Pets Magazine December 2015

DECEMBER, 2015

Avoid Feline Festive Fear A Goose That wAS Saved At Christmas

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COMPETITIONS! Pets Magazine

Does Your Pet Have The Xmas Factor?

We're searching for the most festive of pets for our #PetXmasFactor competition. Up for grabs is an amazingly life-like 3D sculpture of YOUR pet designed by 3D printing specialists Arty Lobster.

To enter, simply take a photograph of your pet looking a bit ‘Christmassy’. We'll leave it up to you to figure out how to do that!

Then, visit the Pets Magazine Facebook Page or Twitter page (@Pets_Mag) and post your pet photo with the hashtag #PetXmasFactor. IMPORTANT - it must include the hashtag #PetXmasFactor for the entry to count.

The deadline for entries is 6.00pm on Wednesday December 23rd, 2015. One lucky winner will be announced by the first week of January 2016.

Ts&Cs apply - please visit the following web page for more information: http://www.petsmag.co.uk/blog/does-your-pet-havethe-xmas-factor

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Banish The Festive ‘Fear Factor’ In Your Cat!

Here, accredited cat behaviourist CLARE HEMINGTON shares her tips on how to make Christmas time run as smoothly as possible for your cat...

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Expert: Accredited cat behaviorist Clare Hemington who runs Clare’s Cat Care, pictured with Billy and Jimmy.

Christmas can be a difficult time for cats. It comes with lots of hustle and bustle, unfamiliar visitors, new and potentially hazardous objects, new scents and sometimes a highly charged atmosphere. This can all contribute to increased levels of stress for cats, but there are things we can do to help keep them safe and give them as relaxing a time as we hope to have ourselves, says CLARE HEMINGTON. Here are Clare’s tips for keeping your cat Plugin Diffusers calm this festive season: Routine Cats are creatures of habit and it’s important to try and maintain their daily routine. This includes sticking to normal feeding times and scheduled playtimes as well as ensuring that their usual sleeping areas and hiding places are available to them.

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It would be a good idea to have a Pet Remedy or Feliway® Diffuser placed in the room most used by your cat to help reduce any anxiety he may experience.

Hiding Places & High Places Make sure he has plenty of hiding places where he can go for a bit of peace and quiet if it all gets a bit too much for him. On these occasions it’s best to leave him undisturbed; hiding is a positive coping strategy.

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Toxic treats: Make sure your cat stays away from human treats this festive season

Giving him access to high paces such as on shelving, tops of wardrobes or on a tall, modular cat activity frame will also help increase his sense of security.

Tasty Treats We might give ourselves carte blanche to overindulge at Christmas but we should try to avoid the temptation to allow our cats to do the same!

Any treats should ideally be cat treats as opposed to human food, and Christmas chocolate is a definite no-no!

Chocolate contains Theobromine which, if eaten in sufficient quantities can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, muscle spasms and seizures in cats.

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Play Time Not only is play a great way of keeping your cat exercised during winter, it’s also an excellent stress-buster. So if your cat has a playful streak, interactive toys such as fishingrod toys, pieces of string and ping pong balls that allow him to run and chase are all a good idea.

also make very good hiding places.

Turn Up The Heat

We all know that our cats are heat-seeking missiles, always heading for the warmest place they can lay their paws on, especially during the winter months, so why not treat your cat to a heated bed this Christmas? They are available Instead of throwing away the as low voltage electric heat pads cardboard boxes that we or even electric pet beds accumulate at this time of year, complete with internal keep one or two back for your thermostats. cat’s personal use!

Not only do they promote Throwing some fresh catnip or relaxation but they can also catnip toys inside and rotating help to ease aches and pains, the toys daily will help to keep muscular tension and are great for elderly cats that don’t have him interested. As well as as much fat on their bones to serving as a play item, boxes keep them warm.

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stress with the cattery, rather than with his home.

Take a Deep Breath...

Try and keep yourselves cool and collected. Your calm vibes will definitely help your cat!

