Tag: Pet Shops

Time for a Chienne Winter Coat.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I decided to resign from one of my organisations and instead I was asked if an assistant would help. I said I would have a think about it and I will. I will most probably stay

Never ending forms!
Never ending forms!

and work things through. The organisation is starting to become like many others in South Australia, baffling everyone with  bulldust. There has to be a form for everything  and I am just fed up with forms. Every time we do any catering that is connected to the Local Council,  I fill in the same form with the same information, same addresses and telephone numbers, and I provide a copy of our insurance liability – every time – even to the silly extent that we have worked for the Council twice in the same week and filled in the forms on both occasions. No the same form will not do – it is two different functions – so – two separate forms!!    It cannot be filled in on line – that’s way too complicated for the council ,  so  it has to be hand written and personally  handed in at the Council Office. Now there is a whole new batch of forms that have to be filled in every time we poke our heads outside the door and I’m not really sure I  want to go on doing this. And if that was not enough the Central Office of the Organisation now also wants a whole new batch of forms for their salaried staff to play with so now you start to understand why organisations are failing to deliver as much as they did in the past – lack of volunteers to assist. Every time you move there is a form to complete. It has reached the farcical stage where a teacher, who requires a police clearance form to even enter the school, has to apply for a further police clearance if he or she wants to  cross the corridor at the end of the day and engage with students in  after school activities. There are so many of these Police Checks floating about these days that the backlog has people telephoning talk back radio on a daily basis complaining that they cannot work because they have to wait on a police clearance and a waiting list that is measured in

Story of my Life :o)
Story of my Life :o)

months rather than days or weeks. We have not quite reached the stage where you have to have police clearance before you can adopt a dog from a shelter – but it’s getting there. To adopt a dog you first fill in a form – then you are interviewed to determine if you – or you  and your partner – are suitable persons – age is a consideration – next a person or persons come to  your home to examine your home and your property ( yard) to determine if the environment is suitable to meet the needs of a pet that is – the fencing is secure.  Of course  I could simply go to the nearest Pet Shop ( few and far between these days) and just buy a puppy, or I could look in the “Animal”section of the  newspaper and buy either a dog or a cat, or  I could go to a registered breeder.  But if you want to rescue a dog from a shelter, you have to go through “The Process”.  As I said, no police clearance required — YET!! This is only fairly recent – we never had any of this process when we rescued the Man from the Shelter.

In writing to his sister,  Lord Byron wrote, ” kingdoms and empires in my little day I have outlived and yet I am not old” and the same sentiment could be said regarding the “Paperless Society” We seem to have outlived this and instead  of the promise of less paperwork that was touted at the start of the “Technological Revolution ” we are generating  more than we ever did and creating a grossly inflated bureaucracy that employs people to shift all this paperwork from one pile to another. What do they do with this mountain of paper? I suspect they shred it all, send the  shredded remains to the papermill to be made into more paper sheets so that the process and the flow of paper can continue uninterrupted.

Chienne is well. I still continue to take her out every night, however she has learned another word that excites her when we come to the end of our walk and start back – Home. I did put her in the stroller a couple of times and walked her around the  garden and she quite enjoyed it. I hope I wont have to use it for a long time yet, but I’ll put her in and wander with her from time to time to get her comfortable with it. It was bought for the Man but it looks as if Chienne will get the benefits from it, and that’s fine.

Chienne and The Man

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Chienne (Chi for short)
Chienne (Chi for short) as a young puppy

Her name (Chienne)  means several things but I prefer the term “Female Dog”  Unlike the Man, Chi was not adopted or rescued, Chi was bought by me – well, actually both of us –

Chienne and her Thundershirt
Chienne and her Thundershirt

from a Pet Shop. Now  when you have calmed down and brought your arms back to your side after throwing them up in horror, let me explain.  This was a small town pet shop – it was not part of any big group – animals were not generally part of  what the shop did :  it provided boarding – short and long term, was a grooming service;  herself and I knew the owners and the dogs she did have from time to time, were checked by the Vet – who, by the way, is still our Vet. He still looks after Chienne (Chi (Chee) for short)) and has done for the last twelve years.. However, there was adoption of a sorts because – and we do not know why – Chienne adopted Andrew. Andrew moved out years ago but work commitments meant he had to leave her behind but he did come  over a couple of times a week just to take her out . Even now, she can tell when his car  pulls into the driveway and she goes nuts – the excitement is amazing. Heck she never gets that excited for  me when I come back from Adelaide  but then I only feed her and walk her,  look after her and pay the Vet bills.  I suppose by extension Andrew and Trish’s girls get nearly similar treatment. Chienne revels in all the attention from her beloved Andrew and the girls.  The Man, on the other hand is different. He is a rescue dog. He had, from all accounts, a pretty rotten time and was sick, matted and looked really sad and pathetic. There were other dogs at the pound that day but for some reason I asked for him. He was brought home bathed and cleaned then taken to the groom. He was pretty sick and spent time in  “Hospital” with our Vet looking over him. He had been kicked about the mouth and a good number of his teeth were in a bad way. The Vet tried to save as much as he could but in the end, over

