The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

mymo

There is no snooze button on the furry alarm clock, touch it and it purrs louder!

And this morning I have it in stereo, Jake and Mouse.
At least Mouse gets up when I do, jake goes back to sleep until about 8am!

toadfly

Only three more workdays left and Im off for three weeks I can't feckin wait.

SillyMangoX

I'm in London at the moment, is it sad the thing I'm most looking forward to is going to the pet section in harrods in the morning?!

borderlinemeath

Delighted with myself - sometimes it's the little things....

We have an outhouse/utility/boilerhouse just at the back of our house. For the past 4 years swallows have been nesting in it, the first year they built a nest on top of a light fitting and used it for a few years, then last year built one on top of a different light fitting but it was on the utility side where the washing machine, tumble dryer and all himselfs tools hang from the ceiling, pretty annoying when the tools get covered in bird poo etc.

This year the swallows arrived back and must have gone to the original nest because it fell off the fitting and ended up in pieces on the ground. I didn't want them nesting on the 'utility' side so last week I found an old wooden shelf bracket that was in the shape of a triangle and nailed it to the rafters. It's in a perfect position for a nest, where they can see out and also perch on the shelf and view it. Mr Swallow perched on it the first night and Mrs Swallow perched with him 2 days later. This week construction has started on a new nest. Yippee!!

Whispered

That was a great idea BLM. Don't suppose you could take a few pics of the building works? It's fascinating!

Fecking frustration of K interacting with Harley.

"go to bed" Harley stands looking at him wagging his tail.
"bed" - still there
"GO TO BED" - still there
"BED NOW" - Harley lies down where he is standing (not his bed), K sits back to continue watching TV.

Me: That's not his bed
K: It doesn't matter, he's lying down
Me: It does matter, his bed is where you put his blanket, it's a good idea to keep it like that
K: *Tut* it's fine :rolleyes:

2 mins later Harley is back up annoying him and guess who had to send him to bed properly.

borderlinemeath

I'll not go out and disturb them now, they're sitting there gazing at each other! I'll get some photos tomorrow, the foundation layer has gone in, mud and a bit of straw so hopefully I'll get some snaps of it before they erect the ground floor!

anniehoo

SillyMangoX wrote: »

the pet section in harrods in the morning?!

I literally don't know who buys €150 dog bowls..but that whole shop is amazing. Apart from they had "puppies" on show...i didn't go there

borderlinemeath wrote: »

This week construction has started on a new nest. Yippee!!

You seriously have do a thread on this. Was watching a random Peregrine Falcon sitting on her "nest" earlier today on Earthcam and it was cool.

baby and crumble

I handed in my M.Litt thesis yesterday!!! THE JOY!!

I also dropped Isabella off at her pet boarding for 4 days as we're off to London for the weekend. I get so silly leaving her. She had more fecking baggage with her than I will going to London!

borderlinemeath

anniehoo wrote: »

You seriously have do a thread on this. Was watching a random Peregrine Falcon sitting on her "nest" earlier today on Earthcam and it was cool.

It is very cool watching them work and then start a little family. I have loads of photos of the years they were in the 'first' nest but then last years was slightly more awkward to get into position with a camera as I didn't want to get too close. Here's one of the babies from one of the years in the first nest. If they heard any noise at all they were up looking for food! Pic quality isn't great as I don't have a particularly good zoom on my camera.

angeldaisy

met the most beautiful puppy yesterday, think it was a dogue de bordeaux, 19weeks old. Absolutely terrified of everything - so I couldn't get a fuss from him. I would so love one of these they are beautiful dogs - oh well guess I can dream!

tk123

just on youtube there and noticed one of the classified sites has a channel so decided to have a nose... A video of a retriever for sale - clearly something wrong with his hip(s) and he doesn't want to come near the person taking the video, - keeping his head down, avoiding eye contact etc

SillyMangoX

anniehoo wrote: »

I literally don't know who buys €150 dog bowls..but that whole shop is amazing. Apart from they had "puppies" on show...i didn't go there .

I saw Martin Clunes (in men behaving badly and doc martin) in there this morning spending over 500 on a little jacket and bag for his jack-huahua!

