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Short Paws: Heartfelt Goodbyes, Brave Rescues, and Pet Wellness Shifts · Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond

• 0:01
  Welcome to Paws Between Us, your regular dose of positive pet
• 0:05
  news. Every other week, we bring you a short, uplifting episode packed with the latest
• 0:10
  feel-good stories and research from the world of pets. So take a moment
• 0:14
  to tune out from all the negative news dominating our headlines and help us shine
• 0:17
  a light on the good, celebrating the joys pets bring to our lives and sharing
• 0:21
  the inspiring changes making their lives better too.
• 0:24
  So settle in for a short pause and let's spread some positivity
• 0:28
  together. Hey, Sasha. Hello.
• 0:32
  Had a good day? Yeah, I feel like I'm about to sneeze. Hopefully I
• 0:36
  won't, but just suddenly came on. I have been poorly this week. Mm-hmm.
• 0:41
  And I feel fine now, but just a word of warning, if I sneeze,
• 0:45
  I'm sorry. At least I can't spread the germs through the microphone.
• 0:50
  Um, but yeah. Yeah, you've been unwell, haven't you? So, I'm glad you're feeling
• 0:53
  a bit better though. I have, and I've had COVID, and I've had so
• 0:57
  many people say to me, is COVID a thing anymore? Like, is It's
• 1:01
  just not really something people talk about like they used to.
• 1:05
  And since we've all been vaccinated and had it a few times
• 1:09
  and built up immunity. I blame Thomas, my husband, however, because he came
• 1:12
  back from a work trip with it. I think he'd been
• 1:16
  on a flight. Oh no, the worst. And then I was a bit
• 1:20
  smug thinking I haven't got it. And then of course I did get
• 1:24
  it. Yeah. Well, there's a lot going around. I read like
• 1:28
  Cases are surging, so I'm not surprised you caught it really. Yeah. Are you okay?
• 1:32
  Are you staying well? Yeah, I've been fine, thank goodness.
• 1:35
  Mentally, maybe not, but physically I'm fine. Yeah, no, no, it's all
• 1:39
  okay. Yeah, we had a, we had a sadness happen this
• 1:42
  week, which we'll talk about another time. Because we're going to do
• 1:46
  an episode on grief in a few weeks coming,
• 1:49
  so we'll touch on that. But yeah, had some sadness this week.
• 1:52
  Yes. I'm really sorry to hear that.
• 1:56
  Yeah, it's nothing directly with me. Maybe we should just
• 2:00
  say it. I was gonna say, now you've mentioned it, I mean, I think
• 2:04
  it's, so long as you can talk about it without getting upset. Yeah, no,
• 2:07
  I'm fine. My mum's poor little cat passed away this week.
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  Kind of slowly been getting poorly and poorly, but I'd noticed significantly
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  when I went within like about a 6-week gap, I went back on to see
• 2:19
  my mum and poor little thing looked really just sad. And Mum said
• 2:23
  over, oh my God, I am gonna get sad. Over the coming weeks, she just
• 2:26
  got sort of slower and kept eating less. And Mum
• 2:31
  made the decision that it might be good for her to,
• 2:35
  for the right thing to be done. Yeah. Then, yeah.
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  So yeah, she was, she was put to sleep in my Mum's arms, which was
• 2:43
  really gorgeous. On, was it Thursday? And I've just been in touch
• 2:46
  with Mum since, and she's all right. She's doing okay. But it was Mum's little,
• 2:51
  little pal, bestie for quite a long time, and they slept together,
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  and Mum always talked about her. Whenever I was on the phone, she was talking
• 2:57
  about Luna the cat. So yeah, that's our news this week. It's really sad.
• 3:01
  Yeah, I feel so sad for you both. She was such
• 3:05
  a sweetie. She was so cute. And we have done a social about her.
