Carole Stitcher

You did good Rick The shakes are awful aren't they? The other callers are an example of what I was trying to say to him, people listen to the smelly stuff people like him spout and end up totally wrong in what they believe. If he was to take the time to inform people, even if it was just about where to go to get accurate information, in the end it would make a difference.

Thanks Allie and Rachel, the info you posted was helpful I'm still shaking with fear, never done radio before

You are someone who has canine companions, including fosters, so would be considered by many to be 'in the know'. If you can voice the opinions that you have, in the emotive language that you have used, how much stronger a reaction would someone have who has no knowledge of the dog world, especially when they read and see the hysteria whipped up by the media, which is always accompanied by a picture of a dog (not even necessarily the same breed) with its teeth bared. It is up to those of us who have dogs in our lives to put this in its proper perspective and each of us to do what we can to keep our heads and approach the situation with calmness and common sense, not add fuel to the fire. This family have lost a child and also, (for all we know at the moment), a much-loved pet. They are probably grieving for both, none of us have the right to say that they would be wrong. We need to just keep banging the drum about behaving responsibly, at every opportunity. Some children, unfortunately, die young. They die in accidents, in cars, in play parks, on quad bikes........ How they die isn't really important. What is important is how society learns from that death and puts sensible, effective measures in place to try to prevent the same thing happening again. Joining in with the media feeding frenzy will not help, it will just give those who are trying to achieve a working balance a much bigger mountain to climb.

Jaffa, I hope you're having a good time, but make sure you remember to send your mum a rainbow to warm her heart.

This time last year Laura and I, along with a couple of others, knew we were living very much on borrowed time with our soul dogs. The best we could hope for was one last Christmas. Neither Laura or we got that privilege. One year ago today Sooty left us for the bridge, two days later Jaffa followed her. I know that Laura was as devastated at her loss as we were at ours. I made this video of our girl This was the thread I wrote as a tribute to her: http://www.rykat.org/forums/index.php?show...mp;#entry354654 Sooty, I used to think I knew what loving meant, you arrived and showed me that until then, I knew nothing. Then on September 26th, our foster girl Levi, who came to stay with us for a week on July 1st last year went to join her first mum. She was the nicest dog I have ever met, placid, gentle and so adaptable. It was obvious when she first arrived that she was used to being a much loved only dog, but grew to enjoy being part of a pack, even when with the advent of first Bob and then Milo meant that she had to share the attention with four other dogs. Less than two weeks before she passed, we were all in the garden and she was running around chasing the balls and things we were throwing, along with the others. Not bad for an old lady of 13 with a bad heart! Sunbathing was her second favourite activity, I think her shape may give a clue as to her favourite one. Goodbye sweetheart, we miss you. You gave us a lot of joy in that 'week'

Bertie and Gertie (and of course you and Paul) are very welcome. We set up Sootys Dog Stuff for two reasons. One was as a memorial for a tiny dog with a huge heart who made a massive impact on us in the short time we were privileged to have her. (Long time members of the Refuge have often been bored to death with my threads about her). Our long term goal is to be able to help fund dog rescues, especially with sick and severely neglected dogs. Whether we will be able to achieve this we don't know, the current economic climate is not the best for a relatively new venture, we will just have to wait and see. Sooty looked liked this when we first got her: So you can probably see why Bertie and Gertie particularly pulled at our heart strings. We can't do a whole lot at the moment, but what we could do was get them comfortable and warm and make sure that when (if) they go off to their forever home, they have their own 'stuff'. We're glad that you are all happy with their early Christmas presents, it gave us a good feeling to send them, so our thanks go to you all for giving us that gift. (Though I think Sarah that they may have been wriggling a bit when you measured them for their jumpers, as they seem to be a little oversized) here's hoping that they go from strength to strength now that they are in your very capable hands. Take care Carole

Levi - 26th September 2007 Came for a week 1st July 2006, will be forever in our hearts. Miss you , old girl

I've only just seen this thread Marian, I'm so sorry to hear about Daisy. Run free Daisy, have fun for you Marian, from us and Ruth and Noah

I think you will find that there are quite a few people on the board who have experience of this, I'm just one of them. My experiences have not been the more positive ones, we had a foster here who came from the pound with a severely collapsed larynx and trachea. For him the outcome was the worst despite having a laryngeal tieback, but, and it is a big but, Monkey was a dog who had obviously been severely neglected for a number of years. Begley is in a much better position. He has a sensible and loving owner who questions and looks for information and would never dream of leaving him without the appropriate care. You are right, it does need some further investigation, and a plan as how to manage the condition, which as far as I recall does include things like managing how he takes his exercise, making sure he doesn't get too excited, keeping him cool when its hot, etc. There will be others, I'm sure, who will post with much more involved advice and a good vet will be able to talk you through the whole procedure. I just wanted to reassure you that you and Begley should be able to go forward from this for a considerable length of time.

