Be Excellent To Each Other

Neutering should be mandatory then. Also.

At last, we agree on something! Oh, wait - you mean the dogs? Never mind.

I doubt you'd be surprised to find that a lot of people that have to deal with said parents and children agree with you.

Yeah exactly. I wondered if that might get rolled out as opposition to the plan though since it seems to be getting a lot of news coverage today. I know that some people don't insure their dogs and so may object to being made to insure them but again, if you can't afford the £15 a month for insurance then you shouldn't own a dog.

<chuckles>

It's third party insurance not medical insurance (which is a fucking ripoff - you'd be better off setting the money aside each month). Third party so people can claim against you if your dog causes an accident or bites someone or another dog. That's £20 a year from the Dog's Trust.

I've always been of this opinion, much the same as with mobile phones etc. unless there's a legal need or great financial risk: vehicle and home insurance, for example. Some people unfortunately justify their premiums, but the vast majority don't, and just as with regular gambling, I'd rather not bother, thanks.

Depends on when in the plan your pet is ill, or course. Or what is wrong with it.

Isn't not having the insurance the gamble?

Nothing a sack, some house bricks and some rope won't cure.

Ah, but if they animal is microchipped the police will come and get you.

Depends how you look at it, I guess. Throwing money at something just in-case, or keeping your money and running a risk. I'd still rather do the former in the case of pet insurance, as horrible as that sounds.

Alright, a lot of bricks

The thing is the premiums climb quite alarmingly as your pet ages. One of our dogs is 9 and she was deemed by the cheapest insurance quote to cost £48 pcm. That's nearly £600 a year with a £100 excess on any claims. For one dog. And it will go up with time, obviously. Factor in three dogs and you're looking at well over a £1000 a year with that excess meaning that you can only claim if the animal is seriously ill.

Solution: kill dog at age 5.

Yeah pet insurance definitely is a gamble but surely no more so than having fully comprehensive car insurance. It's the same deal there isn't it? The house always wins.

I've only ever had TPF&T, so I'm not guilty of that, either

I don't think that's quite the right place to use considering

Knowing that your outgoings are fixed and the maximum outlay will be your excess is a nice feeling, compared to suddenly being thousands of pounds in the hole.

Not having pet insurance would have cost us over 4 grand last year. Well worth it.

Or: ban dogs.

Replace with miniature bears and/or alpacas.

Anyone hear the interview about dangerous dogs with two gentlemen of the estates on Today this morning? Christ, it's genuninely frightening that people can own killing machines without any training or oversight at all. More so due to the alleged rise in people obtainging dogs purely for nefarious purposes.

Aye, but fully comp wouldn't have covered my injury. I got the money for the bike back, regardless.

The bike was only worth £1,100, and the rise in premium coupled with the compulsory excess wasn't what I deemed to be worth it in that instance.

How did you manage that on 3PFT?

His family placed bets on him crashing.

The other guy's insurance sent me a cheque and took the bike off me. *shrug*

Technically they can possibly ask for that money back now, but I want my bike back if they do, and I suspect they won't be able to arrange that.

Oh, his insurance paid. That's fine then. I keep forgetting that you won out the original insurance malarky.

PETS

I didn't actually win anything.

The other insurance company sat on their arses way past the supposed cutoff time* for deciding to accept/deny liability. My solicitor was building my case while I was recovering, then sent me for a medical exam. In the meantime, they gave me a cheque for the bike with no admission of liability attached. Eighteen months later, and the other insurance company dig out a court of appeal ruling piece of case law supporting their denial of liability, and it goes in their favour a lot.

I'm still technically fighting, but I don't have much hope.


*three months, but there are absolutely no repercussions, from what I can see.

Jen has added a couple of new photos to flickr of Willow. Not added them all yet because we have taken the PC out of the living room for the time being and so just using the wee laptop.
You can see her here.

This is a wee example of one of the photos. This was taken at my parents houe and is Willow climbing over the top of her sister Callie who is a wee bit bigger than her (but not as clever)

I went to see Jasmine today. Once again I got totally attacked. Oddly she's turning brown (from silver) and her face has grown out so that she looks more like a Bengal now than the Savannah she is cross bred with. I don't know what cross breeding did, but man, she's a fucking loon.







I love this photo. It demonstrates the sheer speed of a cat's paw. A half a second later I was bleeding

Adorable.

To look at yes. But she's really super wild. I have to say that today she was a lot calmer. After the initial frenzied 'rip the shit out of you' bit she calmed down and fell asleep. Last time she just continued to hit me with a barrage of attacks. Ears, hair, tracksuit strings.. Anything was fair game. In hindsight my cat Cooker was as bad tbh, I just forget how energetic and psychotic these early gens can be.

She's definitely dropping her runty looks and filling out rather nicely

Aww teh cute!



I never saw my 'hogs again. I like to think they're happily mooching about somewhere nearby though.

Here's Gillian the kitten. She's a bit bigger then this now.

Speaking of Gillian. Willow update w/pics pls.

She's absolutely gorgeous. Soooooo cute

It's weird how in normal life I can be a fairly intelligent and sensible person yet whenever someone tells me how cute Willow is I beam with pride as if I gave birth to her myself.

She is very cute. Cracking photos of her too.

Nothing wrong with feeling like a proud parent when it comes to your pets family.

She is beautiful

also, I love cats and especially Bengals. However, Jasmine.....frightens me.

Thank you

I really like the "flying ears" one, that's a superb photo. And such a cute doggiez!

If any one ever over heard me talking to my cats I would be taken away in a straight jacket. Amazing what small bundles of fur can do to a human. Maybe it's just their ever lasting honesty and true genuine affection?

Hedgehog!

Took Willow outside and she stopped before reaching her favourite pee spot and wouldn't go any further, so I had a look and noticed a wee shadow next to the wheely bin. Managed to make out a wee shape of a hedgehog so I took Willow round to the grass and then carried her inside so she didn't disturb it. It was very timid and tried to hide behind the wheely bins so Jen and I got it a wee dish of milk and called it Jim. It scurried under the garage next door before it saw the milk though. Then we came back inside and searched online and found out they shouldn't get milk, so we ran back out again and got rid of the milk, then got him a wee dish of water and put out some of Willow's puppy food. Put it right next the the garage so hopefully it smells it and realises there is some good food there. Managed to snap a wee picture of him so I will post it tomorrow when I get near the PC.

Gorgeous little doggie!

Crackin' pics, Gill! That last one is a capture-and-a-half. Shame the focus is ever so slightly off, but you did a bloody good job getting that shot.

Oh, and Willow is cute as hell, of course.

Aw! Hedgepig!

Pig!

Good pic.