Saturday 29 October 2011

Love Pets Show 2011

Firstly, sorry if I've been a bit quiet the last few days... I've been commuting on the train to London and back for work - long days with only a mobile phone which doesn't let me add comments on most blogs. Rest assured I am still reading - thanks for making the train journeys pass by so easilly!!

Today hubby and I went to the Love Pets Show 2011 which was being held just down the road from us in Peterborough. It was a mixture of exhibitors for all sorts of pets and related products along with shows in the main arena. We had a great time and so I thought I'd share a few photos from the day (not very good photos, but you get the idea!)

The first stand I made a beeline for was Pets As Therapy. This charity has approximately 4,500 dogs and 106 cats owned by registered volunteers, who visit a variety of establishments such as hospitals and hospices, residential and nursing homes, mainstream schools and special needs children to offer comfort, companionship and therapy.

As the majority of the Pets As Therapy animals are dogs, I was interested to learn more about volunteering with cats. I met a lovely lady on the stand with... of course... a ragdoll!

Pets As Therapy

She gave me lots of helpful advice about how to become a registered volunteer and confirmed (as I'd suspected) that ragdolls are a perfect fit for this work due to their loving, friendly and (mostly!) docile nature. This is serious food for thought for me. I think Mr Darcy and Sookie need to complete leash training and get a bit more social interaction first, but I'd love to give it a go in the future. In the meantime you can support the work of the P.A.T. volunteers by making a donation or sponsoring volunteer. If you'd like to know more, please click here.

Next, I was very excited to see that Ragdoll Rescue had a stand. As the name suggests, this group is run by volunteers who all share a love of the Ragdoll breed and provide a rehoming service for Ragdolls in need.



Ragdoll Rescue

I had a good long chat with one of the volunteers who introduced me to his own award winning family of ragdolls. This is a beautiful flame mitted ragdoll (if only I could remember his name I would tell you!!).

Flame Mitted Ragdoll

This is Oscar. Mr Darcy still has some way to grow if this is the male benchmark!!

Oscar

We also visited Smokey, who you may have heard of... she has entered the Guiness Book of Records as the loudest purring cat and is louder than a Boeing 737 coming into land! Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any photos, but you can see more of Smokey here.

Oh and I met a Sphynx! If you don't know, this is the cat breed which has no hair... or so I thought! I have to admit I'd seen this breed on T.V. and my immediate reaction was - "yuck - it's all wrinkly and skinny and looks a bit creepy... why would anyone want THAT as a pet?" Well how wrong I was... I met Kaiser and his owner at the show and she let me give him a cuddle and you know what? He felt warm and soft and like peach skin and was the cutest, friendliest, most affectionate little cat. My whole perception on this breed has changed.

After I'd suitably cooed my way through the cat section, we enjoyed the rest of the show, including watching the Wrayfield Dog Agility team in action...

Dog Agility Course

A demonstration on how to teach a dog to use the 'seesaw'.

...meeting a Canine Companion and hearing how he helps his disabled owner with all those everyday tasks we take for granted, even emptying and loading the washing machine and picking up the telephone....

Canine Companion and Marc Abraham - yummy vet off the T.V!!

...and to round off we enjoyed a performance from Pippa Langhorne & Buddy. They were semi finalists in Britains Got Talent... Pippa sings opera and is accompanied by the tuneful howls of Buddy the puppy. Miss Admiral this made me think of you with your dulcet tones... a new career beckons??
Pippa:"Ave Maria.." Buster:"Owoooooooo!!!!"


...and of course we bought a couple of new toys for Sookie and Mr Darcy to enjoy...it would have been rude not to!

Happy weekend everyone!! =^..^=

17 comments:

Kjelle Bus aka Charlie Rascal said...

What a great day youre beans had at the Lovely Petshow !!
Off course thet had to buy some new toy´s to you !!
My mom works with elderly people and I have been with her at her work , it was fun :)

Mariodacat said...

you took some very good pictures. m loves going to pet shows too. She oooos and aaahs over all the animals. Then she comes home and loves me up. he he Those Rag Dolls are super good as therapy kitties.

Sparkle said...

My human has always wanted to have a therapy cat, but so far, she has not had a kitty with the right temperament. Certainly none of us could do it! And you are right about the Sphynx kitties - you really have to meet them in person to get them. The first time my human touched one of those guys, she said it felt like chamois. They are just great cats.

Brian's Home Blog said...

I enjoyed all of the pictures, it is almost like I was there. Hey, that Flame Mitted ragdoll looks like my sister Sascha!

Gigi said...

OMC. Oscar is HUGE!! He's like SIX of me! But the Human is squeeing just looking at his picture!!

ANGEL ABBYGRACE said...

Woooo those ragdolls are beautiful and large (I am only 11" long)...wow.
We enjoyed all the pictures they were really intersting, and also learning about the Pets As Therapy was too.
purrs
>^,,^<
♥Abby♥Boo♥Ping♥Jinx♥Grace♥

Jacqueline said...

It looks like your parents enjoyed a fun day at the Pet Show; that Oscar is huge!!...Loved all the pretty kitties and woofie photos...We hope you all have a great Halloween weekend!...kisses, sweet friends...Calle, Halle, Sukki

Admiral Hestorb said...

Oh you made me smile! Indeed a new career may be blooming! MOL.

Loved seeing the Ragdolls and mom said she would love to hold a Sphynx. (Mom hopes she spelled that right).
xoxox

Annie Bear said...

Great pictures! What a fun day! I'm so glad kitties do pet therapy too. I'm sure it's harder to find the right kitties, but I can really see how animals can be therapeutic. Lastly, how nice that Mr. Darcy and Sookie got some new toys too!

Whisppy said...

What a fun day you had! Oscar is HUGE! Please share photos of Mr Darcy and Sookie enjoying their new toys. :)

The Island Cats said...

What a great show that was! Here in the US, we rarely have a pet show with dogs and cats together...usually there are cat shows and dog shows separately. We hope Mr. Darcy and Sookie can become therapy cats! There are a couple of blogging cats that do therapy...what a nice thing!

Layla Morgan Wilde ( Cat Wisdom 101) said...

I loved this and will share on FB. The Ragdolls are gorgeous and Oscar; what mitts!

Fr. Tom Fish said...

Thanks so much for taking us along in your post! I really enjoyed seeing the therapy pets, all the ragdolls-wow! and seeing the animal lovers at the event! Our Bentley was a therapy cat years ago, even had a website 'cause he never met a stranger. I'm friendly, but he'd go out of his way to talk to you!

Hope Sookie and Mr. Darcy will be inspired to do therapy!

Tom
xoxo

Cat and DOG Chat With Caren said...

What a fun time you had!!!

Have you met Michele Tilford the Mom of Kokoro Purrs?

She has a Ragdoll who is going to be a therapy cat, you two would have TONS in common!

tubby3pug said...

The cats and dogs are lovely, Oskar is such a nice big cat, I love big cats

Alfie said...

that looks like a lot of fun! My people read your entries with me and they say that your blog has made them want a ragdoll cat too! maybe some day i'll get a new cat brother/sister :)

Tooki said...

oh, that is a wonderful sharing and I feel as though I have been to the show myself! Now I know what ragdolls are...they are gorgeous and BIG! Oscar is just overwhelming, to say the least...:)

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