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HAPPY EASTER.
Hello again, certainly a few weeks have passed since Christmas came upon us but your kindness to our animal family has not been forgotten. You always make Christmas a special
occasion where all the animals and even ourselves, have a Christmas treat...or two !!!
The generosity you all show, is so heart warming especially in these difficult times, we do appreciate that for many of you,
finding extra pennies is not easy. Even if your way of showing support is by sending your used postage stamps, it really does all help.
Not only that, but your lovely cards and messages to us, raise our spirits even when we’re going through a dark patch of losing family members.
We were delighted with the response to our little Chaldon calendars we offered for sale in the last newsletter. Many thanks to you all for your rapid requests which came flowing in, as that really helped us out at a very busy time. Apart from them selling well ( and we hope you liked them ) you were so generous in adding extra donations so a huge thank you.
We’re also pleased so many of you commented on the Christmas Photo Special newsletter and are glad you enjoyed seeing some of our family that you all help.
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It’s January and a freezing dog walk - literally as it was minus 5 overnight and hasn’t yet risen to 0, never mind any
higher. The last of the snow from a couple of days ago is still on the ground , enough to look pretty but be dangerous
and icy. Apart from the risk of us falling over, we also can’t have a nice brisk walk to keep us warm & moving because
of Brogan’s bad legs - more on that later. We have just had a slow amble round our woods and what a joy - the fallen
autumn leaves are dry & crispy, crunching under foot & paw. You’ve heard us moan / comment on soggy leaves for quite
a few winters now and to have scrunchy leaves in January is quite a treat. This time last year our new fencing was
being erected and Andrew & his team were sliding and struggling in torrential rain and deep mud.
We’ve now walked into our field and Merlin who you met in our Christmas Newsletter is having a wonderful time as he
has taken off at speed and is leading the others a merry dance of chase - there goes Harley, Purdey, Granville, Frisbee,
Bingo & Fiddler....what a lot of puffed dogs and wagging tails. We are so lucky to be able to walk our dogs on our own
land in safety for them as we wouldn’t be able to walk most of them off leads in a public park due to their various "problems",
which is mostly lack of trust in unknown people. Merlin spooks and runs in panic if he sees someone in the horse
field next to our woods and wouldn’t be safe off a lead and that would be sad not to see him run and play as he does here.
February and day 1 of the heavy snow which fell overnight The South East seems to have largely ground to a halt
and it certainly makes life harder here. As you know we have less outside animals and are glad of it in this weather -
buckets of warm water for all of them used to be a Herculean task. We had lots of snow which our dogs thought was great
but it disgusted our cats who did a good job of pretending to hibernate - next to the radiators of course !!
This winter Jacky has been a bit poorly and couldn’t get out for a couple of days, and life was pretty awkward with the
paths being dangerously slippery but as the lane started to clear, we rang Andrew ( the boss of our wonderful firm who did the fencing ) and wondered if
he was able to get to us for some path clearing. Thankfully the next day he and his merry men turned up and set to
with shovels and broom and the paths wonderfully reappeared. This is the reality of your fundraising for us as we have
never been able to pay for a few hours work before but as we don’t owe our vet ( or anyone else ), we could do it.
And what a difference it made to be able to safely go out with our dogs as well as drive our car out from it’s
snowed in position. The postman didn’t reach us for 6 days although we were able to get out after only 3 days.
A couple of our dogs during this snow have needed an emergency haircut ( we do them ourselves ) as they become "snowbound"
with legs and feet covered in frozen snowballs and needed standing in the bath with a warm water shower to melt
them off. So a bit of a short back & sides on the lower body ( tummy, legs etc ) and they were soon scampering around
in the snow drifts again.
 
Who Rules?
Finn, our little cairn x came to us with a history of not coming if called. Now he loves to be first to Mum,
always with a waggy tail. He loves to play a game on occasion where as Jacky is walking through the gate into
the kitchen, he darts through and charges out of the cat flap. He is always just waiting outside ready to follow
Mum down the side of the bungalow and out the back where he meets his brothers & sisters for their walk.
Last week was different though, he charged through the gate, started to go through the cat flap but changed
his mind and reversed back indoors. "Strange" thought Jacky,"something is certainly not right" and on opening
the back door, discovered Lotus, one of our friends Daphne's cats, blocking the way.
Now Lotus Blossom, unlike her name, is not a sweet girl. She is a dark tortoiseshell who loves to terrorise
anyone if she is upset and Finn definitely had upset her !! Finn obviously realised this so flew out of the
back door, round the corner and started down the narrow path to safety, only there, sitting in the middle of
the path was Lotus...just sitting as if she’d been there all afternoon!!