• 3:08
  She was our black cat celebration day when it was National
• 3:12
  Appreciation. And so she's on our socials, but we'll do a post in memorial
• 3:16
  of her this week. I think. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like she had a
• 3:19
  wonderful life and she was a great companion to your mum
• 3:23
  and they brought each other so much joy. Um, your mum's obviously
• 3:28
  older, lives alone, and so yeah, it's,
• 3:31
  yeah, having Luna by her side probably was amazing.
• 3:35
  But yeah, it's great that she's got you in her life as well and you
• 3:39
  can, you can support her through it. Yeah. Because you know what it feels
• 3:43
  like, don't you? Of course. Yeah. Yeah. But mum is gonna come over
• 3:46
  and stay in a couple of weeks for a long stay cuz she's not been
• 3:49
  able to stay away from home for quite some time because the cat has been
• 3:53
  older and got stressed quite easily. And so Mum didn't
• 3:56
  want to leave her overnight, which is, you know, lovely because she cared
• 4:00
  so much for Luna and wanted to sort of not put her under any more
• 4:03
  stress. But now Mum's a little bit freer, at least
• 4:07
  to come and stay with us and get out of the house a bit
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  more, which is nice. The silver lining, but you know, sadness that poor little Luna's
• 4:14
  left us, but will always be with us in our thoughts and memories.
• 4:20
  Yeah. Well, sorry, that's a sad one. No,
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  sending you a big virtual hug. Thank you.
• 4:26
  I'll send it to my mum as well. Yeah, please do. Pass on my,
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  um, my love and my thoughts. And it never
• 4:33
  gets any easier, does it? I know you and I and your mum have had
• 4:36
  pets over the years and have experienced pet loss and it,
• 4:41
  yeah, if anything, it, it feels harder each time.
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  But yeah, it's not something you ever really get used to or adapt
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  You sort of just have to get on with it, don't you? But as you
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  said, we're, we're doing a podcast where we're exploring kind of pet loss and dealing
• 4:57
  with grief, so we can unpick that a bit more.
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  But yeah, I mean, this, this week Betty's also been poorly.
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  She's had a cyst in her eye. We had to get drops.
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  And yeah, I just, yeah, I just
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  felt really, really sad that she was poorly too. And you just wanna do the
• 5:15
  best by your pets and make sure that they're like happy and comfortable and.
• 5:19
  Yeah. Yeah, I, um, I was worried about her,
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  but she's, she's perked up a bit since we've been putting the drops
• 5:26
  in. She hates having the drops in her eyes, having to put some in every
• 5:29
  4 hours, or 2 different types of drops. So. Wow, that's tricky.
• 5:34
  But she's doing all right. But every time she's a bit poorly, you do
• 5:37
  worry and you do think, oh, I hope she's gonna be okay. So. Yeah,
• 5:40
  of course. Of course, with her being a little bit older as well. Yeah,
• 5:43
  exactly. 'Cause she's a senior now. So yeah,
• 5:45
  just have to watch out for those things, but. Has the cyst
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  gone? Is she looking better? Yeah. Like she had lots of gunk in her eye
• 5:52
  and she was just feeling very sorry for herself. She was still eating,
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  but she just was just very low energy, was sleeping a
• 6:00
  lot. Yeah. Just wasn't herself. You could just tell that she wasn't
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  quite right. But now the eye is fully open and it's all shiny
• 6:08
  again. She's having a sort of final checkup tomorrow to make sure
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  that it's gone. Good, good, good. So all 3 of you were poorly at the
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  same time? Yeah. We've all had, yeah,
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  some form of poorlyness, all feeling sorry for ourselves
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  together. So, you know, it's that time
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  of year, isn't it, where the seasons are changing? Like, I've got a jumper on
• 6:29
  today, you've got a jumper on. Yeah, just, I hope
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  there's nothing more that comes her way, at least. No. Yeah, I mean, hit me
• 6:37
  with it, but just leave my dog alone.
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  I don't want my dog to be poorly. I can be poorly, but she can't.
