The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

Zapperzy

Has anyone ever received damaged goods from zooplus? Got an order today from zooplus.de through dpd, 3 huge boxes. One box got an awful battering, loads of tins dented and a bottle of salmon oil spilled all over everything, lovely job cleaning it all off. The tins got a good doing but they all appear to be usable I think, none obviously split open but I haven't checked under the labels yet.

What are zooplus like to deal with? I obviously want a new bottle of salmon oil as the one they sent me is unusable. Will they just refund me? First time using dpd option and the first time iv received a box with this many damaged tins, zooplus's packaging had appeared to improve in recent times.

On a happier note I bought a huge cat tree for the new place, always wanted one but had no space for it here. Have a feeling they'l be more impressed with the big cardboard boxes!

mymo

I had this problem 2 weeks ago, box was fine looking but 22 of the cans were damaged, 17 very badly deformed.
I emailed them and sent a photo of the cans, they wanted to know what each can was (flavour, brand etc) and refunded me €18 and some change, the cans work out about £1 sterling each, so thought they were a bit cheap about it, but the said they were allowing for the discount I recieved for my order.

I opened some of the less dented cans and they were fine, so I used them, the odd one looked or smelled not quite right so I dumped them. Ended up dumping around half the cans (most of the very badly damaged ones a few not so bad) so figured I broke even on that order.

They were quick to refund me, but I have to put in an earlier order next time as I'm short food now.

SingItOut

Former co worker caused so much drama in my new job today, so embarrassed I thought I was doing a good thing but clearly not, can't trust anybody these days!

Pumpkinseeds

We finally managed to give Felix a thorough brushing this evening. He has always hated being brushed, no matter what type of brush or glove we use. But tonight he jumped on the sofa between us purring away and I thought I might as well go for it. My husband just kept petting him and giving him lots of fuss while I brushed him. We probably could have made a kitten out of the fur that came off him:D

mymo

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

We probably could have made a kitten out of the fur that came off him:D

I filled half a carrier bag from Jake alone one day!
I'm amazed he's not bald, twice a week we get handfuls of hair off him, he loves being groomed, Toby tolerates a quick brush, but doesn't shed as much anyway, but Ruby is another story!

tk123

I take the brushes with me on our walk once a week and have a crafty brush so I don't have to clean up the hair at home!!

Pretzill

Speaking of brushing my youngest pup will not let me brush him (unless he's asleep and doesn't notice) I'm thinking because of his age 8 months his coat hasn't thickened yet and so he feels the brush against his skin. He barks at the brush! His sis who also hated being brushed at his age now relishes a groom - she rolls over and lets me remove any tangles etc - she has a thick, curly coat.
So I'm hoping the little guy will warm to being groomed - any tips would be much appreciated. He is a border collie x looks a bit like a sheltie his coat is long and glossy.

mymo

Get one of those rubber bath mats and put it on the table with a towel over it, lift him up and hold a treat out, make him stand still or at least wait for the treat while you get a couple of swipes of the brush in.
2 mins is enough to start, lift him down and praise him. Play a game, or something, soon he will see brushing = food and fun!

It's easier if you lift them off the ground, but it needs to be a safe surface they won't slip on, hence the bath mat and towel.

sparkle_23

I'm so excited because we applied for a transfer to a different apartment in our building. Yesterday we found out we got approved! The new place has an extra bedroom, a bigger balcony and we end up with 155 sq foot extra! We are moving in July and a few weeks after that we might adopt a second kitty! :D:D

SillyMangoX

sparkle_23 wrote: »

I'm so excited because we applied for a transfer to a different apartment in our building. Yesterday we found out we got approved! The new place has an extra bedroom, a bigger balcony and we end up with 155 sq foot extra! We are moving in July and a few weeks after that we might adopt a second kitty! :D:D

How will pepper cope with having to share her attention? :P

sparkle_23

SillyMangoX wrote: »

How will pepper cope with having to share her attention? :P

Hopefully she will like her new buddy! There's a giant Spider that made a web right outside our bedroom window and she spends hours meowing at it! I wish it would go away!

tk123

lololol I set up spy cameras last night to see if Lucy is robbing Bailey's bed or not. He got out and she jumped in and I ended up with some funny photos to post in the pics thread. I think the throw at the end of the bed is falling down on top of him so see if the soft crate will fit in that space and what happens tonight. The plot thickens!!

