The hot is certainly back! It is 29 degrees celcius here. I thought I would make the little guests a frozen treat this morning and I came up with this recipe:
1 Banana 1 Apple 1 “Meaty Strips with chicken” from Lidl 1 Carrot 1 desert spoon full of peanut butter A dash of water
Pre chop the banana, apple (throw away the core) and carrot. Cut the meaty strip up into small bits, put all the above in a blender and zoosh it up quite well.
Pour this mushy stuff into silicone molds and pop in the freezer for a few hours.
They went crazy over them but not sure I will try one of this recipe myself lol.
I have also made some with just carrot, apple and water, these look better and the dogs love them too.
Dog’s can make a big mess, especially when the weather is bad and furry friends are treading rain & mud all over the rooms. We vacuum a lot a lot but eventually also need to mop and scrub and that is time consuming. While visiting a client I saw she had this groovy machine. I asked about it and she said it was for cleaning hard floors.
I thought that was exactly the kind of thing I needed. So off to Amazon and I took the plunge. It is wireless which is also a huge bonus. The runtime is about 40 minutes which is plenty to get the rooms that need doing done. Just plug it back in when finished and it will always be ready for next time.
The one I bought came with 3 different mops pads, not sure I really see any difference between them in practice though. I usually use the one called scrub as it should be the best at cleaning mud away.
The cleaner has a water tank which you can also put some floor cleaner in and there is a button at the top which make the cleaner spray as you clean the room.
I found that the cleaner can’t handle the really bad marks and dried in messes. So you might want to do the room all over and then hand scrub anything really dried in.
I really like you can just grab the thing and mop and dry everything pretty quickly and not need massive effort to get it done. It also dries pretty quickly and if you find you really need a floor dry ASAP you can just use another mop pad to dry and polish instead of air dry.
Once you are done you can either handwash or just chuck the pads in the washing machine. I might buy a spare set of pads just to have one set always ready.
So this thing is great for pets but obviously it is not going to work on carpets, but if you have tiles or laminate etc. this will make your life a little bit easier.
I always vacuum the rooms first but I usually have 3 dogs here, if you have 1 low shedder you might get away with just using the cleaner.
Mine came from Amazon but I will link to the manufacturers site here:
Our new air con unit finally arrived. Yesterday was pretty hot but today is way hotter and that arrived in the nick of time.
We are keeping our main doggie room at a cool 18 degrees Celsius which will make those guys much more comfortable. we also have 3 regular fans and cooling mats.
The doggies are also getting a cool bath in the garden 😎
A quick trip to Pets at Home with Ben to get some guinea pig stuff resulted in the unplanned purchase of this doggy puzzle.
Mailoo got to try it first and worked out how to do it with a little demonstration. The puzzle also has locks which add to the challenge but you can leave it unlocked while they get used to how it works.
Watson was next to try it out, again we filled it up and left it unlocked and he worked it out instantly, so he has either done it before or is just a natural puzzle master. We will have to see if he can do it with lock enabled later!
It has proven to be quite entertaining for the doggies, so I am pretty happy with it. They have other stuff in the same range too, this is most advanced of them all so maybe we will try another one sometime.
Have not had alot of time to post recently as we have been very busy! We have just taken on a lovely new dog call Watson. He is a young Cocker Spaniel with the most amazing silky hair. He is coming to see me for 2 days a week.
I still have young Mailoo with me too, these two are both high energy little guys and they have been getting on really well together which I am very happy about (as you never know until you run a trial).
They had a great day together yesterday and were both so tired in the evening. Mailoo sat and watched TV with me for a while but mostly slept after 7pm till 7am the next day! The guys are both so excited to play together but you can see they are tired too. At the time of writing they are both asleep on the sofa (hense why I can actually post this lol).
We have also been making sure we are compliant with all the current guidance too so I have been doing lots of essential admin work and reviewing policies etc. Not remotely exciting, but I really do want to ensure we are giving these guys the best and safest care we can.
I will be looking to update the gallery with some new photos soon. Poor Watson has not had to endure my photography yet but it is a matter of time I am sure.
I enjoy taking the doggies for a walk round here, many of the buildings are very unique and futuristic. I generally start a walk with the path by the library and continue to walk up to the conference center lake. You can walk all the way round the conference center and then either head back the same way or go explore the other buildings on campus.
The dogs really like walking round the lake as there is always stuff to sniff and lots of birds to look at such as geese, swans & moorhens. There are also lots of places to have a sit down and you will often get students come over and ask to fuss the dogs.
There is a Starbucks coffee shop near the sports center with plently of outdoor seating which is great on a nice day and there is a Spar shop very near the library.
If you are not familiar with the campus there are some very cool buildings, I will list a few to check out (with their map number).
The LRC (Library) – 3 Yang Fujia Building – 10 Xu Yafen Building – 11 The Colin Cambell Building – 12 Ingenuity Center – 19 GSK Carbon Neutral Lab for Sustainable Chemistry – 31
Remember to keep dogs on leads and always cleanup!
There are some great places to take dog’s for a walk around Wollaton. Harrison’s Plantation is a former clay pit that is now a lovely wooded area, dogs that like to explore and sniff about love this one. You are highly likely to run into other walkers as you go round too.
The walk itself is mostly circular going round the largish central pond which is full of wild birds. The place is very peaceful and I always like this walk.
Kids like the walk because as you go round there is plenty of nice wildlife to spot and there are some rope swings too.
It is nice to do in all weathers, but if it has been raining don’t forget your Wellington Boots! There are quite a few well placed benches to have a rest and they have put some nice viewing platforms in recently too.
This is a relatively short walk and you can easily go round twice and if you fancy a longer walk you can also continue into another nature reserve called Martin’s Pond.
The National Charity for the elderly, the terminally ill and their pets. We had a visit from a representative recently and they do some great work. Their website is here: https://cinnamon.org.uk/cinnamon-trust/
What does the Cinnamon Trust do?
The Trust’s primary objective is to respect and preserve the treasured relationship between owners and their pets. To this end it works in partnership with owners to overcome any difficulties that might arise. A national network of over 18,000 community service volunteers has been established to provide practical help when any aspect of day to day care poses a problem – for example, walking the dog for a housebound owner.
A national fostering service is provided for pets whose owners face a spell in hospital – volunteers take pets into their own homes and supply love and care in abundance until owner and pet can be reunited.
The Cinnamon Trust also provides long term care for pets whose owners have died or moved to residential accommodation which will not accept pets. Arrangements are made between owners and the Trust well in advance, so owners do have peace of mind in the knowledge that their beloved companion will have a safe and happy future. Emergency cards are available on request.
When a pet is in the Trust’s care either short term or long term because the owner is in care, the owner is kept in touch with visits, if possible, or regular photos and letters.
Nottingham Pet Care 