Manic Monsters!!!

Would you ever think that three bundles of gorgeous fluff would ever wreak complete and utter havoc to a household!  Well let me introduce you to Casper, Jasper and Tony - the manic monsters....

Excuse the pink hue which is from my phone case somehow!!

Adorable....

Aren't they?!!!

Yes they are but at the same time demonic!  They are EVERYWHERE!!!!  Up the curtains, down the back of the sofa, under the sofa, under my feet, eating the bottoms of my trousers, up the stairs, running for the front door every time it opens trying to escape and running like it's life or death when I put their food down!

So they are now weaned on to solid food which means POO!!!!!  When they are little and only nursing from mum they don't wee or poo!  What happens is the mother cat licks their bottoms to make them do a wee which she then consumes herself (EWWW!!!!!!) it's fascinating to watch (which I promise I don't do on a regular basis), because the kitten lays perfectly still with a glazed look on it's face while the process is happening!!

They have all been sold and are going to two lovely families (Jasper and Casper are going together) and as much as I truely love them and they make my heart melt when I look at them, I just can't WAIT for them to go!  To not have a litter tray indoors anymore and to be able to shut Poppy out so that she can't constantly scavenge for food!!!

Sleepy babies!

Marley on the other hand is doing very well, he is using his leg much better and I am hoping that in a couple of weeks he will be able to go to the meadows for a run!  It's boring not being able to walk him in a field he doesn't get up to much mischief when he is confined to short lead walks and indoors all the time!

I started a new job a couple of weeks ago which has required me to employ a dog walker 3 days a week and she seems to be bonding well with Marley (not that I ever see her), he seems happy enough with his new routine and I am glad that I don't have to worry about him while I work all day!

Just chillin!!!

So once we are in the meadows again I am sure their will be plenty of tales to tell but apart from a couple of ninja cats doing moves on a garden fence outside the school the other day nothing much has happened for Marley bless him!  Fingers crossed for normal mania to resume shortly!!!

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

Marley and THOSE legs!!

So Thursday was the day of Marley's check up!  As I suspected he is not performing as he should on his back leg and so X-rays were required which meant ANOTHER general anesthetic   This is what he looked like when I picked him up....

You can't help but laugh at this picture despite his obvious misery!

If only he could speak!

Or maybe he wouldn't have been speaking to me at all!!

The Surgeon's verdict is undecided.  He said there is nothing too obvious to point to why he is not using his leg properly although the inside hasn't yet healed properly   So he is back on anti-inflammatory pills for 2 weeks and then I have to ring in for a discussion on what action to take next.  He did say he would like him to have hydro-therapy (!!!!) but I am not sure I have either the time or the insurance cover for that so I am going to have to make some enquiries tomorrow!

We got poor Marley home and he really didn't know what was going on!  He kept standing  in the living room and swaying and when he did eventually sit down, he was drooling and his head kept falling to one side as he dozed off which then woke him up again!  He did eventually go to sleep against his will in the position he fell in....

He's still alive don't worry!

So we still can't go for proper walks which has been a real shame with the sun making an appearance this weekend!

The GIANT kittens are growing second by second, so much so that I have transferred them from the litter tray to a box because Poppy couldn't fit in with them anymore, so I will leave you with some heart melting piccies of them!

Scrummy!!

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

Hazel Cottage in the Sunshine!

Hazel Cottage comes into it's own in the Summer.......

And so with the sun having his hat on today (although giving no warmth whatsoever!) I just had to share my house with you!

I give you Hazel Cottage!

   

It's a shame the roses round the porch haven't bloomed yet

 but they are gorgeous when they do and smell heavenly!

My lovely Easter plant - a present from my Mum instead of an Easter egg!

Today has been a glimpse of what Spring should be like albeit -10 degrees!  I fear that we are going to skip Spring and go straight to Summer which will be a shame, but anything above 3 degrees will be a blessing!

TTFN!

The REAL Marley and Me xx

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone.........

From my Mum's chickens!

The one that laid the egg to the right is currently in recovery!!!

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

The Three Little Piggies!

Here they are!!!

The three little piggies!

They are 2 weeks old today and I cannot believe the size of them!  I think they are all going to be bruisers!  They all have their eyes open now but their ears are still closed!  Jasper and Casper (spot has been renamed to Casper) are the bigger of the three and quite feisty, they like to give a little hiss when you go near them, but Tony is just adorable and laid back and chilled!

They are not doing a lot yet apart from feeding and sleeping and Poppy really has had enough of them already!  In fact she was out on the lash all night last night, which meant I woke every hour to see if she had come home and resigned myself to the fact that she wasn't coming back and therefore which kitten would I be keeping to replace her (JOKE!!) (Jasper of course!!!!) until she rolled in at 6am little hussy!!!!!!  My real worry was how was I going to hand rear these kittens which cannot be weaned onto solids for another few weeks!

Tony just chillin'

In bed with Mum!

Sooo back to dear old Marley!

Completely comatose this morning!

I don't think he is doing so good on his leg!  He is off the painkillers now and whilst he is able to walk on it OK he is not putting his foot down when standing which worries me.  He has a check up appointment for x-rays in a couple of weeks so I am going to hold on till then and maybe they will tell me he is doing OK  I just don't want him to have to have more surgery I don't think he could stand it!

So Busta came round this afternoon to keep him company and they had a great time.....

Busta's favourite submissive position when playing tug of war with Marley!

Marley's had enough!

Waiting for their treats after the game!

I'm going to leave with you a cool photo of Busta that I took on Saturday night whilst sharing a lovely takeaway at Belindas!

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

They're here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Wednesday morning we woke up to these 3 little beauties..............