Pumpkinseeds

I just set up the new Drinkwell platinum drinking fountain for the cats. I got that one as Toby loves drinking from a tap and it has a function like a running tap as well as the standard drinking bowl. So far Toby and Poppy are giving it a wide berth and Felix has ignored it. Jazzy's asleep on our bed but the last fountain we had years ago we got for him to encourage him to drink and he ignored it:rolleyes:

Whispered

Phoe is off form today. He's been asleep on the couch for much of the day. When I interact with him he gets up and moves about but toddles off back for a snooze as soon as he can. He had a gooey eye this morning.

Harley is a bit off too but not as bad, he seems really tired but they have done nothing today - yesterday wasn't too busy a day for them either, although they did manage to eat a face full of cow poo so that might have upset their stomachs.

Will have to keep an eye on them

Raminahobbin

So yesterday I was carrying Kayla gently down the stairs, and tripped and fell down 5 steps. I managed to do this amazing instinctual contortionist-like bending trick mid-fall that left her reasonably gracefully at the bottom of the stairs without so much of a yelp, but me in bits.

At least all her stitches are grand!!!

I'm sore

Pumpkinseeds

24 hours later and still none of our 4 cats have used the snazzy new water fountain:rolleyes:

Zapperzy

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

24 hours later and still none of our 4 cats have used the snazzy new water fountain:rolleyes:

Put down the box it came in and it'l be their new favorite toy

Pumpkinseeds

Zapperzy wrote: »

Put down the box it came in and it'l be their new favorite toy

I've turned off the running water bit and am hoping they'll drink out of the bowl part, then when they're used to it I can switch the running bit back on. Although Jazzy is justifiably wary of me this evening. Our cooker is inside the back door and a wasp went for me while I was cooking. I was swatting it with a tea towel, didn't know Jazzy was behind me until I stepped backwards on to his tail:eek:

I'd have killed the wasp so I had to finish it off with a slipper and poor Jaz took off up the stairs like a bat out of Hell. I had to coax him out with cooked chicken and he's still eyeing me warily:o

SillyMangoX

When I got our fountain at first no one would drink from it, I added a small bit of cat milk to the water for the first few times I set it up and they were drinking away quite happily, then I just put in less and less and now they all drink just plain water from it!

It's been ages since I posted about my budgies, I remember last I told you guys was probably when Drake and Cloud were only babies and Yellow was adjusting to life without Marky! Well, I wrote this for a budgie forum, thought I'd share it here; life with budgerigars, not always as simple as it sounds...

I can't let my birds out much at the moment, because the weather is hot (a rare occurrence in Ireland!) and I need to have my window open. So today I got home around 3pm, shut the window, and decided to let them play. They shot out of the cage door like rockets, and flew around shouting. Such a lovely sight! I thought they'd go back in as usual after two hours, but no.

It was my dinnertime, so I ran downstairs and stuck my dinner in the oven, and ran back up. Curtain rail rules! I said "Cage!" and pointed, my old hen bird Yellow flew down, she's pretty obedient. The two little guys looked at me like "Hah, you really think that'll work?" I ran outside and grabbed their favour treat, dandelion leaves. I washed them then ran back up to my room. When I walked in the two young guys froze, on top of the cage. That's only two birds. Where is the third?! I froze too. Then I heard a sort of interrupted CAWCAWCAW and Yellow flew up from the floor, acting like nothing had happened. I'm suspicious. But I hung up the dandelion, inside the cage, hoping it would entice them.

Yellow loves treats so she hopped right in and started to eat (she makes her face green, so cute) and her boyfriend Cloud hopped in too. Drake kept watching me. Eventually he succumbed and wanted some treats too, so he hopped in the door, gave a tweet to Cloud, and Cloud FLEW BACK OUT.

