Busy in the Garden

This says it all

before....

after

 

B is also for Bev! Of late here.......hogging the egg production section of hen operation unit!

The remedy is to remove her from her eggs(ie she is not laying any and was actually sitting on a golfball!) for a few hors....which I did. Whilst I was weeding by the greenhouse (photos later) I happened to turn round and see this......

 

my lovely hens enjoying the sun!

 

I am late, but a lot has been happening of late, my garden has been a true joy to work with!

 

ABC Wednesday

 

The duty of a responsible pet owner

Ella's health has deteriorated rapidly since I took these photographs a week ago. We must remember Ella is at least 20, possible older than 25. We adopted Ella from a rescue centre and when we got her she was not young.

About 2 years ago we discovered a cyst, which we promptly had drained. The vet explained there was nothing sinister about it, just a build up of fluid. The cyst gradually returned the same time that Ella was due her annual vaccination ready for her spell at the cattery coinciding with our annual holiday. The vet explained that the effect of the  drugs used for her vaccination would be affected if the cyst was drained and recommended we leave the cyst as it was not suspect. We did this.

I must explain at this point that Ella absolutely hates car journeys of any description so we minimise any unnecessary distress - just the one journey a year to the cattery when we go away. This year however a neighbour looked after Ella whilst we were away. The journey to Margaret's house was a matter of a couple of minutes....no cat transporter, just a blanket on my knee. Ella had a lovely time with Margaret who fussed her and as she said "Gave her some love."

Ella had developed a few more lumps, found grooming difficult and was sleeping more and more. I didn't want to distress her by taking her to the vet. She was of a very good age and any treatment would probably finish her off, the car journey alone would be a nightmare for her.

Over recent weeks Ella has slept even  more. For the past couple of days she has not eaten anything, the last she ate was on Friday when I cooked her some liver, she enjoyed it so much. She has slept ever since.

This morning she left her bed and went outside. After a few minutes in the sunshine she returned and drank a fair amount of water. She then made her way to her bed where she sleeps. The way she sleeps indicates she is in pain, I suspect kidney issues, possible tumours and some dementia.

She just wants to sleep.

I made the phone call to the vet this morning and now I await his call. He will call when he is on his way, Jon will come home and we will ensure Ella has no more pain and distress.

V is for...Vacation.

Bing and Elsie spent a vacation together at Cliff Top Kennels, just outside Scarborough.

We watched as they were taken to their kennel.

 

 

 

 

They had a great time and Elsie showed Bing the ropes.  Ella also stayed in the cattery here whilst Freida spent the time with her favourite neighbour, Joyce. Whilst we were away we often wondered how Bing would be getting on with his first holiday away but we assured ourselves that Elsie would be talking to him in doggy speak telling him that we would be back and we would be back to normal.

Well we are back and things are back to normal - well as normal as things go in the Nesbitt household!

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Nesbitt Pet Business.

It's that time of the year again......preparing for our annual pilgrimage to the Isle of Man TT. The animals are all booked in to their various accommodation .

 Elsie and Bing will be going over to Scarborough to stay with Auntie Jill here. http://scarboroughdogs.org.uk/pages/facilities.htm. Ella will also be staying there in the cattery. Ella does not travel well and whilst normally she is a very clean cat we tend to have a little accident on route. We daren't let her out on the morning we take them to Scarborough in case she didn't return in time and this would have our plans out of the window. So - we pack the dogs, bedding, food then bring Ella's transport cage into the house and try to get her in with minimum fuss! (Easier said than done!) We then head out to Scarborough hoping....
1. The road wont be too busy 
2. We don't get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle...or
3. Hit roadworks.

Past experience would indicate we will encounter one of the three and Ella will get stressed and drop a little protest.

Freida will be staying with a neighbour and enjoying 3 walks a day as Joyce loves walking....and dogs - so they will both be happy! Freida will have a rest from puppy rearing and a break from Elsie.

We have taken them for their various boosters and kennel cough treatments at a cost of £94. The boarding fees alone will be approaching £350 so hopefully we may have a few pence left for the odd meal whilst we are away! lol!

I was quite worried about taking Ella to the vets. She has a cyst which fills up with fluid on a regular basis. We take her to get it drained but it returns. She is well over 15 and we don't want to cause her any unnecessary stress...so when I discovered more lumps I was very concerned. The vet gave her a full examination and concluded that they were not causing Ella any pain or discomfort and it would be wise not to have them drained at the moment as the process would interfere with her immune system and the booster's impact would be decreased - so we will attend to this on our return.

The hens will stay in the henhouse but will be let out and locked away at night by our neighbour. The benefit for Emma our neighbour is she will get fresh eggs on a daily basis whilst we are away!

C is for Chewing.

