On Thursday night when I was talking to Chris on Skype, I had a crazy idea. Why not surprise Chris on Friday by coming up to Cork.

I was thinking about that all night, and then on Friday morning I decided to book a go bus ticket online which was €17 one way ;o I know it’s so expensive but it was a non – stop bus and I have to admit it was pretty fast. The journey was exactly 3 hours no more no less. I was impressed by that.

I packed my things on Friday morning and my mum dropped me to the bus station. Of course I didn’t bring my jacket with me, as I thought it’s going to be warm as it was for a while. I regretted not bringing my jacket with me as soon as I got on the bus. It was totally freezing in there.

I wanted to sleep so bad, my eyes were closing and my head falling but I couldn’t because it was so cold as the bus driver had the window open through the whole journey, and I thought I’m going to get hypothermia. Seriously. Thank god I brought an extra sweater with me but still I was cold.
So I got to Cork and ran to get my second bus to get to the apartment. On the way I rang Chris to ask did he finish work yet, but unfortunately he said he’s staying in work till 6 as he had to make some calls. Obviously he didn’t know I was coming up. I was sad, but excited at the same time, so I told him come home quick as I’m in Cork right now. I could hear him being extremely happy, but he couldn’t show it as his boss was sitting beside him.

While I was walking home I heard a loud BANG, then I looked to the left and a small bird flew into a window and dropped on the ground. He was still alive, moving but I couldn’t leave him there all alone.

So I decided to wrap him in my sweater and bring him home. While I was walking I was checking if he’s breathing. He was breathing until I got to the apartment I took a small box and placed him inside it with the sweater wrapped around him. When I placed him there he stopped breathing.

I was shocked as he was alive like 2 second ago. That was heart breaking.

Then suddenly Chris came home. He said he couldn’t wait till 6 to see me. I was extremely happy when I seen him. But then I told him about that bird. We both decided to put him back underneath a bush.We wanted to bury him but there was no place anywhere. That was really sad.

After that Chris and I decided to get a dinner as both of us were starving. We went to a Chinese restaurant as Chris was telling me that they have the best food ever. It was good but it wasn’t amazing.

Then we went home, watched some fails on YouTube and went to sleep, as we were driving to Dublin on Saturday morning to see Gina.

She was extremely happy when she saw Chris, she loves him so much. We went with her for a long walk. We didn’t walk far from home as it was extremely hot outside and we didn’t have any water with us, to cool her down.

However, it was a really nice day today and I hope everybody had nice day too. What did you do with your furry friend? Tell me in a comment!;)

Love Gina.

So yesterday my (human) sister, (my furry sister) Gina and I went for a small walk around the neighbourhood at around 9pm. It was such a nice and warm day but we could smell rain in the air. I love that smell.

Is it just me, or anyone else loves it too? Tell me in the comments below, I want to know;)

While we were walking we met Gina’s friend a 13 years old black German shepherd named Max. He’s an absolute beauty. He was walking in the same direction as we did so we walked together. Gina wanted to play with him but Max was too old. ;( However, I could see in his eyes that he wanted to play so much.

We walked around a small field where Gina and Max were walking beside each other smelling each other. Max was extremely curious of Gina, and they even tangled their lead. So cute.

It as a funny story when they met the first time. Gina was a one year old when they met each other for the first time. She was really scared of him and was barking at him all the time, I think it was because Max is such a big dog and Gina was just scared.

However, with time she got used to him, she knows his smell and she’s not afraid of him anymore. I suppose she’s much older and wiser now as she turned 3 years old in June.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures as I left my phone at home.

Love Gina

So yesterday my mum, Gina and I went to the beach at 9 pm for a walk before bed. The water was really far away so we could walk, run and play everywhere we could. We took few toys for Gina so she was super excited as she loves playing in the water.

While we were walking I noticed a beautiful sunset it was magical I couldn’t stop looking at it. And I had to take a picture of it.

That walk was so relaxing and I could clear my mind of all the toxic thoughts that I had in my head. So finally I could sleep peacefully without over thinking.

I hope you all had a nice and safe evening yesterday.

Love Gina

So today was a good and sad day at the same time.

I’ll start with the bad. So Chris had to leave to Cork today for a week for work, and I hate when he’s away from me;(.  But the good part was that I could stay with Gina for a week.

In the morning when Chris was still here,we went to the park, we took a ball and frisbee with us as they are Gina’s favourite toys.

