A little help?

I would like to publicly apologize to my mom (aka doggie babysitter) for taking her doggy baby sitting services for granted.  It wasn't until I moved away from her that I realized how difficult (and expensive!!) it can be to find someone you trust to watch your dog, even just for a night.  It took me over a year to find a good pet-sitter, but she will come if we are going to be gone for at least three nights.  Very useful (and did I mention expensive!) for trips back to America, but not at all useful for little weekend or overnight trips.  Oh and before you say it, no, I will not put my dog in a kennel...if you knew me or my dog, this wouldn't need any further explanation. 

My dog is spoiled and I'm over-protective, so without a go-to baby sitter, she now tags along for the overnight trips.  However, I quickly learned the first time we tried to plan a little trip to the coast that finding dog friendly accommodation is easier said than done.  You'd think with Google at your fingertips you could easily find a dog friendly hotel or B&B in just about any area, but the lack of information really disappointed me. A cursory search will give you hundreds of caravan parks (not really my thing) and self-catering places which must be rented for a week at a time starting only a Wednesday or something, but a one-night stay in an actual hotel, B&B or pub takes a bit more research. 

Then there is the matter of the just how friendly is friendly...  I naively assumed when I booked our first "dog friendly" B&B in Chichester for a bit of sea air and relaxation that the B&B owner would be just as friendly to my dog as she was to the humans, and was surprised when she said the dog couldn't come in the house (only the room which had been built as an extension with its own entrance) and couldn't sleep on the bed.  Couldn't sleep on the bed or eat breakfast and a bed and breakfast?  Hmph.  This was no way to treat my best friend! 

Sadly, she wasn't alone in her dog friendly guidelines.  I have since spent ages looking for other places to go with dog in tow and have heard the same rules many times over.  Truly dog friendly hotels and B&Bs are difficult to find, even in country which I think is more accommodating to those on four legs than most others. 

I have decided to put together a directory of sorts of the friendliest dog friendly places in the UK and need your help.  Have you travelled in the UK with your dog? Have you managed to find any places that allow doggie to sleep on the bed AND eat breakfast with you?  Those are my criteria and here is my very infantile website.  Share your reviews please! 

You Capture: Animals

My beautiful dog. 

Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. 

--Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher)

Make that "meow" in every language!

It seems I underestimated my fellow Americans (and others!) when I assumed it was only the English who were in an uproar over Mary Bale's. It seems that she has actually become the most hated woman in many parts of the world, not just in England.

I recieved an email from my mother last night spouting (well deserved) contempt for her and this story has apparently made the headlines in Australia, China, New Zealand, Denmark, Turkey, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Spain and who knows where else!

Although, to make it look like I still had a valid point in my previous post, I still maintain that the English are more animal-friendly than the Americans. Watch this space for a better illustration of my theory..... Oh wait.... Dogs in pub. So there.

Feeling a bit bored? Play a fun game

The Outcry! Meow!

It would be wise to mention, before anyone gets the wrong idea and thinks the country is only filled with Americans who pretend to be English, that there are native English people in England (!) and while we have already learned you can't make generalizations about the entire population, I am prepared to say that on the whole, the people of England are a pretty animal-friendly bunch. The queen loves her Corgies, dogs are allowed in many pubs, trains and on the Tube, pet-friendly hotels and B&Bs are not hard to find, and my adorable dog gets a friendly smile anywhere she goes.

Of course, there are always exceptions. Meet Mary Bale. Last week, Mary, from Coventry, thought it would be "funny" to put a cat in a wheelie bin. She was caught on a security camera petting the cat (who was just minding her own business sitting on a wall), then picking her up by her scruff and quickly dropping her in the bin. The cat was finally found by her owners 15 hours later. Obviously a vile woman, but that is not the point of this post. The point is the surprisingly angry outcry which came from the public when this story made the headlines of almost every news outlet. Take a look at this article from the Telegraph....

Now I'm not condoning the death threats and sincerely hope that no harm comes to Mary Bale, but I honestly am happy to see the reaction (one I am not sure would be mirrored in America), no matter how over-the-top it might be. People who mistreat animals are bullies (the definition of a bully being a person who badgers and intimidates those smaller or weaker than himself) and I don't stand for bullies. I am glad to see I am not the only one.