Our pets

Here you go @Sandi T he loved his morning on the beach! Run the legs off himself and had great fun splashing about in the waves

And the beach itself (beautiful place) Whitepark bay on the north coast.

 

@andyc1
Thanks, Andy! Floyd looks so happy. In the second one he also looks content...eyes closed and all. And what a beautiful landscape. Thanks for sharing the pictures. It ounds like Floyd loved his day at the beach. I'll bet he slept well when you got home!

 

On the subject of happy dogs with eyes closed...

 

She looks like the Laughing Buddha.

 

She'd like to be that fat!

 

It looks more like contentment to me. Buddha's got nothing compared to her Zen

 

On daddy's lap...

 

Just sat down to a bottle of beer and a nice dinner this evening after a busy day when dear little Harriet, one of our two cats, came in through the cat flap with a live fieldmouse in her mouth and dropped it in the bathroom, where it immediately ran and hid behind the toilet. I spent the next fifteen minutes on my hands and knees trying to catch it (it was a fast mouse), eventually succeeding by clapping a plastic box over it, sliding a card underneath, and taking it back outside. It was the second time the little bastard has done it this week. Why do we keep animals? I'm becoming quite a good mouser, though.

 

I have two humane traps and have probably rescued and released field mice, harvest mice, shrews - even baby rabbits - in numbers of 3 figures by now!

The cat (Floss) was semi-feral when we first got her as a kitten and is perhaps the most accomplished - certainly the most prolific - hunter I've ever had in a long lifetime of cat ownership. The worst of it is/was, though, that she was in the habit of going out in the evening, usually after turning her nose up at the pet food she'd been offered, then coming back in through the cat flap in the very early hours of the morning with her live prey, bringing it into the bedroom and waking us up by chasing after it in between yowling at us to wake up and accept another live 'gift'!

My wife very quickly tired of the whole thing - "it's YOUR cat - you deal with it!!" Can't say I blame her, I wasn't greatly impressed either. It's no fun being awakened by the cat running around the bedroom at 2 in the morning, chasing a mouse, then having to shut the cat out of the room, go find the traps, load them and hope that they worked. Even the 'capture and release' programme couldn't keep up! We'd often find evidence of live mice resident in other rooms and have to set up more humane traps.

For a time my wife demanded that the catflap got locked as "out only" overnight but I'm afraid I couldn't allow the "poor wee cat" to be shut out from her own home, especially during the winter, and so we now shut the door overnight from the utility room (where the catflap is) into the rest of the house so, if she does go out, she can at least get back into one dry room.

That has, by and large, addressed the problem, and she's now in the habit of staying in overnight, though we do still get the occasional daytime gift and the humane traps haven't been retired just yet!

It should be borne in mind that our house is surrounded on all sides by open fields and farmland - the nearest house is at least 200 yards away - so she has has the richest, widest hunting territory imaginable.

Butter wouldn't melt .........

 

Maybe there's something about grey cats, Adie: Floss and Harriet look very much alike.

 

This is Shiva, she loves being on everything!!

 

Here's Ellie, the Boxer watching Mr. Sandi perform "surgery" on her wounded toy squeaky frog. This is her favorite toy so she watched through the entire procedure--just to be sure the frog didn't disappear altogether.

 

Ellie was pretty curious--and concerned--when we hung our Christmas stockings by the fire with care. She was NOT having it and initially wouldn't relax in her bed until we moved them. Now she's fine with them and completely unperturbed.


Here's Ellie all relaxed in her favorite bed with the Christmas stockings tucked up on the mantel. We did this for a couple of days and put the stockings down here and there until she realized they were ok.


Now the stockings' presence is old hat. Won't she be surprised when a dog toy or treat shows up in one of them on Christmas morning!

 

As this is Ellie, the Boxer's first Christmas with us, there continue to be new "surprises" for her. Her response to this Christmas decoration was priceless! I wish I had a video of it to share with you. When you squeeze the raised hand of the snowman, an instrumental version of "Jingle Bells" plays and at the conclusion of the song, the dog barks and howls. Ellie was mesmerized!

 

That might have the doggy equivalent of “the batteries hidden” in the next few days… or more likely, she’ll adapt to the human’s freaky habits!

 

What a great name!

 

My ginger moggy, Button (because that's what happens when your 7-year-old is allowed to name the cat). On his best behaviour because I had the camera in one hand and tuna in the other.



This is Jinx (left) and Jasper. They're Orientals. They belong to my other half but they stay at my house sometimes. Sadly, Jasper has been MIA for some time now. I think he was stolen.

 

Sorry to hear Jasper is missing, hope he turns up safe soon.

 

I had a pair of ginger farm cats, Tigger was a big’un and just looked like Button.

Sorry to hear about Jasper

 

@Octoberon
I’m so sorry about Jasper and hope he is found safe and sound at some point soon.