Bits for Pets Blog

Dogs in Wigan are being targeted by thieves, RSPCA officers warn.

They say the animals – particularly pedigree breeds – are being stolen for a variety of unsavoury reasons and urge owners to get their pets microchipped.

Wigan RSPCA officer Cathy Hyde said: “This is on the increase and there have certainly been cases in the borough.

“One lady had her dog stolen and didn’t get it back for almost a year.
“She was absolutely distraught.
“People contacted her claiming they had found it.
“They wanted money to give it back.”

Cathy said pedigree dogs are most at risk, especially any dogs suitable for fighting, such as Staffordshire bull terriers, or dogs which criminals can use to push down holes into badger setts, such as terriers.
She added: “I have a pedigree dog myself and do worry about him.

“We would advise all owners to get their dogs microchipped.
“A lot of dogs are also stolen for breeding so neutering and speying can also be a deterrent.”

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LIFELONG dog lover Debbie Mackay, having been made redundant by the RAC, has set up a service for animal owners in crisis with their pets.

Doggy Dilemmas is Ms Mackay’s way of offering help to people who have specific problems with their dogs whether behavioural or just logistical.

She said: “I have been mad about dogs for as long as I can remember. All my projects at school had something to do with them.

“So when my job at the RAC disappeared due to outsourcing to India, I decided to do something I’ve always loved doing.”

Ms Mackay, from Worton, near Devizes, is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and has applied for Kennel Club accreditation.

She has already achieved much success in training wayward pooches and is also prepared to offer a home from home in the event of someone needing their dog babysat at short notice.

She offers all sorts of other solutions to doggy problems, including dog walking, animal meals on wheels and accommodation if the owner wants to go away on a weekend break.

She has three dogs of her own, all Briards Darcy, six, Dexter, four and ten-month-old Della. The two older dogs have qualified for Crufts and at least one of them is likely to be entered next year.

But she is keen to foster responsible dog ownership and will offer the Kennel Club’s Good Citizenship Scheme, with its bronze, silver and gold awards.

Ms Mackay said: “This is not an easy thing to set up as you have to put all sorts of things in place and then approval from a championship show judge and your local dog warden.”

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Ten cats in search of owners will spend the next 10 days in a New York store window, their every move caught on camera for a reality TV show on which they will compete for best sleeper and mouse-catcher.

The show is the creation of a petfood company and will be shown on cable channel Animal Planet, as well as on the Web site www.MeowMixHouse.com where viewers will be asked to vote off one feline contestant each day.

The cats, chosen from shelters around the country, will compete for loudest purr, most prolific sleeper and who can catch the most toy mice. Kitties who get the boot will be adopted into permanent homes.

Meow Mix, owned by Del Monte Foods Company, hopes the show will promote cat adoption — as well as their products, which will be the only thing on the menu.

Passerby taking a gander though a specially rented storefront on Madison Avenue in midtown Manhattan can watch the cats lazing about a luxuriously outfitted cat-sized house that includes scaled-down sofas, beds, a fish tank (with fake fish), kitchen and a porch, all put together by an interior designer.

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Rare species of animal that were dying out in Britain are beginning to thrive again thanks to a project to transform a 200 square mile patch of disused coalfields in the Midlands into woodland.

Adders, lapwings and otters are among a number that are starting to flourish again in parts of the National Forest that were previously derelict.

The forest is Britain’s largest ongoing environmental project and aims to increase the woodland cover of the area from an initial six per cent to more than 33 per cent. So far, almost seven million trees have been planted, covering about 16 per cent of the land.

This week a set of sculptures by the wood artist David Nash will be unveiled across the forest.

Yesterday Nash called on the Government to promote similar schemes elsewhere and said that “not nearly enough” was being done to combat climate change.

He said: “If we are as greedy as we are in terms of paper usage and cars then we’ve got to do more to look at the environment. Politicians at a local and national level must do more to promote these types of projects.

“Millions of trees have been planted around the National Forest, which will help this area, but the tree planting is something that has to be replicated all over the country if it is to have a serious effect.”

The idea behind the National Forest, which covers parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire, was to turn around one of the country’s least wooded areas, joining up two ancient woodlands that flank the region. Large parts of the area were defunct coalfields.

Landowners and communities are encouraged to take part in the scheme and are given grants that get higher the more environmental projects they operate.

All the woodland sites are linked to allow the maximum amount of movement for wildlife and 90 per cent of the forest is accessible to the public. Wetlands, grasslands and hedgerows are also being encouraged.

But one of the biggest bonuses has been the return of the wildlife. Viv Astling, the former chairman of the National Forest Company, said: “It’s a great benefit to see the thriving wildlife and the return of species which were very rare in this country, to the point of them being endangered. We recently looked at doing something with a derelict barn near one of David’s sculptures and found that barn owls had nested in it, which was a wonderful sight and really quite extraordinary.

“We’ve seen the ruddy darter dragonfly, bats, water voles and the black poplar tree, all of which nearly disappeared from the landscape but which are being encouraged to thrive again.

“And we’ve got 40,000 kids involved in the project so they are learning at a very young age about environment matters and they have this sort of global empathy.”

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A RESCUE centre for abandoned rabbits which relies on charitable donations is asking animal lovers for support.

Briar Patch Rescue, Hainault, looks after more than 50 rabbits, 25 of which the centre is hoping to re-home.

Eve McCaffery, 28, set up the centre in February, but the mum-of-two, who has always looked after rabbits, took in her first abandoned bunny, Damaskinos, four years ago.

