The Companionship Award: Children & Their Pets, The Ultimate Human Companion Animal Bond

My children Zeb & Brooke playing with their pets

The Companionship Award: Freya and Molly

Molly, the Border Collie, was brought in by her owner having been run over by a truck. She had a badly fractured pelvis and even after 3 major surgeries it still took over a month before she could walk. In this time her owner became incapacitated and was unable to look after her any more. Being such a kind, gentle dog, I decided to give her a new home. Molly comes to work with me every day. Children who come to the clinic love to play with her and she thrives on the attention too.

The Companionship Award entry: A Lesson In Love

A grade 5 class has learned a valuable lesson by hand raising a litter of orphaned puppies. A memory they will never forget.

The Companionship Award entry: Arnold and Holly Playing

Arnold the mini pig came into our clinic suffering from malnutrition on deaths door, here he is 4 weeks later, he now lives on a farm socialising with dogs, cats, horses and a rabbit. As seen in the video he is a very happy social piglet playing with Holly a nurses dog.

The Companionship Award entry: The Human Companion Animal Bond

A short slideshow showing the similarities of humans and animals - starring Sid the Speagle, Daisy the Beagle, Mick & Smokes the kitty-cats, Arthur Ramshackle the goldfish(RIP) and many more of our furry friends.

The Companionship Award entry: A day in the life of Fynn

Showing the Human Companion Animal Bond between Fynn and his families two dogs, two rabbits and the cat

Preparing to say goodbye

Mrs R had tears in her eyes today as she picked up Molly’s medication, probably for the last time. Molly is old now, and aside from a long-term illness she’s struggling to cope with bad arthritis and other age-related changes. She’s blind, deaf and sometimes gets confused. The family has agreed that her quality of life is decreasing and it will soon be time to say goodbye.

We love Molly at the clinic. We’ve been looking after her for years and she’s the perfect patient – friendly, well-behaved and tolerant. She’s had literally hundreds of blood tests, yet never resists the clippers or needle. She’s spent whole days in our treatment room, wagging her tail at everyone who walks past and snoozing in between tests. When we’re done she hops back in her cage without complaint, and she loves to lean in close and enjoy a pat while the vet does whatever they need to. Even without her sight and hearing, she still trusts us. I can’t really imagine Molly not being around, and I know when she makes her last visit to the clinic that we’ll be crying along with her family.

Having said that, everything I love about Molly is just one part of her life. She has been a member of the R family for over a decade, since their kids were small, and has given them all constant love and loyalty. They have fed her, walked her, and picked up after her thousands of times. They’ve swept bags and bags full of her cream coloured fur from their floors and furniture. They’ve got to know all her funny habits and idiosyncracies, and they’ve loved her all the more as she has slowed down and stopped being able to hear them call. As Mrs R said today, Molly is not just part of the furniture or a really great pet; she is “so much a part of us”. There will be great grief at saying goodbye, and life will be forever changed.

Rudyard Kipling, in his heart-wrenching poem ‘The Power of the Dog’, cautions against giving our hearts to our pets, because inevitably we suffer the awful pain of losing them. It’s clearly a poem born of agonising experience, and the advice is sound enough, if avoiding pain is your goal. But when I think of all the Mollys I know, and the people who love them, I can only conclude that it’s worth it. Our pets give us years of unconditional love, companionship and joy. Who would be without that?

Do dog and owner characteristics affect the owner-dog relationship?

Monash University are inviting people who have owned their dog for 12 or more months to fill in an on-line questionnaire. Included are a personality questionnaire for your dog, and a short one for yourself, a questionnaire about how attached you feel towards your dog and some questions about the activities you do with your dog. Monash University are also collecting demographic information about yourself and about your dog. It takes about 30-45mins to complete all the questions.

To participate in the questionnaire please click on the link below.

Do dog and owner characteristics affect the owner-dog relationship?

Starting out on the right 'paw'

I often feel sorry for people visiting the vet hospital with their new puppy for the first time. Their lives – and households – have already been turned upside-down by the arrival of a yelping, pooing, wriggly being which bears little resemblance to the tidily groomed and endearingly posed puppies we buy on calendars and greeting cards. They’ve been woken throughout the night, cleaned up more puddles than they ever imagined, and have more than likely already said farewell to some belongings or plants. They gather up the puppy (no small challenge in itself), collar, lead, scattered wits and kids and make their way to the vet hospital, where a barrage of information and advice awaits.

We vet nurses lurk behind the counter, pre-armed with samples of food, pamphlets and handouts, waiting to pounce on the exhausted owner as they make their way through the door.
“What are you feeding Roxy?”
“Have you heard about our puppy parties?”
“How’s Max’s toilet training going?”
Puppy owners, I would not blame you if you turned and ran. Fortunately, most don’t run. Puppy packs in hand, they’re ushered into the consult room, where the vet stands ready to discuss nutrition, worming, fleas, grooming, socialisation, training, microchipping, vaccinations and desexing – and that’s just the basics.

It’s an overwhelming experience for the puppy, too: the waiting room is jam-packed with exciting smells, other animals, new people, bags of food and all kinds of enticements. Naturally, they want to explore (or hide under a chair), but instead they have to sit nicely on the scales, refrain from jumping on the clinic cat and submit to a physical examination which doesn’t allow much room for dignity. We try our best, through cuddles, gentleness and treats, to make it a positive experience for the pup – we don’t want to be the ‘bad guys’!

So why does everyone – puppy owner, puppy, vet nurse, vet – make the effort? I guess it’s because, all going well, that squirmy little bundle of fun is going to delight and disrupt its family for the next 10 to 15 years, and we all want those years to go as well as possible. We want the puppy to grow safely to adulthood. We want her to learn good manners and basic obedience, so she’s a pleasure to live with and handle. We want to ensure he doesn’t suffer due to preventable illnesses. We want her to have a long and truly happy life.

Virtually all of the puppy owners I meet want to do the best for their new friend. Helping them start out on the best ‘paw’ is one of the real joys of my job, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.