My Sunday Photo - Crafting and Cats

Hours of entertainment here if you're a cat.

Settling in a dog and a cat from South Africa to the UK, via Dubai.

Bob the Dog aged 10 and Pushkins aged around 11, started their journey to the UK from South Africa, via Dubai. The cat just moved in with us one day in 2012 and the dog was adopted from the SPCA in 2013.

They had 5 years in Dubai where they adapted well to the heat and for the last 2 years Pushkins has been an indoor cat, due to health issues.

They arrived in the UK on February 1st 2020 and so far, despite the cold and the rain, they've settled in well.

It has been helped by child 5 travelling with me, child 4 and 4a visiting and Peter arriving a week later.

They've established a routine of walks, food, sleep and toileting.

Bob is used to extreme weather from living in Dubai and adopted the same approach to the cold, rain and wind in the UK, he needs the toilet, it's a quick dash outside and straight back in.

The cat is still trying to find her spot and we're playing a lot of hide and seek as she has done on previous moves.

Bob is exploring new territory, new smells, sounds (sirens) more cars, pedestrians and a variety of other dogs. It takes us forever to get anywhere as he's constantly being petted. In between he's straining on the leash to explore further. We're not sure if he even speaks the new language of dogs here yet and has been very calm as one appears around a corner wither on an expandable lead and even off leash. The post being delivered is a puzzle to them both.

Bob has never been in shops before. We taught him to lie down by saying bed, so I'm carrying a towel with me to the coffee shops to wipe his paws on and for him to lie down on, so I can drink my coffee without him wanting to explore.

He's so far behaved himself in shops and banks.

Holiday gifts for the cat and dog

I've been off on my travels to the UK for a month, leaving Bob and Pushkins in Dubai.

Peter joined me for the last week and he put them both into boarding.

Needless to say on our return they were very excited to us both. 

Since our return, Peter has returned to work and the cat and dog are never more than a few meters from my side.

There are a few things that Peter and I can't get in Dubai 'our taste of home' so the suitcase always contains our favourite food items. It also always contains something for the cat and dog, usually novelty items.

On this trip I found:

Dog Beer

Pawsecco Wine

Chocolate Easter Eggs 

The usual cat milk treat.

It's all designed for cats and dogs, contains no alcohol or actual chocolate, of which are dangerous to dogs. They're just novelty items and why not?

Visiting Santa without the kids. Christmas with Pets in Dubai.

When in Dubai.........

And why not? I say.

Since leaving school I've made friends via the work place and through having kids. But when you relocate from one country to another and your kids are all grown up and you don't work, then how do you make friends?

Well you join clubs/groups/attend coffee mornings. But that's not my style. In South Africa I did volunteer work and met the most amazing people and made life long friends. In Dubai, I took my dog out and about and met people. I even spent a year teaching in FS1 in an Arabic school after meeting a woman out walking her dog in the desert.

As my husband works away a lot and spends the days in the office talking to people he likes to come home in the evenings and switch off, me? I like to quite literally chew his ear off out of boredom, so Bob and I go out and join Dog groups, meet people, explore new places and generally have fun.

This is our 4th Christmas in Dubai and they do Christmas here big in all the malls and shops and as well as catering for all nationalities they also cater for our 4 legged friends. Bob and I attend Valentines lunches and Halloween parties and we love nothing better than a visit to Father Christmas.

We have 2 events this year. A secret Santa and swimming session at Dog Walk this coming weekend and last weekend we visited Santa at Paw Parking.

Oh and on Thursday Bob and I are going for a spa day. I'm off to have a manicure and pedicure ready to see John Bishop in the evening and brunch on Friday, while Bob is off for a grooming session at Paw Parking for the day.

And don't forget the cat. Pushkins joins in with Christmas also.

I'm pleased to say she doesn't mess around with the tree or the presents, but she did attack and eat half the contents of her advent calendar when left unsupervised.

They don’t do Halloween in Dubai.

The word on the street is quite literally ‘get in your car and drive round to where we live’ as apparently our street gives out the best treats in the neighbourhood. Despite half the street being knocked down this week, this evening we’ve been inundated with trick or treaters of all ages and nationalities. Dressed as witches, vampires, superhero’s and unicorns.

Dubai is full of Halloween, from the stores selling over priced, imported Pumpkins (I carved a melon) to shops dedicated to Halloween costumes and displays in shops selling cards.

There are themed parties at some of the top hotels for children and adults alike and we’ve even been a long to a HowloWeen party especially for the 4 legged variety kids.

Whether you like Halloween or not, it really does happen here in Dubai. It’s friendly, safe and nearly everyone joins in, whether it’s understood or not.

It’s the same as Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Ramadan and Eid. And all the other festivals regardless of  religion or origin. Everyone is encouraged to participate and learn about the different cultures. Even the cat has joined in.

I personally love this the most about living in Dubai. In that respect it’s the best city in the world to live in, if you ask me.

