The Royal Wedding

Well it's all over. My best bit, the bride and groom leaving in that little convertible. I must say the maid of honour ( Kate's Sister) might of out did her for a few moments as she carried her dress!! Anyway we had a nice relaxing day here, there was a party at the end of the road that looked good fun but I wanted to hang round the house and go shopping. Also I get on with most my neighbours but not the one that chased me up the road 4 years ago and accused me of allowing my dogs to poo outside her house. Apparently there was a "steaming poo" by her house. My darling husband produced several poo bags of evidence that we had picked ours up and informed her that poo doesn't steam on a summers afternoon when it is 25 degrees. So not keen to drink pims with her... The other neighbour to avoid is the one who blames me for every car in the village when actually they all belong to the people that live down the private road. Not bad only fallen out with two neighbours in ten years but not willing to do pims on the green with them. Also my husbands jobs means he works every bank holiday. Infact he has worked every bank holiday for the last 15 year. It's part of his contract not that he is avoiding me!!! So I am a bit or a Bar humbug when it comes to Bank holidays. We have our holidays when everyone else is in work. Well I hope you all have a lovely weekend and hope to see some of you at the dog show on Monday on the Bransgore playing fields. Enjoy my little video of Deedee doing her royal wedding wave


http://www.facebook.com/Smallfurryhotel#!/video/video.php?v=10150164806783251&oid=201584325143&comments

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NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!????

Well as one Bank holiday is over another one approaches.

Last weekend I headed off in my new car to the in laws with my two girls. Dad was left at home with the animals.

On the Sunday we went to a dog show where my puppy came fourth in the group. Which means she was against all the other pastoral puppies that had won their classes. It was my first time showing and I really enjoyed the day and was thrilled with the help that was offered to me by all the other dog people.

After a great day I headed off to my friends house in Reading for the night so we could leave for the next show in Newalk. 5am we left all packed two dogs and lunch. I was driving and we were making good time just 45 mins to go when the tyre blew out on my car. Amazingly the only reason I knew there was a problem was because the vibration through my spine was quite painfull. I discussed the bad road surface with my passenger but decided to pull over to investigate. well I opened the passenger door and was nearly sick with the smell of burning rubber, the whole tyre had been ripped of the alloy.

So as it's a big car and to be fair I have never changed a wheel I called the AA. Out comes Mr AA who doesn't want to be working Easter Monday. He informs me I have no locking wheel nut key. "a what" I ask. "I don't know, it's in the boot". Well after dumping most of our belonging on the side of the road it would appear I have bought a car without a vital part.

Fuming I am now told I will need to be towed home!!! Straight on the phone to hubby telling him to get it sorted " single child syndrome "i want it now" was in full force. Bless him he phoned everywhere no where had a tyre to fit our car. So AA man number one drives off. AA man number two turns up, now he took pride in his job assessed the situation and said it was so dangerous we needed the police. ( please now visualise the steam pumping out of my ears) "Oh no were ok I can manage it" he pips up. So after detailed analysis of our dogs and the likely hood of them eating him if he got in the car he decides to put it on the ramp. The dogs were not interested in the AA man they just were a bit bemused by all the fuss so went to sleep!!. so car on lorry dogs now having a better view as we are towed to a garage somewhere that removes the wheel. This takes 20 mins so we are now too late for the show. To ad insult to injury apparently AA man number one could have sorted it. We then have a space saver wheel on that you can only do 40 mph on. Long story short I got home at 5pm, I have never suffered so much road rage and abuse from other drivers because I was doing 40mph, I even had my hazard lights on but they still speeded up the back end of my car, slammed on their breaks and beeped and flashed me. Two men even pulled up along side me to swear at me! a complete bunch of nutters. It was really quite sad that so many people failed to even consider my car may have a fault, if they had taken the time to look they would have seen the tiny wheel on one side.

Anyway that's by the by. I am thrilled that this week my eldest daughter had her first hack ( went out of the field for a ride) she has been buzzing about it ever since.