When we arrived to the park it was all quiet, there was no cars no living soul walking around. It was magical. I was surprised that the grass was dry and it was so warm. I was just wearing my leggings and a t-shirt, but to be honest I was wearing wellies as I thought it’s going to be wet.

We played with Gina for around 30 or more minutes. We were running around throwing balls and then frisbee if Gina let us. As she always has to have one toy in her mouth.

During that time we took a lot of brakes and we were lying down on the grass looking at the sky. Then we stood up and went for a walk to the other field, where Gina was playing again.

Gina is that type of dog that’s overactive, she never knows when to finish, even when she’s out of breath and can’t walk. She would play.!

When it was time to go back to the car we walked slowly, and Gina was smelling the grass. When we got to the car I gave her some water as there was still some left in the bottle. When she finished drinking, she licked my face thanking me for giving me water. That was the cutest thing ever.

Through the whole journey home Gina was lying down and having a little power snooze.

When we got home, she ran straight to her water and food bowl as she was extremely hungry. When she drank and ate she went to sleep, that’s what she always does after the morning fun.

But then Chris packed and left and we stayed alone in the house. But not for long he will be back on Friday. We both can’t wait.

And now Gina is saying goodnight to all her furry friends out there. Waiting for tomorrow’s new adventures.

Love Gina

Since we were young our parents were telling us about how important fruits and vegetables are in our diets. That they give us vitamins and energy and make us feel good.
However, in animal world not all fruits and vegetables are safe to eat by our dogs and cats. Some of them can make them really sick if eaten in big amounts.

I would like to make a list and show you which fruits and veg are toxic to our furry friends, and should be avoided.

Avocado
We all love a little bit of guacamole right? But you should never give it to your dog. Avocado contains a substance called persin which is a fungicidal toxin. It’s harmless in humans but if ingested by our furry friends can be really toxic.

Alcohol
Beer, wine, liquor anything that contain alcohol is extremely toxic to animals. Alcohol has the same effect on liver damage and brain as humans. The difference is that it takes a lot less alcohol for the damage to occur.
A little bit of alcohol can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, difficulty breathing, coma and even death. So don’t give alcohol to your dog even when you think it’s funny.

Onions and garlic
Onions and garlic in any form is very toxic to animals and can destroy dog’s red blood cells causing anaemia. Symptoms include – vomiting, weakness, dullness.

Coffee and tea
These are extremely toxic. If ingested in large amounts it can be fatal to our furry friends and there’s no antidote.

Milk and dairy products (cheese)
Milk and dairy products ingested by dog in large amounts can cause diarrhoea and sore tummy. In some cases food allergy as well showing up as itching.

So these are the common fruits and veggies and other products that may be good for you but not as good for your furry friends.

Love Gina

In today’s blog I’m going to talk about ten toxins that can affect dogs and cats. These toxins are usually our day to day ingredients, medicine and house cleaning agents that we keep at home. Those items should always be hidden away from our lovely animals. To keep them healthy at all time.

So first of all what is poison?
A poison (toxin) is a substance which when enters the body in large amounts causes harmful effects on organs.

So here I listed 5 poisons that are really toxic to DOGS, so keep them away.

1. Chocolate
   Chocolate is toxic to dogs, especially dark chocolate. Milk chocolate can be toxic to dog but if ingested in large amounts.
2.  Grapes and raisins
   Those sweet and really tasty fruits can cause kidney damage in dogs. Not very pleasa
3.   Xylitol
   Xylitol is a sweetener found in chewing gums, medications can cause fast drop in blood sugar and causing liver failure in dogs.
4.  Rodenticide (rat poison)
   This powerful poison may cause internal bleeding of a dog even if ingested in small amounts. So be careful and place your rat poison away from dogs. They look like blue pellets.

5.    Joint supplement
   We all know that dogs will eat anything that taste good of the ground, sweet tablets especially. Overdose of this supplement can only cause diarrhea, but in some cases it can causes liver failure.

Here I listed 5 poisons that are really toxic to CATS!