My two brother birds act as a tagteam. When one is in, the other comes out. They cannot be caught, too nimble and wily for that, so my tactic is chase until tired, then catch. They don't even peck, they're not afraid. So I catch one, put him in, lock the cage, chse number two around. Once I've caught the second one, I'm exhausted! So when I open the cage door, the other flits right by my hand and flies around again.

I would never be without them; none of them are handtamed, but wow, so much fun. Cheeky, and too smart. They were teasing me today, I wanted them to go in, so they climbed all around the front of the cage, swung upsidedown from the door, twirled sideways on the side of the doorway, pretended like they were gonna jump in, then flew back out. Even my eight year old bird, who is usually so good, has got in on it.

They make my life complete! I love it. Even if some days I'm left in tears and screaming at them.

Pumpkinseeds

Poppy did a runner on us this morning so didn't get to the vets for a nail trim. She's booked in on Monday now. Rookie mistake, we forgot to shut the cat flap. She took off and wouldn't come in then for ages. She hates the vets but it's a necessary evil, she just won't let us do her nails and she hates being picked up.

She's 3 now, we think, so I doubt she'll ever like being picked up. She can be very wary and lash out at times. She hates raised voices and sometimes I think from the way she reacts to certain things, that she might have been hit at some point in her life:(

Garzard

Thought I'd post this here as I don't think it deserves its own thread - mods feel free to move or delete if necessary. The cat below is a feral which comes most days to be fed. He's always seemed in good health but I noticed today a brownish patch coming up around his back, it can be seen in the photo and looks like a cyst or infection possibly but I'm no vet. Anyone know what this is and if it warrants a call to the DSPCA?

aonb

can you actually see anything under the fur - you mentioned a cyst - or anything? Looks like he is rubbing off something - the underside of a rusty gate or something - to scratch? If you cant see a cyst/redness/skin condition maybe you could put a drop of anti-flea solution on there? Is trapping him to bring to the vet/DSPCA out of the question??

Zapperzy

Bunty had this white mouse fishing pole type cat toy when she was a kitten and she loved it, used to carry it around in her mouth to bed with her, she was heartbroken when it finally gave up having been glued and sewed back together numerous times, replaced it soon after with a grey version of it but she never had the same grá for it and it soon fell apart.

Never seen them for sale again and always kept an eye out, until recently nearly 9 years later I spot the same toy for €2 in the pet section of a supermarket in galway. I was quite happy to say the least Anyways brought it home to her thinking she might knock 5 minutes out of it before forgetting about it, I couldn't have been more wrong. It was like a love story reunion after 9 years of separation I haven't seen her with as much enthusiasm for a toy since her old mousey (imaginative name ), she jumps around like a kitten and carries it around with her and drops it in the hallway as if asking someone to play with her. She makes this chirping noise that I haven't heard her make for years. It's like she's gotten a new lease of life

Went back a week later to buy an armful of them to stock up and there was none left If they come back in I'l get some strange looks buying a basket full Here's a picture of the wee bugger I'm on about

Whispered

At that's so cute!

Whispered

It's looking like tomorrow will be our first camping trip of the year. Everything is still packed away from last year and we've decided not to check it, so much hassle erecting the tent then taking it down. Haha. We might regret this laziness tomorrow

Raminahobbin

Nah, you'll be grand! I always do that. Might be a bit smelly but sure it's camping- it's supposed to be :P

Whispered

Raminahobbin wrote: »

Nah, you'll be grand! I always do that. Might be a bit smelly but sure it's camping- it's supposed to be :P

We're ok with smelly.

angeldaisy

There's a farm collie who often chases the cars near my son's school. It really freaks me out, so for the last week or so I've been slowing right down, opening the car window and talking to him. This tends stop him chasing the car.

This morning on my way into school, there he was chasing all the cars. When he heard mine however he took off running back into the farm yard! He mustn't like my conversation :-D

Raminahobbin

I heard back from the vet about the lump they removed- extremely vicious and aggressive form of cancer. He's confident they got it all, for now, but said it's very likely that it'll come back at some stage.

Since there's no chemo for this form of cancer (not that I'd put her through that anyway), I need to make sure she has the BEST summer EVER this year, just in case. Forests / lakes / beaches / hugs / treats.

My poor puppy