The Trials and Tribulations of Animal Ownership

I love owning animals and would never be without them but sometimes they really do cause you a lot of worry. You can go along for years and then boom within a month its one trauma after another. And it seems that this is my month!

It started with the equine in my life getting a mild cough that would come and go as quickly as the sunshine this month! The vet checked everything was okay, putting my mind at rest and significantly lightened my purse with the prescription of ventipulmin. Even on that the cough seems to still occur at weird and wonderful occasions but touch wood it hasn't reappeared it the last few weeks! So one drama over and on to the next...

While family are away on holiday we are looking after their border collie Charlie alongside our 13 week old puppy. However one day in to this stint Charlie came down with a bad stomach bug so we had to keep the dogs seperate, find a willing puppy sitter and live in seperate houses! 10 days later and Charlie is slowly improving.

You'd think that would be enough but this morning I was treated to our puppy Lexi being stung like mad when she jumping into the cut stinging nettles on our walk this morning. Poor thing was beside herself, crying, and inconsolable. I don't think my mum was impressed either when I dropped a manic puppy with her on my way to work. After a fair bit of sobbing and some soothing cream she is back to her normal happy self and we wont be doing that walk for a little while!

So there we have it- My week of animal madness. And to top it off the house bunny Dave has just gone and chewed a hole in the bean bag chair, they are flooding the lounge as I write this....now where's the dustpan?!?!?!

New Arrivals!

After much contemplation we decided it was time for a new addition to The Horse Diva family. No not another horse but instead a gorgeous cockapoo puppy! She is 11 weeks old today and we've had her 2 weeks. Incase you're wondering "what is a cockapoo?" she's a cross between a cocker spaniel and a miniture poodle. We got her from a wonderful lady about an hour and a half away and puppy's mum was beautiful and very calm. She was one of five puppies that had been handled by children since she was born and she was very placid so we made the decision to get her! After our much anticipated trip to Dublin (to see Take That- how exciting!) we returned home to collect our new bundle of fun. Choosing a name was a bit of a nightmare....one that we could both agree on became a real challenge! After a bit of internet searching we found our name...Lexi. And here she is...

Although she settled in really quickly the trouble really started at nightimes where she cried and cried and after 3 nights I wondered if she (or I) would ever sleep again. However after a few helpful hints from other dog owners we cracked it and on night four it was perfect peace :-)


So after two weeks we are still absolutely loving having little Lexi in our family. We cant imagine ever being without her. She's growing every day and her training exercises are going very well (currently trying to master the stay command!). A week tomorrow we will finally be able to take her out on a walk as her last jab will have taken effect. In the meantime we have been doing lots of practice on the lead in the garden as well as carrying her everywhere so she gets used to different people and surroundings. We've even carried her to the yard over the weekend to introduce her to the horses! So if anyone has any other handy tips for educating puppies please feel free to leave me a comment :-)

The Horse Diva Family!

Hello all,

I just wanted to let you know about the new addition to The Horse Diva family who is rather cute and totally adorable! And here he is.....

Dave is an 8 week old Giant French Lop who has been with us for 10 days now. He has settled in really well and has grown no end since he first arrived with us. He seems to currently love being a house rabbit- although the sitting room has had to become rather rabbit friendly so prevent him from chewing absolutely everything (as I sit here now there are cushions preventing him getting to the tv cables and the curtains are tucked up to stop him eating them!). Dave is so friendly and loves watching the tv with us. He is also highly entertaining with his mad bunny jumping and excited sprints around the room!
However Dave is yet to meet my partners dog Charlie...although he's so laid back I don't think Dave is going to be too bothered! Here's Charlie "enjoying" his first ever bath out in the garden a couple of weeks back. Not sure he liked it too much but he certainly smelt a lot better afterwards. We used the fab Dirty Beastie Shampoo on him to give his coat a really good wash with a lovely fresh smell. However it's a shame the sunshine has seemed to dissapear since then. I hope you are all enjoying some time with your animals- may they be horses, dogs, rabbits of otherwise :-)