As Finn drew near to her, she bushed out, looking several times her normal size,
hissed and slowly moved to one side so that he could get out of her way !! The
look of disgust that she gave him had to be seen to be believed as it left him
in no doubt that she was totally in charge of guarding her plot without any help
from her silly canine cousin !!!!
 
Choo Choo !!!
No doubt many of you have used the "choo choo" to feed a young child or perhaps
you were an aeroplane with the spoonful of food "flying" towards the mouth to
encourage them to open up and eat. Well, as we’ve said before, animals and
children can be very similar !!
One of the treatments for heart problems are tablets to be given an hour before
feeding and Drummer has been on them for a couple of years now and they have
undoubtedly helped keep him happy & active. Although he is very good and can
have tablets pushed down his throat, it’s not very pleasant and so the capsules
get put into some soft cheese - the really cheap and cheerful tubs but the
cheese holds it’s shape when the capsules are pushed in - ideal.
A few months ago the vet put Mungo on to them too and he happily took his tablets
seeing them as a treat and then Brogan also went onto them for his heart
failure. For some reason as I approached with a little sticky "parcel" of cheese
wrapped capsules, as he watched and waited to see what I had - I started
the "choo choo" ( in a singsong "train" voice!!!! ) and Brogan opened wide
and took his tablets ! Goodness knows why or how this started but it
became our game that he enjoyed each evening - for some reason, never for
the morning tablets though !!
Drummer despite being a big and you’d expect greedy German Shepherd is
surprisingly fussy about food so when the capsules were changed to palatable
tablets that are supposed to make life easier for owner,
Drummer refused to eat his "treats" and so it was back to the tubs of cheese
for all of them !!
Moving up the lane to Trubshaw & Albi, if we have a couple of slices of bread
left over, the "boys" get offered it. One afternoon they’d had their tea of hay
given and then were offered the bread - Albi ( sheep ) came and took his slice
with enthusiasm whereas Trubshaw came and sniffed it and quite clearly turned
his back on it and went back to his hay - much to Albi’s delight who had the
slice.
Next time there was some bread for them, it was offered before the hay was
given - Albi came and took his while Trubshaw came and sniffed it and then
opened his huge mouth ....and waited.so I "posted" the slice in as if he was
a giant letter box !!!! He happily ate it, such a huge creature and yet so
very gentle but still getting what he wanted ! So now we know...bread "posted"
first and then hay afterwards.
It’s been over a year since Trubshaw lost his lady friend Chance and he has
adjusted to being without her but he shows there’s still life in the old lad.
The field he ( and Albi ) are in has a fence across it so they have one end
and we walk our dogs the other end. The dogs don’t take much notice of
Trubshaw & Albi grazing but just occasionally they'll have a woof if they
are close to the fence.
This particular day Trubshaw had "Spring fever" as he came right up to the
fence, well that was too tempting for a couple of our dogs who bounced and
barked at him!! Trubshaw turned and raced up the field as if he was being
chased, kicking his heels in the air and then turned and did a very
impressive "charging bull" racing back down to the fence. Our dogs had
turned and come away but this was too much so they went back and woofed
at him again so Trubshaw trotted up and down his side of the fence, prancing,
shaking his head at them and quite deliberately winding the dogs up and
thoroughly enjoying himself. It’s difficult to explain properly in words
but it was such a wonderful and funny sight - you could almost see Trubshaw
sticking his tongue out and saying "you can’t catch me" !!!!
Goodbye & Hello.
Brogan was badly bred - we used to joke that he had most of the GSD health
problems in the one dog !!. We were lucky that his skin wasn’t a
problem, nor his temperament which although he had every reason to be
difficult from his early days, was in fact accepting and he was a big gentle
giant. And he was big, not overweight but he did weigh over 100lbs ( average
weight for his breed, 70 - 80 lbs ) as he was a big boned boy which didn’t
help his leg problems he was cursed with through his life.
All four legs had something hereditary wrong - his hips with HD ( hip
dysplasia ) that thankfully were not much of a problem to him until the
latter days of his life, but his elbows had two of the three major defects and
caused trouble all his life. Most of the time they just were stiff and awkward
when he moved and he was comfortable on a mixture of painkillers and natural
remedies but every so often they would flare up causing a lot of pain and
trouble. Brogan rarely complained but took himself to bed until the cocktail
of drugs the vet gave, kicked in and had Brogan up and about again. Often
before we felt he should be back on short walks Brogan would insist on coming
by eating the bedroom door or putting his head out of the catflap in the other
door - he hated being away from his pack unless he was really poorly.
We suspected he wouldn’t make old bones but it is one thing saying that as
the months and years roll by and altogether a different matter when at just
over 6 years old, you realise you are staring the situation in the face and
he won’t get better this time.
