Cats versus Dogs

I think dog owners are morning people, dogs definitely are.

Cats sleep.

If I get up early to do something special, and it has to be special or very necessary for me to be up early if I'm not going to work, the cats blink blearily at me from their chosen sleeping places. Their eyes saying 'what bloody time do you think this is, sod off I'm sleeping'.

Dogs wake up early and demand attention.

Cats do not get dirty. Should a dreadful event occur where mud gets in their feet they will wash and wash unless very tired (hang on that's always) in which case if at all possible they will walk across a white duvet cover until they don't leave footprints any more before sleeping.

Dogs get dirty and require washing.

Cats do not smell. They wash, lots. They don't get wet (unless doing the cute drink from the tap thing) and should it happen, they wash.

Dogs smell.

A cat will win the battle of the 'you will feed me quality food that I am prepared to eat' whilst you try to give it the 'this was on special offer' treatment. 

A dog will eat its own foot if it places it in the bowl by mistake.

Both cats and dogs seem capable of taking over an entire king size bed.

A cat trains its owners into a routine, dogs like a routine.

Cats can give you a look that makes you feel judged and intimidated all at once. If you want to feel loved, valued and adored get a dog. Cats are much more discerning.

I will always be a cat lady. ( I will probably die alone and be eaten by my cats. )

So when my ex-husband reminded me two days before Christmas that I had promised I would help him look after a dog if he got one for Cog my first response was.......................oh bugger!

I wondered if I was about to start to learn to love a dog?!

The correct answer after 6 months is....

NO

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A visit to Battersea Cats Home

 On our latest sojourn to London, Cog and I headed down to Battersea.  It is famous for its iconic power station towers and also the Battersea Dogs and Cats home.

The home opened in 1860 and never turns a dog or cat away, it also doesn't have a time limit on a stay for an animal.  There have been 3.1 million dogs and cats through their doors since it opened.  There were 3000 cats last year.

It gets no funding from the government at all and is totally dependent on public donations to raise the £12.7 million in costs a year.  It also has 1000 invaluable volunteers.


Bob Martin has been helping us to care for our animals for 120 years.  The original powders from 1893 are still the basis for food formulations today. It is still a UK based family run business. They have partnered Battersea and will be providing them with 83,000 litres of cat litter over 4 years.  That's 28,000 full litter trays a year!

We can help with that by buying Bob Martins new Felight cat litter. You can't miss it's shocking pink packaging and it's marked with the Battersea logo.

We met the managing director of Bob Martin and some of his family (and Bob Martin's family too!), he's a really cool guy and they were also clearly animal lovers, enjoying the kittens as much as we were!

We were invited to see the cats home by them but it is open to the public.  It is £2 for Adults and a £1 for children, there is a cafe and a shop.  You can see the opening times and visiting details on their website.

 There are lots of bouncy kittens that refuse to stand still for a camera and lots of older cats that mew at the glass doors dying for a chin scratch or an ear pull.

Half of the cats here are strays but half have come straight from homes.  They come in because of allergies, moving house, money, tenancy rules and unwanted litters.

 I love cats, always have.  They are incredibly intelligent and don't need you.  It is a privilege when they choose to share their love and affection.  They know the cosiest spot in the house, the way the sun moves across a room and when you need a bit of company.  There is a mutual benefit from the contact of the leg rub, chin chuck and stroke.



We cuddled kittens and if we lived closer, this chap called Nemo would have been coming home with us!  He only had one eyebrow, that was enough to melt my heart!  He curled straight up into our arms and wanted so many cuddles.

We had a lovely afternoon.  After the cats we went to see the dogs.  There are many there from the small and waggy, through tall and gentle and into very large and frankly (to me) scary - although the volunteer playing with the large and scary said he was soft as anything and in fairness he was playing like a puppy!

There was a doughy eyed grey hound that touched my heart strings, they are so lovely.

If you are planning on being down that way, there is a Kitten shower on Thursday 24th July 10:30am-1pm and 2pm-4pm.  £5 for adults and £3 for children.  You can book to play with the kittens in the kitten crèche and learn about the importance of caring for a pet from the Battersea expert.

All the money raised goes towards caring for the animals there.

Just to let you know if you have a cat or dog from Battersea you are in posh company, Larry the current 10 Downing Street cat is a former resident.  As are a pair of Jack Russells now owned by the Duchess of Cornwall!  I wondered as I looked at the cats if they were thinking:

 'Walk on by love, I'm holding out for the caviare here not your sardine offering' !

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Perfect day and Pain

I pitched the tent in the evening, so the day started with them crawling out of the tent into lovely sunshine.

We went to my most favourite place and did what I like best, we walked, paddled, picnicked, walked some more, ice-creamed.  It was the most perfect day.

The deer were hanging around in groups under the trees all over the park, they reminded me of  kangeroos chillin'

We walked lots.

And when we got home I walked some more, with the dogs across the fields, still bare waiting to be planted.

The most wonderful day.

Until I realised why my heel was so sore.  How on earth am I going to deal with this whilst trying to run 7k.  Answers on a postcard please.

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Come on a walk to the Love Shack

It was a lovely day for it.

Look what hitched a ride home.  It turned up on HWMBO's collar...he wasn't impressed at being used as a Love Shack!

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Mother Earth

I've been feeling a bit fed up since I left this.











  But today I got out for a walk in this and it left me feeling very happy!

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Laurel and Hardy

I find the resemblance rather striking!

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Changing Landscape

It was still in the high 20s at 8pm tonight.

The fields are already turning golden brown.

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Weekend of Sunshine and Exercise

On Friday evening I moved 1 ton of stones from the front of my house to the bottom of the garden and then went out and did my paper round (I deliver about 150 of the local free community magazine once a month.)