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  Yeah. So, so yeah. So what have you seen in the news this week
• 6:48
  then? Yeah, let's start on a positive note. Yes. Yeah. Because that was a little
• 6:51
  bit sad. So I've got some good news. So I saw this morning
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  about a story about a dog, terrier named Teddy,
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  who went missing in the Lake District in August, early August.
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  And after 19 days, oh wow, a volunteer searcher heard
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  him barking in a steep ravine in Dry
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  Gill, if anyone's aware of the area. The local mountain rescue
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  search team deployed their teams out and managed to get
• 7:17
  Teddy, put him in a backpack, and carried him safely down the mountain to reunite
• 7:21
  him with his family. Oh, it's amazing.
• 7:24
  Yeah, he was slightly underweight as well, significantly underweight, they say. Yeah,
• 7:27
  not surprised. Because he was all by himself for that long. I mean, 19 days
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  is a long time, but suffered no obvious injuries and is now healthy
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  and well, back with mum and dad. Yay! Oh, I bet they're so relieved.
• 7:39
  Just the feeling of knowing that your dog is safe and
• 7:43
  is that with you. Yeah, no, goodness me.
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  So, what I was going to say on that back of that was, if you
• 7:50
  want to donate to the mountain rescue team, there's lots of them out there.
• 7:53
  They look for humans and animals. And I actually saw on
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  their website another story of a man who was being rescued down a
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  mountain in a stretcher, because he'd obviously damaged his leg, I think, from walking.
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  I didn't see this whole story, but his dog was on top of him on
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  the stretchers that were taking him down. So, man's best friend was right
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  beside him. So sweet. But the other thing was also just to say that there
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  is a Drone SAR for Lost Dogs UK,
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  and they have equipment, thermal cameras, battery packs, and they
• 8:21
  go out and they're sort of nationwide service that helps look for lost dogs.
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  And you can, if you wanted to, donate or join their community updates to find
• 8:29
  out what, who they're looking for, what's going on, and how you can support their
• 8:32
  work. So, yeah, just 2 little things there if you wanted to kind of support
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  with any kind of lost dog situation. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing how technology
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  has evolved so much that there are now drones that can help with this kind
• 8:44
  of thing. Back in the day when there wasn't, you know, you just have to
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  go wandering the streets. Posters. Yeah, posters and
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  just, I remember my grandma and granddad's dog, Tilly,
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  disappeared in Leicester. They were visiting for a
• 8:57
  week and Tilly ran off. And I remember as a small kid going out in
• 9:00
  the car, like winding the window down of the streets of Leicester going, Tilly,
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  Tilly. And actually she was found in the end by a
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  member of the public, which was amazing. But yeah, It was just, we didn't have
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  social media, didn't have drones, there was no websites, you know,
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  so it was just get out there and do sort of searching
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  yourself. Yeah. But my grandma was distraught
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  and, uh, yeah, I think, I think it was because a poster, a member
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  of public sort of saw Tilly and, and contacted my grandma and yeah, and they're
• 9:31
  reunited. But yeah, very stressful time.
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  I've had the, yeah, I've had the experience of that with
• 9:38
  Roscoe in the garden here one day after years of us here,
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  he just suddenly disappeared and your heart sinks. You spend, there's that initial panic
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  where you're searching the house, you're calling his name, you're looking outside the garden,
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  you're thinking, he can't have gone far, he can't have gone far. And you're like,
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  then up and down the street shouting and you start to think, oh my God,
• 9:55
  like what, what if the worst has happened? What if he never comes back?
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  And then, oh, there's just the panic. We've, we've found him a
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  few hours later, but we found him literally the other side
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  of the fence under the hedge. So he'd gone nowhere. By about half a foot.
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  I don't know, it was so small space, just hiding behind the fence.
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  But oh, the worry we had for hours looking for him and calling his name.
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  He didn't even come to us. It's like, you little bugger. Yeah. Why did you
• 10:20
  not come? Very, yeah, being a bit naughty there.