1.    Lilies
   Lilies such as Easter, tiger and Asiatic are extremely poisonous causing kidney failure in cats.
2. Household cleaners
   We all know that cats are exploring everything and can squeeze into a smallest hole. Most household cleaners are fairly safe to animals but those that are concentrated such as bleach can cause really bad chemical burns.
3. Antifreeze
   This is very toxic to especially cats as they are attracted to it by the sweet taste. If ingested even in small amounts can cause liver and kidney failure.
4. Cough and cold medications
   The medication that contains acetaminophen (pain reliever and a fever reducer) is really toxic to cats causing damage to red blood cells and liver failure.
5. Antidepressants
   Very toxic to cats, it causes neurological and cardiac problems.

So now you know the top 10 poisons affecting dogs and cats, keep them away from our furry friends because as we know they are very curious animals wanting to know and especially taste everything.

Love Gina

When you take your dog for a walk, you should always take at least two poop bags with you. Just in case your dog decided to go to the toilet.

Always pick up the poop even if you are on a field and there’s no one around.

Some dogs may have dog roundworms (Toxocariasis) because they have never been wormed before. So when your dog decides to poop the worms are coming out with the faeces.
The worms can be transferred onto human, especially children, due to poor hygiene.

If a kid accidentally touched the poop or contaminated sandbox and then its face the worms or the eggs can be transferred to their mouths. That way the worms can travel through mouth to the blood stream and to their little eyes, causing blindness and to other organs.

So to prevent the spread of worms and diseases pick your dog’s poop and keep the environment clean and safe for people.

And if you get caught leaving the poop on the ground you might get fined for up to €150 that’s a lot of money for a poop is in it.

So if you are a responsible dog owner,  you would have poop bags in every single pocket of your wardrobe. That’s what I did since I got Gina. I was finding poop bags in every pocket and even washing machine. It’s insane but true.

So clean up after you pet because if he could he would do it himself. !

Love Gina

.

In today’s blog I’m going to talk about hotels that allow pets in when you’re going on a holiday.

I know that there is a lot more hotels that take in animals, but what they are not telling us on their website what kind of animals we are allowed to bring with us. However, some hotels want you to contact them before you arrive with your pet and then you can ask if the pet that you have is allowed in that hotel, but what if they say no?

It’s understandable that all hotels will take in cats, as they are small and there’s not much trouble with them. They don’t need to be taken out for walks to pee and poop as they have transportable toilet with them at all times. So cats don’t really care if they are taken out side or not.
However, dogs
Most of hotels take in only small pets for example one hotel in Wexford is pet friendly, BUT the pet has to weigh less than 9kg or be shorter than 40cm. Not very good for a 30kg German shepherd though.

I did my research recently on hotels in Ireland that are pet friendly. And I’m surprised that there are more of them now than before. Some of the hotels even have spa grooming treatments for dogs. Most of the hotels that allow pets have a lot of land or there are a lot of places to see and hike with your pet.
And if the weather is not nice the hotels also have indoor play area for dogs, which is great for your pet to socialize.

In nearly all hotels you have to bring your dog’s bed, food and bowls and pets are not allowed on furniture or beds. That’s not very ideal for cats as they want to walk on everything and sleep in the strangest places.

However, I’m just wondering what if you have a restricted breed dog, like Gina she a German shepherd and I have never seen any hotel allowing big dogs like Gina. But I will find out soon as Chris, Gina and I will be going on a holiday in August and we want to travel around the country, but first of all we need a pet friendly hotel.

So I will let you know how we got on soon.

I will post few hotels that I have found online, this might be handy for someone going on a holiday soon.

https://irishcountryhotels.com/accommodation/pet-friendly-hotels/

http://www.enniscoe.com/

http://www.ohmydog.ie/dog-friendly-accommodation/

Tell me what experience did you had with pet friendly hotels!

Love Gina

Today I’m going to talk about Gina’s health problems.

So Gina is a German shepherd which we adopted when she was about 8 weeks old. She was the cutest puppy ever. She was really active and hyper puppy, wanting to play all the time.

After about 2 months I have noticed that she is getting a small spots on her belly I was worried as I didn’t know what it was. So I went to the vet with her when she was due to a vaccination and told the vet about my findings. The vet said it’s just a small rash and gave me a cream which was really good at first. I’ve been using it for a while as the spots kept coming back, but when I applied the cream they disappeared.

The spots disappeared for few months, and I though “great she’s finally healthy”. Few months ago the spots came back but they were ten times worse. They were black and had puss in them I was terrified when I seen them. I rang the vet immediately to book an appointment. The vet looked at Gina’s skin and said that those spots are infected as they were full of puss. The vet then prescribed me antibiotics and anti-inflammatory tablets to give her for a week.

