A lovely Sunday

Well what a lovely day. No one was dropping off or picking up at the Small Furry Hotel so I had a lovely morning taking my time cleaning out and mooching round the garden enjoying being surrounded by all the lovely animals. I was constantly distracted by my Coco and DeDe ( my rabbits) who were running round the garden. It was lovely to see them interacting with all the other rabbits (who were in their own runs) and enjoying nibbling on all my plants (mint, parsley etc). My dogs on the other hand were very bothered by the rabbits being allowed free running in the garden as Coco kept harrasing my big boy Theo. Everytime Theo the Bearded Collie laid down Coco the lion head bunny kept running at him and poking him. Theo was very uncomfortable about this and retreated to the decking. I am thilled that the sick bunny Dipsey is going from strength to strength. He has even eaten his fruit stick which is quiet hard. For thoses that don't know Dipsy he is a lovely bunny that had an emergency operation two days before his owners were due to fly out on holiday. His owner were very concerned about leaving him but we assured them that this is what we do and why using a proffessional animal boarder can save you a lot of stress. Follow our stories at www.facebook.com/smallfurryhotel Today was a first..... put piggies out on wet grass. This is something I would normally never do. However today I was meet by bizare weather conditions.... it was wet but lovely and warm. So I put a carry box in each run with plenty of hay so they could go on to the wet grass but be dry in the box. By the afternoon the piggies were spralled out sunbathing like the buns. I check they all had dry bellies before they went to bed. This afternoon we went out on a lovely walk for over an hour my Beardies had a lovely time we then went and excercised and played with the horses. I am now sitting down with a glass of wine thrilled that every animal in my care has been fed, interacted with by me and others of the same species, been given fresh water and plenty of exercise. My dogs are snoring and all the furries are spread out in their spacious clean hutches with full bellies relaxing and recharging themselves for another day of their holiday. Hope you had a good day too......

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Why I work for myself........................

Working for myself means

Time - with my children I attend everything that I need to in the school calendar
Freedom - To ride my horse and walk my dogs when I want – me time
Satisfaction - that I do a great job that I love.

I used to work in an office, every time I went to work I felt more and more trapped in the four walls of the office with target looming over me. I believe all entrepreneurs have something that drives them and mine was freedom. I wanted to do what I wanted when I wanted and I want to feel real satisfaction for the product service I was delivering.I may not turnover millions but I have engineered a lifestyle that I adore with an income to support it.

I don’t stare and wish for a better future like I used too. I work towards everyday being great. Being an entrepreneur means to me that I don’t have to rely on others for an income( job) that maybe taken from me. My goal - when I am and old lady I can look back and think I lived life to the max.

Thinking about breaking free? go on do it you've only got one life.

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Life with all the kids in school

Ahhh so much for my daily blog. Where does the time go? Well my little one has blended into school beautifully and is desperate to go each and every morning which I think is all credit to the school. They really do an amazing job both my girls are school mad and all the other children appear to be very keen too.

So what is it like for me having both children in school?

Well it is great after I got over my initial sulk of loosing my baby to school. I took our Indian summer by storm and I was off out riding my horse left right and centre. My house is in more order including the garage that has never been orderly, you can actually walk from front to back.

I am older and wiser second time round (second child) I have realised it's the mums who instigate who goes for tea with who at this early stage. Yes the children have preferences to some more than others but at four and five years old they are not that picky. Already having a nine year old I know they do start to make other friends as the years go by, so these inital frendships may or may not continue but I think by the end of this first year they themselves are really getting a good idea for who their close friend are.

I find there are the fresh new mums who are experiencing this for the first time and then the 2nd,3rd,4th even 5th time mums who are really old hands at this. Wow imagine having all that experience.

Anyway new friendships will form for Ellie and I as we will now be on a journey with this school year right up till they are eleven years old. Funny how school holds groups of people together for such a long time.

Last week end one of the mums and I held a joint 5th party for our daughters. We hired the village hall put up two bouncy castles ( Princess and Pirate) and help a Princess and Pirate party. I did face painting whilst the other mum sorted out the food. we made a great team, the whole school year was invited and it was a lovely opportunity for the children to have a great party and the mums to have a good chat.


I have spent the last week organising vouchers for www.smallfurryhotel.com and www.k9tac.co.uk. I think the are great practical gift ideas for people with pets take a look vouchers start from £6. We have already sold some and people have been thrilled as we have personalised them with pictures of the persons pets. So if your friend or family member has a :

Rabbit
Guinea Pig
Dog
Hamster
Chickens
Ducks
Chinchilla
African land snail
Tortoise
Birds
gerbils etc we will have a voucher to suit them

Hope you have a good week and I hope to be back sooner

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The Brownie is back

Well we arrived a little early to pick daughter number 1 from Brownie camp. We speculated on the way over what reception we would get this time. As we pulled into the field we were greeted by a wave and a smile - good sign. We hung back as we were early and didn't want to provoke the same reaction as Saturday, you know the your embarrassing me look ( when do you go from being the one embarrassed to the one doing the embarrassing?). The Brownies had to get together for one last pow wow whilst we were guided to pick up their belongings.