If you have a dog and are free Mon 2nd we are running a dog show at the Bransgore Funday to raise funds for Jack and Jills pre school. It starts at 1pm on the bransgore playing fields email via www.k9tac.co.uk for details or view www.facebook.com/k9tac

Thought of the day - Don't leave home without a locking wheel nut thing it can ruin your day!!!

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Virus

Well I have managed to suffer with both sorts over the holidays. My computer gave up last week and had to go to the shop and I was told we had 500 viruses. Since then I appear to have caught one of the viruses and I have been feeling pretty grotty. I am on the mend but feel tired more than usual and have had some sinus pain. I have tried a few things to make it better and a trip to the beach has helped no end. I got to catch up with a friend and the children had a ball.

We are so lucky to have such lovely beaches just a mile or so away, the girls have had a great time in the sea.

The Small Furry Hotel was busy last week but it is a lot quieter this weekend. Last Saturday we raised £200 for waggy Tails rescue at the small furry show. It was lovely to see adults and children alike taking pride in their pets.

Our next show is a Dog show May 2nd for the Bransgore Funday.

We have also had all our bouncy castles up including our adult size castle, as we have a few hires coming up over the next few weeks. I even had a little bounce on it myself. I can see why children get worn out on them - great fun.

Well the holidays started off with a bit of tension between me an my eldest. Not sure if it was excitement of the holidays or tiredness from late nights. But as we are nearing the end of the holidays I will miss them both when they return to school.

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RESULTS

Well the results are in I didn't make it to the final 3 in the Langtry Manor business awards. The dress my mother sent can go back!!!!

Ahh well can't win em all but I gave it a good go and I am very proud that I made it that far. My business is a lot smaller than the ones that got through so I'll have to work harder next year.

Many many thanks to all those that voted for me.

Now the best result I got this week was my daughter has gone off the lead rein -not on her pony I might add but on an older quieter one. I asked the lady that owned the pony to walk with her as she gets all scaredy pants with me and it worked. I couldn't believe my eyes as I peeked over her daughters pony that I was grooming and seen my big girl riding all by herself. The ladies daughter then joined her and I could see she was beaming with delight at overcoming her fear. That was until the pony started walking the slowest walk possible towards the jump. It was plain to see the old girl had no intention of jumping it but I had to giggle as my daughter's face was a picture as she grabbed the front and back of the saddle!! She tells me she was singing happy days to get her through the stress. In fairness she could have probably sung it all the way through as the pony was walking so slowly towards the jump. Well it all went very well and she has had a go on her younger livelier pony and was really pleased with herself.

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School Holiday...............................

Well that's it we are free of school for a while. I like the holidays as I get fed up of the 3pm school run, it kind off cuts your day in half especially in the summer. I find the traffic so bad in Bournemouth and Poole that after lunch I am too worried to drive anywhere just in case I don't get back in time.

So I am going to enjoy the freedom not that I will go far but I could if I wanted to.

School holidays also means a break from dog training as our classes try to run in line with the school holidays although Easter is so late this year we are only having a week off. I love the last week of training as it is Progress test week. I am always pleased with progress. For some dogs it's being happy/quiet in the room with all the other dogs and for the advanced dogs it's them achieving some thing fang dangled. I love to see the pups go from a blank canvas to taking an interest in their owners regardless of other distractions and concentrating on pleasing/ working out what their owners are asking of them. There is nothing better than seeing those lines of communication opening up as dog and owner start to understand each other. Our new course starts April 18th and we have a kids club for any dog mad children out there. Some children bring their own dogs others borrow ours.

Had to take a bunny to the vet today as it's vaccine ran out whilst she was on her holidays . I am not a huge vet fan, what I mean is they have to prove themselves to me as I have met a few hopeless vets in my time. Well the guy at companion care in Pets at home in Christchurch was great. Really into rabbits and a bundle of knowledge - he was talking about a new vaccine that will last 6 mth for Myxi and a combined myxi and VHD jab, can't be bad. He was supper efficient and printed off a copy of the details for the Small Furry Show on the 16th and put them on the notice board. Great Vet I will have to get his name - he also keeps rabbits himself.


