We think one of our rescue cats was ex farm/ferral. It was a bengal savannah cross, big as a small dog and utterly fearless of anything or anyone. Would kill a big rat in seconds and eat it if you didn’t get there first. We had it 4 weeks and let it outside first time. It leaped on the 6ft fence, up into next doors roof, down into their garden (we heard the chickens going mad) and came back 3 hrs later the same way it went. No fucks given! It was also very noisy and you knew it wanted something!
Cats generally are absolutely nails compared to dogs. When I was a teenager I took in an orphaned kitten that was dying from cat flu but she survived, although her growth was severely stunted and she was blind in one eye. However, those limitations didn't stop her attacking any dogs being walked on the school field behind our house which got too close to the fence for her liking. One guy even came and complained that she had injured his dog, which IIRC, was either a Rottweiler or a GSD and demanding that my dad pay the vet's bill (which was BS as it was only a bit of a scratch). Because she had been hand-reared she was the soppiest, most affectionate little thing you could ever hope to meet when she was in the house, but as soon as she went outside she turned into an absolute menace. She beat cancer twice, lost the sight in her other eye for a while when she was having the cancer treatment and her eye got infected, survived being hit by a car, she lived until she was 20 and was still climbing trees and hunting birds the week that she died.
Sadly, seems to be a pattern at the moment. There is another kitten turned up close to where ours did so that would be 3 at least now. A woman from the airfield I use said two were found there this week. She started a gofundme as the poor thing needed almost 2k of treatment just to survive but the other one was too scared to be caught so people are trying again today but it must need help if its anything like the sibling. Counting ourselves lucky ours only needed a quick checkup and some bulking up now. We can only assume for ours now, someone dumped the litter. Makes my blood boil, I get people have accidents or whatever and litters aren't always wanted but what to not have the decency to care for them till they can be weened and then dropped off at a animal shelter. Letting the poor things out to fend for themselves is pretty low thing to do.
Could be feral cat and mother somehow hurt or caught. My wife is friends with a women who runs a cats rescue place around the corner and she regularly have whole litters where a farm cat or stray has given birth and they go and round them up. Re vet costs, get it to PDSA and they won’t charge afaik so no need to spend the ridiculous amounts private vets charge. Any cats protection type place have relationships with vets and surely this person is better doing that!
Scooby ran head first into the corner of this at lunchtime and nearly brought the whole park down with his screaming and wailing Limped for a bit and now completely forgotten about, what a helmet, not like it’s even well disguised
Is he the one who had the gammy leg that cost an arm and a leg to fix ? They just don't seem to have much sense of personal safety. When I take The Igster to the cricket ground, he likes to play a game where I toss a tennis ball onto the roof of the pavilion, where it bounces around for a bit and then he tries to catch it when it falls down again, but I've had to stop as he just charges headlong into the tables and benches and it's only a matter of time before he breaks something. The other day, he took a running jump onto one of the tables, skidded across it and straight off the other side and then ended up trapped upside down between a bench and the pavilion veranda. He also still has a thing for jumping down off high walls, like a cat, but unlike a cat, he weighs 16kg and often lands his jumps with all the grace and poise of a fully laden cement truck.
No that’s Kenny. Scooby is the springer and he gets so excited he spins round in circles whipping himself into a frenzy, which can either in the back of the car/van, at gates, waiting for a ball to be thrown, or near water. His nickname is "Scooby, big head, spin around" (along with Squeaky Sid). Span around at lunch, lost his sense of direction and straight into that brick thing. He's also done it on a canal bridge before and cut his head open. Bat. Shit. Mental.
Obi is going thru teenage years, 11m old. Driving the Mrs mad and flatly refuses now to do anything he would do a couple of months ago like come and sit!
Toby has had a great week in Cornwall with us. We don't know how old he is, we've had him @6yrs, and our vet told us when we rescued him that he thought he was maybe 6 or 7yrs. He's slowing up a bit, and certainly can't do the really long walks we'd like to do any more. He does love a picnic in the back of the car after a good walk.
Worth passing on a word or two of warning to Dog owners here. We book our holiday cottages in Cornwall through one of the booking sites like Airbnb, Cornish Cottages, etc, trawling them all to find a place we like the look of, and like to stay somewhere different in the same area around Padstow/Wadebridge each time. We always book an advertised as Dog friendly place, with an enclosed, secure garden, and are very careful to read the description carefully as we've noticed some do say they are dog friendly but have limitations, like Dogs are only allowed in the conservatory, only downstairs, not in the bedrooms etc. This has never really been an issue before, except one year where the owners lived next door and let their own dogs out into the rental garden whilst ours was out as well. The place we booked this year was advertised as Dog Friendly, and no limitations were mentioned. But when we arrived there was a stair gate across the bottom of the stairs and a sign saying no dogs upstairs. We were angry, our Toby is part of our family, and sleeps in our room with us, but in his own bed which we take with us. I know others don't agree with this, but it's what we do. Being a rescue he has serious separation anxiety, and would not cope being shut downstairs in a strange place. It's fine to say you don't want dogs in the bedrooms of your rental, but say so in the advert as we wouldn't have booked this place had we known. So, the moral of this story, is to do what we will always do from now on, check first by messaging the owner/rental company. Of course one of us slept downstairs with Toby all week.
With having 5 that go everywhere with us, we've got a list of cottages that are truly 'dog friendly'. Devon, Cornwall, Norfolk and North Wales. Ours all sleep in our bedroom, even on holiday. We do take bed coverings, plenty of dog beds/vetbeds and throws for furniture. We like to leave places so that the owners can't tell we've had any dogs in there (......let alone 5!!) Bolberry Farm Holiday Cottages, Hope Cove, Salcombe, South Devon | Beautiful holiday cottages near Salcombe, Devon Villa Surfside | Villa Surfside in Hayle (2mls N) Pack Holidays - Multi-dog friendly holiday cottages by Pack Holidays Minafon, Cwm Teigl, Blaenau Ffestiniog