Levi without food would be like the Vatican without a Pope.................. The other two are Ruth and Noah, litter siblings we adopted from HWAR in Jan 2005 who were given the very best foster care by Chickentikka. They have been marvellous with all the dogs who have trooped through our doors since then. Have you never been told Lynn that no-one loves a smart a** Thank you for that Edith, it will be much appreciated by all of us. Will be ringing you soon Vivian, I'm nearly to the point now where I can talk without too many tears I appreciate that thought Laura, we both went through so much at about the same time. Thank you to everyone who has welcomed Milo, he's settling in quite well and is really quite clever. He spent a lot of time yesterday telling me that the phone was ringing. He didn't bark, just kept walking from me to the phone and then back again. As I am quite likely to go deaf in the near future, (he spent two hours solid today playing with a squeaky dumbell, very loudly) that ability will probably come in very handy. Bob and he aren't exactly the instant pals that I has hoped they would be, but Milo's eyes were bothering him a lot yesterday and Bob has had a very poorly tummy today so with a bit of luck things will improve once they are both feeling better. At least there's no problem with them fighting, they're just ignoring each other. Had to do this as three posts, too many quotes, too many emoticons for one post.

The six bleakest months of my 50+ years Margaret Thank you Bob came in January, poundie transport run that we held overnight. He took such a shine to Martin that there's no way he could go anywhere else. To be honest, it was too soon after Sooty for me, I couldn't celebrate and announce his arrival, but I wouldn't want to be without the little beggar now. Levi came to stay for a week on 1st July last year, somehow I don't think I'm quite getting the hang of this fostering lark.................... I'm absolutely sure she did, not Sooty's style to send something as simple as a rainbow............................

As that means we will have the privilege of sharing our lives with him. He's only four, bless him, bit early to give up on a recovery. The vet thought so too, he refused to pts and contacted Val at Halfway Home Dog Rescue. His eyes are quite bad but nothing that a bit of tlc and proper treatment wont sort out. It also means that now our Bob will have someone to play with that he has a chance of beating at tug, instead of trying to compete with these two and of course Levi wont care either way as long as he leaves her food alone Huge thanks to the vet for saying no and to Val for taking him even though she is totally snowed under. Even more thanks to Val for thinking of us, especially today, as it is exactly six months since Sooty left us for the Bridge.

No problem, will pm you soon with the recipe. In the meantime you might find this link useful to understand the principles. http://health.howstuffworks.com/vitamin-b.htm I actually read loads of stuff at the time, (if you google vitamin B complex, you will find loads of information out there), some of it was useful, some not, but that link plus all the links it contains was about the most simply explained so I found it easy to understand. I particularly wanted to avoid pills for many reasons, she hated taking pills. there is a lot of evidence to suggest that vitamins in pill form are not as effective and by using natural sources you can adjust the recipe to suit your individual dog. What worked for Sooty may not work for Sam, because he may not like the flavour that she did (she had a very sweet tooth so honey was in there for flavour as well as its healing properties). With all things of this nature, Muriel's advice of 'go with your gut' is the best as YOU are the one who knows Sam, its just important that you arm yourself with as much information as possible (like about the niacin) so that your choices cannot harm. RDA of niacin for an adult human is 15mg, it will be impossible for you to determine how much is actually in any mix that you make (unless you have a fully equipped laboratory, ). When you get the recipe you will see how the proportions worked for me and Sooty. One word of warning, the 'gloop' as I called it, looks awful and smells worse, but she loved it.

Sooty was anaemic due to the bleeds she often had from her liver tumour, I concocted a mix that covered the vitamin B complex, it did her a lot of good. I can send you the recipe if you like, it was all raw, with the exception of the brown rice that was in it and we liquidised it up for her (and spoon fed it, but that is another tale). If he has a dodgy liver, definitely do not give too much of niacin rich foods (such as chicken) as too much niacin can damage the liver according to all the stuff I read at the time.

Thinking all the positive thought I can for your fella. C'mon Bosun you can do it for you all

Trying hard not to be controversial here, its going to be difficult to achieve, but the outcome of that legislation would be no different to the outcome if every dog was homed via a reputable rescue. EVERY dog and cat in the country would be neutered, with the exception of pedigree dogs from a breeder. I honestly find it hard to oppose this sort of legislation, though I do understand the principle of it removing personal choice in the matter and I do find the age by which it is expected to be done a little young. However, when you consider that we as a dog loving community find it unacceptable for 8000+ healthy dogs to be pts each year due to the lack of suitable homes, how much worse is it that they destroy half a million a year? In ONE State! There has to be a point where the personal choice of numpty owners is superceded by the welfare of the dogs that have been left to stray. Perhaps if there were fewer dogs and cats around, people would learn to put the proper value on companion animals and treat them with a measure of respect.

to you I know how worried you are. I have to speak to Muriel tonight so I will direct her to this thread. Have you any arnica, if you have give her some tonight. If not, get some tomorrow and give her then. It really does help

