Doggy day care

Heritage weekend was also open weekend for the Leeds RSPCA. (For non-Brits, it is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a charity established in 1824). They are currently based at a commercial facility near Morley as it seems that they took a good offer from a developer for their old premises and are looking for a new location to build on.

Their temporary home is rather smart though, it is at MyPetStop which is a huge facility for dogs and cats (as well as smaller animal boarding) with grooming, Hydro-therapy, a vets and a large arena for walkies when it is wet. (You can take a 3D cyber-tour here).

The kennel & cattery area would give a double glazing salesman a wet dream as they are of uPVC construction with fencing, reminiscent of a (high security) holiday camp.

The arena is substantial with lots of consulting rooms on the perimeter (& offices upstairs). The RSPCA have a couple of these rooms earmarked as they need to check out both the animals and the humans for suitability.
For the paying guests, the salon is well equipped for grooming of clients who need more than just their bonce sorted.

(The centre had a cameo appearance in a recent blogpost of mine here).

All incoming animals to the RSPCA are spayed, chipped and checked for health before trying to find a home. There are adoption fees to pay, I think they said £100 for a dog and £60 for a cat which are higher than what Bradford charges but there again, MyPetStop is not a charity and must be expensive to run.

The RSPCA people said that the cats go a lot quicker than some of the dogs due to their independence and the much simpler vetting process (drive-by rather than home visit). This was noticable in the animal areas as the cats just had names whilst the dogs had explanatory stories about their temprament and suitability.

Having a dog wouldn’t be fair on the animal in the Grey household as we both work and hte RSPCA don’t recommend leaving one alone for no more than four hours.

Of course, sometimes responsible pet owners have to do this, so MyPetStop has come up with the ideal of day visitors as well as boarders.

Animals are good companions and sometimes they act as surrogate children or friends for their owners, some of who can carry amphromorphism to exremes. For over-pampering your pet, I think La Maison Des Chiens at £34.99 a night is probably “more money than sense”…

(Check out the price list for some of the extras!)

Pet-sitting

I came across a rather strange sight in the lounge this evening. Karen was armed with a pair of nail cutters, David was primed with a torch and Gizmo was wrapped in a towel on Karen’s lap. Gizmo is a Guinea Pig of the Abyssinian variety and needed a claw trim. You have to be careful with Cavies as they have blood supplies into the upper parts of their claws. (He has his very own styptic pencil just in case.)

Needless to say, Gizmo wasn’t overly keen and blood was drawn. Fortunately, it was Karen’s!

He didn’t seem particularly traumatised afterwards, and wheeked away as normal whilst I was cutting the celery and peppers later for our packed lunches.

Being responsible pet owners, we have to ensure he is looked after if we are away. We are going on a short “mini-cruise” (i.e. a ferry) later in the year and scouted around, eventually finding a small-pet sitter not too far away. The name of the business? the rather delightful pun- Wheeks Away!