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  Very naughty. But thank goodness we found him. Yeah. Since blocked
• 10:27
  up that little hole because yeah, we don't want to lose any more kitties under
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  the fence. No, you live and learn, don't you? Anyway, what news
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  have you got? I've got a couple more, but let's see what you've got to
• 10:38
  bring to us today. Yeah, I mean, just a couple of short snippets, things that
• 10:42
  are worth celebrating. Our UK listeners will know that here
• 10:46
  in London, we have Downing Street, we have a cat.
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  There's a Chief Mouser called Larry,
• 10:54
  and I hadn't realised he's actually 19. Yeah. So, Larry is
• 10:58
  doing really well for his age, but he has had a
• 11:01
  minor operation. So, he's been away, he's not been visible.
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  At Downing Street for a while.
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  But yeah, he had a cyst removed, and the government
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  published a short statement to say, our Chief Mouse,
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  Sir Larry, is back at Downing Street following a minor operation
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  and is recovering well. He is feline much better,
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  but taking things one paw at a time. We are grateful to the
• 11:28
  vets for their outstanding care. Cute. So yeah,
• 11:32
  I mean, apparently he arrived from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home
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  in 2011. So, spent more than 15 years at Downing
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  Street, so he's seen many prime ministers here in the
• 11:44
  UK come and go. But at 19, I mean, that is impressive.
• 11:47
  And yeah, he was adopted into the
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  fold so that he could catch mice in Number
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  10 Downing Street because some of these old buildings in London do have
• 12:00
  problems with mice. So, yeah,
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  he's doing really well. So, that was just quite sweet. I've not actually
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  been to 10 Downing Street myself. But I've seen
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  him on the TV and he's a bit of a star attraction.
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  Definitely. When tourists come, they always, like, want to see Larry
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  the Cat. And then another just bit of where we're sort of focused
• 12:21
  on UK news, the Bank of England has revealed 4 animals
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  that replace famous historical figures on our banknotes.
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  So, great. Apparently there was a consultation with
• 12:33
  the public to see what types of animals we wanted on
• 12:37
  these notes. Dogs and cats unfortunately didn't get a look in,
• 12:41
  but yeah, bumblebee, hedgehog, puffin, and barn owl have been chosen.
• 12:45
  Nice. So that will be quite cool just to
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  sort of, sort of spice those up. But yeah,
• 12:52
  celebrate and recognise our wildlife. Did you vote? I did. Did you?
• 12:56
  No, I didn't even know it was running. I'm clearly not keeping
• 13:00
  on top of the news, so. Did you have to submit an
• 13:03
  idea or was it just you had to vote for the 4? I think there
• 13:07
  was, yeah, the options, but I think there was probably, from memory, there was maybe
• 13:11
  about 10 or 12 different animals at that point when I was voting. Okay.
• 13:14
  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it was a shortlist. Right. And did you vote
• 13:18
  for these 4? What did you vote for? I definitely voted for the hedgehog because
• 13:21
  of my little creatures in my garden. I can't remember who else I did,
• 13:24
  whether you could only do one. I've forgotten now.
• 13:27
  Yeah. Well, I love that. So yeah, well done. I'm gutted I
• 13:31
  missed out on that consultation, but there you go. So it's a good excuse
• 13:35
  to get some money out of the bank and spend it, because I don't really
• 13:39
  ever carry cash because it just slips through my fingers very easily.
• 13:43
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get some cash out and spend it on some animal welfare.
• 13:46
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I might go to my local dog shop and buy some stuff.
• 13:50
  But I don't think they're going to be out for a while, are they?
• 13:53
  Oh, are they not? Okay. They'll probably take a while to design and print.
• 13:55
  Yeah, I think it's at least a good year or so.
• 13:59
  I heard a news report about it maybe only a couple of days ago.
• 14:02
  It was way longer than I anticipated. I thought, oh yeah,
• 14:05
  sometimes 2027. So it might even be later than that, but yeah.
• 14:08
  Okay. We'll see. So what else have you got? You said you had something
• 14:12
  else to share. The other thing, it was an article
• 14:16
  on thekindestgoodbye.com in Australia who
• 14:20
  have been looking at the pet industry. And we, you and I talked about this
• 14:23
  offline in our own little lives at one point.
