We have adopted.........................

[Angela Woodford]

I don't know about dogs but it is used for race horses which have been injured to kieep them fit and gradually strengthen the injured area.

I saw an equine hydrothrapy pool on "Waking the Dead" recently. I didn't guess whodunnit, but the pool was most impressive. There could well be the equivalent for dogs I suppose?

Liz?

Love, Munch

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Hello, Caroline here, not Liz

Bernietheboxer, currently resident chez moi, was hit by a car about 18 months ago. Part of his treatment, once a plate had been attached to a length of his spine, was hydrotherapy.

Mitch, my son, with whom Bernie was then living, would drive to the local vet surgery with attached pool. If the dogs are willing, they just swim around on their own (no weights attached to limbs). Unwilling patients are accompanied into the pool by a Canine Physio, who walks around as they doggy paddle on their merry way. I believe that Mitch came to know the owner of an overweight spaniel who was taken to the pool for weight reduction purposes. Since this establishement is on The Gold Coast - miles and miles of dog-friendly sand and surf, I would have saved my money by taking fat pooch for a walk at the beach.

Most large TB racing establishments have pools to exercise the horses. Me? I don't even have a bath which is large enough for me to stretch out in

[Liz Jay]

Hi Caroline

Well thanks for saving me the typing! I had done quite a long and informative message about using hydrotherapy for injuries/overweight/general fitness then turned the steamer on to do the veg for last night's dinner and everything blew - the computer turned itself off in a sulk and my message vanished into cyberspace.

I find it amazing that so many years and so many miles apart we're reading from the same page with regard to most things concerning our animals.....I have more of a love for hairy beasts but that's probably been shaped by the colder weather up here! I love greyhounds and whippets too don't get me wrong - but rarely get to see them without their rugs except for a handful of days in June and July!!!!!

I do remember you being mad on animals at school, and being briefly a proud owner of one of the Sixes' Illegal Mice.

Love

[Angela Woodford]

Liz - I was amazed by the thing you sent me about the 36 year old cat!

The cat I had as a child lived to 21 - how I missed her at CH! - but there is a fabulous splodgy-coloured puss nearby here called Lily who is 22. She sits on her wall to meet and greet her fans on a warm day.

She's the oldest cat I know!

Love Munch

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Hi Liz

Well thanks for saving me the typing! I had done quite a long and informative message about using hydrotherapy for injuries/overweight/general fitness then turned the steamer on to do the veg for last night's dinner and everything blew - the computer turned itself off in a sulk and my message vanished into cyberspace.


Well, there you go - yet another reason for eating raw food

I find it amazing that so many years and so many miles apart we're reading from the same page with regard to most things concerning our animals.....I have more of a love for hairy beasts but that's probably been shaped by the colder weather up here! I love greyhounds and whippets too don't get me wrong - but rarely get to see them without their rugs except for a handful of days in June and July!!!!!


Jess (daughter) has just purchased a new rug for Maggie (greyhound), which will match the ones I'll need to buy for the horses before too long. Guy, in a spirit of companionship, has taken to not only wrecking his own rugs, but Tower's too, so we are lucky to get one season out of them. I did used to poo poo rugging horses in our climate ('There's nothing like a nose full of pony hair when they start to shed their winter coats'), but Tower's 21 year old teeth are not the best, and his Dentist can do no more than try to stop them from getting any worse, so we do all we can to conserve his energy through the Winter.

Of course, Milly, the newly adopted Kelpie, could not be left out: despite that fact that she has a perfectly adequate covering of hair to keep her warm when she is outside.


I do remember you being mad on animals at school, and being briefly a proud owner of one of the Sixes' Illegal Mice.

Yes, a little brown one I think, whose name, I am ashamed to admit, I cannot recall. The first pets I remember are Nigger (cat) and Peggy (scottish terrier), who were replaced when I was 4 or 5 by Smokey (cat)and Sally (cocker). Then there was Snowy the guinea pig, Micky (mouse), assorted canaries and budgies, the school guinea pigs and gerbils, gold fish, cat fish. Later Penny (dalmation x lab), then Maui (cat), Pom (staffy), Polly Pocktail (named by the kids) who was Pom's grandaughter and had a whipper father. Oops, forgot Jaffa my horse, Peegee the siamese and Pixie (Jess' cat). ...............................

[Liz Jay]

Yes, a little brown one I think, whose name, I am ashamed to admit, I cannot recall.

Well Caroline I still happen to have my Pocket Oxford Dictionary which went to school with me and has various snippets in its back pages, quite a lot about the mice.

They were Hamish, Roger, Gormless and Michael. Hamish belonged to me and Mary McD and Roger (as in McGough) was Alex's (and records show he was a Great Escaper!!!!). So one of the other two was yours, if you wish to stake a claim?

Love

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Yes, a little brown one I think, whose name, I am ashamed to admit, I cannot recall.

Well Caroline I still happen to have my Pocket Oxford Dictionary which went to school with me and has various snippets in its back pages, quite a lot about the mice.

They were Hamish, Roger, Gormless and Michael. Hamish belonged to me and Mary McD and Roger (as in McGough) was Alex's (and records show he was a Great Escaper!!!!). So one of the other two was yours, if you wish to stake a claim?

