Profits from Animal Insurance Protect Endangered Gorillas in the Congo

Last December, Animal Friends Insurance chose to support the charity Gearing Up For Gorillas (G4G - www.g4g.co.uk), by helping with funding for vital projects to save the majestic mountain gorillas in the war torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  AFI report that they are already making a difference.  Funding has enabled the feeding and care of three orphan baby gorillas at a sanctuary in Goma.  Ndeze and Ndakasi are two mountain gorillas and Mapendo an eastern lowland gorilla.

G4G representative Linda Nunn commented, “The milk powder for baby gorillas is very expensive (especially at the moment with insecurity and travel issues), and the ranger/care givers have to go further to fetch forest food for them every day.  They're obviously having to go further to quieter areas or pay local people to fetch it from afar for them and that all takes money.  Funds from AFI will keep Ndeze, Ndakasi and Mapendo fed and looked after for some time.”

The UN has declared 2009 to be the official “Year of the Gorilla” to raise awareness of their plight and the efforts of rangers who risk their lives to protect them.  Animal Friends is proud to support this cause and aims to assist in the campaign.

G4G works to assist park rangers who have limited resources and whose work place is one of the most dangerous in the world.  Many rangers and their families have been living in trenches because of the war.  Over the last decade, more than 100 rangers have been killed while on duty in DRC.

Five National Parks in DRC are classified as ‘World Heritage Sites – in Danger’.  These five sites are the last refuge for many of the worlds endangered and threatened species.  In eastern DRC, the Virunga National Park is home to around half of the last remaining mountain gorillas.  The gorillas are under intense threat – as are the brave rangers who work there.  In January, ranger Safari Kakule was attacked and killed.  AFI has started to provide funding to directly help these courageous rangers.

Animal Friends Insurance can help protect your pet against the rising costs of pet insurance - you can buy pet insurance online quickly and easily, and they have a range of policies to suit every need and budget. As an ethical insurer, Animal Friends Insurance is the only UK pet insurance company which donates one hundred percent of its net profits to helping animal charities and welfare organisations all over the world.

More Information:
Christopher Fairfax, Marketing Director Animal Friends Insurance - Tel. +44 (0) 844 557 1255
E-mail: chrisf@animalfriends.co.uk Web: www.animalfriends.org.uk
Animal Friends Insurance, London Road, Amesbury, Wiltshire, SP4 7RT

Linda Nunn, Tel. +44 (0)1725 553149 and +44 (0)7801 531205
E-mail: linda@g4g.co.uk Web: www.g4g.co.uk
Gearing Up For Gorillas, 87 Chapel Farm Cottage, Gussage St Andrew, Blandford, DT11 8DL

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When I was writing for the facedog website one of my favourite things was interviewing well-known people from the dog world. That as how I met Kay Key, of www.boardingkennels.org. Kay is one half of a hugely successful kennel and cattery design team, her husband David being the other.

 

David Key is the expert’s expert, the kennel and cattery designer who has pioneered humane and dog-friendly kennels and advises Dog Trust as well as being a renowned international consultant. Kay is a fabulous web designer and consultant as well as marketing genius.

 

Kay and David are strong advocates of the ‘dog hotel’ – more than just a kennels but a real home from home for dogs.

 

We all pamper our pooches. Knowing that you can send them for a well-earned break to somewhere that doesn’t think you are mad for asking if they can sleep on a bed with a duvet and wake up to Radio Four is such a relief! They are the designers of the Canine Country Club in Devon, that is often featured in the national press.

 

Kay and David have created some free e-books if you are thinking of having a go at running a luxury kennels yourself, and you can download them from my petsinitaly website by clicking here.

I hope you'll all go and take a look at me new pets in italy website for expats who have pets in Italy - obviously.

I've lived in Italy for 15 years now and so thought I would start this blg/website for fellow expats who may be feeling a bit isolated, as not all Italians love animals like we Brits do!

I'll be updating it regularly, so please stop by and say hello.

Have you noticed that your pets behave differently when there's a full moon? I certainly have. The dogs and cats get restless, start waking in the middle of the night (and waking me too!) have spurts of what I call 'mad half hour' behaviour when they charge aroud crazily and are generally not their usual selves.

As the term 'lunatic' is coined from the root 'luna' for moon, then this phenomenon is not something new. My theory is that as the moon exerts a strong pull over tides, it also does so over our own bodies, and the animals and nature around us. After all we have an awful  lot of water in us, so to a lesser degree we must be affected by the moon's gravitational pull too. 

Let me know if you think the moon affects your pets.                                                                                                                                                                                    

Well, yesterday I set off on my usual early morning walk  across the field and into the woods with the dogs. When I turned round I discovered three of my four cats had decided to come too. The two older female strays we took in, plus one of the two kittens had decided that what we were up to was too good to miss so they'd better check it out.

Many years ago our other cats used to accompany me and the dogs on walks, so it wasn't an entirely new experience, however it was usually one feline at a time. Now I had a  line of three following me. The walk takes a good half hour, too.

When they embark on this kind of excursion cats get very focussed and serious. It's really funny to watch. They walk (or do a kind of mad sideways run) with heads slightly down and looking straight ahead as if their lives depended on it. It reminds me of someone walking a tightrope and concentrating really hard on not falling off.

I wondered if the daring adventure would be repeated today, but only brave little Jimmy (the kitten) decided to repeat the experience. Not quite the Pied Piper, but getting close.

