GadgetVicar

A Dog Called Chewy

For a week a few months ago, we looked after the pet dog of my friends, Evelyn and Gordon. Chewy proved to be a great hit, apart from the night I had to take GV Boy to casualty,when in our absence she howled all night, much to the neighbours' annoyance.

Sadly, Chewy has had to be put down. The humans she lived with loved her, as did we. She'll be missed.

Here's the question. Do dogs (and cats, and all other pets/creatures) go to heaven?

Alfie at the Beach

Two Weeks With Alfie

Alfie shadows Ms GV. She is "Top Dog" (as if I didn't know). Around the house, he is wonderful. He won't enter rooms unless invited, ditto with going upstairs. He is quite clever. Toilet trained. Very loving and wonderful with everyone who visits. Doesn't scrounge. We love him very much already.

Trouble is, he has a bit of a split personality. When we take him out for a walk, if he sees another dog, or another creature for that matter, he freaks and barks like mad. We've signed up for obedience classes, attending the first one on Thursday night. He barked throughout the class, though we were told he is by no means the worst behaved dog they've had. We figure he has had some trauma in his life, so the hope is to build his confidence and socialise him more. This would be fine, except he's a big dog and can be intimidating, as we found out at class when he frightened an acquaintance's dog so much, it wet the floor (twice). Oops!

What's It All About, Alfie?

Been busy, then resting last weekend, then busy again this week, so blogging has been taking a back seat.

The big news is that the GV family are preparing to offer a home to a middle-aged gentleman by the name of Alfie. He's been living rough, but is well-mannered enough and should fit into our family quite nicely.

Alfie is an eight year old white German Shepherd with a delightful temperament. He'll be in his new home by Sunday afternoon.

The SSPCA have been very helpful and have even let him out for a cuddle when we have visited him over the last few weeks. He seemed very pleased to see us this afternoon, and loved the attention.

(Pictures courtesy of GV Girl No. 2)   

Wanted: The Dog Search Continues

Well, we are in a bit of a pickle. The family can't agree on a) what kind of dog to get and b) where to go and find one. We've also discovered that we are a somewhat difficult bunch to place a rescue dog with, being novices and having children under sixteen years of age. We have discovered that none of us is very keen on Staffordshire Bull Terriers and the rehoming centres seem to be full of them, which suggests that no-one else loves them either. They are the marginalised of the dog world. We like the idea of a retired greyhound, but that means having a dog which probably can't be let off the lead (being a sight dog) and will have to be muzzled, which one of us is not too happy about. We've looked at Malamutes (someone here loves huskies), but they aren't really suitable for novices. So, we are now beginning to think about puppies.  Which will be a lot more work, but everyone is saying they will put the necessary work in.

We are still looking for the appropriate dog. Which probably means not letting everyone have a say, and just bringing one home. A Labrador would be my choice.......

Pet Hunt

Over the last fifteen years we have shared our home with all manner of caged pets. We've never had a cat or dog. Now all members of the GV Family have been nagging me to consider a dog as a pet. I have finally relented, so today we went to the Dogs Trust Rehoming Centre. We felt it would be better to help a homeless dog rather than get a puppy. It's a fantastic facility. We'd filled in an application form online, so after a quick introduction we got to look at the available dogs.

We had some possibles, but sadly none are apprropriate for hewbies like us, and because some of us are under sixteen, that limits the number of suitable dogs. We were encouraged to look at two pairs of inseparable dogs. Not quite what we had anticipated, but we thought we'd give it a go. First up was a pair of greyhounds named Kim and Aggie (!). Beautiful brown former racers, they walked very well on the leash, weren't phased by other dogs, and were very affectionate. Most of us took to them immediately. We then walked Bonnie and Skye, two Collie crosses. They were something of a contrast to the greyhounds. They strained on the leash, barked at everything and didn't want petted too much.

In the end, opinions were divided, so we are still wondering about what to do next.

Wilbur R.I.P.

Longstanding readers of this blog might remember this post about the embarrassing habits of our pet rabbit, Wilbur. Sadly, we found him dead in his hutch last night. It's a mark of how the GV kids have grown that they hardly batted an eyelid at the news. Last time one of our rabbits died, her grave was desecrated by  a fox. No doubt Wilbur's body will meet the same fate.

Pet Count

One of our rabbits, Furby, died on Friday night. There has been no grief whatsoever from the GadgetVicar children.

Current Pet Count:

1 rabbit - Wilbur
1 guinea pig - Scruffy
3 Syrian hamsters - Martin, Sultana and Snowy
1 Chinese hamster - Bold

Sick Hamster

We fear that one of our creatures is dying. Patches is our oldest hamster. Ms GadgetVicar was spoonfeeding him last night. GadgetVicar Girl No 2 is disconsolate. I'm a bit tearful too.

We're keeping him warm and he seems to be enjoying snuggling up to those who hold him.

Pets bring joy and pain.

Update @ 7pm: Patches is still holding on.

Wilbur and the pink pig

The two members of the Rex AllChurch Band who stayed with us last night were kept awake by Wilbur the Rabbit and his piggy friend. It turns out that Rex himself is a bit of a bunny expert, and over breakfast he entertained me with several stories of his own rabbits. Wilbur and said piggy are now residing on Rex's mobile phone in video form.

We'll need to banish Wilbur when visitors are here.