I'm so sorry Kazz and Dave for the loss of your special boy. Run free Dylan

Dear Aunty Chickentikka, our mum has been really busy so has only just seen this. Please tell Barney that we are really glad that he seems to be feeling better and that he is a naughty boy for giving you a scare like that. We would like to send you and Uncle Chris lots of and lots of licks too and we will be keeping all our paws crossed and sending lots of healing thoughts to Barney to try and help him along, just like he did for us when we were just likkle. All our love Ruth and Noah

But the people to blame are not actually the food manufacturers. Having worked in senior management within the food industry for many years I can assure you that it is not a question of a manufacturer developing a product and then selling it. What tends to happen is that a supermarket will dictate to the manufacturer what type of product they want, how many they expect to be produced per week/month and how much they will pay for it. It is then up to the manufacturer to come up with a product that will fit within those criteria (and to be honest, many others, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible) and still leave a profit for them. With low grade products (such as lasagne, cottage pie, etc) a manufacturer is left with little or no option as to how they achieve this. You may be surprised if you knew what percentage profit the manufacturer makes compared to what the supermarket makes, but believe me, food manufacture is definitely not for the faint hearted. Obviously, different supermarkets have different criteria and price points and I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone who are the biggest culprits within this area. At the end of the day though, we as consumers must bear the burden of guilt too. How many times have we seen, on this and other forums, threads that say 'look what I got for this price or that price'? How many times have many people said, 'gosh, thats great, where did you get it, I want one'? (And I dont exclude myself from being guilty of this). We all need to be aware that whenever we get a bargain, someone, somewhere, somehow has paid or will pay for our good fortune.

I think there is a world of difference between illegal drug trade and pit bull trade and the sale of "designer" dogs. Most of these dogs are produced by puppy farmers and back yard breeders and marketed to a largely ignorant but not necessarily criminal public. Most of them just want a little animal to cuddle and have no idea that they are common or garden mutts, as they think the fact that the parents are both pedigree means that the pups are also pedigree. I know that its sometimes difficult for those of us who know a little about the dog world to believe that there is such a level of ignorance, but there is. The media continually screaming about new dog breeds, such as was posted here a couple of days ago, certainly doesn't raise the level of awareness of what constitutes "a breed". These pups are mostly produced without any checks on the parent dogs, they and their parents are often kept in appalling conditions, they are often malnourished and diseased, something that the new owners only discover after they've paid for them. Legislation would not stop these things altogether, however, if all who bred dogs were required to have a licence, were required by law to carry out the required checks on the parents and limit the amount of times a bitch can be bred from it would discourage a considerable number from mating their bitch just to make a fast buck, because they couldn't just advertise the pups in the local paper or on web sites, so their market place would be drastically reduced. Just one of those websites regularly has 8000 to 9000 puppies of various breeds for sale at any one time. These are not, in the main, advertised by what I would term as a responsible breeder, because truly responsible breeders have no need to advertise, they have waiting lists for their puppies. If the prices of these dogs were increased to reflect the extra costs involved, then so be it. I cannot see most of joe public risking having a criminal record over owning a dog, so it may even reduce the number of numpty owners rescues have to clean up after. The issue of illegal drugs is totally different, its a lot easier to hide a line of cocaine or a block of marijuana which will be used in a few hours or a few days, than it is to hide a four legged sentient being that may be around for as long as twenty years. True Pit Bulls are a yet different case. Most are owned by people who are already within the criminal fraternity, used either for protection dogs for drug dealers or as fighting dogs, again an illegal activity. These are crimes with considerable financial gain on offer, which makes the illegal dog an acceptable risk factor to their minds. I don't think a puppy farmed CKC spaniel and such like will ever have the same potential earning power.

Dog Stuff have sent £10 Lynn, sorry it cant be more

Actually, the temperament is delightful, at least in my experience. Our Sooty, that we had for such a brief period of time was a yoodle, though they are more commonly known as a yorkiepoo. They have a very large fan base in the US and I think it may not be too long before they are recognised by the AKC. Though I do think they are wonderful, a great mix of the tenacity of a yorkie combined with the intelligence of a poodle, at least it was in Sootys' case, that doesn't mean that I condone what the people who are breeding these dogs are doing. You actually see them being advertised all the time on those sites that we all know but don't mention. There is one woman in South Yorkshire who advertises every six months and charges £500 for dogs and £600 for bitches, she always sells every one. One of these days I will probably lose control and take a quick trip to Doncaster..................... Until there is some tight legislation controlling the breeding of any dog, this is going to continue because people are going to continue to pay stupid amounts of money for what is essentially a mongrel. Edited for typos

So sorry Sarah and Paul you have done your very best for a very special girl Run free Remmy for those still here

Hope Dylan feels more himself soon and the tests results are all you hope them to be. to you all