• 14:27
  About how the pet industry is shifting and like people
• 14:31
  are less interested in accessories and novelty products and convenience stuff. It's more about like
• 14:35
  science and longevity and emotional wellbeing and technology
• 14:39
  kind of designed to support quality of life. And this article was just saying
• 14:42
  that like pets are living longer because of the advances in nutrition and
• 14:46
  vaccines and all this kind of stuff. And it's the sort of longevity
• 14:51
  sort of bringing about its own challenges, like chronic conditions and things, and digestive problems,
• 14:54
  and obesity, and anxiety as well, which is interesting. A lot of anxiety.
• 14:58
  I'm hearing a lot about anxiety on lots of different platforms and spaces, you know,
• 15:01
  anecdotally, and on different reports.
• 15:05
  But so pet owners are asking more questions
• 15:08
  about dignity and wellbeing, and it's driving
• 15:12
  a growth in preventative care programmes, mobility and pain management solutions,
• 15:16
  behavioural and emotional health services, and in-home veterinary care.
• 15:20
  And low stress handling, which is music to my ears because they're all the things
• 15:24
  that I would have been talking about that I would like to see develop more.
• 15:28
  So, and it echoes some of the stuff actually that you've been experiencing
• 15:32
  with Betty, I think, some of those things. Yeah, definitely. I mean,
• 15:35
  as she's got older, I'm sort of very conscious of her health and wellbeing and
• 15:39
  thinking about the different things that I can do to support
• 15:43
  her with some of those challenges. So definitely I've been looking at her nutrition.
• 15:48
  Thinking about sort of weight loss, 'cause she is a pug, loves food,
• 15:52
  and yeah, just thinking about things that she
• 15:56
  can eat that, yeah, that can keep that weight down, but are
• 16:00
  also really nutritious. Yeah. It talks about the kind
• 16:04
  of hydrotherapy stuff and all the new solutions that are coming out like that.
• 16:07
  I think it talks about this as well, and it sort of said like one
• 16:10
  of the things they're looking at is like other kind of
• 16:14
  monitoring and AI tools, so like activity collars and smart
• 16:18
  harnesses that measure stuff like sleep quality and
• 16:21
  restlessness, things to get a bit more,
• 16:25
  uh, data rather than putting them under any kind of more difficult
• 16:30
  situations where they get stressed and then the behaviour's changing. So at-home monitoring, which is
• 16:33
  quite interesting. So yeah, it's just saying like this, this whole shift,
• 16:36
  this whole cultural shift that we're applying to our own health,
• 16:40
  you know, we're like— we were saying this, you're looking into fibre, weren't you?
• 16:43
  Is obviously dripping into the animal world, the pet world,
• 16:46
  and that we are looking for similar developments for our animals.
• 16:50
  So yeah, it's just saying like developments are looking, they think in future this is
• 16:53
  looking towards like early intervention, like you were saying with obesity
• 16:57
  maybe, and looking at health rather than late treatments. Emotional wellbeing alongside
• 17:01
  the physical health. Technology that supports human judgement
• 17:05
  and doesn't replace it. So some of the AI stuff. And then care models that
• 17:08
  prioritise dignity, comfort, and trust. So it's just
• 17:13
  interesting 'cause it's moving towards a kinder, smarter, more like informed
• 17:16
  pet care industry rather than us just kind of going along as we always
• 17:20
  have. People are becoming more aware of the sentience of animals, the emotional intelligence
• 17:25
  of animals. We are driving that, I think, as pet owners. And so I,
• 17:29
  again, we've said this a few times, but it's encouraging to see everything shifting 'cause
• 17:33
  that's what I would love. Yes. Yeah, no,
• 17:36
  and it's time, isn't it? And it will take time for it to become more
• 17:40
  widespread, and some of these treatments and services are still inaccessible to many
• 17:44
  people. Like, very conscious with Betty having hydrotherapy,
• 17:49
  it's covered by her insurance. Her insurance is very expensive.