What's it going to be a silicone cupcase, a bed or a chew.......

a cupcase!

When we decided to look for a German Shepherd puppy I did a considerable amount of background reading. Chewing is a major feature of the development of a puppy and should be encouraged. We bought a selection of various chewing toys and Bing uses them all. Ofcourse he has his favourites which, if left to his own devices would happily munch through my UGG boots, Jon's glasses, computer wires and coal! The minute we see him going for any of these we have a firm NO and immediately throw him one of his own proper chews. On a night time if we are in the snug we are constantly watching Bing to make sure he isn't chewing something he shouldn't be. We tried to ensure the house was puppy safe but I can assure you Bing will still route out something he fancies, all power for the course!

Here he is enjoying one of the proper chews. After a good chewing session he sleeps for a couple of hours.....infact as I am typing his head is on my boots and I can hear him snoring. (I wont disturb him by videoing him yet again - he has had quite a video session so far and it is only 10.30am! lol!

He continues to grow and by the end of the week he will be ready for his new collar. He has a Cage which he uses when he has his meals. This is for his own safety and convenience rather than anything else. One of the areas of conflict with any group of dogs occurs over food. He would quite happily walk away from his food and seek out either Freida's or Elsie's, so he eats his in his cage allowing Elsie and Freida time to eat theirs.

If we have to leave him, be it just for a couple of hours we put him in his cage, but I put a variety of small snacks which he has to "find". This detracts him from the fact he has been left alone, but he still has the company of Freida or Elsie in the kitchen which must be a reassurance. He never soils his cage, again whilst we are toilet training him, and he is doing very well, we do not want to cause any set-backs. Whenever we return we immediately let him out into the garden so he can relieve himself.

Other C's  he has to deal with are the chickens and the cat. Whilst he is allowed outside without his lead first thing on a morning, when the chickens are in the garden he wears his lead and I ensure he stays by my side. As for Ella the cat - Bing is on a steep learning curve. Ella stands her own ground and if he gets too close when he is barking at her out comes a warning paw! Ella however does not scratch him (yet) and seems to treat him with an understanding.

ABC - C for Chewing and has to be for Cute too don't you think?
C is also for Class - we start puppy training tomorrow!
Watch this space!

Outside and inside today.

View from the kitchen window.

 

 

 Meanwhile...inside the snug. Ella will be here for the duration of the entire day.

 

 

Bing asleep next to where I am sitting on the settee

 

 



 

Freida having some peace by the back door.

 

 





The weather is particularly bad today. Jon managed to drive to the workshop which is only a mile or so away. If conditions deteriorate he isn't too worried as a few weeks ago he helped out a neighbour by making a part for his boiler ensuring they could keep warm as the boiler could function as normal.
The same neighbour happens to have a tractor!

Kettle is on. Marks and Spencer Luxury Gold teabags - a godsend!

Exercise today is housework and a spot of soupmaking thanks to Pat!
Today was to be the first walk on the wildside for Bing, but the snow is deeper than his little legs so we will postpone the event until the weather improves.

Put those eyes away!

On Monday I will be able to take Bing outside, on his lead and I will be taking him to meet my neighbours in the village. We start puppy training on Wednesday afternoon. Should be fun.
I must say how much easier the task of settling in a puppy with the aid of two older dogs has been. He needs to go out frequently for his twinkles and Freida always goes first, Bing follows and they go for a wander round the garden.
He has settled well into his routine and as I type here he is laid on my slippers, snoozing away. He is fed 4 times a day, small portions of high protein puppy food, which ofcourse is 4 times the price of normal dog food but we took advice from the vet. Bing is gaining the necessary weight for his age, so this is good enough for us.
He has his mad half hour then flings himself onto his bed and sleeps away for England.
We bought him a good selection of chews and toys which he uses constantly. Amazingly we didn't buy one thing which he doesn't use, such is his disposition and zest for fun and contentment.
We borrowed a large cage from our neighbour so if we go out, never longer than a few hours, he sleeps inside.
When we first brought him home we took it in turns to sleep downstairs, in the snug which ajoins the kitchen. This was because he was paper trained and we didn't want him to have any accidents. Gradually the amount of times he needed to go outside decreased. Now we let him out last thing at night and he sleeps through until 7am when he needs to go outside, again with Freida or Elsie.
We bring him upstairs for a couple of hours and he sleeps through to getting up.

very pleased indeed.......his bed however (originally Ella's) will soon be too small for him!

The good, the bad and the indifferent.