I am hoping to do a bit of intensive riding with my eldest daughter to get her going a bit on her pony. We started when she was 7 and she has far more fear than her kamikaze 4 year old sister which she finds a bit frustrating. Mind you if she listened once in a while and didn't argue Black is white so much we may get further, I think it's a phase that I remember going through myself, although highly frustrating I am glad she has so much self belief at a young age.

Voting closed for the langtry Manor Business awards today so I am excited to hear how I got on. My Mother has already sent me a dress for the final - now is that confidence in your daughter or what?



P.s picture just because I like it and couldn't find the one I wanted

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Holidays.

Well what a day! Eight rabbits in today it was binky heaven, for those not up on bunny terms a binky is what a rabbit does when they are happy. It's a run , a leap and a twist great fun to watch and I'm sure great fun for the buns. Have a look at the video on www.facebook.com/smallfurryhotel.com

Well all my customers have gone off to lovely destinations which got me thinking of my holiday in a few months. The thought of my holiday reminded me of last years holiday which I thought I would share with you.

We shall start in Cornwall 2009. We had a horrendous holiday in our caravan in probably the wettest part of Cornwall. We needed flip flop to get out of the caravan as the awning was flooded as was the rest of the campsite. We returned Lille white and soggy and sore teeth from the false grinning we had done for a week.

We got home and both finally admitted it was a nightmare holiday from hell. We needed sun and lots of it. Not to take any chances we got the map out and picked the furthest southern point we could tug our caravan to. That place was the very south of France. I booked the ferry and a campsite with 100 ft pitches and your own bathroom on each pitch. We were all very excited. Car and caravan serviced, caravan and car stuff to the rafters with every eventuality. Off we went Ferry. No Problem off Ferry drive half of France in one day!!! Tiredness resulted in touchiness which in turn resulted in a moan to far from me re. him picking the wrong lane at a toll booth. He stopped the car ( car and caravan as long as an artic) and told me to drive. I was not a happy bunny. Now I do tow but generally I just do the parking as he can't do the going back bit. So we get to the camp site tired and hungry. There are loads of professional Caravaners from the Netherlands and Germany and they all come out to watch the woman park and protect the corners of their vans. This upset me further, so imagine hubby waving arms around assessing the pitch. well I had had enough I flung the car in reverse and I can only decribes it as I threw the caravan into the pitch I surprised myself with the accuracy of my reverse parking. All that tractor and trailer experience in college helped. I then got out and smiled at my gob smacked European all man touring audience!!

I woke up the next morning full of the joys and off we went to the South of France. Now I had done my research, I had been on the caravan forums and I had my route planned to the minute by seasoned caravaners off the caravan form.

However not one of them told me the French build motorways over mountains the size of mount snowden!!! So off we go cruise control, dvd's picnic in the back true happy campers. That was until 4 hour in the the journey hubby shouts "We're on Fire". Well it wasn't fire but smoke we had over heated the car. I go into emergency mode girls out the car up the embankment away from the wacky races motorway. Car cools down were on our way again we then spot sign saying 1200m above sea level, we then realise that we had not noticed that over the last 5 hours we were going up a very steep hill ( automatic gear box & cruise control)

We then cross the amazing millau viaduct france and realise how high we are.

It's at this point hubby starts moaning that he has driven 10 hours and the outside temperature was less that it was at home. Suddenly huge signs the size of our caravan appeared at the side of the road. Now as far as I am concerned the French are not natural worriers so I was a bit concerned by the huge warning signs for caravan to break with your gears and emergency breaking lanes.

