Joey’s Pet of the Week

By Scott Lackenby | Dated October 10, 2013

Saying good bye to Ginger Meggs after his boarding

Howdy everyone!! Did you all have a good long weekend? I usually don’t like long weekends, there’s never enough of my people around to meet my needs, but we were busy so there were lots of clients and their animals around to keep me company. But I got some sad news on Tuesday. My very good friend and partner in crime, Ginger Ninja, is moving to Canberra!! We said our good-byes and I walked him out to the car when his Mum came to take him to his new home. Ginger Ninja’s Mum promised that they would keep in touch and the Ginger Ninja would be back for a holiday with me at some stage.

It’s going to be a very big and important day on Tuesday. A certain handsome black and white cat is having a birthday! I am turning 2!! I am hoping that there will be cake and presents to commemorate my (approximate) day of birth. If you are in the area, be sure to pop in to lavish birthday attention on me!

We had a very interesting looking bird brought into us last night. I have never seen a bird like this before and I was very keen on checking him out, until he opened his beak! He makes the most obnoxious noise I think I have ever heard! Nurse Katrina, Nurse Hollie and Dr Scott had no idea what the mystery bird was, even after a lot of Googling and checking through the bird ID book. Lucky for us, the good people who brought him in did some research and worked out that he’s a Channel-billed Cuckoo. These guys are migratory birds who spend their time between Northern and Eastern Australia and New Guinea and Indonesia. The usually spend their time in tall, open forests and eat native fruits and figs and occasionally seeds, insects and baby birds. Channel-billed Cuckoo’s are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, and letting the foster Mum do all the hard work. Unlike other brood paracites, the Channel-billed Cuckoo’s don’t evict the host nests eggs or young, but the baby Cuckoo’s grow faster than the other bubs, they demand more food and the other young tend to starve. Channel-billed Cuckoo’s are the largest of the Cuckoo’s. They are thought to form pair bonds during breeding season with the male giving the female gifts of food. Channel-billed Cuckoo’s are usually shy and retiring birds, but apparently this guy didn’t read this part of his bio as he is anything but shy and retiring! He has tried to bite everyone who has tried to help him out! Luckily for him the good people at the Taronga Zoo Wildlife Hospital are happy to care for him, so Nurse Katrina will be taking him over there in the morning.

With the warmer weather, we are doing a lot of lion clips on cats. I reckon they look a bit funny after, they come in looking like powder-puffs and go home looking like skinny little rats! But between the heat and the ticks, having a short coat makes life much nicer for long or thick coated animals. We did two lion clips today, one on Casper, and almost 7year old Birman, and Soda, a 2 1/2year old Himalayan cross. I’m sure both of them will be glad to have shorter hair on a hot day like today.

I know I have said this a lot recently, but please make sure you are applying tick prevention to your 4legged friends. We admitted three cats yesterday and one dog today, so it’s REALLY important to make sure your pet is protected. Head over to my Facebook album to check out the pictures of the Channel-billed Cuckoo and of Soda and Casper. Stay cool and I’ll chat to you all next week, older and wiser after my birthday. Meows for now, love from Joey xoxo