h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of the main reasons no one wanted Minerva is because she's cross-eyed. I think she's beautiful, anyway. She's such a good little hunter that it can't be affecting her vision that badly.

Happy Ostara everyone!

Yes Sol, same girl.

I had a chat with the lady from the Blue Cross who I adopted Timmy from - she loved Fluff so my home inspection was much longer than it needed to be. I think the Blue Cross is different from the RSPCA.

She said 'we don't believe in just recycling pets' bascially if someone adopts a cat or dog and it doesn't settle in or match their expectations they tend to bring it back straight away - which they are less likely to do if the cat was from a breeder. For instance Timmy tends to scratch if you stroke him when he doesn't want to to be stroked, and sprays when other cats are around so he couldn't cope with living with children or other cats.

They know when making a descion about a potiental owner how likely the cat or dog is to be adopted by anyone else - a cute kitten will get about three or four enquires a day so if they first one is less than ideal. If a cat is older and less cute then they are more likely to compromise. When Timmy first came in they wanted him to have a home with a person who was in all day - because he loves human attention - but as no on adopted him for 4 months they let him go to me because it was clear that it wasn't likely that someone who was at home was going to volenteer.

These charities aren't stupid - they know that a few hours spent checking that a home is appropriate for a dog or cat pays for itself because it means that less dogs and cats are brought back in because their owners can't cope. The Blue Cross, and the RSPCA do have a policy of never destroying a healthy animal that can be rehomed so I don't think that animals are put down because they have no owners in the UK at the moment.

At the end of the day it's the welfare of the animals that matters and the chairties are in the best position to judge that.

Oh! And I think a fifth is a fifth of a gallon - so a litle smaller than a quart. Liquor is sold using metric measurements now and has been for years. So the fifth has been replaced by a 750 ml. bottle.

Yes, it's sad that we still have so many shelters than have a residence time limit then euthanizes the ones who aren't adopted in time. Perhaps they woud have stricter adoption standards if they weren't so crowded.

I have to say, I was very impressed by the Blue Cross cat-pens. The cats had three separate areas to be: indoors, "outdoors" "upstairs" and "outdoors" downstairs". They could see other cats and interact with their neighbours in some parts of their pen but have total cat-privacy in other parts. From the "outdoor" part of their pen, they could see and smell the weather, see people coming and going, and watch birds and other animals. The "indoor" part was heated and completely sheltered. The "indoor" and "outdoor" parts were separated by a catflap, and the "upstairs" and "downstairs" parts were separated by a cat-ladder.

I didn't see the dog-pens, but I did note that they made a point of exercising the dogs each day. I think they also made a point of petting each cat every day.

In other words - not as nice as a loving home, but just about as good as inistutional animal living gets, and much better than most commercial catteries for holiday boarding.

Yes, they are fussier and stricter than other ways of obtaining pets, and one of the reasons I "adopted" privately was that I was happy to avoid the kerfuffle of being vetted.

It's quid pro quo though. You get a pet which is neutered and vaccinated, who has had a vetinary assessment so you don't get any surprises (Curly has a heart murmer, for example, which may well turn out to be expensive in the long run). They also assess whether or not a cat can cope with children, dogs, other cats, being kept indoors, and so on.

My very first cat-adoption was another private adoption, of a Birman Queen which my Godmother needed to re-home. If I'd known then just how difficult she was I would really have hesitated to take her on. She was fussy and pernikety, she hated other cats, sprayed in the house, and was altogether a cranky and difficult cat. The people and other cats in the house breathed a collective sigh of relief when she finally died. But a good animal charity would have warned her of that, so that we could take an informed decision whether or not to take her on.

Ben

>> a good animal charity would have warned her of that

US - would have warned US of that

Hyp, because Cassie seemed nervous and tended to lash out when startled (still does, ask our vet ), it was felt that being adopted into a home where there was already another cat ruling the roost would only make her worse. She sitting on a cushion on the floor (tugboating to be exact) looking as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, as I type. Occasionally looking up to give me a loving look.

Caer, can you tell if Cassie's ears are burning form all the posts about her? Does she know she's world famous?

"tugboating"?

Think most animal charities are as good as the volenteers that help,
though both the CPL/ Blue cross are now world wide charities most of the branches are run as satellites.

I used to home check for several years and would pay closer attention to a cat/kitten that i may have fostered for several months some up to a year if came arrived in a distressed state.

Most of it is done before you visit the house with local knowledge from other volenters and if the charity has a strong presence in the area many times its referal any way, by done before the check that would be records of adoptons in area plus chances are supporters in the area will soon let somone know if mistake was made.

Ethinasing Policy varies acording to the organization, as does criteria though CPL wont put a healthy animal down what ever age, some will. Wish more micro-chipping took place would pay most vets to routinly put one in if only for there records and suspect in a few years would cut back on a lot of dumping of unwanted pets if there was a chance it could be traced back to you.

Finding the right home for the cat is hard at times but most cats are happy as indoor cats if brought up from a kitten as indoor cats long as plenty of space to play run hunt ect they will thrive and prosper, many countries owners would not dream of letting some pedigree cats out.
Hati come back
good ban collie day to all

My family took on a dog that had owners who could no longer look after him. I don't remember if we had a visit from the RSPCA (who arranged it), but we did have several visits to Jacko and his family before he became ours. And his previous owners did phone occasionally to check that he was OK. He was a sweetie.

I did something very silly this afternoon... On the way back from a prayer thingummy, I was walking along the beautiful city walls, watching some children play in the public gardens below. I was evidently paying too much attention to the children, as I walked straight into a lamppost. My glasses will need to be straightened tomorrow (thankfully, my spares on a near-identical prescription) and I have a big lump on my forehead. I'm still feeling a bit light-headed, but no nausea, no period of unconsciousness and no seeing stars, so I'm fairly sure that means no concussion. I thought that only happened to people in silent comedies. I can confirm that it wasn't funny. And still isn't. It hurts.

That's the sort of thing I do, though it tends to be walking off pavements without looking rather than into lamp-posts.

I'm glad that I wasn't walking faster, as a trip to Casualty would have been embarrassing:

"So, how did it happen?"
"Well, I was watching the children in the park..."

It isn't just me, is it? That does sound dodgy. It wasn't, but in this silly world, it's the sort of thing that gets misinterpreted.

I once broke my nose walking into a parking metre.... and that wasn't funny either, but everyone who say it thought it was hilarious

"nips in a swops the 'y' for a 'w'"...... say not say.

>> I once broke my nose walking into a parking metre....

Are you sure you weren't headbutting it?

Were you bending down? Most parking metres I have met have been quite short. Maybe I mix in the wrong circles of parking metres, though.

OH I've done it again !!!! SAW not say.

I'm not that tall and the bulky part of the metre was exactly nose height. (I was walking home from a pub - mitigating circumstances !!)

Sounds like you gave it a Glasgow kiss, darlin'