Well all I can say is hats off to the Brownie leaders, the arts and crafts and actives they had crammed into two days was amazing. We were fully laden with "stuff" and we still needed find the bags and sleeping bags. No surprise it was all organised and waiting for us.

As the Brownies came back across the field I excitedly asked my daughter "how was it?" Reply "fine" Well they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and I have been repeatedly reminded by my mother that I also wasn't one for giving much away when coming home from school etc. So I can't be doing with this as I can tell she has had an amazing time. so I say " best not go again next year if it's rubbish". "Oh no " she says "it was great". That was it until we got in the car where I had her contained for 20 mins so I could question her. The result she had had a great time, meeting snakes, cockroaches ( apparently one brownie nearly stood on the boy one!!)visiting the tuck shop and having hot chocolate every night.

She did make it very clear in her own way that she had given it her all and there was nothing left of her but to have a bath and go to bed. Her sister on the other hand wanted to touch and feel everything she had - you can imagine the result.

Now having been a mother for nearly nine years and studied behaviour I anticipated a little fluctuation in mood shall we say. So I felt the best way to deal with this was to pre- arrange some mummy time out on my horse and leave the girls to Daddy;)

So all in all I would 150% recommend brownie camp. I am so pleased my little girl got to have the wonderful experience of being away with all her friends. Roll on next year.

Big day for me tomorrow I am off to the Pet Care Trust awards as I am a finalist in the boarding category of their awards. To get this far is amazing but if I win it I win be on cloud 9

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OMG MOTHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER

So as I mentioned yesterday I forgot my daughters coat for Brownie camp. So as was woken by the rain I felt guilty as I rolled over and hit the "snooze" button. Once I had got up the rain had stopped so I put the rabbits and ducks out to play ( too damp for piggies). Then we made our way over to the camp. We strolled accross the field and as my gorgeous daughter caught sight of Me, her Dad (who had been dragged there after 4 hours sleep) and her younger sisters (who was prematurely dressed for Halloween)the look of horror on her face was amazing. It then suddenly turned into Teenager your cramping my style mode. Honestly you have never seen a child roll their eyes like she did. So I waved the coat like some sort of peace flag, nope she was now looking at us like we were strange weirdos trying to steal her. Thank goodness it's a community event and all the leaders knew us. So I went over delivered the coat and wash bag with tooth paste and a chocolate bar, it was then passed to my daughter who refused to acknowledge us as her next of kin. I fell into line for once and tried to leave without causing anymore embarrassment however one of the leaders wanted to talk dog training with me and as we have already fixed one of the other leaders dogs we had a bit of chatting to do. Any way we left as the reptiles were arriving and took the dogs for a lovely walk. I then returned home to the most amazing customer review which I would like to share.