Well it had taken us 5 hours to go up the mountain and we dropped out of it in about 10 miles. The caravan was shunting the car and out ears popped as we descended gripping on for dear life. The temperature gage went up 6 degrees in 5 minutes. We put the windows down and felt the lovely warm Med evening air and it was all worth it. Our girls never moaned once on the journey they really enjoyed the adventure and watching back to back movies.

We had the most amazing family holiday and enjoyed amazing beaches. Can't wait to re run the adventure with my gang again this year with a little experience behind us.

If you are still with me after all that and haven't voted would you mind click here for info

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Rainy Days - Would you trust Aunt Mable???

Well where has the sun gone? A bit of a dreary day today but I managed to get a lot done in the house. If it's dry and sunny I find it really difficult to stay in doors. When it rains I do my jobs but don't potter round the garden and up the field for hours.

Well today I was very interested in "Come Outside" on Cbeebies. Did you see it? Auntie Mable was looking after a friends Rabbit and left the cage open. The rabbit disappeared but was found in the dogs bed!!! Well that has now sparked my reasons to use a professional Small animal boarder
Campaign.

Asking aunt Mable isn't always the best option if you want to relax on holiday knowing your pet is in safe hands. The best compliment I get is "Madeleine I didn't worry at all". I know what it is like to be on holiday worrying about your pet, you end up with big phone bills and never really relax on that well deserved holiday. When booking your holiday remember to book your pets holiday then. If you are at all worried about the borders service and facilities ask to view before you book. We are very proud of our service and facilities so are always happy to show off. We also offer hotel updates on Facebook for people to see how their per is getting on www.facebook.com/smallfurryhotel

My youngest and I did lots of reading today you can't beat the old classics like Cinderella.

Straight from school we were off to buy my eldest new shoes as she pulled the sole off the last pair!! Are Clark's making them like they used to. Aren't they meant to be like Fisherprice was? Indestructible!!??

Just has a very interesting email from the BBC they are looking for high maintenance teenage girls, mine haven't quite got there yet but a friend of mine has one so I hope to see him on the show!!! If you have a high maintenance daughter let me know and I will pass on your details.

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Easter Whoop whoop

Very excited today is the start on the Easter hols for my youngest. It's great using a private nursery that is part of an independent school. You get a great pre school but you don't have to pay the fees during the holidays when your eldest is off from school. We have made a huge saving that way.

Anyway where was I? Today is the start of the Easter explosion of the Small Furry Hotel, by Sunday we will be fully booked with squeakers and buns. I love it when my hotel is full.

I also like having my girls home to help me as there will be lots of work to do. My girls are great at giving out the veg at 11.00am, cleaning and filling water bottles etc. The downside is we can't go away but I love the fact than when I am at my busiest in work it's actually the greatest fun with my girls in the garden.

As you know I also do dog training at www.k9tac.co.uk this week is the last week of the 6 week course so everyone will be taking their progress test. good luck to all of them. We then have a week off from training and the start of a new course from the 18th

Hate to go on but only a week of this. Would you mind voting for me in the Langtry Manor Business Awards Here I would love to win it's a great boost for and Mum/business owner.

Off now have a great day.

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Happy Mothers Day

Well no such thing as a lie in but a great wake up. I was given a lovely big picture done by both my girls and two plants. Then the girls set off to make breakfast on their own. A little bit of bickering and out they came with a plate of croissants with a blob of butter and Jam. Just off to enjoy a Mothers Day Chinese meal. Hope all you mums out there have had a good day

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Fancy Dress - One of the best bits of being a Mum

Today was my youngest 1st official dressing up at pre school. We had to do a book character, so she trundled off to find a book. Out she comes " I want to be Pepper Pig Mum" Pepper pig it is then. Thursday we had a make up rehearsal and today was the big day. We were a bit late for school as I decided to add ears at 8.40. So sewing kit out and sewed the ears onto the hat. Lucky it wasn't her head!!! I was very pleased with the over all look and was thrilled that she won a chocolate egg for our efforts - which we both ate.

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