19 Ryde Road, Pymble, NSW 2073
Joey’s Pet of the Week
By Scott Lackenby | Dated September 26, 2013
Hi everyone!! How are you all? Hasn’t it been hot these past few days? It’s hard being a mostly black cat when it’s that hot outside. I have to keep finding shady spots to cool myself down. This usually means I can be found in the downstairs car park or in the gym car park. I’ll be spending a lot of time inside today seeings how it’s hot and windy. I really hate the wind.
I had my professional photo shoot yesterday with the lovely people at Uber Photography in Killara. Nurse Layne and Nurse Jacqui were coming to pick me up at 12noon SHARP. I took that to mean that I could go missing for an hour. Nurse Katrina was walking up and down West St rattling a bag of my favourite treats, and I still wasn’t giving away my hiding spot. She spoke to my friends at Snap Printing, Jax Tyres AND Pymble Accident, and no one had seen me. It got to 12:05pm and Nurse Katrina was pretty worried that she was going to get into trouble from Nurse Layne about me being AWOL, so she went for one last walk and finally found me talking to people in the gym car park. I was not happy about being carried back to GVH and then locked in a carry cage, but Nurse Layne and Nurse Jacqui said I was a very good boy on the photoshoot, although I did get a little distracted and didn’t want to sit where the photographer wanted me to. Nurse Layne thought she would YouTube videos of Noisey Mynah, which I didn’t really care about. So then she searched for cat meows, thinking that seeings how I love cats, that that may keep me still for a while. Unfortunately for Nurse Layne, the video she chose was of cranky cat meows and I got scared and ran and hid!! We are hoping that by next week we will have some amazing shots of an amazing kitty cat! I’ll be sure to let you all know when I am up on the wall here at GVH so you can come and check it out.
Instead of a Pet of the Week, I’m doing a community service announcement as part of the terms of my good behaviour agreement. With the warmer weather, there are a lot of lizards around and we get a lot of skinks here at GVH. I have turned into a pretty good lizard hunter, much to the dismay of the nurses here. They are frequently taking lizards off me and then locking me inside while they release them. On Monday, I proudly bought Nurse Katrina a baby Water Dragon. Man was she cranky!! Luckily for me, there were no injuries to the bubba, he was just a little cold so Nurse Katrina popped him on a heat mat overnight. Obviously made of tough stuff, the little guy was fighting fit and raring to go the next day. Nurse Katrina called a good friend of GVH, Jeff, who is a carer for reptiles with the Sydney Wildlife Service for some advice about the little Dragon’s release options. Given that I was the one who bought him in, they decided that letting him go near us was probably not the best idea, so on Wednesday Nurse Katrina took the little Dragon down to Bicentennial Park in West Pymble where he will have the creek to play in and other Dragons to play with. He seemed pretty happy with his new home and now will be safe from me! This is the time of year when the babies will be around, so it’s important to make sure that if you own a cat who is as good at hunting lizards as me, that you make sure they have a bell or two on their collar. I have two bells on my collar but may be upgrading to a third bell if I keep up my wicked ways. The other important thing to remember is that cats will do the majoritory of their hunting at dusk and dawn, so make sure your feline friend is inside at these times. As part of your responsibilities as a cat owner under the Companion Animals Act, you are meant to ensure that your kitty cat is inside at these times. This will not only help to keep the wildlife safe, but this is often the time that cats will get into fights with other cats. My curfew is between 5-6pm and this is generally the time I get my dinner, so I’m never too upset about coming inside when there is food involved!
As always, don’t forget to check out the pictures of my Dragon in my album on Facebook. Have a good week, stay cool and I’ll chat to you all next week. Meows for now, love Joey xoxo
Written by Scott Lackenby
Scott joined the team at Gordon Vets in 1999, where he was immediately impressed with the high standard of customer service. Scott is very popular amongst clients for his kind hearted approach to pet care and his great sense of humour. His particular areas of interest are endocrinology and dermatology.