The tablets helped Gina for a while, but when we stopped giving her the medication the spots immediately came back, affecting underarms now. The vets were giving us tablets all the time and one time I said that I want a skin scrape done on Gina to find out what is causing them spots to appear all the time.

Few weeks after, the results came back saying that Gina has a staphylococcus in her skin a bacteria causing the skin problems. The vet said that she might be allergic to something. We changed her diet completely. The vet prescribed us a specialized food to give her for two months.
At first I mixed her dry food with a half of a can of wet food for a week and then after I was reducing the amount of wet food until she was eating just dry food. She didn’t like but it was the best for her health. Eventually she liked it.

Then I decided why not give her vegetables with the dry food, since she loves carrots, broccoli and other veggies. So I began mixing raw carrots and broccoli with a table spoon of olive oil and water and blended it all together in a mixer. And she absolutely loved it. Since then she didn’t have any skin problems, which I’m really happy about. Her coat is shiny and her skin healthy.

At the end we found out that she’s allergic to diary as we stopped giving her cheese. I know it’s bad but it was a half a slice of cheese once in a while. But we stopped it and she’s all good now.

Hopefully she’ll stay healthy for the lest of her doggie life.

Love Gina

In today’s blog I’m going to talk about zoonosis. Zoonosis is any infectious diseases that can be transmitted from a wild or a domestic animal to a human.

Zoonosis can be spread by faecal oral contacts e.g. Cryptosporidium is spread in water contaminated with animal faeces. Cryptosporidium also known as crypto which is microscopic parasite that causes diarrhoea.
Zoonosis can also be spread by a direct contact by touching animals that have ringworm. Ringworm is a commonly misunderstood with a worm but ringworm is a fungus growing on a surface of the skin and it’s extremely contagious. Diseases can also be transmitted through wild or domestic animal bites transmitting rabies.

Three common diseases transmitted from animal to a human.
1. Leptospirosis
Leptospirosis is a spiral shaped bacteria. It’s found especially in water where infected animals passed their urine e.g. Rats. This disease not only affects humans but other animals such as birds and reptiles. Leptospirosis enters the body through cuts, broke skin and mucous membrane. The organs that are affected the most as liver and kidneys.
The symptoms of leptospirosis area headaches, flu, meningitis liver and kidney failure and death.
If recognised quick enough leptospirosis can be treated with penicillin and fluids.
2. Ringworm (fungus)
Ringworm is spread through contact with other infected animals only. It affects skin, nails and hair. Spores scatter in the environment and can be found in carpets, bedding, and furniture. Ringworm can live for up to 18 months in the environment.
The treatment of ringworm is not that hard but can take time. First of all you should clean the environment. Then if you find ringworm on your pet take him to the vet immediately as the vet can prescribe medication for your pet such as anti-fungal creams and oral drugs. It’s the same for humans.
The total treatment time is around 2-3 weeks. Of course it depends on a person and how big the infection is.
3. Rabies
Ireland is rabies free country. The last person that was recorded with rabies was in 1903 and since then there was no rabies in the country.
All mammals can get rabies! It’s a deadly virus which is secreted in the saliva of infected animals which bites someone. The virus goes straight to their blood stream affecting the whole body. There’s no treatment for rabies at the moment.
There are two forms of rabies
• Furious rabies – very common in dogs. When infected the dog have personality changes, an increase in saliva and eventually paralysis of the throat. Eventually they become hydrophobia meaning they have a fear of water. They can’t drink water and if they try they choke.
• Paralytic or dumb rabies – commonly affects herbivores such as cows, wheels, pigs. The affected animal is why, nervous and has a paralysis of jaw and muscles, which is extremely painful as the animal can’t move at all.
There’s no treatment of rabies but you can prevent it from spreading by vaccinating your pets when travelling to a different countries. Humans can get rabies vaccination as well if travelling to other countries. So if a person gets bitten by an infected animal it gives them more time before they get medical help.

Preventing zoonosis
To prevent the spreading of zoonosis you should wear protective clothing, gowns and wellies if you’re working with animals.
Hygiene is everything you should always keep a strict hygiene in the animals enclosure.
Other very common zoonosis are cat bite fever, salmonella and mange mites.
So be careful if you’re travelling to different countries. Always check before you travel to make sure you don’t need any vaccinations and ALWAYS make sure you eat fresh food.