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.

Animal Tales round up - January and February 2016

I've taken a few pictures of the cat and dog the past 2 months, that haven't been included in any posts and I wanted to share some of the things the cat and dog have been up to, plus an unpleasant experience with 2 stray cats.

The stray cat No 1

I know I was being silly but this was really difficult. Early in January I witnessed a car hit a cat, I pulled over as did the man behind me, we rescued the cat from the road but it was dead, we placed it near the bins and knocked on a few doors nearby but no one knew the cat. The other cat that was there let me pick her up with help from another passerby and I took her to the vet to check for a chip and to make sure she was alright. On advise from the vet I took her in over night and let her back out in the morning. That evening I went to check the dead cat had been collected by the Municipality to discover the cat I took in the previous night, sitting in the spot where we had placed her dead friend. It is so sad, I cried all the way home.

I went back to where I found the cat a few evenings later and she has moved on. The 'mad cat lady' (not me) who feeds all the strays has put food out again this evening for the strays. thankfully she has taken heed of the notice our gate and is feeding the strays on the waste land.

No 2
We encountered another stray off the Sheik Zayed Road, she really wasn't at all friendly, she had me walk round the back of the car to get in it with her hissing and another woman was scared and leapt back into the car, which her hubby found most amusing until he got out the car and the cat hissed at him also.

Our cat and the washing machine incident

We feed the cat on top of the washing machine as the dog will eat her food otherwise. our washing machine is a top loader, the drum doesn't operate when the lid is up but it will fill with water. As a rule the cat is very lazy and always expects me to pick her up when I dish up her food, however I was a little late home from work and she decided to jump up onto the machine in the hope of finding some leftover biscuits from the morning. I can laugh now about it, but I don't think the cat has fully recovered from her experience on discovering the lid was open and falling inside the filling machine, I scooped her out and she disappeared outside for a few hours. When she returned she was hesitant to eat her food, but she seems to have forgotten the whole experience now.

The cat has been very needy recently, probably because I haven't been at home during the day.

Bob

I returned to work the beginning of January and I'm out the house from 6.15am until 4.15pm Sunday till Thursday. Hubby often works from home, or he pops in and out during the day, or like last week he was travelling so Bob was on his own every day for the week. Bob wasn't happy. It's winter in Dubai so we leave Bob outside all day, he has plenty of dog toys, bones to chew on, a large garden to run around, a secure gate, company from the gardener, plenty of water and a comfy bed in his own dog house.

This is what I'm greeted with everyday when I get home from work, followed by demands for a walk, which I'm more than happy to do.

Bob has a very good sense of time and day of the week, which is based on routine and on Friday mornings, he pesters for his trip out to the desert. I try to get everything ready as quietly as possible and as soon as I open the car door he jumps in, despite every time being made to get out the front and into the back.

I also had to re register the cat and dog with the municipality. I have to provide their chip ID number, their vaccination date and a photo. To date there hasn't been data base in Dubai and if you lose your pet, you have to hope it has been taken to one of the vets in Dubai and they have scanned it and you have phoned all 26 vet clinics to see who has them.

Bob is used to me being out all day now and recognises the signs that I am off, he takes himself off to his dog house and sits on his bed waiting for his treat. It is dark when I leave for work at 6.15am and a couple of nights I've returned late and it's been dark again. Hubby was away last week, the cat has to make a quick decision as to whether she is in or out for the day, she prefers outdoors and doesn't travel far, she seems to always be on the roof when I come home, keeping an eye on her territory.

Holidays for Pets

This is the first time we've boarded our cat and dog whilst going on holiday.

Bob was a rescue with only a few days left at the SPCA when we found him, he was skinny, frightened and looked very sad.

He quickly moved in with us and after a few weeks he seemed to accept he was going to stay.

The cat found us a year earlier, she moved in with us and 6 weeks followed us to our new home.

If we went away for a few days either a neighbour would look after the cat and dog or child no 4 of 5 was at home for the weekend.
For longer periods of time when we were on a road trip a friend would come and stay at the house for a couple of weeks.
Many times we took Bob with us on holiday when we lived in South Africa and our friend would just cat sit the house.