• 17:54
  I didn't have the insurance, but I'd still do it because
• 17:57
  I have the means to do it. But not everyone does have the means to
• 18:01
  do it because it's a weekly commitment. Um, and so if
• 18:05
  she has the hydrotherapy and the laser, you know, it is a lot. For pet
• 18:08
  parents to pay, and it does add up. And schedule in. Yeah.
• 18:11
  Schedule in if you like. Yeah, exactly. No, well done for bringing that up.
• 18:14
  You're right. But it's right because I think it's just more
• 18:18
  about more conscious pet parenting. And I think as we are,
• 18:23
  you know, as our pets are becoming a key part of the family and
• 18:26
  there's sort of more attitudes towards them being kind of an equal
• 18:30
  family member, then people do want to ensure that
• 18:33
  their pets are having the same quality of life as
• 18:37
  they are as well. But yeah. It's some of the, do worry
• 18:40
  about some of the pets that get left behind with all of these things,
• 18:44
  but. Yeah, I know that's where I suppose like it all needs to be a
• 18:48
  bit better integrated and like the idea of an NHS
• 18:51
  for pets would be awesome. Yeah. But yeah, the,
• 18:55
  yeah, you're right. The choice to take your animal or pet down that
• 18:58
  road is dependent on whether you've got the income and the time
• 19:02
  and not everybody has, and particularly at this point in in
• 19:06
  the world where cost of living is mad and people are having
• 19:10
  to make choices about what they can and can't afford. And, but it is good
• 19:13
  though that there are being, there are these advancements that are being thought
• 19:18
  of, developed, and becoming available in all those ways
• 19:21
  that you've just described. Yeah, like the preventative stuff
• 19:25
  hopefully helps long down the line so pets age better and more well
• 19:28
  so that they have a healthier, longer life and You can
• 19:32
  sort that out before things become a bigger problem. So, yeah,
• 19:35
  it's good. Let's hope it carries on. Pause and
• 19:39
  think on that one then. Yeah. If you've got any products, got any developments,
• 19:42
  if you're in that world, get in touch with us and let us know.
• 19:45
  Yeah. So, please do. Please do. And then the
• 19:48
  only other thing I had seen recently, which I was a bit surprised
• 19:52
  by, because I hadn't realised that Northern Ireland was a little bit behind.
• 19:58
  In, in terms of kind of, you know, what's already happening
• 20:02
  here in England. But yeah, there was a piece of, there's due
• 20:06
  to be a piece of legislation introduced in Northern Ireland called Lucy's
• 20:09
  Law, which effectively is banning the commercial third-party
• 20:13
  sale of low-welfare, high-volume supply of
• 20:17
  puppies and kittens. So it's already had a significant positive
• 20:21
  impact on animal welfare here in England when it was introduced in 2020,
• 20:26
  but Northern Ireland seems way behind the curve.
• 20:29
  But hopefully not for much longer. 'Cause the law bans
• 20:33
  the commercial third-party sale of puppies and kittens under 6
• 20:37
  months old. So if you want to buy a puppy or a kitten, you must
• 20:40
  buy directly from the breeder or adopt from a rescue organisation.
• 20:43
  And yeah, I say the word buy there because there
• 20:47
  is just a transaction of, of money involved. And I
• 20:50
  think as we've talked about before, it's, I don't know, it just
• 20:54
  seeing this thing as something that you buy is I don't
• 20:58
  know, it sits uncomfortably, doesn't it? Yeah. With us. But effectively
• 21:01
  when people are looking to introduce a puppy or
• 21:05
  a kitten into their home, if they do go to a breeder, you know,
• 21:09
  there is that sort of financial transaction. And I think
• 21:13
  this is where this law will really help because before
• 21:17
  the law came in, dealers and pet shops could act as middlemen
• 21:21
  between breeders and buyers. And again, use the word buyer there, but I would say
• 21:24
  breeder and pet parent, because the system made it difficult
• 21:28
  for people to see where an animal had actually come from or what conditions
• 21:31
  it had been raised in. So if you go to a breeder and you see
• 21:35
  the animal in, in the home, or the dog or the cat in the home,
• 21:38
  then at least you kind of, you know, you're a bit more aware. Yeah.
