Our little Cavachon had Pancreatitis before Christmas vet bill came to £4500. Fortunately Pet Plan paid out.

Hello folks

Meet Sergio. Sergio is only kind-of a pet. He shows up on the kitchen window sometimes with a few friends expecting a couple of pieces of dog food.

Sergio is an Australian Magpie, a much loved bird species in this country. Described as one of Australia's most accomplished songbirds, the Australian magpie has an array of complex vocalisations. It is considered to be highly intelligent bird, exhibiting complex cognitive abilities and social behaviors. I know that Sergio plays mind games with me over food and usually wins.

The Australian Magpie is quite distinct genetically from the Eurasian Magpie which is the species one would see in the UK.

Webbo

These ones attack you!

Occasionally during breeding season. Some magpies. A few of them don't like cyclists, joggers, and dogs near their nests so will do a bit of swooping. Understandable! Sergio doesn't attack me as he knows full well which side of his bread is buttered.

Webbo

One attacked me as I was walking into work one day, as if walking into work wasn't bad enough!

Quote from: Bealman on May 28, 2025, 09:34:58 AMOne attacked me as I was walking into work one day, as if walking into work wasn't bad enough!

Work? You've got a good memory

  

Apparently, magpies have good memories of human faces. What did you do, George, to deserve being swooped?

Quote from: Bealman on May 28, 2025, 09:34:58 AMOne attacked me as I was walking into work one day, as if walking into work wasn't bad enough!

Seems fair...

Just a quick picture of Bobby in relaxed mode

What a lovely cat!

And very similar markings to Poppy, see here in supervisory mode...





With all good wishes.

John and Poppy

Eeek, John, that looks like a fiddle yard and Kato track! What's going on?

Quote from: Bealman on July 28, 2025, 08:50:06 AMEeek, John, that looks like a fiddle yard and Kato track! What's going on?

Worrying 

Quote from: port perran on July 28, 2025, 10:11:06 AM

Quote from: Bealman on July 28, 2025, 08:50:06 AMEeek, John, that looks like a fiddle yard and Kato track! What's going on?

Worrying 

Sorry - pure laziness on my part. I used the first suitable photograph of Poppy I found.

The layout seen is the Table-Top Railway Mark III. Kato track, storage yard and branchline from a station, loosely based on Alne.

It was far too big and was soon replaced by Mark IV - the first of the Poppinghams. Which, at 48" x 30", was also far too big.

Poppy prefers a smaller-sized layout, presumably because she is a smaller-sized cat. She says this one (Mark VII) is "purrfect":-





With all good wishes.

John

Not precisely my pet, but I thought a couple of puppy pictures might cheer people up in the middle of a dreary winter.

Stepson #2, who is a single man, has been muttering darkly about getting a dog for quite a while. He's recently spent an eye-watering sum of money on a new electric car and decided he now wants a dog to put in it but has been dithering between a puppy or a rehome. One of his mates has recently acquired a pup so he started looking on the pets4homes website and found a golden retriever pup for sale about 5 miles away. We went and had a look and she is enchanting:





We were a bit worried about why she hadn't sold. Turns out she was the last of a litter of 10 and a young couple were going to take her but decided to split up instead. Anyway, Will is going to pick her up on Saturday. He normally works from home but we will be looking after her once a week when he goes up to London so on Sunday we will be introducing her to our two dogs. I will report back...

Cheer,

Chris

PS. Forgot to mention. She's called Molly.