Stories

The Cragg Families Stay at Hazel Tree House

Cat Diary - In the Words of Wakanda Nitika (with a little help)

Sunday 11 March 2007

We were all up early and I knew something major was happening, our human parents were busily filing bags with our stuff and our cat carriers were all out. Could this be an important cat show or another photo shoot but this time on location? I gathered my siblings and gave them my opinion, Kachina was awestruck she has yet to make her show debut, Big Ted was excited he loves going anywhere where he meets new people and has the chance of another photo being taken of him.

After a short while I became a little unsure as to my first thoughts when our big brother's and sister (I understand you call them dogs) became very excited and I saw their bedding and toys also being packed up.

As I expected we were soon placed in our carriers, I (when not alone) travel in what has been called the worlds largest cat carrier, it has plenty of space for my three sisters, brother and obviously me. Our Mum's usually travel separately in their own individual carriers as they like their own space. The Human Mummy explained to us that we were going on an adventure; to stay at Hazel Tree House where we would have our own family unit and lots of attention. We have never stayed away from home before so were a little unsure as to what it would be like but we know Mummy knows best so we soon settled down.

Shortly afterwards there was a knock at the door and I recognised (from the website) the distinct uniform of the Hazel Tree House Kennel and Cattery Team.

As we were taken outside, there stood our chariot. There was plenty of room for all of our carriers as well as the dogs to be safely transported to Hazel Tree House and the adventure began....

The journey took I believe two minutes, this is the standard time we usually hear when going to cat shows but have to say, these so called two minutes do seem to be of varying times!
 

When we arrived we said goodbye to the dogs and were taken to our accommodation and our first impressions were WOW and the background music was a lot better than we get at home. We had a huge area but before we could fully explore, our bedding and toys appeared from no-where and suddenly we were surrounded with familiar smells and more fun things to do. Our Mum's settled down quickly for a rest, we the younger ones however went on our first mission to explore the spacious dwelling. Our new Aunties did interfere a bit wanting to talk to us and after the socially acceptable duration of two minutes introducing ourselves we spent the rest of the day playing.

Monday 12 March 2007

After a good nights sleep and a healthy breakfast we had cuddles and watched with great interest as our home was cleaned and all of our bedding sorted out. We also invented a new game called lets hide in a litter tray, we don't have lids on ours at home so voted as to which ones we would use for the traditional reasons and which one would be the play tray. This sorted we had a great time playing peek-a-boo, hide and seek, as well as how many cats can you get in one tray. This seemed to amuse our Aunties. We had a lovely dinner once again served on our own plates from home before settling down for the night.

Tuesday 13 March

Not wishing to sound as if we are boring but we did repeat the fun of the previous day and had even more cuddles and conversations with our Aunties.

Wednesday 14 March

We knew our adventure was coming to an end when we saw our carriers appear and I am sure I saw tears in the eyes of our caring Aunties. We then completed the two minute drive home to where our Human Mummy and Daddy were waiting. We were all pleased to be reunited and just a little sad at saying goodbye (for now) to our lovely carers.

Dog Diary - In the Words of Magic (with a little help)

Sunday 11 March 2007

Billy-Bob and I always know when we are going to the kennels, Mummy says we are psychic but usually it's the case's that give it away! However this time there were no cases; instead many boxes with household items in. I did hear the mention of new windows and the kitchen damage being repaired. We felt a little guilty (not for long) when we heard the 'damage' word, as last year we accidentally flooded the kitchen. We had being trying to look out the kitchen window when one of us (Billy-Bob I am sure) caught the slider tap and turned the water on. Then on the way down we did also knock a cloth into the sink. Shortly afterwards the sink filled up and then proceeded to run all along the new worktops and units, giving us a wonderful splash room till Daddy came home.

Anyway, we knew we were going to the kennels what we didn't expect was to see our little brother and sisters also being prepared to travel. Did this mean that we would have to share our run with them as well as all the love and attention we get? Last time we went to kennels Mummy and Daddy took us in their car, we did hear Mummy say never again and wondered if she had changed her mind but couldn't work out how we would all fit into the car.

All was soon revealed when we came out of the house and saw our transport, although it was always nice travelling with our Human Parents this was so much better, no words of sit and lie down were heard during the journey but then they were not needed as the seating arrangements are customised for dogs.

On arrival we were delighted to discover that the cats had their own area and we had ours, not that we don't love them it's just that we have a busy schedule of playing organised and the cats do play different to us.

Once we were settled in it was business as usual; playing and dragging each other around. We can amaze people who don't know us by how long we can keep this up for and longest continual play session was 2 hours we aim to one day beat this. Also Hazel Tree House is where we were both born and we are both Cheney Danes, our Mum says the best Dane's in the world. So everybody does know us as well as how playful we are and that despite rumours to the contrary we are actually very intelligent. I must be because I've written this although Mummy did have to type it out for me.

Well we had a wonderful couple of days, good food, lovely surroundings and lots of attention. Before we went home we were groomed and all of our bedding was washed, we smelled so lovely that Mummy said she could eat us!! Mummy spends a lot of time cleaning us up as the pictures below show we love playing dinosaurs as well as rolling about on the floor. We love going to Hazel Tree House and can't wait till our next visit.