Potted Biography:

Introducing Your Cat to New Resources

Clare Hemington is an accredited cat behaviourist and runs her own Practice in Kent for owners whose cats are showing changes in their behaviour such as house soiling, aggression towards other cats and/ or people, over-grooming or generalised anxiety. She has been working in the field of cat behaviour for over seven years, and is a Play time: your cat needs his ‘me time’ too! member of the COAPE Association of Pet Behaviourists and make your cat care Trainers. arrangements as early as

possible as catteries and catsitters tend to get booked up If you do buy something new for your cat this Christmas such well ahead of time. as a scratching post or bed, put As territorial creatures, many it in an appropriate place and cats prefer to stay at home and then walk away. He won’t be you might therefore arrange for impressed by any ‘hard sell’ a family member, friend or tactics! neighbour to pop in daily to provide food, play, a change of Decorations litter and to generally check If ingested by a curious cat the that all is well. If the visitor is unknown to the cat, ask them following are amongst a plethora of festive decorations to come over before you go away so you have the that can cause serious health opportunity to see how your cat problems: Poinsettias, tinsel, baubles, electrical decorations, responds to them. tails.

If your cat is particularly sensitive and cautious with Going Away? strangers then it might be placing him in a cattery where If you’re planning to go away for Christmas it’s a good idea to he can associate any feelings of

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Prior to this she spent 17 years working in London for organisations such as the BBC, Bloomberg and Reuters. In 2001 she took voluntary redundancy to follow her dream of working with animals and went on to complete a course in cat behaviour before taking on various voluntary roles within a number of small animal welfare charities. She eventually landed herself a job in a local cat behaviour practice, undertook more training and the rest is history!

You can find further information about Clare on her web site: www.clarescatcare.co.uk.

3D Pet Sculptures

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Win A Luxury Dog Bed For Your Little Princess Pets Magazine is giving you the chance to win a fabulous handcrafted dog bed from a range by luxury pet brand KZW Pet Interiors.

KZW’s unique furniture, beds and accessory collections are made and hand finished to the very highest standards and specification. They are designed by Princess Katalin zu Windischgraetz inspired by her life-long passion for the dogs in her life.

To enter our competition, please visit the following page and answer the question: http:// www.competitionshub.co.uk/competition/win-a-beautifully-handcrafted-luxury-dog-bed-16/ The closing date for entries is Tuesday December 15, 2015 at 6.00pm. Ts&Cs apply.

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BOOKS For Cat Lovers DAVID CLIFF, MD of Gedanken, a company specialising in coachingbased support and personal development, reviews three purrfect gifts for cat lovers.

One comes across a lot of interesting material when reviewing books on cats but I recently looked at a couple of very different ones that I suspect will appeal to those of a visual or more craft-based bent.

Shake Cats, by Carli Davidson published by HarperDesign, ISBN 978 - 0 - 06 - 235174 - 6.

UKprice £12.99

Shake Cats is a very visual book observing a behaviour more readily seen in dogs: that of head shaking and body shaking; only this time, by cats, hence the title, I guess!

Beautiful high-speed photography has caught cats doing a shake in ways that are frankly more comedic than

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board or a night helmet or indeed many other types of hat for that special occasion, this may be the book for you. I'm sure this book is going to appeal This is de4initely one for those to those who have a particular people who like the YouTube penchant for crafts or have videos of cats doing various particularly tolerant felines and comedic antics. their lives who don't mind having these things adorn them.

Apart from a dedication to the I guess this book will have a very people who commit their lives to niche appeal. Although, slightly cat rescues in one or two others, tongue in cheek, I do have slight and a couple of pages of reservations that we see all of background on getting the cats these hats and no instructions to shake themselves (it's about on how to make the bags to giving their ears a clean) this match! It certainly is a very book is simply an orgy of cover different book and may provide to cover high quality hours of pictures of cats on amusement the shake. for the craftsperson Carli Davidson is or indeed an admitted and someone who self-­‐confessed simply wants "crazy cat lady", puss to stand and this book out on that leaves one in no special doubt of that, she occasion! clearly loves them.

Cats wearing hats is an Internet By contrast, Tiny Hats on Cats craze at present and this book

by Adam Ellis, published by offers you all 35 styles to is no Sphere, shortage of choice. I haven't ISBN978-­‐0-­‐7515-­‐5725-­‐1and even gone through the mental priced £9.99 is a synthesis of machinations of trying to cats modeling small beautifully imagine how my cat Lola would crafted paper and card hats with react to one of these things on everything from pirate caps to her bonce,andI personally would bishops’ mitres in another not even try. But in a diverse photographic feast that involved world this will doubtless appeal no doubt considerable to a number of people. photographer patience!