A Man and His Chair
A Man and His Chair

about a year, all his teeth were removed. I just have to cut things up smaller but he eats well.  Unlike Chienne he dislikes the girls and tries to go away and hide when they come over. They think of him as a puppy and want him to play so he tends to get grumpy and I have been quite happy a couple of times that he has no teeth. The little one – Tallia – wants to keep picking him and and trying to cuddle him like a little doll and this makes him very unhappy. I generally open the door and he takes off to his secret den in the garage and only comes back when they have all gone. I can understand – he’s old and he doesn’t like being pulled about, poked and prodded not to mention being treated like a doll – it’s just so undignified.  I think if the girls went to the UK they would qualify for entrance to one of what I think is one of the top schools there – I believe it’s called  St. Trinians  :o) The man sleeps for much of the day and although he gets excited when I

Out in the bush
Out in the bush

get ready to take them out, he only walks for a little while then I have to carry him for  a bit, but this is fine – he’s not heavy. In the early days, when we moved here, there were Kangaroos around the place and I would see them when I took the dogs out. However, over the last few years most of the land has been fenced off and earmarked for future house development, so we don’t see the Roos any more, glad in some ways, sad in others. I have looked at two sets of wheels for him, one set being metal the other being PVC – the PVC only recommended for dogs under 6 kilo and he is only 3 kilo. Over the next week or so I will give thought to getting him measured up and the measurements sent off to the United States. And before you ask, I can get a set of wheels made in Australia but it is cheaper to buy the good in the USA have them shipped over here and pay the postage costs than it is to have them made in Australia. Still, it could be worse, they could be made right here in South Australia, then we really would know what charges are all about in the highest taxing state in the Commonwealth. We have a government that wants to play with the big boys but in order to do this, it needs money – so it borrows and spends and borrows again – hence the fact that 1,oo9,000 of a working population have a collective debt of  75% of revenue with an interest bill alone of $780 Million per year – and that’s before it spends the next four years accumulating even more debt. And it will because they  are addicted to spending

A Man and His(?) Office
A Man and His (?) Office

because that’s what the big boys do.

Meetings, South Road and Rescue Dogs

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
I liked this.
I liked this.

I have to say that I have attended some really good meetings – unfortunately this wasn’t one of them. I didn’t get back home until 8pm last night, so it was a very long day. If the meeting had gone any longer I would have had to try and arrange accommodation again since I wont drive the road home in the dark To drive for 380 klms on country roads in darkness is not my idea of fun. The meeting started at 9am and finished at 2:30pm. My favourite American President was Ronald Reagan  and I always liked his “Government is not the solution to the problem, Government is the problem” I’ve paraphrased that on several occasions.

Life in this little corner of the universe is never really dull – Friday 34c / Saturday 33c / Sunday 42c / Monday (today) been raining since 2am, temperature is 18c and it all started  with a natural fireworks show  that lasted for about half an hour and set Chienne off. I sat up with her until things calmed down, but the rain was pretty heavy for a while so it took a little bit longer than usual for her to calm down. It’s now just after 7am and still raining – and before you ask, no I have not been awake all night, I did get some sleep.

It rained for a good part of the day and there is more rain forecast. I think someone forgot to tell Mother Nature  ” Hello – it’s summer!”  I mean, only a crazy person will look forward to a 44c day but 30-33c is quite acceptable. Having said that,  I see from news reports that the Northern Hemisphere is getting some pretty rough weather at the moment. But here I am wearing a pullover because it’s not all that warm, and because of Adelaide and rain, I have not had the dogs out for walks for a few days.

The South Road is still an on-going building site but I must be getting used to it because I did not get. geographically misplaced despite navigating through it not once, but twice. The drive down was excellent – good weather and quiet roads until about 10k out of the city and the traffic coming out of the northern suburbs. Considering what was on in the city I was surprised to find that the place was not quite as crowded as I expected it to be. I didn’t really stay in the CBD for all that long and moved out to the suburbs so I have no idea what the city center might have looked like when the Cricket match ended and 33,poo people poured out of the Adelaide Oval. When I was out at Tea Tree Plaza I happened to look in a “Pet Shop”.  No I was not contemplating buying a dog and I wouldn’t buy one from a pet shop anyway. I was just curious. I have to say that the puppies looked really well fed and looked after = beautiful little things = but the prices shocked me. A Cavoodle, which is a cross between a Cavalier and a Poodle, was being offered for sale at $1300. Ok, so I know nothing about prices and perhaps this was

Dogs are considerate and helpful like that!
Dogs are considerate and helpful like that!

“average” I don’t know, I just thought that it was excessive. We only have one pet shop here and since I have never been inside of it – or outside of it for that matter – I have no idea what  prices are. The general perception is that pet shop puppies come from Puppy Farms or from back yard breeders, but I still think people will go to a pet shop before they would go to the pound and look at a rescue dog because they  feel that “if it is as good a dog as you say it is, why did the owner throw it away?” Unless you can answer that with some degree of certainty, people will go to pet shops and buy a puppy.