GOOD
Bing is settling in well. He is using the newspaper for his jobs, is getting along well with Elsie and Freida and his overall character is absolutely fantastic. He loves to sleep at our feet and is a lovely little soul to have round the place. He is fascinated by Ella and barks at her - but we are not worried as we know Ella will keep him in his place and remind him who is boss.
Today (Friday) is his 8 week birthday. To celebrate we took him to the vet for his first injection and a dual flea/worm treatment. We received a puppy pack with a free sample of puppy food. We have always fed our dogs a mixture of wet and dry food but with Bing he will be on the Pro plan puppy food.
We have introduced him to his cage - often he will go into it for a lie down. This will be for when we have to go out. We have not really been far since we brought him home as we wanted him to settle in - which he has done. We had thought he would cry a lot when he was first plucked from his original surroundings and his little family, but to our amazement he settled in straight away.

BAD
I have managed to catch the flu and have been feeling dreadful for the best part of the week. Jobs which needed to be done have been half heartedly attempted and abandoned. Fortunately Jon is now on his Christmas break and is helping out. He just advised to leave until I feel better, good advice and I am following it. I do feel slightly better today, thanks to a dose of "Day Nurse" by taking it every 4 hours I know it will see me feeling better day by day.

INDIFFERENT
Because I have felt dreadful I had a sense of indifference about certain little niceties associated with Christmas. Each year we have a village carol service in the village pub. This normally puts me in the Christmas mood and it gives me inspiration to do all the christmas preparations with enthusiasm, but I didn't go as my throat was very sore so I missed out on some Christmas spirit. Normally I make my own cards, but this year I could not summon up the enthusiasm or energy to do this normally cheering job. I know many people do start to make cards with plenty of time to spare but because I am not such a person I do mine in December. The long and short of it is I bought this years cards - again without any enthusiasm so when I come to write them out the task lacked any enjoyment because I didn't really like all of the cards, trouble with buying a mixed box I guess. So in January I will sit and make some cards! Infact I think January will be a very crafty month.

A Giveaway!

A couple of weeks ago I received a request from Whiskas for contact details.....this is what followed!



Hi Denise,

Thank you so much for your email - really appreciate you taking the time to contact me. :)


This January, Whiskas is launching a brand new range of cat food called "Tasty Textures" and I wondered if your cat Ella would be interested in trying out a few different flavours for us?


As one of our regular Facebook contributors, we'd be really interested in hearing your (and Ella's!) opinion on the new food. She would be one of the first cats in the UK to try the new meals, which have been created with cats' instincts in mind as we know how much they love different textures in their meals to bite and chew.


If you would like to try some Tasty Textures pouches, let me know your address and I'll pop them in the post to you.


Many thanks!


Needless to say Ella received and indeed LOVED the parcel contents.
Charlotte, the lovely lady at Whiskas read my blog and has really kindly offered to give some Whiskas free gifts..........WOW! Isn't that FANTASTIC!
If you would love enter the giveaway please leave a comment - Ella will pick a few names out next week(5 in all ) and the lucky winners will receive a little something in the post!

Watch this space!

X marks the spot!

Ella certainly loved the hamper Jon’s sister bought him for Christmas!

We have had a great Christmas – great family do and yesterday a great afternoon with friends. Today we decided to go out for a drive so we headed over to Scarborough.
The roads seemed fairly quiet though the view of the North Sea didn’t exactly warm us up!

Knowing it was ABC Wednesday I decided to go in search of an X – and I found one as we drove into Scarborough!

The sales were on so we popped in to a few shops – coming away with 12 cans of cat food, some dog food and a greyhound calendar for my MIL – the calendar that is, not the pet food! lol!
We came home over Blakey Ridge and decided to have lunch at the Lion Inn. The fog was thickening by the minute as you can see from the photo I took of the road home.

Once we reached the road home from the Moor Road the weather cleared and the fog lifted.


The next few days will be quiet, New Year’s Eve will be the next event – we are holding an “At Home” for neighbours and friends – our neighbours are doing the same, so we will be popping in and out of each other’s homes during the course of the night.
We have had a delay with the lounge progress, but we should be back on track over the next couple of days. Working with colours of Brassica (purple) and brilliant white means there can be no grey areas (no pun intended) and the margins have to be spot on. As we were not at home on Christmas Day this was not a problem. Having one of your best friends as a carpet fitter is a joy I can tell you. The minute we are ready spud will be over and carpet fitted. I have waited this long – we can wait a few days more.
Watch this space!
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Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Ella having a sleep in the plant pot!

ABC Wednesday was an idea I had back in 2007 and we are just about to enter Round 7! It is a fun project which takes place every week from 5pm on a Tuesday evening, or whenever convenient.Basically we take a letter of the alphabet and post a picture, text, poem - anything which has a link . Many of you have had a go, some in fact have been aboard since the very first round, but do check it out and do feel welcome to hop aboard! Easy to leave your name on the ABC Wednesday blog!