Been a very interesting month regarding animal behaviour! Found a mum cat and five teeny-tiny kittens in our old Land Rover. Another one in the laundry room with four kittens and yet another in the tree house with four! Caught them all and put them in the guesthouse, three semi-wild mums and thirteen kittens! I don’t have to find them any more they just come here.

They are so cute I can’t tell you. I’m dreading how many are female but what can you do? Thank goodness for Wayne! 45 – 55 euros for a female spay. Anyway, back to animal behaviour. One of my female cats, who was not pregnant and isn’t spayed but next in line, moved in with the kittens and started looking after them and letting them suckle. Now it’s just one big love fest in there, one big heap of kittens and four mums feeding and grooming whomever. Heap of kittens: a new collective noun.

Some very interesting dog behaviour; sounds a bit traumatic but it was interesting. Chris, (my husband), had an epileptic fit a couple of weeks ago. It’s the second one he’s had in his life, first one two months ago all due to medication he has now stopped taking. The first one I though he was dying, never seen anyone fit before.

The second one I knew what to do, so I’m sat there on the floor, holding Chris in the recovery position waiting for it to pass. The dogs were so freaked out! Brian stood about two metres away barking at us, looking really nervous. Peluqui, who we call doctor Peluqui because whenever any of the cats or dogs have cuts he sniffs them out and cleans them up and keeps cleaning until they’re better.

Dogs have an enzyme in their saliva that is similar to an antibiotic. It is the reason your dog has brownish-pink stains where he’s been chewing his paw, licking and around his mouth, it causes the discolouration.

So, Peluqui starts frantically sniffing all over Chris as if he could smell a treat that we’d hidden. He looked really serious and wouldn’t stop. Teddy was circling us quite fast and not too close, I don’t know for sure but it honestly felt like he was guarding us. All the other dogs just stood there watching…except the four, eight week old puppies who thought it was all a fantastic game that dad had lay down on the floor as a human climbing frame purely for their benefit! I had to just watch all of this, I couldn’t stop any of them as I was a bit busy myself, I’d sling the odd pup, but this just added to the game. It was truly amazing to witness.

Diatomaceous Earth – what a find. I have no fleas! No ants, a lot less ticks and a lot less flies and mozzies (mosquitoes). It is incredible and people are coming back for more and more. It’s really funny they stand at the gate like Diatomaceous Earth addicts. ‘Got any more of that powder?’ Wayne the mobile vet will be here early July for a cat day and a month later for a cat and dog day if you want an appointment.

Thank you all for your kind comments and support, re: last month’s article.