They were selling cavapoos for £2500

nala2012

Just spent the morning trying to catch a lurcher. My other half got a call saying one of our greyhounds were running around factory near our house. Our hounds were in bed but we went up anyway. This poor little lurcher was there. He's so scared he wouldn't come for food or when i brought nala up. We spent an hour and a half trying to catch him but he was too scared. I don't know how people dump dogs

Pumpkinseeds

It looks like we've got a 3rd cat:) There's been a tuxedo cat coming around our house for about a month now. 1 of our neighbours has a tuxedo cat so we just assumed it was theirs. But over the past few days I noticed it was around a lot more. It was up on our shed from 5am til 6am then on a bin for a few hours after that. Seems to be trying to be as non threatening as possible with our 2 other cats.

I checked with the neighbours and it isn't theirs, so since it tried to come into the kitchen to me this morning I fed her this evening. About half an hour later I looked out the kitchen window and saw her sound asleep in the grass pot in the pouring rain:( We've propped open the shed and put a cat bed and some more food in for her. I say her, as Felix isn't attacking this cat as he would another male. Poor little thing. They seemed to be just about tolerating her presence this morning so hopefully they won't harass her and she'll be our 3rd child.

toadfly

Lex is driving me insane this morning. Woke me up at half 6 and she's been barking on and off since. She's been fed and out to the toilet but she's still at it. Ozzie is gone with the OH and she hates when's he's not here. She didn't mind last night when it was just me and her on the couch!

borderlinemeath

TillyGirl wrote: »

Lex is driving me insane this morning. Woke me up at half 6 and she's been barking on and off since. She's been fed and out to the toilet but she's still at it. Ozzie is gone with the OH and she hates when's he's not here. She didn't mind last night when it was just me and her on the couch!

She knows you're on your holliers

Honestly I do think pets pick up on the slightest of changes. You might have had that 'hurry up and go fast this week so I can be off' aura and she would have picked up on it.

Mine know at the first sight of a suitcase that 'Ah crap, they're going away'. They even know if we're going to a wedding/christening/event as the routine is that little bit different.

ISDW

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Mine know at the first sight of a suitcase that 'Ah crap, they're going away'. They even know if we're going to a wedding/christening/event as the routine is that little bit different.

Very true, my lot know even before the case comes out, don't know if its the increase in washing etc.

tk123

borderlinemeath wrote: »

She knows you're on your holliers

Honestly I do think pets pick up on the slightest of changes. You might have had that 'hurry up and go fast this week so I can be off' aura and she would have picked up on it.

Mine know at the first sight of a suitcase that 'Ah crap, they're going away'. They even know if we're going to a wedding/christening/event as the routine is that little bit different.

+1 It's a year today since I was made redundant, was off for 2 months, was in a job I hated for 3 months, off for another 2 months and have been in my new job which I love for almost 5 months now.. I've seen a lot of changes in Bailey where he was picking up on my stress etc He still hasn't grasped that I'm home at 6 now instead of 4:30-5:00 which is causing problems with him getting very excited around 4:30 waiting for me to arrive etc.. GAH! :rolleyes:

ISDW

Very proud of my Bear dog, he's a husky cross - we were told with English setter, but I think its rough collie. Went to agility this morning, which is held in a small equestrian ring, and there were two loose ponies in the yard alongside, with only post and rail fencing between them. He gave them a brief sniff, then ignored them completely and got on with his jumping and tunnelling.

Pumpkinseeds

Felix just upped the anti with the visiting/new cat and gave it a wallop. Only 1 piece of its fur flew, thankfully. The other cat had just gone in to the shed for some food and was refusing to budge, to hungry to pass up the food I'd say. Got a good look at him/her today and certainly needs feeding up. The white parts of its fur are grubby too and the ears have a raggedness from old healed fighting. I'd say its getting hammered everywhere its trying to get food elsewhere.

Pumpkinseeds

New puss was waiting when I came down this morning. I can't decide if it is a girl or a boy. We've got to stop calling it it, so we've decided if it is a boy we'll call him Toby and a girl will be called Toyah(Mr Pumpkinseeds idea), the alternative he picked was even worse so Toyah is a compromise:D

I'm leaning towards him being a boy as has huge paws and a tom cat look to the cheeks. So I'm going to refer to him as Toby. He's very eager to get indoors but very nervous still. I think he was certainly someones pet at one stage.

