cycas

Sad that little Vicky has gone, but didn't she do well? Great that she was able to have a comfy loving home for her last year.

Why do you think this? Who would catch them? Where would they be reported to? How would the person the dog was reported to know where to go to follow up (and who will pay them)? What if people who were caught decided they couldn't be bothered and had the dog put to sleep or gave it to a friend, then disclaimed all knowledge? I think they would not be caught and the system would simply be ignored by those who wished to behave irresponsibly. It would be nice to think that making a law would prevent people from doing something, but in fact, uninforced laws are widely disobeyed.

Woohoo, well done you!

Oooh, I love Sadie, she's a real beauty. Fingers crossed!

Like all these schemes, I suspect it will fall over on the cost of administration/enforcement. Car registration works because cars are large, relatively expensive objects that generally live on the street and have unique ID that can be recorded even in a fleeting glance at a distance. Cars don't wander away on their own, people can't make new ones in their sheds, and any kind of accident involving one is likely to result in official checkups on insurance status, MOT, tax... Despite all this, there are people who don't register, tax or insure their cars. Dogs are smallish, cheap animals that live inconspicuously inside people's houses, and sometimes move around on their own. They are easy to reproduce, to the point where this often happens accidentally, and it's not really feasible to make them carry ID that can be checked remotely. Some may have medical or behavioural conditions which make neutering inadvisable, or may mean that they cannot be neutered at the official time. They carry an emotional investment which, however irrationally, discourages many owners from wishing to neuter. I think that makes dogs more difficult and expensive to log and track reliably than cars (or horses, or televisions or what have you). OK, you could licence them anyway, but I honestly think that the net result would be that the population of dogs that rarely cause problems would be licensed, the population of dogs that are most likely to cause them would not be. Further, I think you'd drive the less able and responsible owners away from the rest, and create a ghetto-ized situation like that of the 'pit bull type' dogs where people would be worried about exercising or socialising their unlicensed dogs, and therefore the unlicensed ones would be likely to become problem dogs. I'd rather see the money used on cracking down hard on puppy farms, banning pet shops from selling dogs, and perhaps also increasing the budget for dog wardens and pounds so that the wardens can do more education work, and the pounds aren't such awful places for dogs to be held.

Great news, so glad she has a safe place to go.

No, but I'm kind of hoping that a shark will eat him... I bet it would spit him out though. He'd be leathery. :laugh:

Seriously weird moment tuime In Rock Band / Guitar Hero games, you can customise the musician that appears on screen playing your instrument? Choose his hair, face, clothes etc, so it sort of looks like you in the game. Anyway, Mark is seriously into Rock Band at the mo, and has customised his bloke to look, I assume, as Mark sort of thinks he would like to look. And it's my dad. Seriously. My dad, circa 1979. White tshirt, black beard, same hair, same eyes. My Dad was a keen amateur musician... My Dad died when I was 15, and Mark never met him and has only seen a couple of rather blurry photos, so has no idea. I can't decide whether to tell him or not... It is giving me a major attack of the weirds.

Have you tried talking to your parents about how you feel about this? it sounds very difficult.

Wow! What a lovely person! Nice that those unwanted presents will go to a good cause. I never knew Accessorize did dog coats!

You can apparently grow a new pineapple by planting the cut-off top and applying bottom heat, according to a gardening book I read, but it never worked for me..

You dont' think it might be just the weather? It's been so cold and horrid, I think a lot of dogs are probably piling on a few pounds just from not rushing about as much as usual... Over a kilo does seem a bit excessive though, could you cut his rations a bit? Poor podgy Seamus!

I agree the shop ones tend to be dry, but if you have one that basically has the right stuff in it (not the ones with horrible preservatives), you can bring them back to life by heating them up. You can warm them in a frying pan or a sandwich toaster if you don't have a bakestone, and stick some butter on and that is much better. My welshcake recipe doesn't have spices in either. Re 'sweeter than a scone' - that depends on your scone recipe, and those are pretty hotly debated too!

2 months from the rescue confirming the homecheck was OK and the dog reserved? I think that is a long time. I think most rescues would prefer not to hold a dog for that long. Is there a reason given for the delay? I suppose if this is something that is going on now, then it might be that the adopter wasn't able to get there due to snow, and then there was Christmas, and a lot of rescues prefer not to home over that period... ? Even 2 months from first contact to adoption would be quite a long time, but I think not *that* out of the way if there were problems finding a homechecker or something annoying like transport problems and holidays... Everyone would rather a dog went home ASAP, but it's amazing how many annoying niggling complications can pop up.

I think normally as long as it takes for the adopter to arrange get over there and get the dog - might be as much as a couple weeks I guess, but usually less? I think Dogs Trust require two visits before you can get the dog, so that might take a bit longer I guess? Oldies have had a few take longer recently - one was an adopter who is travelling long distances where the snow caused the arrangements to crash into the holiday period, and there was another where the dog fell ill and not able to travel, but we've also had situations where the adoption is approved and the adopter is over picking the dog up within hours! Occasionally we'll have one where the homecheck turns up something where although the home seems good, it's not clear if the home is quite the right match for the dog, so sometimes there might be a bit of followup phonecalls, discussions between fosterer and rescue and so on, which could stretch it out a few more days if you are unlucky about catching people on the phone... I had a foster that I hung onto for an extra week as she got ill and I wanted her 100% before moving, and Duke the Doop had a few extra weeks with me as the adopter was in the city and November 5th was coming up, so we agreed it would be better for him to move after the firework parties had finished. Why?

Link doesn't work for me? On the Isle of Wight they are completely closing 9 out of the current 11 libraries. I don't actually use libraries much myself, nowadays, but have been an enthusiastic user in the past - they are such a crucial resource for people on lower incomes, and now that so many services and so much information is online, we absolutely need libraries so that the people who really cannot afford home access can be properly part of society, I think.

LOL, he makes the same face that Perl makes when she is cat-training a dog. I don't make her sit in a cage though.

Here are some random mundane things stolen by the Bungles and concealed under our sofa.

Good luck for the new year Jules, hope this will be a great new start for you. Great to hear you feel positive (if scared!) about it!

I'm going to have to try to get to the pet shop today, as Az's tripe still hasn't arrived, and the thought of living in a house with the Tripe Monster deprived of his fix is too terrifying to contemplate....

Bump again...

Sending very best wishes for Abby.

Az and Bob would like to complain long and loud that the 5 kilos of tripe that they ordered have not yet turned up. I am just worried that in a depot somewhere, there is a huge box of dried tripe sitting next to everyone's Christmas presents. I really hope it's well wrapped!

I think I have a new no 1 favorite client: "when you fill in the form .... it gives an error. Please have a look at your own convenience. I know it will not be until January now, that is not a problem" YAY! Finally, after how many years is it, I have found someone who thinks that because they found something borked the week before Xmas (*which frankly has probably been borked for months as it's a huge ancient site*) this is not necessarily a *cycas must instantly drop all other tasks and work through the night* scenario.

I have no tree. Can't get out of the village and collect one!