Pethood Stories

Bella

Bella is a 4 year old Staffy x Jack Russell. We have owned her for 3 and half years – since she was 7 months old. She is one of the most excitable dogs I have ever met and always wants to run to new people and dogs. Her tail is always wagging! The one thing she loves the most is her cuddles, and I have never seen a dog that smiles so much! She loves snuggling up as close as possible to us and getting her belly rub or even a head massage. Currently she does not want to know me and is glued to my pregnant wife. Ever since she realised that my wife is pregnant, she just wants to be where ever she is. To the point that when we are in bed ready to go to sleep, she jumps on the bed and rests her head on the bump! She is an adorable soppy dog… most of the time. She has a tendency to somehow make her beds tear up and then gives us the most adorable look as if to say… “It wasn’t me”. She goes through around 6 beds a year. Each of them start off life as a comfy place to sleep, then after a while… they become a toy!

Harry

Harry came into our lives after my 5 month dashy sadly drowned. He is a gentle soul and just “knows” that he is special. Harry is a beautiful dog, he has never growled at anyone and rarely barks. Whilst in South Africa he was seen by the owner of an old folk’s retirement home on the beach whilst we were out walking him who asked if we could bring Harry in to see the old folk. Harry was an instant hit, so started to go every Sunday after they had been to church. He was called “the Eden Rock Sunday treat”. He would be handed around, look up lovingly and then do his trick; rolling on his back, both front paws together asking for tummy tickles. He also had plenty of walks with his new friends who, apart from seeing him, never left the home. To see the look of love on these elderly folk was wonderful. He really brightened up their day.

Rogue

Rogue is my very deaf but beautiful 16 year old moggy, I have had her since I fell in love with her when she arrived at the rescue centre I worked in as a 6 week old kitten with the longest whiskers and biggest paws I had ever seen, it was definitely love at first sight.

In June last year Rogue started to be sick and just didn’t seem right, she was grumpy and not her normal inelegant mad self. After some tests at the vet we discovered she was suffering from hyperthyroidism. She very quickly went downhill and we were lucky we had caught it so quickly, as she went from okay to very ill rapidly. As soon as we got the diagnosis I opted for the gold star radioactive iodine treatment, not wanting her to have a life on drugs or undergo surgery. After her two week stay at the treatment centre she returned home a different cat, almost immediately we had the scatty totally mad Rogue we know and love back.

It's not a cheap option, nearly £4k in the end but it was worth every penny and thankfully Petplan paid for the majority of it, just the excess and 20% for me to pay due to her age, seems a bargain to have Rogue back to her normal happy and healthy mad self.

Issi

I first met Issi when she was brought into the rescue centre I worked at when she was found abandoned in a field with her brother at just 4 weeks of age. Due to their young age I partially hand reared them for the next 4 weeks and became very attached. At 12 weeks of age they were tested for FIV and FeLV and sadly the latter came back positive but they seemed so healthy and happy we decided to see if anyone would want to take them on. Just a few days later I arrived at work to find Issi collapsed in her pen, frothing at the mouth and going blue, clearly struggling to breathe. We rushed her to the vets and she was diagnosed with a severe upper respiratory infection, the vets did all they could but the prognosis looked very poor. That day she was very ill and that evening it was decided that I would take her home with me with the expectation that she wouldn’t make it through the night but we didn’t want her to be on her own when she did pass away. Issi clearly had other ideas and against all expectation she made it through the night. She was still very ill, her tongue was severely ulcerated so she couldn’t eat, and was too weak to anyway and was generally a very sad kitten but she would still purr whenever I was near her and we couldn’t bear to put her down. Instead I nursed her closely for the next two weeks, getting up all through the night to injection drip fluid under her skin to keep her fed and giving her endless cuddles to keep her warm and as content as she could be under the circumstances. After 10 days despite everything she was starting to recover and although still weak she was up and about and wanted to eat. By this time I was so attached to Issi and her brother I decided to keep them, with the FeLV diagnosis and her illness we knew that no one else would be keen to take them on as their life expectancy was only up to 2 years but I wanted to give them as good a 2 years as I could.

Today is Issi is 11 and a half years old, happy, mostly healthy and to me, my miracle cat, she shouldn’t still be here but she is, her tongue is scarred from the ulcers so she can’t groom herself properly but me and her brother do it for her, otherwise you would have no idea just how close we came to losing this special little cat.