ISDW

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

New puss was waiting when I came down this morning. I can't decide if it is a girl or a boy. We've got to stop calling it it, so we've decided if it is a boy we'll call him Toby and a girl will be called Toyah(Mr Pumpkinseeds idea), the alternative he picked was even worse so Toyah is a compromise:D

I'm leaning towards him being a boy as has huge paws and a tom cat look to the cheeks. So I'm going to refer to him as Toby. He's very eager to get indoors but very nervous still. I think he was certainly someones pet at one stage.

stick with Toby for a boy, or Tobi for a girl, the cat won't know

Pumpkinseeds

I like you're thinking. I don't think he minds what I call him so long as the food keeps coming and it keeps raining roast chicken. I was leaning toward female at first as he is very calm with my neutered males. Doesn't show any aggression or heavy spraying like toms usually do. He has the odd little spray in the garden but mine do from time to time as well.

I spend a bit of time talking to him when he comes around and I call him Toby so hopefully I can work on Mr P and persuade him. The plan at the moment is just to gain his trust and get him used to us and our cats. Once he'll let me pet him we'll take him to the vet for a check up and get him neutered if he needs it and vaccinated. Its so hard to guess at age and gender in cats at times.

borderlinemeath

Benson caught and ate a daddy long legs earlier. All I've been singing away to myself all day is that nursery rhyme, "there was an old woman who swallowed a fly" and thinking that the poor daddy long legs is wriggling and wiggling and tickling inside him.

Layinghen

My JRT has a major thing for flies. She will lock in on them as they walk up the patio door, then she will pounce. It is hilarious to watch her eat them, big chomps. It is a wonder she doesn't get concussion because 9 times out of 10 she bashes her head off the glass door, but she never learns. That's JRTs for you

anniehoo

Layinghen wrote: »

My JRT has a major thing for flies.

A fly doesn't last 30 seconds in my place it's great. He's like a homing missile its hilarious and once he has them sometimes he kills them straightoff, other times he walks around with them buzzing in his mouth,its so funny!

SillyMangoX

Funny that ye should be talking about flies and that, I thought Cream was trying to break out this evening but it turns out he was trying to catch a daddy long legs but it was on the ceiling, so me being the helpful cat mama that I am, I got a stool and held him up so he could catch them, he was delighted with himself

I also caught Dude sucking on his bed while purring and kneading, I thought it was adorable but Cream didn't agree, he went up and hissed at him as if to tell him to cop on

Pumpkinseeds

It was a very long night with Felix, Jazzy and Toby. Toby decided that last night was time to move in and kept trying to get in the microchip catflap. Felix decided that just wasn't going to happen and was howling out the flap at him. I had to get up a few times and placate them with chicken to calm things down. He sniffed my fingers when I was giving him some chicken up on our wall and thats the closest I've got to him. Although up close I think he is a she

We're happy for him to move in whenever he wants its just getting our other 2 on board with that and that doesn't look like happening anytime soon. I left the back door open for him yesterday afternoon when the other 2 were distracted and he snook in and ate an entire cup of Applaws chicken nuts. I thought it was Felix I could hear munching away until Jazzy jumped off the sofa and made a run for the hall.

He's there a few times a day most days now and at least he's getting regular food which is the main thing. I'm not sure my 2 will let him in but we'll just have to see what happens and when he gets used to us and we can get him to the vet to be neutered things might settle down a bit.

anniehoo

So ive now become a "failed fosterer" and i have NO IDEA how this happened Seriously! I decided to take on a geriatric maltese at xmas, thinking (or not in my case) it'd only be for 2 weeks.She was dumped in the pound and nobody reclaimed her or wanted to rehome her.

4 1/2mths later, she's still with me and has a medical list as long as your arm. So, it looks like i'm a dog owner again as she'll never be medically stable enough to be rehomed and tbh i wouldnt trust anyone enough to do the right thing by her.

I havent really said too much about her as i "genuinely" didnt think id have her that long. Anyway...i'm now the bemused owner of this frail little old lady, who has so many things wrong with her,is stubborn as a mule but has won my heart

ISDW

anniehoo wrote: »

So ive now become a "failed fosterer" and i have NO IDEA how this happened Seriously! I decided to take on a geriatric maltese at xmas, thinking (or not in my case) it'd only be for 2 weeks.She was dumped in the pound and nobody reclaimed her or wanted to rehome her.

4 1/2mths later, she's still with me and has a medical list as long as your arm. So, it looks like i'm a dog owner again as she'll never be medically stable enough to be rehomed and tbh i wouldnt trust anyone enough to do the right thing by her.

I havent really said too much about her as i "genuinely" didnt think id have her that long. Anyway...i'm now the bemused owner of this frail little old lady, who has so many things wrong with her,is stubborn as a mule but has won my heart

Congratulations and well done, its a very special club