Furry hotel review


If you are pondering over whether Madeleine and the small furry hotel is the
best place for your pets holiday then please read on...
I met Madeleine just under a year ago after we had adopted two rescue guinea
pigs on a spur of the moment decision. Shortly after adopting we realised that
due to the nature of our jobs we needed someone reliable to look after the
cavies when we were working overseas etc. At the time we had no idea that such a
facility existed and after some research we found a couple of carers of small
furries, I went to visit the first as it was my closest and was completely put
off the whole idea due to cramped living conditions, piggy & rabbit runs on the
lawn with 3 dogs running around scaring all the animals etc. I was therefore a
little wary about the idea but decided to take the 50min drive over to the small
furry hotel to investigate- what I came across was the complete opposite of the
last place I had seen. Tranquil, rural, spacious, clean, green and friendly. On
first impressions your only thoughts are Madeleine must be bonkers to have the
bravery to look after all these animals, but within 10mins you realise she and
her family are committed, animal loving people who are the perfect people to
look after your pet.
Our piggys - rhino & Darwin have been staying with madeleine at the furry hotel
for roughly 7 days out of every 30 for the last 12months due to the nature of
our jobs; she gives us the ability to be able to keep our pigs without either
neglecting them by leaving them under the neighbours part time care whilst we're
away or by having to make the choice not to have pets at all.
Going beyond this, as we have two male pigs they started to scrap about 4 months
ago, the fights got worse and we ended up with a bit of a blood bath one
evening, not knowing how to deal with the situation I have to admit I text
Madeleine to ask her advice, within minutes she had called me back offering
advice, calming us down and giving us the contact details of an excellent vet.
All I can say is that goes beyond anything I could ever have expected. But it
doesn't stop there! A decision was made to castrate our piggies to reduce their
testosterone levels with the hope that it would stop any future fights (it has)
- unfortunately their were complications with Darwin and he struggled with
swelling and had to undergo a second very challenging operation to relieve the
issues, whilst going through the procedure they also found that he had kidney
stones (fairly common in boars). All of these decisions/choices and vet visits
occurred in the run up to some big and frequent work trips that we just couldn't
change. The pigs were already booked in to stay at the furry hotel during these
periods prior to any operations so a call was put in to madeleine to ask her to
take care of our special boys during this traumatic period for them.. Not only
did she say yes, but she kept them inside in the warm whilst they recovered,
gave Darwin his medication twice a day, syringe fed the poor little chap every
2-3hours as he was unable to eat for himself and to avoid the possible killer
during these periods of gut-stasis, she weighed him as per our request on each
feeding to make sure he was keeping his weight up.. Darwin would not have made it as far as he did without the love,
care and commitment of the newly named 'Aunty Madeleine'.
Sadly a few weeks later when we thought Darwin had nearly recovered a new swelling appeared so we took him to a specialist in Andover
and he had to undergo another huge operation to repair a herniated bladder, sadly he did not come through this operation and
being left heart-broken and with a pining and lonely Guinea pig we were lost as to what to do. Madeleine put us in touch immediately with
Waggy Tails rescue who had a few guinea pigs waiting for adoption, she spoke to them on our behalf convinced them that we
are good piggy parents and we bought home a pair of girls yesterday.. now the bonding process is just begining and fingers
crossed it will work out and poor Rhino will have some new companions, in the meantime whilst the bonding process is underway he has the company (through wire mesh) to
keep him active and not so lonely.
Without Madeleines suport and commitment to all things furry we truly wouldn't have been able to give the care and love to our
piggys that we have done and do. I wouldn't trust anyone else to not only take great care of them but to consistently go beyond the call of duty to help them (and us!).
If you are pondering as to whether or not this is the right place for your pet, then i hope that this review has stopped any doubts you may
have had.
RIP Darwin our beloved Piggy 14/9/11

www.smallfurryhotel.com

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I

The big week

Well it came and passed.........

The first week of school for my baby.

It has been full of up's and down a real roller coaster of emotions for me. My baby was superb Sunday night was like Christmas eve. The uniform was laid out and re laid out several times. Then at 6.30am I hear "Mum, Mummy can I get dresses now". We managed to keep her contained until school opened. She was a bit like one of those horses at the races waiting for the gates to open. Well Big school door was opened and she was straight in no messing. I was left to get tearful in the car park, I managed to hold it together but it was more the bulging red eye thing.

Well she has flown through the week, tiredness has been a little issue. Bless her she has started full time straight away which appears to have worked well. However I did remember her sister was tired right up until half term so we haven't arranged any after school activities, which seems to have helped.

So that's it as I enter a new era of my life being a Mum to school Children and not pre schoolers or babies I will look back fondly at the wonderful times I had with my babies and look forward to the next stage of their lives.

Which has already started with Brownie camp for the eldest one tonight. I have dropped her off and left her with about 40 very excited girls. Her excitement has developed into cheekiness's at times over the week as she has developed the well I old enough to go away for the weekend and therefore I could probably leave home too as at the grand old age of 8 I know it all attitude!!!!!"

So I am going to enjoy a weekend with just me and my baby while the elder one is at large with nature. Mind you we have to pop over tomorrow with her coat!!! You know how we strive to be a good mum? Well I ironed everything today including neckachife things, wrote her a little note etc but forgot a coat!! So I approached Brown Owl like a moody teenager and said "right! I have tried to do the good Mum thing I have even ironed her knicker however I have forgot her a coat!! "Never mind" she says "you can drop one over tomorrow" Thing is I would have like to have just once got the whole thing right and been the classic organised Mum........Perhaps she doesn't exist?!!!

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The Big Uniform Day

Today was the big uniform day!! First day of big school is now getting really close my older daughter is all kitted out but we are still to find shoes to fit my youngest.

This year my husband and i have decided to go the easy route and buy three times the amount of uniform we would usually buy including 15 pairs of socks each. The hope is that this will make the morning less stressful. as even though we do not have a large house my daughter still manage to loose most of their socks etc.

Our other make life easier decision is to opt for school dinners as the whole lunch box thing is a pain. As my eldest has slowly decided she doesn't like and sandwich filling what so ever. So at the end of last term i was sick of throwing away lot of good food and woring she wasn't getting a balanced diet. so school dinners should alleviate that stress from my life. I am all for making the new school term as stress free as possible so I can enjoy all the good bits.

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