He was rescued by Eve after being dumped outside a pet shop in Chadwell Heath.

Her partner David named the albino after a vampire character from action movie Blade II, because of the creature’s red eyes.

This year she decided to set up the centre, which vaccinates and neuters rescued rabbits.

The centre has become a full-time job for Eve, and the cost of feeding and looking after the animals has risen as the centre cares for more and more animals.

Alison Anderson, 32, from Upminster, who volunteers at the centre, said: “Rabbits are cheap impulse buys.

“People don’t look into what they need to do to keep a rabbit happy or what sort of size housing they need.

“They are cute little bunnies in pet shops, but after four months they get hormonal and need to be neutered.”

Alison said another common mistake made by pet owners is to keep one rabbit, when the animals, which are very social, thrive on the company of another rabbit.

She said: “They should be kept together, but it’s important in terms of breeding to adopt a rabbit from a centre like this where they will have been neutered.”

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Lifelong Hammers fan and guide dog owner Chris Petrou, from Ilford in Essex, is currently starring on a special page of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association’s website, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first guide dogs in the UK.

Chris, 49, is one of 75 guide dog owners from across the UK to be featured during 2006 to commemorate the day in 1931 that the first four guide dogs led their pioneering blind owners to independence.

Chris, who is the proud owner of guide dog Tiffany, says: “The emotional and financial shock of registering blind was immense, and I took about a year sorting myself out; then another nearly 15 months getting rehabilitation training. I was taught to use a long cane, and then I applied for a guide dog. I couldn’t believe what good company a guide dog can be, as well as restoring my independence. Now Tiffany and I are up for any amount of travel which Hammers fixtures put our way.

“When I was on my own, winter games, when it was already going dark at 5pm, were frustrating and the crowds were intimidating. It wasn’t just about feeling vulnerable - although that came into it - there was a definite sense that I couldn’t any longer ‘let go’ and really enjoy the game, because there was always something to worry about.

“As soon as I got my confidence as a new guide dog owner, training Tiffany to pace herself with the football crowds, to take me in the lift and up to our third floor seats, was the first new thing I tried. I would never have dreamed that I could take a guide dog to football matches, but even away fixtures present no problem.”

www.guidedogs.org.uk/75partnerships - is dedicated to celebrating the unique partnerships between guide dogs and their owners.

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As summer days tempt us outdoors, we all have the opportunity to open our eyes to the natural world on our doorsteps. There are 15 million domestic gardens in Britain, and each one of them is teeming with life.

It’s all worth it when you see the frog. Could be a proverb, couldn’t it? An Albanian one, or maybe an Armenian one, to partner other proverbs, like: The hedgehog never pricks himself on his own spines. But what I’m referring to is the long wait, the long patient hours. No, days. No, weeks of tadpole keeping, of bringing to term those little black swimming things that begin their lives like fish, and end up like animals.

Their transformation is quite something to witness. This year we took some of them out of the pond and put them in a washing-up bowl with a large stone in the middle, and after weeks of observing, changing the water, removing the bodies of those that didn’t survive, it started to happen: the tadpoles developed back legs, then front legs, and then, bam! They were crawling out of the water on to the stone, their mouths magically changed from an Ooooo shape to an Eeeee shape, their tails rapidly shrinking away. They’d become froglets before our very eyes.

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LUCKY puppy Jasper had a miracle escape when he fell 50ft down a sheer cliff face - and survived.

He was chasing rabbits when he lost his footing and slipped and tumbled down the cliff to the sea.

The two-year-old dog was saved after a rocky ledge two metres above the water broke his fall.

Summa Calaghan an RNLI lifeguard at Crantock Beach in Newquay, Cornwall, found the whippet-spaniel cross after two hours ??” but had to call for help from an lifeboat to rescue him.

Now he is back with owners Clifford and Joan Day, from Worcs, nursing only minor injuries.

Clifford said: “He went charging past us like a rocket and just didn’t come back. We thought we wouldn’t see him again. He had a few cuts but is back to his usual self. ”

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A hamster has survived almost unscathed after spending several minutes passing through an industrial shredder.

The rodent is thought to have got into a skip of rubbish that was taken to Recyclo recycling plant in Flintshire.

It survived a giant shredder used to destroy waste such as washing machines and was found in a sorting area with no injuries other than a sore foot.

The hamster, named Mike, has been adopted by Liam Bull, 10, whose father Craig works at Recyclo.

Liam said: “I can’t believe he’s still alive after what happened, but he’s doing fine now.”

The hamster’s ordeal, which lasted around four minutes, began when it arrived at the plant in Sandycroft, probably aboard one of the many skips of waste which arrive there daily.

As well as surviving the giant shredder, Mike passed through a rotating drum and vibrating grids before he was discovered by staff.

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UK cat charity Cats Protection, has expressed its support for National Microchipping Month which is organised by the Kennel Club, and begins June 1st. New Cats Protection research has found that of all the cats reported missing only 45% are chipped and just 43% wear a collar tag.

Responding to the results the charity is keen to encourage more cat owners to realise the benefits of microchipping their pet.

The survey, which was designed to establish trends and factors relating to pets that go missing, has implications for all pet owners and highlights the importance of ensuring your cat is identifiable.

Cats Protection’s Head of Veterinary Services, Beth Skillings said:

“Microchipping offers cats a safe method of identification which can be more reliable than other forms of identification such as collars that can get removed, snagged or lost. However, it is very important pet owners keep their details up to date to increase the chance of a happy reunion. Owners should check their certificate which will tell them how to update their details.”

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