Love

Oh dear

Although, as evidenced by my previous post, I am not known for innovative pet names - Gormless? Michael?

Little wonder that I chose to forget Truthfully, neither of those names are causing neurones to fire. Perhaps one of Munch's letters will uncover the facts.

I can't even remember how we got them to school. Was that down to you?

Love

Caroline

[Angela Woodford]

Liz and Caroline -

I believe the inspiration and probably source of the mice came from the Bio Lab, where the VI form biologists were doing a genetic experiment breeding baby mice. They had a Eugenic Mouse Breeding Enclosure on the back shelf of the lab. Baby mice were given away at the end of the research project. Alison Stilliard adopted one she called Naomi, which she took home with her, but other mice remained on the premises and grew...

xxx Munch

[Liz Jay]

No Munch....

Maybe there were other mice but I distinctly remember going with Mary to a pet shop near her home in Plumstead to carefully select our pick of litter girl mouse, Hamish or rather Hamish with an "e".

She was the only mouse for a while until my big sister Judy and her then boyfriend David - now husband BTW - came up to take me out one Long Sat. They obligingly ferried me to another pet shop to buy a few more for eager would-be mouse owners back at school. One escaped in transit (they were somewhat wild and unhandled not at all like the docile and trusting locker pet Hamishe) - and proved uncatchable. David eventually removed a small corpse from the internal structure of the miniature back seat of his pride and joy passion wagon. Somehow an MGB loses its appeal when overlaid with the fragrance of deceased small rodent!

They never reproduced though we did have plans and my diary notes reveal that I agonised over the respective stud merits of Roger and Gormless. Just like today's decisions when chosing studs for my Beardie bitches, I believe it was a close call between the handsome but somewhat flighty Roger and his less sleek but charmingly-natured cagemate Gormless......some things never change.

Eugenics experiments eh? Now that I would have loved! But must have been after my time.

Love

[Euterpe13]

Actually, slightly before your time, as I clearly remember the "mouse breeding zone" at the back of the Lab ... and the stink, and the fact that they finally " overbred" ( did nobody check beforehand just how many baby mice are born in each litter ?) and had to be disposed of....

I had my own pet white one for a while...

[Angela Woodford]

My apologies, Liz!

I must have confused the Mice Craze with the Mice Project! Alex's Roger could run from one hand up her arm over her shoulders down her arm and into her other hand! And what about Michael? Didn't you consider him as a one night stand for Hamishe? Didn't he have boyfriend potential?

My children had quite a few hamsters - Primrose and Petunia were very fetching ones, but best were the tiny Russian hamsters Pushkin and Potemkin - like little pandas.

Pushkin whizzed round noisily on his wheel all night every night, wore himself out and expired at an early age. Potemkin was good at constructing an elaborate nest in which he spent long hours kipping. He lived a very long life, lay in state in a light bulb box, and had a splendid and well attended funeral. There's a lesson there somewhere!

Love, Munch

[Liz Jay]

Hi Munch

As I remember Michael was my least favourite, being neither as handsome and agile as Roger nor as cuddly as dear sweet Gormless. Sad for him really. I hope he eventually found true love with a lady mouse who was prepared to look past first impressions. I think Roger was always the front runner - Alex could certainly pick a good 'un....perhaps I should invite her assistance with my dogs??

My Meg is even as we speak conducting a brief but hopefully passionate liaison with a stud dog called Edward aka Champion Potterdale Audition for Pattishawl (his photo is all over the internet if you care to look!!)
Keep your fingers crossed that they hit it off!

Love

[Angela Woodford]

Absolutely! May their two dog hearts beat as one!

I'm wondering how that dear kitten Riagan is feeling post-op. Perhaps JR is hovering over a cushion feeding the patient hand-selected prawns.

I don't remember the locker swoop that removed the mice. Who was it? Or did you come back to House and find your lockers ransacked and mice gone? Poor old Pot never knew about the mice - it was Judy Evans who went straight to DR. Pot had hoped to hush it up!

Love, Munch

[Liz Jay]

Oh no I've been back to my Pocket Oxford Dictionary and I'm terribly sorry to report that my memory has been playing tricks, so now I have a few important matters regarding mice that need to be cleared up.

First and most importantly of all I owe it to the memory of Michael to admit that he was, in fact, on the short list (very short) of prospective beaux for Hamishe, rivalled only by cuddly and placid Mr Gormless.

Secondly, I find there was a very good reason for this confusion and no it's not my age!!! You see, like Hamishe, Roger was A GIRL MOUSE!!!

Obviously in that era of Flower Power gender bending must have been all the rage in Mouse Land.

So now that's cleared up we can turn to more pressing and up-to-date matters.

How is our little furry friend following his discomknackeration? ? Sending gentle hugs in his direction.

Love

[icomefromalanddownunder]

I don't remember the locker swoop that removed the mice. Who was it? Or did you come back to House and find your lockers ransacked and mice gone? Poor old Pot never knew about the mice - it was Judy Evans who went straight to DR. Pot had hoped to hush it up!

Love, Munch

Aha!

Although I cannot remember important details such as the names of the mice, or how they arrived, I had a feeling that Big J was involved in their removal.