“For the fiftieth time, Lily: ‘no’. I don’t want a third dog. Two is plenty. You are NOT getting a puppy!’

This is where it began. I am seeing it play out on a big screen inside my head. Lily, 11, in the back seat of the rental car is determinedly petitioning us for a dog of her very own and has been non stop on the topic throughout our three week tour of England. I involuntarily duck as yet another fighter jet plane thunders overhead in the supposedly tranquil Lakes District and with suitably frazzled nerves I put an end to the topic. ‘No dog!’ I am resolute. Ironically, it was at about that very moment that ‘he‘ was born… Wilbur, a little black long haired yappy Chihuahua.

I tune back to the alarming reality of the present, and hear my impossibly terrifying screams for the family to get up and come and help. Loud as I can yell, with all the urgency I can inject: “Call the vet! Get up! Get up!”

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CHOICE says pet owners dogged by unnecessary vaccinations

Pets may be getting vaccinated too often and unnecessarily by vets at a cost to both their owners’ wallets and the animals’ possible health and wellbeing.

The consumer group CHOICE reports despite international advice and professional guidelines, many adult cats and dogs are still receiving injections annually instead of the now recommended cycle of not more than every three years.

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If anyone should have known the hazards of a dog drowning, it was me. The risk was instilled into me as a young child. Yet for all this insight, decades later and as a parent myself, there was something I knew but overlooked and … the unthinkable happened. And as a result my young family was left to grieve our much loved Rose.

Childhood lessons

This story begins in 1970 when I was 7 years old. Amid much excitement my family had an inground pool installed at our suburban family home. Our solitary family pet, aged five, was a scruffy looking little Yorkshire terrier I adored, called Bimbo.

Rose's grave with our bantams and dove around.

I make note that this was well before the time of pool fencing, but Bimbo was so small pool fencing laws wouldn’t have been of any help anyway. [Read more...]