Post a pic('s) of your pet thread

[King Coconut]

22 minutes ago, JLM said:

He did try to mount Sylvie during the meet and greet which was quite poor form

Has he still got all the working parts?

[JLM]

Ha, yep he still has. The Dog’s Trust will… take care of it… when he has his permanent adopter sorted, but for now he is a little bit randy. 

[Ronnie]

A quick update on Ripples: she's settled in really well, and has worked through plenty of her anxieties:

• The irrepressible urge to be outside all the time has gone. She has free access to the garden (from which there's no escape) and has started to spend the bulk of the day inside, possibly coinciding with the return of rain. There's no camping out by the front door anymore, in the hope of surging outside if somebody happens to open it for her. She can now be trusted to have it open while I take the recycling out, standing on the threshold unless invited to come out.
• She seems to have got over her initial food anxiety. (She was raised on a dry-only diet.) She loves her food, scoffing down more than her fair share, and has within the last month become a proper cat, turning her nose up at yesterday's favourite because she doesn't like it anymore.
• What some might call obsessive eating has had a clear effect: she developed a mane during a heatwave, and followed that up with a winter coat about a month later. The conclusion? She should always have had those features, just like our other two, but clearly was not getting the required nourishment from her dry-only diet.
• There's also the inevitable result of eating way more than before: she's doubled in size. Bad parenting? Hardly: she was so small compared to Heidi and Pebbles that we were initially sceptical of her breed. Still, the paperwork and the fact that we're not allergic to her went some way to resolving those doubts, but the fact that she's now coming up to about 80% of Pebbles's size and that the new growth is muscle rather than fat really does confirm that nurture rather than nature were the reason for her small size.

There's still a way to go. She's still given to panic attacks, which we think seems to be triggered by a thought that she can't see anybody if we're in the office and Pebbles is in the attic. (They stop as soon as she races to wherever we are at the time.) The progress is all positive so far. She's much happier than she was and has settled very well into the family.

Oh, @Carbomb: you'll have to update your name list. She's still Ripples on her insurance documentation and as far as the vet's records are concerned but we're acting now as though that's derived from Ripley-Doo-Dah. We usually refer to her as Ripples but because neither she nor Pebbles can discern any difference between their names, we address her as Doo-Dah, and we've noticed other people picking up on that habit, too.  That's the name she responds to, so don't be surprised if it starts taking over in future updates 🙂

[Carbomb]

Heheheh, she's looking very happy and healthy. What a handsome girl.

[SuperBacon]

@Ronnie those are incredibly polite feet. 10/10

[JLM]

Oscar was signed off by the vet today, staying at the Dogs Trust over the weekend and will almost certainly be adopted, so today was likely goodbye. We had him for a few extra weeks to rehab multiple procedures and to try and improve his mobility. He’s been neutered, had his dental work done and after several attempts we had settled on a medication course that helps with his back leg issues and mobility. Had him for six weeks when it was only intended to be two, so have grown quite attached to the boy. Definitely the goofiest greyhound I’ve met so far, has a Retriever-like dopeyness about him and is particularly clumsy. Friends with everyone he meets, great with other dogs, gradually started to show a brilliant playful side after the first few weeks. Going to miss him but it feels good’s to have rehabbed him and got him ready for his new life. Very sad that he’s in such a state at 5 years old though, greyhound racing is awful. 

Quick final Oscy photo dump:

 

 

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by JLM

[SuperBacon]

Oscar, you deserve the world brother. 

[davertfnewman]

Absolute beaut of a lad, got so much character in his face and eyes.

[JLM]

OK just two more if you absolutely insist:

[Carbomb]

Good to hear he does well with other dogs. A dog-owner friend told me that a lot of rescued ex-racer greyhounds find themselves unable to socialise with other breeds because of how they're often raised in greyhound-only environments, so it's nice that he doesn't find it so difficult to make friends.

[JLM]

Yeah my own greyhound is not into other dogs, especially if they’re not sight hounds. She quietly tolerates and ignores the ones she’s comfortable with and actively avoids the rest. She does sometimes make an attempt to get other dogs to chase her if she’s in an off lead scenario (we have a local fully secure park we hire out for the purpose) but most dogs aren’t up to the task as you can imagine. 

[davertfnewman]

Beyond that big smile and tongue lolling out, it's a sign he's happy if he's rolling on his back and showing his belly. Very comfortable and feeling safe.