Yes it is only when he is left, and it seems the other dogs too. Our pooch Jack is lucky that I’m home a lot of the time. But people have to go to work, so these dogs are left a lot of the day.

So the yapper got so bad one night that we messaged our neighbours. They felt awful and left a little card in our letterbox apologising. I then felt bad that we had complained. Then the other night the dog yapped from 9pm till 12.45am. I was reluctantly half way through messaging the owners when their car pulled up and the dog ran back inside through his doggy door. We didn’t send the message, but part of me wished we had so the owners knew what had been going on.

To say we’ve become a little precious about our sleep is an understatement. Every parent knows how important it is to get as much sleep as you can when you can. Sophie thankfully has been sleeping through the night on and off for the past month, yet we haven’t been able to get a full night sleep. Whether it’s the stinking hot weather, people walking past outside making noise, or the bloody dogs barking, a full uninterrupted nights sleep has eluded us.

The point to my rambling is this. I fear that I’m turning into an annoying whinging neighbour, and an old fuddy duddy. While we didn’t end up sending the message the other night to the yappy dog owners, if it happens again, I fear I won’t hesitate to let them know their dog has been keeping us up for hours yapping his little head off.

I don’t want to piss the neighbours off and you know, end up on Today Tonight, but surely there must come a time when enough is enough?

Would you have a whinge? Or just grin and bear it?

I wonder if they'll take me home?

Hi, my name is Jack, and I thought I would tell you a bit about what it’s like to be the dog, the top dog, in the Streeter household.

I started out as a pound puppy and remember the day my future parents came to the pound. I saw Dad walking around and while my fur brothers were going nuts in our pen, I decided to play it cool and sat very straight and very still. One look at me and Dad was a gonner. Cue the puppy dog eyes for mum, and yep that was it, the deal was indeed sealed.

Once I got home Dad was adamant that my mat was to be at the back door, just inside. I didn’t take too many liberties, and just thought I would bide my time. Pfft, bide my time! I could count the number hours on my 2 front paw fingers that I’d been at my new home before my mat was now in it’s properplace, in the loungeroom with the rest of the fam.

Chillin in the loungeroom

And really that’s just how it started. I knew mum was a softie, so when Dad went away last year to the snow for a week, it was really no great surprise to anyone that I somehow ended up sleeping inside with mum.

It then turns out that dad was actually a bigger sucker than I thought when he didn’t kick me back outside! I now enjoy my cosy inside bed, and always sneak into mum and dad’s room about 5am for a sneaky snuggle with mum before a lovely brisk morning walk with dad.

Sooky boys warming up by the fire!

If I was any closer I'd be in it!

I’ve also become particularly fond of the fire this winter. There’s nothing better than being nice and toasty on a cold winter’s night.

So as you can see, life in the Streeter house is pretty darn good, for a cute lil kelpie like mwah. I have noticed lately though that mum’s tummy has been getting awfully big. When I snuggle into her tummy it seems to move. I have a feeling that there might be something in there, and I’m really hoping that it’s a new play friend for me. I could do with something energetic to play with.

C'mon Mum, throw the ball already!

Ever since mum’s tummy has been expanding her energy has been disappearing. She had no hope of keeping up with me on walks, so thank god for the oval, a tennis ball and a tennis racquet.

So thanks for tuning in for a little look into the life of an 18 month old kelpie, who seriously has his parents wrapped about his little paw. Yep, I think I done pretty good for a pound puppy!

Catch you next time for another installment in the life of Jack. No doubt I’ll have plenty of stories once that thing appears out of mum’s tummy!

Happy Friday!

Jack, the destructo dog.

See the lovely picture on the right there, well that is my gorgeous puppy Jack. You may have seen me mention him once or twice before on here.

Ok I mention him a lot. He is friendly, cuddly, gorgeous, and cheeky, but today he was a little bugger.

You see Jack is somewhat of a spoilt pup, but not in an over the top way. He has a doggy door so he can come in and out as he pleases.

He sleeps in his own little bed in the study (which is an open room at the foot our bedroom stairs) and most of the time he’s pretty good. He’s got a lot of ball and chew toys, that usually keep him pretty occupied. He’s destroyed his own stuff before, blankets, toys, kennel, but never anything of ours. Until now.

A little while ago I started working 2 days in the office and 3 days at home, so of course Jack has got kinda used to having me around. Sunday’s are hubby’s sailing days and Saturday’s are spent usually doing a little bit of running around, but mostly hanging out at home. So overall I spend A LOT of time with Jack. You might even say he’s a Mama’s boy. (He usually sneaks in for a snuggle at 5am before Hubby walks him just before 6!)

So on a Monday our cleaner comes to well you know clean the house, which means Jack gets put outside with a bone and his doggy door gets locked. I then go home for lunch about 12.30 unlock the doggy door, and he usually snoozes on his bit of the lounge until we get home about 5. This was all fine and dandy till the other week I came home to Hubby’s half eaten cap, a very holy wetsuit top, and not in the hail Mary, Jesus Christ religious kinda holy, and a decimated doggy brush. All of these things were just innocently sitting on the outdoor table. Clearly there was a fair bit of “f@*$ you Mum and Dad for leaving me, I’m gunna eat your stuff” in Jack’s little chewing episode.

