A rodentic update
It is a fair while since I mentioned Tammy the rocket propelled rodent on these pages, in http://franmart.blogspot.com/2008/06/tammy-rats-excellent-adventure.htm, so here is an update on her activities.
The yelping at night became resolved (more or less) when we decided to let her out of the laundry at night and to sleep in the lounge. We think we were also getting on top (fortunately intellectually rather than physically) of the house training situation. Then she was in kennels while we went away for nearly three weeks and on our return everything more or less reverted to the start.
Two weeks after we returned and the night time noise has gone back to acceptable standards but there are still issues with what we find in the morning. But there are some positive signs on that front also. It is basically the only major problem (apart from having to make arragements for her if we go away etc).
Perhaps part of the improvement is due to us having introduced bones back into her diet as illustrated! It was most amusing to see her head off down the lawn with the remains of this bone in her mouth. Eventually she got to a garden bed covered with periwinkle and hid it in there (unfortunately before I could film this).
I could say the bone was her dealing with a visiting Rottweiler but in fact when Peter and Deborah visited with their two border collies there was a great deal of fun all round rather than a bloodbath. Hopefully the same will apply later this week when she gets introduced to our daughter's moggy Chloe.
We have become rather relaxed about her being on a lead around the garden, and indeed when going to nearby parts of the property (if there is a low marsupial probability). This got severely tested this afternoon when she got distracted by a low flying Crimson Rosella and took off down the drive with me in pursuit. Just as I thought I'd got her attention she spotted the mob of roos down by the creek and was off, travelling far faster than I could run (not that that is saying much these days). Despite her velocity, by the time she got to the creek everyone else had vanished into the scrub so by the time Puffing Billy hove into view she was nosing around, effectively saying "What, me chase 'roos? How could you think of such a thing?"
The next day had an interesting start, in that Tammie was very quiet. Walked with a saggy lead, barely showed any interest in 'roos and essentially stopped walking after 2km. We couldn't work out the problem. Then I found her posing with a foot raised and thought she had cut her foot. On trying to examine this appendage I found she had got her harness mis-positioned so it was compressing her chest. Judging by the way she snapped at me it was quite painful: also bloody tight as I had to cut it off her. Back to a bouncy dog. Also, the toilet training has greatly improved so I wonder about cause and effect here!
The yelping at night became resolved (more or less) when we decided to let her out of the laundry at night and to sleep in the lounge. We think we were also getting on top (fortunately intellectually rather than physically) of the house training situation. Then she was in kennels while we went away for nearly three weeks and on our return everything more or less reverted to the start.
Two weeks after we returned and the night time noise has gone back to acceptable standards but there are still issues with what we find in the morning. But there are some positive signs on that front also. It is basically the only major problem (apart from having to make arragements for her if we go away etc).
Perhaps part of the improvement is due to us having introduced bones back into her diet as illustrated! It was most amusing to see her head off down the lawn with the remains of this bone in her mouth. Eventually she got to a garden bed covered with periwinkle and hid it in there (unfortunately before I could film this).I could say the bone was her dealing with a visiting Rottweiler but in fact when Peter and Deborah visited with their two border collies there was a great deal of fun all round rather than a bloodbath. Hopefully the same will apply later this week when she gets introduced to our daughter's moggy Chloe.
We have become rather relaxed about her being on a lead around the garden, and indeed when going to nearby parts of the property (if there is a low marsupial probability). This got severely tested this afternoon when she got distracted by a low flying Crimson Rosella and took off down the drive with me in pursuit. Just as I thought I'd got her attention she spotted the mob of roos down by the creek and was off, travelling far faster than I could run (not that that is saying much these days). Despite her velocity, by the time she got to the creek everyone else had vanished into the scrub so by the time Puffing Billy hove into view she was nosing around, effectively saying "What, me chase 'roos? How could you think of such a thing?"
The next day had an interesting start, in that Tammie was very quiet. Walked with a saggy lead, barely showed any interest in 'roos and essentially stopped walking after 2km. We couldn't work out the problem. Then I found her posing with a foot raised and thought she had cut her foot. On trying to examine this appendage I found she had got her harness mis-positioned so it was compressing her chest. Judging by the way she snapped at me it was quite painful: also bloody tight as I had to cut it off her. Back to a bouncy dog. Also, the toilet training has greatly improved so I wonder about cause and effect here!
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