Both these books I see as quite The bulk of the book however is niche in nature and therefore given over to actually making have that quality of Marmite -­‐ the hats for your cat. So if you you'll either love them or you want to adorn your cat with a won't! marching band hat and mortar graceful. Fur flies, faces distort, flapping in uncharacteristic ways as the feline models in this book shimmy and shake.

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BOOKS For Cat Lovers

By DAVID CLIFF

the spectral "Gym cat" and its impact on Tom's little feline tribe.

I have had a very pleasant November reading Tom Cox's latest book Close Encounters of Those who know Tom's books the Furred Kind, published by well will know of the fabled and famous black cat, "The Bear".

Sphere ISBN 978 – 0– 7515 – Those of you who know me, know that I am a black cat lover and to see this wonderful "moggy noir" and its peaceful, well-lived almost Zenlike presence in Tom's world, resonates very deeply and strongly advocates for the everincreasing popularity that black cats should deserve.

6002-2 and priced at £7.99.

We get a fair innings of "The Bear" in this book but we also get in on the antics of the three other cats in this little troupe, Ralph, Shipley and Pascoe, and much more. "The Bear" incidentally, has acquired a huge fan base of more than quarter of million followers on Twitter at @MYSADCAT.

Tom is already the bestseller of a number of books that encapsulate his memoirs and adventures in the husbandry of the cats in his life.

Tom's writing style is very conversational, almost a narrative on the thinking of someone who simply could not easily be in this life without Characteristically light-hearted, feline friends. His outlook on amusing and humane, we hear the human-feline interface is of the adventures of Tom's cats one of supreme compassion, good humour and most of all moving house, of losses and understanding the nature of acquisitions, cats in the cats as true individuals; community and extended family and the interventions of something Homo sapiens insist

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upon for themselves as we all try to preserve our individual "identities".

Far from being inscrutable or just plain difficult, cats are, unique personalities, just like humans, and just like us, they are thinkers, reactors, hunters, competitors, collaborators along with innumerable other traits. Tom captures this so well.

For the person that moves around a lot, this book is real food for thought about the trials and tribulations of relocating cats into new environments. This charming book, is a substantial read as cat books go, at 230 pages. For a cat lover, it is funny, thoughtprovoking, and heart-warming and gives a rare insight into the mind of another cat lover in a way that many writers rarely achieve. It's the sort of book that takes you out of yourself, however difficult things have been in your day. However busy, uplifting or disappointing the day has been, Tom's words take you to another place where you can simply revel in the experience of knowing and caring for our feline companions Tom Cox's previous book The Good the Bad and the Furry was a Sunday Times bestseller in 2013, so this publication has a good pedigree. Close Encounters of the Furred Kind, would be a great Christmas treat for anyone who loves a feline friend or two or three...

A Goose Called Gertie...

MALCOLM D WELSHMAN is a retired vet and author of three pet novels. The first, Pets in a Pickle, with a foreword by James Herriot's son, reached number two on Kindle's bestseller list. The third, Pets Aplenty, has just been published. The Sun says: 'It’s perfect for animal lovers the world over.' Malcolm shares with Pets Magazine readers this festive short story, one of many stories based on his years as a vet.

Illustration by Becky Unwin

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Did she sense her fate, only a couple of months away? I wondered.

‘Have you thought where we’ll keep her?’ asked Maxeen. I shrugged. ‘What about the old chicken coop?’

‘It’s full of fertile guinea-pigs.’

‘The lovebirds aviary?’

‘Elderly budgerigars.’

‘Ah, I know, the garden shed,’ I declared undaunted. ‘I’ll move the ferrets into the garage until Christmas.’

There was a loud honk from the wicker basket as I heaved it onto the kitchen table. I lifted the lid off and a long, white neck uncurled from within. A large, orange bill swung in my direction and two steelgrey eyes of a goose stared coldly at me. The bird was a ‘Thank you’ for a difficult calving over at Geoff Palmer’s, one of my farming clients.

‘Geoff thought we might like to fatten her up for Christmas’ I explained to my wife, Maxeen.

There was an indignant hiss from the goose as I scooped her out of the basket in a flurry of snowy down and flaying webbed feet.

She then wagged her tail and waddled over to the oven to peck at her reflection in the door.

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Although I was happy to give her free reign in the garden, I hadn’t appreciated how good an escape artist the goose was. Gertie, as she was named, had a constant appetite for pastures new. Her first excursion was to Miss Partridge, the retired post-mistress who lived next door.