Saturday morning I took the dogs out for a walk, I spotted a path I had never noticed before and went off down it. It was a lovely walk taking me a way I had never been before, through a village with very friendly people. Many talked to me and one gave me water for the dogs. It was around 27C and they were struggling a bit.


Hubby still needed exercising so we went to our local tourist attraction but walked the back way round and missed all the people. Had a cold drink at a bar and walked back. We saw some fish in the canal over 2.5 feet long, they were enormous and lots of them, basking on the surface.










Sunday morning we went off to a large park about 30 minutes drive away and walked 3.5 miles from the main car park to the reservoir and back.

And then I took the dogs out during the lull whilst the rest of the country watched the football. I walked another 3 miles and didn't see a sole, glorious.

A BBQ at dog owners house topped off a wonderful weekend and tonight I am sore from the sun but very happy.

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His teeth in her cheek was the last straw

This weeks Gallery is Creatures.

I give you Leo my ex-cat.

He was a rescue cat of unknown age. Unknown because I never managed to get him to a vet. He was neutered but I assume it happened when he was much smaller and actually fitted in a box (a cat Leo's size with all 4 legs side ways with claws out needs a big box!)

I quickly found out why his previous owners abandoned him. He was big, dirty and rarely washed. He regularly came home covered in blood (never his). I often saw him launch himself at next doors windows to get at the cats inside, he just bounced off the glass. He would have gone straight through single glazing!

I didn't mind at all when he bit my ex-husbands nose (well what ex-wife would!).

I bought electric cat calming defusers.

My neighbours coped when their beautiful black cat finally had 2 ripped ears and abscesses. They offered to take him to tickle therapy (I said they could if THEY put him in the box!)

I coped when he bit through my entire nail and into the flesh beneath it in a 'hey let's worm Leo' moment of madness.

The last straw was when he launched himself off the top of the stairs and sunk his teeth into my daughters cheek as she walked upstairs.

That animal had to go!

He went to a home with more land, no other cats nearby and owners that pandered to his every whim. I understand he retired from fighting and lived a few more years of a more peaceful existence (although I doubt he ever learnt to wash properly!)

A little loose at the seams but I still loved him and asleep he was the saggiest old cat in the whole wide world!

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Come on a walk with me!

I haven't really have caught up on myself both physically and organisationally since Pack Holiday. Today was the first day since Friday I have managed to get out and walk the dogs.

I thought you might like to see what I see. I've missed it a lot.

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Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

My muddy woody walk has become a grassy, leafy, polleny, nettley, insecty walk!!!

Oh yes it looks lovely and I can walk a lot later in the light nights but I have been considering it a lot.

There's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing, and it's a lot easier to keep warm than keep cool!!

In the bare wood I could see who was around, now I have no idea. There could be someone very close and I wouldn't know. The winter wood had it's spooky moments but in reality, in terms of personal safety, it was better.

So whilst the summer wood is prettier, the winter wood is probably my beloved.

I would like the winter wood in the light summer evenings with a moderate temperature : I'm sure my perfect dog walk exists somewhere in the world.

A pine forest perhaps - not so good for the wildlife though!!!!

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Yin and Yang of Luck

I was contemplating as I walked how wonderful it was. I could not put into words how beautiful it felt...the evening sun, the gentle breeze, the flowers, the fresh smell, the..well everything really... in fact, just for once thought y'all might like to come here rather than me thinking I would like to be where you are!... I felt so incredibly lucky

...and I sliced my thumb on a lead and couldn't take any more photos!

sorry ....now close your eyes and imagine how good it all looked!!!!!

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Argy Bargey

About 11am, I could hear lots of yelling and fun from a boat in the tunnel, as they came out I saw it was a party of 18 year olds celebrating a birthday and they weren't shirking on the task of drinking lots.

I waved and they all whooped a lot, just before ploughing straight into the right bank, after a bit of mud churn they managed to get free and veered straight over to the left bank and beached themselves!!!! I was struggling to stay upright with laughter.



They used poles to get free and just as they did another barge occupied by very large, very red and also very drunk men appeared.

They narrowly missed the first barge and both boats yelled with good spirits at each other before snaking their way down the canal.



'Tales of the Riverbank' it was not!!

I suspect a rather noisy day of fun all the way to where they hoped to go and back!


It was a pleasant change to see more than just the usual grey hairs tootling up and down!

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Study Leave....apparently...

Whilst poddling around the fields with the dogs in a rather heavy warm air, I came across a group of teens putting up tents.

I looked at one of the girls and smiled (what I thought was a friendly smile) and she immediately apologised.

"No problem" I said "as long as you take your rubbish home"

I noted that they had enough shop bought sandwiches and unhealthy snacks to feed a small army!

One girl came from behind a bush complaining of having stung her (use your imagination) on a nettle - yowzza, that's got to hurt.

"But it's a school night, yes?"

"Exam leave!!" they chirped and added "We're revising all night!"

"Stay warm, plenty of layers underneath" (ever the Guider)

"No need," says one of the lads "we're all squishing up in the small tent!"

"hmmm, you're hoping mate " I thought and the look on the girls faces said exactly the same thing!!

I left them to their pitching and thanked our lucky stars that they have such a safe place to do this sort of thing and hoped at some point between now and exam day they do actually open a book!

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Whizzes Far from the Madding Crowd

For the first 3 miles my mind was full of deep, poignant and interesting posts to share...

I always start to chill out by the time I get here. The sheep on the bank reminded me of Far from the Madding Crowd.

And then my mind was empty, happy and content, just striding out another couple of miles.

So I have nothing deep to share except.....

If you decide to whizz whilst out on a walk...put the dogs on the lead first as the local cyclists seem to get a bit confused by 'COME HERE NOW' being yelled by a voice from behind a bush!!!

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