• 21:41
  A bit more informed. Bit more informed. So Lucy's Law
• 21:45
  removes that middleman. And the law originally came about
• 21:49
  because Lucy was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who was rescued
• 21:53
  from a puppy farm. Aw. And for many years she
• 21:57
  had existed in terrible conditions. Breeding puppies,
• 22:01
  and her story became a symbol of the cruelty that can exist behind
• 22:04
  the commercial puppy trade. And her suffering inspired a campaign
• 22:09
  that eventually changed the law. So animal welfare campaigners
• 22:13
  spent over a decade campaigning for stronger protections
• 22:16
  for puppies, kittens, and breeding animals. Good for them. And that,
• 22:20
  that then led to Lucy's Law. And so yeah,
• 22:23
  in Northern Ireland, that hasn't quite been the law up until
• 22:27
  hopefully very soon. Okay, good. When it will be.
• 22:31
  At least they're moving in the right
• 22:34
  direction. Yeah. I think, I've been thinking about this a little
• 22:38
  while now, and I think I would always just,
• 22:42
  I would always plead for people actually to try and either buy, if you're
• 22:45
  lucky enough to have the money, buy from a breeder. They are
• 22:49
  expensive, obviously. You will get pedigree animals, but we know that then their
• 22:54
  welfare is high. The mother cat and the kittens are all being
• 22:58
  looked after. They've all had their injections. They're all not being overbred.
• 23:01
  Or if you go to a rescue, then at least you are taking a
• 23:05
  cat or a dog or any other animal that's in those rescues out of that
• 23:09
  situation. They get to live a lovely life with you as their new mum and
• 23:13
  dad. So yeah, dunno, it's tricky because
• 23:16
  I think a lot more needs to be done about breeding.
• 23:20
  I've come across some horrible things, not horrible, but where I've
• 23:24
  seen it on socials where a cat has had a litter
• 23:28
  and the kittens are literally just about to leave. So I think they'd be 13
• 23:32
  weeks old and that cat is pregnant again. And it's just disgraceful.
• 23:37
  But I do understand that people, I think, struggle in that situation to get
• 23:42
  them neutered, either paying for it or keeping them in long enough and managing
• 23:46
  that situation. But I just think we all need to do our
• 23:49
  bit to help with the situation where we are, oh, we've got numbers
• 23:53
  of high numbers of cats and dogs living in rescue centres that really
• 23:57
  need rehoming. That's getting bigger and bigger every year. We keep talking about
• 24:01
  the stats of that. So, we all need to club together as a, as a
• 24:04
  group of people who love animals and do the best by them.
• 24:07
  Well said. Yeah, indeed. Hear, hear. So, yeah. And there's
• 24:11
  definitely advice online that if you are,
• 24:14
  you know, considering or hoping to have
• 24:18
  a new dog or cat in your life and in your home,
• 24:22
  you know, there are things that you can look out for. So do.
• 24:25
  Okay. Do, do your research and have a think. And, you know, one of the
• 24:29
  things that really jumps out to me, which I don't think I would ever bring
• 24:32
  myself to do because I, I am just a bit of a suspicious person
• 24:36
  by very nature, but it says be wary of meeting people in car parks,
• 24:40
  motorway services, or other neutral locations because, yeah,
• 24:43
  then you don't know where that animal has come from.
• 24:47
  And it's, yeah, you know, let's meet on the M25 at this service
• 24:51
  station and you give me the money and I'll hand over the pet. I mean,
• 24:54
  that, I just, I don't know, I would feel very uncomfortable.
