Food allergies in dogs
We feed our dogs a complete dog food with a topping that we cook ourselves. This used to be the meat from chicken wings. We’d buy trays from the supermarket and simmer them. The dogs thought this was pretty good too. At five months,The Contessa gradually started to eat less and less. She lost weight, became withdrawn and grumpy. She spent a lot of time with her front legs stretched out and her bum in the air. This is known as ‘praying’. Our local vet suggested AllBran to be served as a sort of all day banquet. She ate a bit...
read moreBarbie dog blankets
As a child I wanted a Barbie doll. My mother refused to grant this wish. “No. She would push you around.” And that was that. I forgot all about Barbie until the merchandising explosion of the last few years. Little girls swooped around on tiny pink Barbie bikes and became quite ruthless over Barbie bags and trinkets. Steadily, Barbie has infiltrated so many aspects of our lives. Searching for a tiny vacuum cleaner for my laptop this weekend, the internet kept on pointing to a dinky little Barbie vacuum cleaner, in pink, for Barbie...
read moreRat alert from Dr Quito
At seven years old, Dr Q is Senior Dog at the cottage. Content for a couple of years with standard guard dog duties, he grew bored and cast around for a more pivotal role. As Head Rat Monitor he has achieved his dream. A local rat catcher told me that rats tend to move up our village in waves. One house puts down poison and this kills a few rats. Not wanting to live in a funeral parlour, the rest move away to the next house. If their arrival has been undetected they breed fast and quickly boost their numbers. Quito must have overheard this...
read moreMy favourite Min Pin. Dr Quito D.Phil (Buda).
Dr Quito is my favourite dog. He is the steadiest, kindest dog that I’ve ever lived with. He was the first pup that we chose together. And as Danny says, “Our best boy.” When he arrived as a tiny eight week old pup Danny insisted that he slept beside our bed. He’d let Quito drift off to sleep on our pillows before lifting him gently in his palm and tucking him up in the half avocado box that was his basket at the time. At 10 months old he had a terrible accident on the Newmarket Gallops. He was coursed by a lurcher. The...
read moreInca, the Min Pin, our gourmet optician. How to stop your puppy destroying valuables.
Even at eight months our pup chews everything. Clothes pegs, lighters, ice cubes, sea shells and now two pairs of my spectacles (actually it’s three pairs now: updated March 2007). As Danny spelt out on the fridge with the magnetic letters that she had not yet gobbled up, ˜Inca is a goat amongst Min Pins.’ This morning I managed to prise open her jaws and retrieve a large and presumably tasty cheque and noticed a glint behind her in the gloom of the basket (a sort of fur igloo). My second pair of specs lay in pieces. She had crept...
read moreRats
The rats are back.As soon as the corn is cut the rats return. It’s war. We’ve tried everything to keep them away. One year we supplemented poison with rat traps (a giant version of a mouse trap) but they were very difficult to set. Then we hosted a rat shoot. Great fun but not effective. Another year we just hoped that they’d get fed up with living here and did nothing. We spent Christmas with rats that threw wild parties in the kitchen ceiling. Now I’ve found a poison that works quite quickly. We keep a large drum of...
read moreConfiscating the pig’s ear from The Contessa
After an afternoon that has be punctuated by deep low growling, I’ve been forced to remove the pig’s ear yet again. The other dogs were delighted with theirs and gobbled them up. Contessa goes into immediate guerilla warfare tack when we give her a treat. Her afternoon is ruined. She cannot move from the chair where her basket perches. The others play in the garden near our tiny apiary, whilst Contessa grumbles on. It’s a bit scary removing the chew but once the deed is done, she seems relieved. And it’s out through...
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