Animals on my UK travels

I spent 3 weeks in the UK in spring, every where I visited there were pets, farm animals and birds.

Living in Dubai, one doesn't see cows, horses and sheep in fields, although there are birds, other than a few doves, pigeons in the garden and the occasional parrot, one needs to go to Al Quada Lakes or to Ras Al Khor bird sanctuary to see swans, ducks and even flamingoes.

It was really weird to be able to make and eat a cheese or ham sandwich and take the lid off a yogurt without the cat and dog morphing into the room.

My Aunts cat kept a close eye on me when I drank my tea and my sisters 2 cats were keen to help me eat my dinner.

Dubai isn't very dog friendly and there are few places I can take Bob. I just hope Bob can move back to the UK with us one day and we can take him to the pub and into coffee shops after long walks.

There were woodland walks with my friend and her dogs. 

And entertainment from Morgan who sat and stared a stick, no matter how small until it was thrown for them to fetch.

 Dexter, my niece's dog treated me like a long lost friend.

I've not seen bees yet in Dubai, my friends had a bug house in their garden and I was fortunate to have spotted this bee in a field and not to have stepped on it.

I'll be back in the UK in 2 weeks time and look forward to visiting some summer shows and fairs in and around Monmouth, Malvern and Gloucester, so if you know of any or you're happy for me to join you for a dog walk or a visit to a farm, just give me a yell.

My Sunday Photo - Week 124 - O is for outdoors

It's summer in Dubai, which means over the next few months we will get temperatures up to 50c during the days and mid 30s over night.

Once the temperature reaches 35c+ our outdoor life comes to a halt, the evenings are still cool enough to walk the dog, we can still sit on the beach in the mornings and late afternoons and the cat still goes out at night.

Once the temperature reaches 40c+ there's another change to our outdoor life as in we only go out when we have to. Such as to hang the washing up (I do this before bed) and walk the short distance from the kitchen door to the garage to get to the car to go out. The cat's litter tray is re introduced and the doors are manned to stop her escaping, if she does, I need to find her and bring her in within an hour. We stand at the door to let Bob out to pee and poo.

Ensuring Bob gets enough exercise is difficult, the walks drop from twice a day, to once a day and the distance is cut as it gets hotter. I start to walk bare foot, to ensure the ground won't burn Bob's paws, when it gets too hot for me, then we turn round and come home. We play ball in the house and I find
indoor doggie play areas to visit at least once a week.

Do you live in a country where your pets access to the outdoors is limited? Do you have an indoor cat? How do you manage to ensure they stay healthy and get some exercise?

Dogs for adoption in Dubai with Animal Tales

Late last year I made an appeal in a face book group for donations of old bedding and material so I could make up some dog beds for various animal organisations in Dubai. I'd fostered a couple of dogs for a short period, successfully helping them get their forever homes through some basic house training and social media. But it wasn't something Peter was keen on doing on a regular basis and it was upsetting the cat, introducing new dogs into the family. Bob certainly wasn't put out and seemed to enjoy having them around. So 2017 is going to be a year of supporting the various organisations through social media, walking and socialising foster dogs and collecting and donating items for the organisations to use such as bedding and food.

My mum was visiting and finding the weather too hot she helped run up several dog beds, which have been donated to Dog Walk, Doggies Palace and My Second Home, companies who work with rescue organisations.

I've made a couple of visits to Doggies Palace to walk Pheonix who was rescued back in June but is sadly living in kennels. Bob and Phoenix had a chance to meet in a supervised environment, both on their leads to see how they got on, to see if Pheonix can be integrated into a family with other dogs or whether he must be the only dog.

We left a couple of presents for Pheonix and will be visiting him some more this month.

I haven't been back to see Phoenix yet, as I've been helping out with Rory, she was found a couple of weeks ago, no microchip and around 18 months of age. I can't foster, but I can have her home in the afternoons so she can have some time out of her cage and socialise. She walks well on a lead and travels ok in a car as long as she is secured safely.

Rory would make a lovely addition to any home, with or without other dogs.

 We had a visitor over Christmas the New Year. Jelly and her owners arrived in Dubai in October. They spent the holidays with family, so we offered Jelly a place to stay rather than her go into kennels. 

 After our visit to meet Santa we also attended a carol concert for humans and hounds at My 2nd Home. We've also lined up quite a few other playdates at various locations and I'm looking forward to friday meet ups with Jelly and her owners.

 Bob and Jelly got on very well together and Jelly is certainly missed already. I'm sure Bob is perfectly fine, as is Jelly now they are apart, but having 2 dogs was really nice and they played together none stop as well as constantly looking at me like this, every time I entered the kitchen.

I also took Bob to soft play and there have been trips out into the desert.

There are also a lot of stray cats in our neighbourhood, this one turned up a few weeks ago, I've been feeding her/him, but can't get close enough to check for a microchip.