So what do you feed a hooded crow then?

It's almost two years since I rescued Merlina (I have decided 'he' is a 'she' so changed the name from Merlino) from the field behind the house and she is now esconced in an aviary I built around an old grape pergola in the garden.

We have devloped quite a routine. Every morning I get her dish, which is a white plastic feeding dish for alpacas which I haven't got round to getting - yet. I also pick up the empty plastic litre mineral water bottle I leave ready outside the cage. I go inside and fill the water bottle then put together a selection of chicken liver, dried puppy food (Royal Canin - only the best!), green salad leaves, sunflower seeds, some fruit, pine nuts (which she loves but cost a fortune!) and every third day a raw chicken egg still in its shell. This all goes on the alpaca dish.

I go back to her cage and put the food inside, watching the two kittens don't manage to sneak in, as they are getting increasingly fascinated by her, and then I fill up the three different water containers she has. One is a small kennel type one designed for travelling dogs and clips to the side of the cage. Another is a stainless steel dog bowl that I often find placed upside down on top of a variety of small objects she collects from the floor of the aviary, which is made of earth and grass. Finally,  there is a large shallow ceramic dish where she places various small bits of food, and sometimes the egg, to eat later.

I've been experimenting with placing all her food inside an egg carton and then closing it to give her a bit of entertainment as I am always worried that she is bored. I'm also concerned she's lonely, but am not sure what she would do if I ever found a companion (ie another injured bird) for her. Rip it to pieces probably. Luckily there is a nother as yet unnetted half to the aviary, so if I do find another bird, they can be neighbours.

After my cat Jingles died recently I decided to get a reading from animal communicator Pea Horsley . Pea is a talented and very caring and sympathetic person that I first encountered when I interviewed her for an article I wrote for the facedogs website.

Pea gave me a very comforting and precise reading from Jingles and one of the things she said really helped me and also gave me an idea. She told me that all my pets were very proud of me and what I had achieved.

That weekend I decided to literally create my team of four-legged cheerleaders. I found all those old photos that were stuffed in envelopes and photo packets and in albums I rarely opened. I got an old picture frame and then begand a happy couple of hours making a collage of all my pets past and present.

I have hung the picture on the wall in front of my desk so every time I look I can see them all looking at me and cheering me on. I'm amazed at the positive effect this has had on the room's atmosphere and on my own energy. I suppose it is logical that when you love animals and they love you then a picture focussing all that will emit its own special vibes.

Give it a try.

Well I have been to the vets eleven times in six days, which must be some kind of record! First of all I took our elderly cat Jingles, who is 14 and was getting worryingly thin. He had all kinds of tests and was hooked up to a drip and it turns out he has a kidney infection and a slight heart problem. The vet wanted to take his blood pressure on Friday - have you ever held an unwilling cat down while he has a tiny little inflatable cuff attached to his back leg? I ended up virtually speadeagled over the vet's table. They have to take the pressure about 10 or 15 times apparently, but we got there in the end!

Meanwhile I decided that as I was such a regular visitor at the vet I'd bite the bullet and have four cats sterilised. Not any old four you understand, but our two 'stray' females and the two male kittens, who are now seven months old. The vet did them in two batches of two, the females one day and the boys the next. No wonder he gave me a discount, I must be his best customer. I've been trying to get loads of new writing work to pay for it!

Anyway, they are all well and leaping about all over the place so that's a relief. The only thing is that as Jingles' blood pressure turned out to be quite high, the vet suggested we take it quite regularly, the next visit being next week. Wish me luck!

Having now got five cats, two of which are just five months old, we are getting through quite a lot of cat litter. Now cat litter isn't the nicest topic I know, but when it's pouring outside and the cats refuse to put even one paw outside the door, then we have to resort to it. The trouble is it costs a fortune!

I have been reseraching on the net and come across all kinds of alternatives from torn up newspaperes (no thanks - phew!) to something called 'chicken crumbs' - which are what you feed young chickens and is apparently the main constituent of the 'World's Best Cat litter' but at a fraction of the price.

Anyway I think I have found the perfect solution. Cheap, biodegradable or burnable, pleasant smelling, odour and moisture absorbing. And what is this amazing product? Wood pellets used for wood burning stoves. Here in Italy you can pick up a huge sack for about €3.70 (which is about £3.70 at the current exchange rate, right? LOL).

As we have an open fire I have been burning the - er- used part (minus any solids) and it burns perfectly thus eradicating the 'where-to-put-the-used-cat-litter' problem.

So there we have it - you saw it here first. Wood pellets are the way to go!

Well as Christmas is approaching I find myself eating a bit more sweet stuff. I invariably have a crowd of animals around me if I am eating cake. I only give them a tiny bit each (and please don't write in and tell me it's bad for cats and dogs - I know!).

Now you would expect dogs to have a sweet tooth but I have noticed cats love cake too, especially anything home made or spongy! In Italy there is a special cake people serve around this time of year called panettone, which is a cross between a soft bread and a sweet sponge cake, if you can imagine that. Well our throng of cats (what is the collective noun for cats?) goes mad for this! They claw the slightest morsel from my fingers with lightning fast speed and the poor dogs don't get a look in.

 So my so-called relaxing break has turned into an unseemly scrum with me holding a mug of tea in one hand and a plate out cake as high as I can to escape from seven determined pets, intent on having their cake and eating it.