I put it down to a one off act of puppy stupidity and gave Jack a good stern talking to, all of which I’m sure he took in and seriously pondered. Then. THEN he decided to rip up a heap of paper I left at Jack level while I literally ducked out for 20 minutes. Then yesterday I came home after being out for about half an hour to find him asleep with a pair of my socks tucked under his head. Yeah cute I know. But maybe another half an hour and my socks could have been his morning tea.

Then as you will see from the lovely picture to the right, which is where all this started, this is what I came home to today. A de-fluffed lounge cushion. OUR cushion. Not one of Jack’s stuffed toys that he shakes, throws and de-eye’s, but something of ours. I stupidly left him in all morning instead of doing the half, half thing and only letting him in at lunch. The problem is I’m a sucker. I smack him (admittedly not that hard) and he looks at me with those big brown eyes and I immediately want to cuddle him. Clearly I’m going to be a sucky non-strict mother! I try to explain to him that he’s just spoiling things for himself and if he behaved he wouldn’t get locked out the back. He looks at me and does the doggy side to side head thing, and I just wish for 5 seconds he knew what I was saying to him.

I feel like I’ve got a case of the Mummy guilts with THE DOG. I’m probably just guilty of treating the fur-baby with too much of the baby, and not enough of the fur, and putting him outside more. Oh the drama of it all.

I guess one can only hope he’s going through a toddler phase. He’s 13 months old, which technically is 7 in doggy years, so maybe he’s just pushing the boundaries and finding his paws in life. By the time we reach the terrible 2′s where he’ll be 14, I’ll be longing for the cheeky puppy who liked snuggles with his Mama, and probably have a sullen teenager type dog walking around with a bad attitude.

If anyone does have any advice for a over-chewy mum and dad’s things puppy, please feel free to comment!

I’m off to re-stuff the cushion now.

Jack the fur-baby

If you’re wondering, get a dog and that’ll give you a pretty good indication!

On the weekend my little fur baby (AKA Jack the dog) was stung by a bee. I quickly jumped into protective Mum mode while other half was calm and checked out his paw, pulled out the sting then gave him a pat and said you’ll be right mate.

I, on the other hand, sat with him on the lounge and made sure he didn’t start having a reaction, then of course gave him lots and lots of cuddles!

Despite the “you’ll be right mate”, the other half was still checking on him and providing some snuggles as well! It made me think, is this an indication of what we will be like as parents?! I’ve always been very relaxed around kids and know that from time to time they’ll get sick or fall and graze their knee but will I be over protective when it’s my own? Short answer, probably!

I can already see who will be the disciplinary!

When Hubby puts Jack outside if he’s done something wrong, as soon as Jack and I have eye contact through the glass door, I’m gone and immediately want to let him in and give him a big cuddle! Yes, sucker, I know!

So have you had pets, then kids and noticed a parenting trend?! Only time will tell for us!

I have been pondering this for quite a few days now and am finding the task at hand oh so tricky! As I’ve mentioned on here before, I LOVE photos, and therefore have a gazillion of them, making it bloody hard to choose my favourite!

So I’ve chosen a photo (well photo’s actually) that capture a moment. For ages I was politely asking, nagging like there was no tomorrow for a puppy. And finally, FINALLY, we were on our way to the RSPCA. You can read all about that HERE. This first pic was taken at the RSPCA, and it was at that moment that I knew I was getting a puppy!

You can already see that Hubby was besotted with this gorgeous little black kelpie pup, and Jack’s eyes were saying, please will you be my new Daddy! Needless to say, I didn’t have to do much nagging after that. Which of course made for a very relieved Husband!

The second pic was the first day we had Jack at home and as you can see Hubby isn’t enjoying having him at all! It certainly didn’t take long for Jack to become one spoilt and loved fur-baby! Maybe I need to be allowed to have favourite photo’s from different categories!!

So now it’s my turn to tag some other bloggers… What’s your favourite photo and why?…

An Account of Social Commentary

The 30 Day Project

Whatever Floats Your Boat

Happy Friday!

So if you know us you would know the story of John (my hubby) saying NO all the time to my pleas for a puppy. You can read about that HERE. Then finally on a trip to the RSPCA he caved, because this innocent little kelpie looked at John as only a little pup who needs a mum and dad can, and that was it. Not only was John smitten, but he declared that Jack had picked him. You can read all about that HERE.

And so, we take our little bundle of fur joy home, and John instantly put down the ground rules. He is to sleep outside. He’s not allowed on any furniture. His inside mat will be at the back door and he is NOT to move off that when he comes in.

And so on night one my new baby boy cried and cried and cried outside, so I slept on the lounge and he slept on his inside mat next me on the floor. Next day we bought him a kennel and sleeping outside was no longer a problem. Somehow though his inside mat stayed next to us on the floor near the lounge and Jack was never far from his Dad’s feet!