‘I’m sorry to trouble you, dear,’ she told Maxeen over the phone. ‘But a rather large duck is picking my pansies. Is he yours?’

My wife hurried round straightaway.

The rectory was Gertie’s next port of call, paddling round the centre of the vicar’s pond clearly enjoying herself but making the incumbent, Reverend James, very hot under his dog-collar. He came to the rescue with a Savoy cabbage. ‘Maybe a little temptation is required?’ he said with a benign smile and stripped off the outer leaves of the cabbage, putting them in neat piles round the edge of the pond as if arranging prayer books.

It did the trick. Gertie was enticed ashore and I pounced on her. She hissed. I swore. Reverend James crossed himself and uttered a series of fervent ‘Bless you’s.’

I managed to curtail any further wanderings with plastic mesh, chicken wire and dismantled budgerigar cages. But it meant sacrificing the vegetable plot.

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‘At least it’s helping to fatten her up,’ I said as I watched the last row of my sprouts being devoured.

While Gertie, now established as a cherished family pet, tucked into a large helping of poultry mash.

Maxeen grimaced. ‘Actually, I’m getting rather fond of Gertie,’ she said. ‘She gives me a friendly honk in the morning when I let her out. And she always rummages in my pockets for breakfast scraps. What about having a pot roast for Christmas instead?’

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But I was adamant. Maxeen realised that when she found the Cordon Bleu cookery book I’d been engrossed in open at ‘Roast Goose with forcemeat and watercress’. The look from her suggested I should be the one to be plucked and stuffed. The Friday before Christmas, there was a small drinks’ party in the vet hospital. Wine and cheese round the operating table.

Maxeen and I returned late that evening. There were a couple of honks from the bottom of the garden as I fumbled at the front door trying to align key with latch. When we finally manage to let ourselves in, we promptly tripped over Nelson, our deaf Jack Russell, snoring in blissful unawareness on the hall rug.

I didn’t sleep too well - kept dreaming of being chased round and round the kitchen table by an irate goose with a knife and fork in each wing. Guilt I suppose.

Gertie’s honking woke me up, her cackling rising Malcolm D. Welshman is author of Pets Aplenty published by Austin Macauley Publishers at to a crescendo. Was Foxie after our Christmas£7.99. Kindle price £0.99. His website is lunch-to-be? I sprang out of bed, snapped on the www.malcolmwelshman.co.uk light and throwing a dressing gown over my shoulders, pounded down the stairs.

An open back door greeted me, a pane of glass broken. I heard the sound of footsteps running away. Too late, Nelson cottoned on to the fact we’d had burglars and began to bark at a bowl of fruit.

Of course, we had Gertie to thank for the warning. She’d saved our skins. The least we could do was save hers.

As a result, we went for a pot roast on Christmas Day.

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‘I Believe In Angels’

Lucy the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has become something of a star, with 19,000 followers on Facebook, her own calendar and a children’s book no less. Life today couldn’t be more different for Lucy. She was saved from the horrors of puppy farmed life by animal welfare campaigner LISA GARNER, from Warwickshire. Now as well as her campaigning work alongside her rescue sister Annabelle, Lucy has become an occasional & willing model in Lisa’s high-end pet accessories business, Little Pooch. Here’s Lucy modeling a selection of festive outfits. For all prices and to order, visit: www.littlepooch.co.uk.

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For all prices and to order, visit: www.littlepooch.co.uk.

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Lucy The Rescue Cavalier: Calendar 2016

Lucy’s calendar is available for £10 plus P&P from her Facebook page: https:// www.facebook.com/ lucytherescuecavalier/

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Sophie’s Choices Top product picks by our canine reviewer Sophie, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Ancol Dog Christmas Gifts Reindeer Sweater £10.95 for XX Small / X Small / Small £11.95 for Medium/ Large

Available in grey, red and blue Santa Super snake £8.55

Rope filled reindeer £7.65

Xmas collar. £4.40 - £7.50 Available in small/ medium/ large All from Ancol: http://www.ancol.co.uk/

Lily’s Kitchen Advent Calendar for Dogs A tasty treat behind every door, this tasty Advent Calendar is sure to have every dog in the house vying for attention.

Available from Lily’s Kitchen: http:// www.lilyskitchen.co.uk/christmasgifts

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