The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

SingItOut · 19-07-2014 5:51pm

I was on the train home this evening and was reading the new pet products page in last months dogs today magazine, in japan they actually have "dog washing machines" ! You actually place your dog in a washing machine with their head sticking out the top and water/shampoo comes out the sides. They describe it as "a funfair for dogs" :O

Tranceypoo · 19-07-2014 7:39pm

SingItOut wrote: »

I was on the train home this evening and was reading the new pet products page in last months dogs today magazine, in japan they actually have "dog washing machines" ! You actually place your dog in a washing machine with their head sticking out the top and water/shampoo comes out the sides. They describe it as "a funfair for dogs" :O

Now that really is mad Ted

SingItOut · 19-07-2014 9:20pm

It's apparently really popular over there

don't think my two would enjoy it at all!

Pretzill · 19-07-2014 9:39pm

SingItOut wrote: »

It's apparently really popular over there don't think my two would enjoy it at all!

I could have done with one this evening after my lil guy covered his ruff with fox poop! He is at the age where he thinks being washed is an outright attack on him - but we turned a corner he actually let me clean him after much gentle coaxing! Fox doo has to be one of the foulest smelling things but to him it's the best perfume.

honerbright · 19-07-2014 9:44pm

Just looked out in the back yard there and I seen a gigantic rat sitting on the picnic table eating bird food :eek: :eek: :eek:

Neighbour has had a full skip in their driveway for almost a month. Gonna assume it wandered over from there? I opened the door to scare it off and it leapt into the bushes at table height so who knows where it is now.

Pumpkinseeds · 19-07-2014 9:59pm

honerbright wrote: »

Just looked out in the back yard there and I seen a gigantic rat sitting on the picnic table eating bird food :eek: :eek: :eek:

Neighbour has had a full skip in their driveway for almost a month. Gonna assume it wandered over from there? I opened the door to scare it off and it leapt into the bushes at table height so who knows where it is now.

OH DEAR GOD :eek::eek: I think I'd be sick. Felix had 1 wriggling in his mouth 1 evening last Summer. I looked out the kitchen door and he was just sitting there with it:eek:

honerbright · 19-07-2014 10:15pm

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

OH DEAR GOD :eek::eek: I think I'd be sick. Felix had 1 wriggling in his mouth 1 evening last Summer. I looked out the kitchen door and he was just sitting there with it:eek:

It was so big that my first thought was that it was a squirrel :P

I think I'd have a heart attack if one of the cats caught it... I'm so glad that they're indoor cats, I hope it means it won't come near the house

mymo · 20-07-2014 9:09am

Honerbright, get a bird feeder you can hang from a tree or the washing line, you can get flat table like ones that you can hang.
Washing line is best or a small branch of tree. Stops rats getting the food, my uncle has 7 cats, inside and out, but had a rat last month in his kitchen!

honerbright · 20-07-2014 11:33am

mymo wrote: »

Honerbright, get a bird feeder you can hang from a tree or the washing line, you can get flat table like ones that you can hang.
Washing line is best or a small branch of tree. Stops rats getting the food, my uncle has 7 cats, inside and out, but had a rat last month in his kitchen!

That's actually the type of feeder we have, I never thought of the washing line to hang it off! Our yard is lined by 6 ft hedges and none of them are suitable to hang the feeder so I'll give that a try.

:eek: I really would have thought 7 cats would deter a rat. Not feeling so safe anymore!

mymo · 20-07-2014 11:56am

honerbright wrote: »

:eek: I really would have thought 7 cats would deter a rat. Not feeling so safe anymore!

That's what he thought, ended up having to trap it, it was a big one, dumped it a few miles away from home. (Live trap)

Pumpkinseeds · 20-07-2014 12:19pm

It might be best to stop putting the bird food out for a bit, just to try to discourage the rats, where there's one there's more. When the birds eat from the feeder bits will fall on the ground and that'll still attract the rat. We used to have a bird feeder hanging in the garden but our cats just hung around waiting for a bird to land so that was the end of that. We just feed them on the green area out front when the cats are asleep.

ncur · 20-07-2014 1:09pm

Came out the back a few days ago, and startled a rat that had climbed my fruit tree to try and snaffle a plum! I have a cat but she's so disinterested in the local wildlife it's become a bit of a running joke, the birds frequently help themselves to the food from her bowls and she's snoozing right beside them. Hadn't seen one in a long time but clearly a mild winter and a warm spring/summer will lead to an increase in the population.

honerbright · 20-07-2014 2:03pm

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

It might be best to stop putting the bird food out for a bit, just to try to discourage the rats, where there's one there's more. When the birds eat from the feeder bits will fall on the ground and that'll still attract the rat. We used to have a bird feeder hanging in the garden but our cats just hung around waiting for a bird to land so that was the end of that. We just feed them on the green area out front when the cats are asleep.

There's a family of blackbirds and a pigeon that live in my yard and I'd hate for them to go hungry after relying on the food for so long.

We have lovely bird feeding stands at work at the moment, I wonder if Mr rat would be able to climb it.

Pretzill · 20-07-2014 3:06pm

Rats are excellent climbers. I saw one on the bird table in a very cold winter so I expect he was hungry! I don't feed the birds per se at the height of summer - save for a few scraps for the crows and my summer fruits are shared with a range of small birds - redcurrants snaffled by the blackbirds but they leave me some gooseberries and blackcurrants. The feeders are a temptation for feild mice and rats and squirrels - had a hawk/kestrel swoop down and take a small bird off a feeder!

mymo · 20-07-2014 6:23pm

I was just going to suggest I hire our Ruby or Toby to you, but have just realised that in the last week I haven't be given a single present!

