NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET

Violins, Viola & Cello

Celebrating its 36th season in 2023, this well-known and acclaimed string quartet will perform works by Schubert, Shostakovich, Haydn and David Flynn.

Sunday, 2 April 2023 at 4pm Warkworth Town Hall

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Pets Vets Corner

Pet of the Month

Panther the Kitten

Panther is a little feral kitten who was handed in to Warkworth Vets’ Wellsford branch last week. He and his siblings were born on a property and a kind lady trapped him so he can be tamed and become a loved domestic cat.

He’s very wary of his fosterer at the moment and turns into a little spit fire bundle of hisses and spits whenever she goes near him. Luckily, because he is only 6 weeks old he will tame up nicely over the next week or so. It’s always amazing how fast these ferocious little creatures realise that human attention means pats and food rather than anything scary.

Tiny kittens have a really good chance of being tamed. Once they are older than 12-16 weeks however, the chances of them turning into soppy lap cats are pretty low no matter how much love and attention is poured into them.

Truly feral cats often lead short and brutal lives, with a high percentage of them dying before they reach two years old. Feral cats that live in a colony with feeding and supervision from humans do quite a bit better but the best outcome for a cat is to become a loved domestic cat.

Little Panther is one of the lucky ones, he will be desexed before being rehomed and hopefully lead a long and comfortable life, far from the stresses of being a feral tomcat.

This year the number of feral cats and kittens we have seen has been particularly extreme. Please make sure you have your cats desexed so they don’t contribute to the problem.

Bowling over a century

Summerset Falls resident Dick Bissell celebrated his 100th birthday twice – once with the Rodney Stroke Club Red Beach on February 17 and again with friends at Summerset on February 23 (pictured). Dick was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and served in the Coastguards where he met his wife, Betty, with whom he had three children. He served in the merchant navy as a supplies navigator before attending Texas University, where he qualified as an architect. A keen sailor all his life, he had a keeler and belonged to the Weiti Boating Club for many years. Supplied

Vets: Jon Makin BVSc, Danny Cash BVSc and Associates

WARKWORTH VETS

VETERINARY HOSPITAL

COAST 2 COAST VETS