Spot (he has a white spot on his bum)

Jasper (Charlie's choice)

And Tony (as in the tiger)

Tuesday afternoon I came home to Poppy "caterwauling" by which I mean she was talking to me in meow language telling me that the babies were coming that night!  So I went upstairs with her and made her a lovely nest inside the bottom of my wardrobe and she had a sniff around and promptly rejected it!  After about 4 hours of her noise I had, had enough so decided to ignore her!  The way I saw it was that she would have to settle eventually and give birth whether she liked it or not!

So she spent the evening as close to me as possible and eventually came to bed with me and went to sleep snuggled up between me and Bobby (who has taken to my bed this week!).

When I woke up Wednesday morning she was nowhere to be seen and was not in her "nest" so I went searching and eventually I could hear the kittens!  I followed the noise to Charlie's room and woke him to say she must have had them under his bed to which his reply was "no they are here" as he peeled back the duvet......

Seriously of all the places!!!!

I cannot believe that Charlie didn't even stir!  He had no idea she was there!!!

Anyway, off we all went to school and work and when I came back at lunch time, she had moved them!  Poppy is renowned for moving her kittens and it drives me mad, last year every time I came home she had moved them somewhere else!  This time they were in the bottom of Charlie's wardrobe, so I moved all his things out to make sure they were safe and set her camp up in the room, with a covered litter tray and her food bowls etc.  Charlie slept in Bobby's room that night so as not to disturb her and upset her.

Then when yesterday when I checked on her late afternoon, they were nowhere to be seen until I looked and found them in the littler tray in among all the litter!!!!!!!!!!!  I mean for god's sake!!!!  So I told Poppy she was being ridiculous and moved them all back to the wardrobe and she immediately went in there, grabbed Tony by the  neck and plonked him back in the litter!!!!  I had to give in and clean the litter tray out, put an old pillow case in and that's where they have stayed thank goodness!

Poppy really doesn't like motherhood she is really cross about the whole thing so I will definitely get her "done" as soon as the babies are gone!

I am going to leave with you with lots of boring photos of the triplets (!!!!) they are soooo adorable and it's going to take all my strength to not keep any of them!!!!

In the wardrobe

In the litter tray!!!!

All boys!!!! 

TTFN

The REAL Marley and Me xx

A dog owner's best friend!

This little red can of compressed air is my best friend.......

About a year or so ago I got told off by the headmaster at school for Marley's barking!  He said he had, had complaints from the neighbours!  So off I go to my local pet shop in search of a soft muzzle to put on him whilst tied up at school to prevent the barking!  Now I am all for reward training in the form of treats and clicks etc. but as intelligent as my lovely Marley is I generally don't have the time of patience for it!

So the lovely lady in the shop, who is very knowledgeable about all things dog related, said that due to Marley's giant size, if I were to put a muzzle on him people would assume he was dangerous!  And then she brought out the red can!  I am not joking it almost glowed with a halo!  It is like heaven in a bottle!

All it is is compressed air that when you press then nozzle it makes the sound of a tyre compressor (is that what it's called?  You know what I mean the thing you put in your tyres to blow them up!).  You absolutely do NOT spray it AT the dog but merely in the vicinity when they are acting out an unacceptable behaviour such as barking or pulling on the lead!  The idea is that the sound is so unpleasant to a dog that they associated it with unwanted behaviour and therefore do not repeat the behaviour for fear of it producing the sound!

IT IS A MIRACLE IN A BOTTLE!!!!!!!

So the first behaviour I wanted to correct was the barking outside school!  2 sprays later and he has never barked at school again!!!!!!  The next behaviour I wanted to correct was the stealing of food which is Marley's favourite past time as you know!  Now the problem with this is that Marley has these little invisible mirrors attached to the top of his head, so when you creep round the door in an attempt to catch in the act so you can activate the spray, he can see you so stops what he's doing, so I have had to give up on this one and just hide food at all times!!!!!!

The next behaviour was over vigorous play with Busta!  Poor Busta was ending up with a sore mouth from all the saliva from Marley and little nicks on his ears!  There is never any aggression or malice in Marley's play but it was getting a bit much, so literally 2 sprays later and all was well!

The final unwanted behaviour I wanted to address was pulling on the lead!  It was getting beyond control at one point and after he had pulled me across a road whilst I had my brand new IPhone 4s in my hand which flew into the road and smashed AND after I had finished standing in the middle of the path IN PUBLIC sobbing like a little girl, I decided something needed to be done!  I spoke to my vet who said that she had seen people with broken hands from being pulled along by their dogs and she advised me to invest in a canny collar!  This collar has a soft strap that goes over their nose which tightens when they pull to discourage them.  Did this work NOOOOOO!!

So after several months of trying my best (treat training never worked) I went to my trusted pet shop to ask for their advice and ask if there was a different type of collar I could use.  The lovely girl there said there were many but why didn't I give the spray a go?  So she told me what to do and as we (Marley, Busta, Belinda and I left the shop, 2 sprays when he pulled on the lead and he never did it again!  It was unbelievable  Bee could not believe it!  Suddenly he was walking next to me on a loose lead, it was like a dream and so much more enjoyable for both me AND him!

So there is was all his bad behaviour solved ...... until his operation which meant him not being able to be walked so when he was eventually allowed out on the lead last week we were back to the pulling problem again!  So I went to pet shop bought a new can of spray and hey presto ONE spray and NO pulling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Charlie's hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ninja squirrels on the TELLY!  

Marley went mental and when they disappeared off the screen looked behind it to try and find them!

Poppy is still VERY pregnant!

A lovely but VERY cold walk earlier today!

TTFN 

The REAL Marley and Me xx