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News & Stories

This section will cover any funny and serious news or stores I have to tell about the animals, and remember we have plenty so I'm sure you'll always find lots here to amuse and entertain!

Thomas has Operation

As already mentioned we recently discovered a lump on the ear of Thomas our eldest cat, we took him to see our vets and he took a sample of the lump and informed us that although it wasn't cancerous it looked suspicious and may turn that way. Our vet advised that the best course of action to take would be to remove the tips of his ears.

We were very worried, Thomas is an old cat and can be timid, he's doesn't like going to the vets (well what animal does!) and we wasn't sure how he would cope with an operation at this time in his life. Don't you find one of the hardest things about operations is that you can't feed your cat before hand and they sit and stare at you in the morning as to say 'why aren't you feeding me?', its heartbreaking! I took him to the vets and he cried all the way, wet the carrier and was generally very unhappy, I must say I was fearing the worst I was sure the stress would just be too much for him to cope with.

However luckily the vets telephoned that afternoon to say the operation had been a success and he could come home that night, what a relief. Unfortunately for Thomas they had found a couple of big abscess's on his face that burst under the operation so not only did he have ears that had half been removed but some big abscess to contend with also. Thomas had a collar so he wouldn't scratch the stitches which he found very hard to deal with, he hit a lot of walls and furniture in our house before he got the hang of it. This was on for about four to five days, at which time we removed it, much to his relief. He was very happy, he could lick himself clean again, not the inside of the collar, which he had been doing, and could manoeuvre around the house without any problems. We took him back to the vets a week later and he was given the all clear, he came through no problems with a lot of TLC from all of the family.

Thomas and his new ears!

Buddy and his Sparrow

Since having the kittens we have had a few incidences with Jacks bringing in frogs dead and alive unfortunately which my mother and I have had to contend with but nothing was going to prepare us for Buddy's first catch.

It was early morning I was upstairs getting ready for work with Jacks ( he helps!) and my mum, Cherry screamed up the stairs that Buddy had brought in a bird. Luckily we have a little outhouse and this is as far as he had got before mum spotted him. I rushed down with Jacks in hot pursuit, to see Buddy's long tail sticking out from behind our tumble dryer! I managed to coax Buddy out and grab him and in his mouth he had this little sparrow.

Now I know the wonder of turkey, and I told mum to quickly get some out of the fridge to tempt Buddy with so he would drop the bird and we could dispose of it. Just as my mum got a piece of turkey in her hand the bird squawked, 'Oh my god its alive' was pretty much the chorus between mum and I. She quickly showed Buddy the turkey and 'Hey presto' he let go of the bird. Which immediately took to flight in our house!

Jacks and Buddy chased after it (the turkey was well and truly forgotten then) but luckily it flew straight into our conservatory behind the bookshelf. I managed to usher Buddy and Jacks outside and shut the doors, we then strategically planned for mum to go to the back door and tempt the boys in with turkey, shut them in and then I could open the conservatory doors and the bird could fly out, do you think it was that easy.

So picture the scene, mum, Buddy and Jacks are now all watching me from inside the house at the french doors, I've got all windows and doors open in the conservatory and I've lost the little sparrow. We have quite a large conservatory and I have to pull out all the furniture before I find the little fellow hiding under a chair. He chirps around, flies from net curtain to net, until about half an hour later with the conservatory looking ransacked I finally manage to corner him, cup him in my hands and take him outside! We only hope this was Buddy's one and only attempt and bringing us home breakfast, and at least we saved the little sparrow.