Brogan had been diagnosed with a heart problem six months earlier and
sadly it worsened, plus one of his legs flared up just before Christmas.
Then we had a couple of weeks when everything seemed to be settling down
but before we had chance to breathe a sigh of relief, he went rapidly
downhill with his heart and everything else started to fall apart too.
The day we said goodbye in February, Brogan insisted on coming outside a
little way to lay and watch his friends playing, and then later, being cuddled
on his bed, he went to sleep forever. It was a pleasure to know and have
such a wonderful dog and he is sorely missed, not because of his physical
presence but because of his character. Our other dogs were very subdued,
particularly his best friend and partner in mischief, Purdey as well as
our other GSD Drummer.
Sleep in peace handsome boy, sadly gone in body but never in spirit.
And onto news of our Christmas Eve "Surgery Special" whose owners didn’t
know where else to turn with their little problem as they didn’t want him
put to sleep but with 5 year old twins and a biting dog - something had
to change.Fortunately the vet they saw who had been treating Murphy’s
sore skin, realised that the steroids he was on were adding to the
food possessiveness and felt he could be rehomed in the right situation
- cue ‘phone call to us !
Murphy is a great little chap ( only 11" high ) but is a typical terrier
who thinks he’s the boss. Thankfully he was very happy to accept a change
in role when he arrived and is now a cute and happy - and non biting lad.
As I write this in our field, he is running around with a huge stick
three times his length in his mouth. He’s good with the other dogs,
quickly learnt if he wanted to stay on my armchair he had to share with
the cats and sneaks into bed under the duvet overnight as well if he can !!
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As I stand at the kitchen table preparing the cats breakfast, the cat flap is
being rattled - bang, scrabble, swing, click clack and then a pause - and
again it happens - and again and again !! By now you’re perhaps wondering
why I haven’t gone and opened the back door for the poor unfortunate cat
that must be stuck unable to manage a simple cat flap! You can almost see
the other cats raise their eyebrows in disgust at the performance, they
also know who it is of course.
Finally, the flap lifts ( again ) but this time it’s followed by a head
and then a body - "hello Cobble, made it then have you lad". Cobble is
a beautiful big lad who is perfectly capable of using the cat flap but
does seem to like to announce his imminent arrival - if he were a human
in days of old, you can imagine him being correctly addressed as "Sir Cobble" !!!
Later while standing waiting for the kettle to boil, I see "squirrel
cat" on his latest favourite position. Gershwin gained his nickname when
Jacky saw "something" on a distant shed roof...the "something" had a fluffy
twitching tail, appeared grey in colour and looked like a squirrel. It wasn’t
until he moved it and showed who it really was and we’ve now both spotted
him playing squirrels from his vantage point, hence his nickname.
Also visible from our kitchen window is a neighbours field which usually
has a couple of horses in it, but it’s amazing what else we can see while
waiting for the kettle to boil. Foxes will cross the field and melt into the
hedgerow and birds of all sorts will peck around or be seen flying in to the
trees - magpies, blackbirds, crows, wood pigeons, various tits and even an
occasional jay or two...and of course squirrels are seen too.
We do know how lucky we are to have such a wonderful view and as we were
both "townies" living in ordinary houses and streets, we never take for
granted what we have now - a place to enjoy surrounded by nature.
When walking up the lane to our field to see Trubshaw & Albi, as long as
the weather is dry, there is an accompaniment of cats - not sure if they
think we’d get lost and need to show us the way as they parade in front with
their tails up, or weave up to us for a fuss, rolling over at the last
moment and nearly causing us to trip as we rapidly sidestep to avoid them
( a particular favourite trick of Chico !! ).
Phoebe likes to chat about the days events - what she’s seen, done or
planning to do - she is a genteel lady who says her "bit" and waits for a
reply before continuing with another sentence. The car was driven a little
earlier and presumably the engine is still warm as Mister is laid on the
bonnet and Spice is on the roof watching the world go by. The days are not
yet warm enough to see sunbathing cats sprawled about as they need to keep
out of the wind or keep moving to keep warm.
Abi, like the youngster she is ( in comparison to most of our cats who are
definitely Old Age Pensioners ), usually rushes around, chasing leaves -
real or imaginary and then scats up a tree. The highlight is if a piece of
binder twine comes off a bale of hay and instead of being carried to the
skip, is dragged down the lane like a big orange snake they must catch and
kill - what fun as they pounce and leap on it - as long as it’s not what
is then served up on their plates for tea !!!.
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We started the newsletter with talking about Christmas but we’ll end with
Easter and wish you a happy Easter weekend. Thank you all for supporting
the animals, by sending stamps or towels or donations etc, they all mean a
lot and help to keep us going.
Our best wishes and thanks,
Jacky & Liz.
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