it and feed it mushy dog pellets through a syringe ( advice from Free Me who said if the protein content of the dog food was high this would help nourish the chick ). I'd keep it warm in a box overnight especially as it often rained at night. The next day I would drag out the ladder and return the re-vitalised chick to the roof hoping that the penny would finally drop and its parents would start feeding it themselves.
This continued day after day which was extremely stressful for the chick, its parents and most of all me. Despite my efforts the chick eventually died.

This year it was with relief that I noticed a broken egg on the ground. Only two chicks hatched making the odds of survival better. Unfortunately the second chick died two weeks ago leaving a single chick in the nest. Well, I thought, at least the parents should have no problems raising one offspring and I would have a peaceful November. Oh boy was I wrong!

It's been two days and two nights since the lone chick fell out of the nest into my garden.
Having fallen from Eden onto Earth it was a total innocent, unaware of all the dangers it faced.
The only reason my dogs did not chase it at first was because it was so passive and trusting. But the Hadeda soon learned that dogs are not really friends. The moment it became defensive, my dogs thought game on.


I have decided this time to let nature take its course. What will be, will be.
But in the meantime I have tried to tip the odds in favour of the chick by barricading myself and my dogs in the house. The chick is currently walking around undisturbed in the garden.

Jamie and Jemma are not very happy about this and we are suffering from cabin fever. But I was thrilled this morning to see a parent on the ground with the chick.

Meanwhile all my windows are closed so that Jemma can't do her famous Houdini act and escape outside. I walk around stealthily trying not to bang doors or dishes so as not to frighten the chick. I have even kept curtains strategically closed so the chick will not be startled by our indoor activity.

And so we pray to Mother Nature:
Please keep the chick safe and may it learn to fly very,very,very soon because we are going stir crazy cooped up and afraid to venture out of the house while the Hadeda keeps us under siege.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Retriever versus the Cyclist...

I enjoy walking in our local park which is full of trees and water. Come late afternoon it is filled with people walking, children playing, joggers, cyclists and dogs.

Observing the goings on can be very amusing. Having cycled in the past, I know there is nothing that can ruin an enjoyable ride faster than a puncture. What a schlep to fix it! I came across a rather grumpy cyclist on the side of the path with his bike upended in the process of repairing a puncture.

Suddenly a Irish Red Setter dog rushed up to the cyclist and grabbed something lying on the ground next to him. The cyclist immediately got into a fluster and started chasing the Setter around in circles. The Setter was obviously having the time of his life, not so the cyclist.

The Irish Setter is bred to be an all purpose hunting dog, both a pointer and retriever. They are especially good at hunting game birds. But this dog had obviously not being taught to return what he retrieves. Eventually the cyclist gave up the chase and arms akimbo waited with a scowl for the very embarrassed owner who rushed up chastising her dog.

Even she battled to retrieve the unknown object. Eventually it was revealed that the Setter had stolen a very expensive pair of cycling sunglasses. Luckily, being a retriever, this breed usually has a soft mouth, so the sunglasses were undamaged just a bit gob smacked.

But the final straw for the hapless cyclist was when another cyclist flew past on his bike and shouted out " Having a bad day mate?!?"

Moral of the story: Retrievers will retrieve. Just teach them to return items before they are labelled kleptomaniacs.