A lot has changed since I last posted and anyone who follows Pawsitively Pets on Twitter or Facebook will know some of what's been happening anyway but I guess the biggest difference is that my little family (the Pawsitively Pets Gang) has grown quite spectacularly!
I now share my life and my little home with four dogs, two cats and the stinkies (currently counting three rats and a mouse).
So I guess I should introduce them all!
Firstly, there is Takara the damnation (I mean, dalmatian - of course) , who everyone knows already - she will be eight years old in July, how time flies! She's still as much of a pain in the bum as ever, but I do love the neurotic little madam.
Bubble the dalmatian has grown up, too - she'll be four in September and is an absolute dream and a pleasure. She is so laid back, very well behaved for the most part, and her deafness doesn't hold her back at all.
Just over a year ago, I adopted little Timmi from Rain Rescue. Timmi was a biter and he came home with me to try and mend his ways. He became a lovely little dog, but was rehomed and returned twice. Eventually, I decided that I couldn't bear for him to be returned again and he was well settled with the girls and I, so he stayed. Timmi is a little black and white terrier cross (we think a patterdale terrier x whippet) and he's just coming upto two years old now.
Finally, at Christmas, I was asked to go and assess a dalmatian in kennels who had been given up for aggression. Dalmatian Welfare, who operate remotely so hadn't seen him, had a home lined up but couldn't send him there until they had had an assessment of him. I went and collected a very skinny, very stressed lanky big dog from kennels and was warned that he was boisterous and territorial and was 'funny' with strangers until he got to know them. Hair was coming off him in clumps and he was panting so hard, you'd believe he'd run a marathon on a hot, summer's day. I took the stressed boy out in the car and took him to see my mum at her flat to see how he got on in a home environment (I wasn't keen to take him home as I wasn't sure how he was with other dogs and he was so stressed I wanted him to calm down a bit first). Having greeted my mum and her partner in a very polite, friendly way, he settled down to chew on a bone and was not a problem at all.
Having done a thorough assessment of him, I reported back to welfare that he could go to his new home but that he was stressed and could've been too overwhelmed to show any reaction to the things I tested him with, but that in general he seemed to be a nice dog. I also said I would keep him at home until transport had been worked out to save him getting himself in a state in kennels. Whoops! There was the fatal mistake! His home fell through and after three weeks of advertising him, my mum and I agreed to share him if he lived with me. My mum had fallen for him the moment she met him as he reminded her a lot of Eddy who died in 2010, and he now lives very happily with Takara, Bubble and Timmi - oh and me!
I also took on two rescue cats in December, Sophie - a tortie x tabby and Minnie, a black moggy who I named Minnie as she was so skinny. She's now looking decidedly chunky and she may need to be renamed Monkey!
With the rodents (Mavis, Maisie and Molly, the rats and Lemmewinks the mouse) you can imagine, I am always kept busy with never a dull moment!