Both the cat and dog had no long term effects from their move to Dubai, in fact there weren't any short term effects after a 8 hour flight and a 4 hour stop over each side before they were delivered to their new home. The dog looked at me for a few minutes, ran and explored the new garden and promptly reverted to his old self. Within a week of trying to keep the cat indoors as we hadn't moved into the house at this point, but visited twice daily, we let her out, she explored a little, came home, ate, slept, ate and repeat.

This is the first time the cat and dog have boarded. My biggest issue was getting the cat in her basket for the car journey, dopey Bob will go anywhere with me, sometimes he just joins me for the short journey to the train station to collect hubby from work.

I've researched the cattery and kennells well, I've asked others about their experiences, I've checked online. I've visited and once I selected one, I took Bob with me to visit, just to gauge his reaction.

Both animals are staying with Posh Paws. The cattery is out on the Al Khawaneej Road past the airport and takes about 35 minutes to reach and the kennels are in Ajman about another 40 minutes away.

Cattery

Kennels

They are very reasonable priced, part of their stay is in peak season, so a little more expensive but it includes all their food, care, baths and nails and frontline on entry.

With their bags packed and water and treats for the journey, as I'm a big softie, we set off with Bob not having a clue where he was going but very excited to be going somewhere.

The cat was dropped off first, she cried all the way there, she really doesn't like being shut in small spaces unless it's by choice and in my wardrobe.

Her room for the next 17 nights is large and comfy, she has controlled access to an outdoor space during the evenings when it has cooled down a little.

Bob sprung out the car and immediately set off after a stray cat, dragging me behind him, he happily entered his new home for the next 17 nights and didn't actually seem that bothered to be in there. He too has access to outdoor space early in the mornings and after sunset, he will also be walked twice a day and be able to use the socialising yard, as he loves being in the company of other dogs.

Bob has a huge bed with blankets and I left a couple of his toys with him.

 Bob needed showing how to get through the plastic doors

I have no idea what they think is happening to them. I'm hoping Bob has a short memory, he fared well with the move from South Africa and the flight to Dubai, I'm just a little worried he'll think he's been abandoned, but I'll be collecting him soon and if he does have a short memory he'll soon forget about his time in the kennels. The only reason I worry is because I know how much he misses me when I'm away.

Who knows what Pushkins will make of the whole ordeal, this is also the first time for her, although going from previous experiences it'll be just something she does.

I dropped them both off yesterday, I'm in the UK now for 17 nights, I'm sure they'll be both ok. I just hope they don't think I've abandoned them, especially as they've been separated. I'll let you know how they react to me when I get back.

Home made healthy dog treats with #AnimalTales

I made frozen yogurt and peanut butter cup cakes and parsley, oat and peanut butter biscuits for Bob on Sunday, all low fat.

For the cupcakes I used 1 pot of natural yogurt and half the amount of peanut butter, mixed, put in paper cake cases and put in the freezer over night.

For biscuits I used 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of oats, 1 tbs baking powder, 1 egg, splash of milk, handful of chopped fresh parsley. Mixed in blender, rolled out, cut and baked at 200c for 12 mins.

The parsley helps as a breath freshener, but you could use bacon bits as an alternative.

Make sure you wash the blender/bowl asap, as trying to remove peanut butter after an hour was hard work.

I'll bring bringing them to the lakes on friday am for a doggie tasting session. I've tried one, they're edible.

And of course I let Bob lick the bowl.

Bob loves his biscuits

And frozen yogurt treats

Update on the stray kittens

It would appear Mum has finished weaning the kittens, I saw her on saturday on her own further a field than normal. My son only spotted 2 of the kittens on Sunday, so armed with a torch and a tin of biscuits I went looking for them, 2 were playing in the garden, climbing trees and running around. Our cat was happy with them in the garden and stayed curled up on the sun lounger with one eye on them. I gave them some food and thankfully the 3rd kitten turned up. 

They are less timid without their mum around and let me get quite close to them.