My daughter is away and animals all keep checking her room, but it's gone from at least one gift (rabbits just before daughter went) a day, sometimes 3 or 4 (Toby must have found a nest of rats once 'cos we got 10 of various sizes one evening) to nothing all week!

I feed them, clean up after them, tickle their ears/belly/chin when asked, and they clearly don't love me as much as my daughter

Pumpkinseeds · 20-07-2014 7:25pm

I was watching Toby sprawled on the sofa stretching his paw out to me, I'm sitting on another sofa, and he fell off the sofa

I shouldn't laugh really, of course he started yawning in that typical cat nonchalance as if he meant to fall off the sofa

SingItOut · 20-07-2014 8:31pm

Beau and Vogue are both really vocal cats but Beau moreso, so today I was outside having a full blown "conversation" with beau when I heard someone say "how are ya?" It was my next door neighbours new boyfriend! Mortified:eek: quickest conversation I've ever had in my life

tk123 · 20-07-2014 8:32pm

Ah the poor dog down the road is in hysterics again on his own

Whispered · 20-07-2014 8:42pm

I just caught Harley with his paws on the table scarfing the chicken and gravy left over from dinner. It was for them anyway, but what a cheeky brat! :eek:

We were about to bring them for a run, but I don't like running them after food, so a late walk this evening is in order.

Cocolola · 21-07-2014 12:17pm

Just got our landlord's permission to get a cat! I've missed the cats back home since moving to Galway and Ollie is a big fan of cats too so he'd be delighted. Still not 100% made up my mind as it's a big commitment so gonna think it over for another few weeks but yay anyway

Pumpkinseeds · 21-07-2014 2:01pm

Cocolola wrote: »

Just got our landlord's permission to get a cat! I've missed the cats back home since moving to Galway and Ollie is a big fan of cats too so he'd be delighted. Still not 100% made up my mind as it's a big commitment so gonna think it over for another few weeks but yay anyway

Maybe fostering might be a good idea for you? That way you get to enjoy having feline company and you'll know whether you want to take on the commitment of your own cat, if not you'll have helped a needy puss. Just something to think about

Cocolola · 21-07-2014 2:23pm

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Maybe fostering might be a good idea for you? That way you get to enjoy having feline company and you'll know whether you want to take on the commitment of your own cat, if not you'll have helped a needy puss. Just something to think about

That's actually a really good idea Pumpkin, it hadn't occurred to me at all! I'm gonna investigate this further thanks

tk123 · 21-07-2014 7:07pm

Gross - flying ants!! Waiting for them to die down before i bbq/walk the dogs! zzzzzz

SillyMangoX · 21-07-2014 8:46pm

My scabby cats have returned

Thought we were doing well this year, it's usually around may it starts to appear so we thought we got off without them being affected. Though we do think we have figured out this year, finally, what the cause may be. The three of them get the same rash in the same pattern - tummy, tail base and ears. The three of them also like to sleep on the two ant hills that are in out garden so we think we've figured they may be ant bites! Have to put spot on on the three of them soon, hopefully that will help clear things a little!

tk123 · 21-07-2014 9:43pm

God the ants made me forget that when I stopped the car today to open the gate... a rabbit hopped out onto the path down the end of the road, turned around and hopped into a garden lol!!!

toadfly · 21-07-2014 9:58pm

Cocolola wrote: »

That's actually a really good idea Pumpkin, it hadn't occurred to me at all! I'm gonna investigate this further thanks

There is a really good Cat Rescue in Galway, PM me if you need their name

borderlinemeath · 21-07-2014 11:51pm

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

So I spent loads of time today cleaning Coco & Benson, they've been in the fields a lot recently and have loads of those stickleback things stuck in their fur, particularly velcro boy Benson. They're in for their vaccs in the vets first thing tomorrow morning so I didn't want them going in like a pair of scraggly smelly doggies either.

So after dinner I went to the supermarket and was going to go to the beach afterwards except I was on the way home and himself called to say he'd brought them into the fields!!!:eek::eek: They're filthy with mud, smelly, covered in sticklebacks and are barely drying off in their beds. I could cry.:(:(

They're happy as a pair of pigs in shiite though.

VonVix · 22-07-2014 12:12am

borderlinemeath wrote: »

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

So I spent loads of time today cleaning Coco & Benson, they've been in the fields a lot recently and have loads of those stickleback things stuck in their fur, particularly velcro boy Benson. They're in for their vaccs in the vets first thing tomorrow morning so I didn't want them going in like a pair of scraggly smelly doggies either.

So after dinner I went to the supermarket and was going to go to the beach afterwards except I was on the way home and himself called to say he'd brought them into the fields!!!:eek::eek: They're filthy with mud, smelly, covered in sticklebacks and are barely drying off in their beds. I could cry.:(:(

They're happy as a pair of pigs in shiite though.

Are they long haired dogs perchance?

I've been having an awful time with the sticklebacks and my shelties... particularly one of them, he keeps getting those little balls in his mane. Sometimes during the walk our other boy will suddenly stop and sit down... why? Stickleback branch thingy stuck to his behind...

borderlinemeath · 22-07-2014 12:16am

VonVix wrote: »

Are they long haired dogs perchance?

I've been having an awful time with the sticklebacks and my shelties... particularly one of them, he keeps getting those little balls in his mane. Sometimes during the walk our other boy will suddenly stop and sit down... why? Stickleback branch thingy stuck to his behind...

Irish setters

more than happy to get down and dirty!

rannerap · 22-07-2014 7:39am

Umi my long haired cat comes back covered in the bloody things too

thankfully she doesn't mind me taking them off too much but it's a pain!

The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

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