Then John started bringing Jack upstairs of a morning before his walk to have a quick snuggle on the END of the bed! Then on John’s first trip away from us, I may have given him his own blanket to sit on, on the end of the lounge. It was winter, I was cold, he was cold and well, John was away so who was going to stop me!

Then I’m afraid I turned Jack into a complete mama’s boy on John’s second trip away from us. The second night of John being away, I put Jack out and went to bed. I then heard him barking at some people who walking past the side of our house.

The people, no doubt drunk, then came up to our side gate and started barking back at Jack. Jack was beside himself, crying and throwing himself at the back door. Like any good mum, I raced downstairs and took him up to bed with me. And so it began of Jack sleeping inside. He of course got kicked off the bed once John got home, but had his own nice little bed in the corner of our room.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, and if you didn’t already think he was one spoilt fur-baby. Jack has now decided that not only is he king of the bloody castle, he’s also more human than dog, and requires a pillow for his morning nap on our bed before we go to work!

So what was it that I was saying? Oh yes. OH BOY HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED!

And the moral of the story is? John’s a big fat softie, and I’m a very proud mama! Yes, god help our future children!

On Sunday night I watched the 60 minutes story about pig farms and the atrocious conditions in which these animals are kept.

Close to tears and watching the disturbing pictures, I realised that by eating the pork, the bacon and the ham that we do, we are not only condoning these hideous pig farms, we’re also financially supporting it.

Instantly my husband and I made a decision to not eat it at all, or to source out organic or RSPCA approved products from pigs, from farms where they have been humanely treated.

It was quite rightly pointed out in the story that if someone were to treat say a dog how these pigs are being treated, they would be charged and prosecuted no questions asked. So why does this not apply to all animals? Is it because pigs are a food source and dogs are not? I don’t know. But whatever the answer is, it’s wrong. No animal should be treated this way.

The only way to fight this horrible practice that occurs on these pig farms is for the consumer, YOU, to make an educated choice. Clearly the Australian Pork association has been useless in keeping an eye on these practices, one, because a director of this company was one of the worst offenders with his pig farm treating his animals appalling, and two, because according to Andrew Spencer CEO of Australian Pork, the pigs apparently liked being shoved in a sow stall with only a centimeter of room on each side. Pfft. Give me a break Mr Spencer. How about we shove you in a stall with 2cm of room and see how you like it.

Here’s an excerpt from the 60 minutes story transcript. It starts after Mr Spencer was shown images of the filthy pig farm run by one of it’s Director’s.

ANDREW SPENCER, CEO AUSTRALIAN PORK: That’s an old shed. It’s filthy, doesn’t look good and I can imagine people seeing that and being a bit revolted by that.

LIAM BARTLETT: A bit revolted?

ANDREW SPENCER: However, look at the pigs. Those pigs were in fantastic condition.

LIAM BARTLETT: We showed the pictures to Andrew Spencer, chief executive of the Australian pork industry. He argues the alternative to sow stalls is much worse – sows on the loose, fighting, and he gave us his pictures to prove his point.

ANDREW SPENCER: They’re trying to run through each other’s ribs at 20km/h. That does bad things to pigs. That is an unacceptable welfare situation.

LIAM BARTLETT: So, you are completely happy with the welfare of those pigs in those pictures?

ANDREW SPENCER: No. I’m disgusted with the filth in that piggery, let’s make it absolutely clear. But I have seen the pigs and what’s important to me, and what’s important in a welfare discussion, is what is the state of those pigs. They look good.

LIAM BARTLETT: It turns out that a shareholder and director of the company operating that filthy piggery is Dr Ian Parish, who also sits on the board running the pork industry. Dr Parish declined our request for an interview. So the industry, the pork industry, is run by people who are happy to keep their animals in that sort of condition?

ANDREW SPENCER: No, and I think that’s a pretty unfair extrapolation. You’ve got an activist who’s gone into one piggery because their ultimate objective is a vegetarian one for our society, they want us out of business, so they will do anything that they can to do that.

LIAM BARTLETT: But when we asked to see conditions at any piggery in the country, we were told ‘no’. Instead, the industry provided footage of the Queensland University piggery and said research showed pregnant sows were actually happier in stalls.

ANDREW SPENCER: It’s a big, pregnant animal that’s not looking to frolic around. It wants to eat and sleep – that’s pig heaven. Sow stalls are good for sows, the research shows it.
Remember the backlash when the public found out how chicken’s were being kept, and it forced egg cartons to state if the eggs were from caged or free range chickens? Now tell me how many of you would willingly buy caged eggs now? I certainly do not. So why should it be any different when it comes, pork, or ham or bacon.

The RSPCA has released a list of RSPCA approved farms you can check out the list HERE.

You can read the full 60 minutes transcript or watch the story HERE.

So if you make no other choices or changes to your life except choosing to buy happy pig, then it’s a choice well bloody made. As much as I hate the term people power unfortunately without it these innocent animals will continue to suffer.

Happy Friday!