• 24:57
  Comfortable about that. I would, and it, I can see how
• 25:01
  difficult it is because like if I wanted a pet
• 25:05
  and for whatever reason I'd found myself in that situation, I wouldn't
• 25:09
  do, but imagine I did, I'd wanna take the puppies. But then
• 25:13
  you're only, by being part of that system, you're only
• 25:17
  encouraging that breeder to breed again and make money off that same animal.
• 25:20
  And you're perpetuating the problem of cats and
• 25:23
  dogs that have been left in rescues and haven't got homes. It just breaks my
• 25:27
  heart. Yeah. Yeah. So do, do your research. And also it
• 25:31
  says never be pressured into making a decision or handing over a
• 25:34
  payment. So yeah, just, just be careful.
• 25:38
  But yeah, it's good to know that. I'd say just don't even look for
• 25:43
  them. That would be my advice. 'Cause once I'd seen an animal, I would feel
• 25:46
  emotionally pressured to do, by my own nature,
• 25:50
  to take it. I'd just say, don't even entertain it. Don't go
• 25:53
  shopping on these sites. Don't look on any websites that advertise,
• 25:58
  don't go on TikTok or Instagram and get a pet through that way.
• 26:01
  Go through a breeder, go through a rescue, go through reputable
• 26:05
  people that you know. Don't go shopping like
• 26:09
  you're buying a toaster. Yeah, exactly. So there you
• 26:12
  go. Enough said. Sorry everyone. Man alive. Right.
• 26:16
  Thank you, Sash. That was, that was helpful. It got me a little bit rattled,
• 26:19
  but I'm over it now. It's good to debate it. It's good to
• 26:23
  sort of flush it out, isn't it? And you're very right. It is. It is.
• 26:27
  Just don't do it, guys. Yeah, don't do it in the first place. Well,
• 26:30
  have a lovely week, Sash. Anything coming up
• 26:34
  this week for you? Yeah, so I'm, I'm gonna be going home
• 26:38
  to my mum's to look after her 4 dogs.
• 26:42
  So, she has 2 Chihuahuas and 2
• 26:46
  Chihuahua crosses who all really love each other. And she sent me a photo
• 26:50
  this morning actually of them all cuddled up together in a basket.
• 26:53
  So yeah, she's away, so I'm going home to look after
• 26:57
  them. So that'll be really nice. Is Betsy going with? Yes. So we're gonna have
• 27:00
  5 dogs to look after. Wow. Bit of a lot. I'm gonna have to do,
• 27:03
  yeah, I'm gonna have to do walking in shifts, I think.
• 27:06
  'Cause I've no way I can take them all out on the lead. 5 of
• 27:10
  them. No, they'd get tripped up, surely. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll be doing
• 27:14
  a couple at a time out for walkies. So that'll be nicer. And yeah,
• 27:18
  just take it easy with them, snuggle up, watch some films, have lots of cuddles,
• 27:22
  lots of nice walkies. Oh, we'll send my love to all the pups.
• 27:26
  Yeah, will do. What about you? Nothing planned
• 27:30
  this week, though I am hoping to get away for a couple of nights in
• 27:34
  early November. So I'm going to sort of tap my niece up, see if she'll
• 27:38
  come and cat sit again. That's the plan. Yeah.
• 27:41
  Yeah. Once I've got that, once I've got that sorted, then we can book a
• 27:44
  little night away, which would be good. Yeah. Yeah. Don't get caught out. Don't book
• 27:48
  it, get overexcited, and then there's no one to look after your undersized baby.
• 27:52
  Yeah, I've made that mistake before. I was like, okay,
• 27:55
  should have checked. Right, everybody.
• 27:59
  Thank you for listening. Yeah, we will see you next time. We've got an
• 28:03
  episode coming up from Flock and Clowder. They'll be on next
• 28:07
  week talking about their 4-acre farm. Yep. 4 acres in Lancashire
• 28:11
  and their rescue chickens and cats. Amazing. So,
• 28:14
  look out for that and we'll see you soon. Take care, everybody. Take care.