Wellybix | Dog Treat Review

It's about time Harry made another appearance on the blog and this time he's been reviewing Wellybix dog biscuits!

You may have read my DIY dog treats post from last year but sometimes it's hard to find time to make your own or be original with flavourings so thankfully Wellybix are here to do the work for us. The biscuits are handmade and free from any nasties such as artficial colours, flavours and enhancers which is reassuring for us pooch owners. They also have a great selection of flavours to choose from so there's plenty of choice for your four legged friends.

The biscuits themselves actually smell amazing! It was tempting to try one myself but I thought I'd leave the tasting to Harry who tried the chicken flavour with fresh thyme, chocolate flavour with carob and strawberries & cream flavour; all of which smell fresh and flavoursome in the packet.

Each bag is cleverly packaged in recyclable brown bags which fasten with a wire insert at the top, ensuring they keep nice and fresh and each flavour has the ingredients written on the back so you know exactly what is in them.

Harry has particularly enjoyed the chicken and fresh thyme biscuits the most, knowing he's in for a treat as soon as the brown bag appears from the cupboard. They work extremely well for getting him to pose for dog photography too! He will happily sit obediently knowing he's in for a tasty treat. Did you know Harry has his own Instagram? His handle is @harrytherescuehound for anyone who wants to follow his adventures.

My personal favourite are the strawberries and cream flavour. It makes a nice change from meat based dog treats and I like to think they're a nice after dinner treat too for my little chap.

After thorough tasting, Harry can safely say that these treats are delicious and we will certainly be ordering more in the future. Harry is keen to try the peanut butter and spelt flour biscuits next. What dog doesn't like peanut butter!?

Has your canine tried Wellybix yet?

Finding our Feline Friends | Tabcat Safe & Found

Any of my close friends will tell you that my cat Zara has a habit of disappearing (and at the worst possible times too!) so when Tabcat contacted me to review their cat tracker*, how could I say no?

The user guide was really easy to follow and setting up the tracking device was a breeze. The device came with two trackers but you can have up to four trackers in use at the same time which is perfect for people having more than one moggy. The box also contained two splash proof covers for the trackers to protect them from the elements.

I decided to use try both covers on Zara's tracker ye know, depending on her style that day... (ha!) and as you can see she didn't give two hoots about wearing it. The tracker is really light weight so your cat will barely notice it's there.

Soon Zara was off exploring and I could try out the locator device. Unlike other cat trackers, the Tabcat isn't a GPS tracker and instead uses RF technology which has the advantage of being extremely accurate with locating your kitty, up to 2 centimetres away to be precise! It's range is 122 metres which is great for Zara as she's rather territorial and doesn't wander far. The lights on the locating device light up from red to green, green indicating you're on the money and red meaning you're cold. It also makes a noise to determine how near of far you are from finding your feline friend but I personally found that function a little annoying so have opted to mute the noise altogether.

Another great function to this device is it can train you cat to come home! When hitting the locate button on the device, it makes the cat tag beep. The best way to train your cat to know this sound means home time, is to play the beep before you give your cat food, thus associating the noise with food so they should come running. This is something I am still working on with Zara, as initially the beeping freaked her out but she is slowly getting used to the sound and associating it with dinner time!

I'm so pleased we have Tabcat in our household now. We don't have a cat flap in our current home so we have to rely on hearing the cat meow at the door or leaving it open for her which isn't really an option in the depths of winter! Knowing we can easily find her with Tabcat really puts me at ease and thankfully since she has been wearing it we've only had one disappearing act!

At the end of the day, I love to curl up with Zara to give her a bit of fuss knowing that she's safe and found.

Have you tried Tabcat for your kitty?

Coastal Cottage Weekend Vlog

Afternoon all! Did you have a good Easter? Full of chocolate? Yeah me too. My stomach has descended from the sheer weight of chocolateness - pretty!

Anyhow I scuttled off to Suffolk about a month ago and I've finally felt up to editing the footage. I went with Chris, our friends Emma and Gareth and our doggies and had such a great time!

I'll be posting about our fabulous cottage retreat and a fab resturant we found over the next week or so, so make sure you stay tuned for that! But for now, enjoy the vlog below:

Have you had any weekends away this year?

#petlovers - The story of our rescue pets

Have I ever told you all the story of how I came to get Harry and Zara?

This is probably my favourite story about the two of them and it all starts in sunny Cyprus...

Chris and I moved to Cyprus in September 2013, being posted there with Chris' job. When we arrived we were told that there were a lot of stray cats an dogs on the island and being the pet lovers we are, we knew we'd like to adopt some pets of our own.

What we didn't bargain on however was just how fast we would get our first one and that was Zara.

Just two weeks after arriving on the island we'd popped to the local shopping mall and on our way out came across a tiny, grey, scruffy thing. Now I'd never been much of a cat lover up until this point, having had allergies to them in the past, but Zara's meow was so sad and she was so helpless I couldn't just leave her right? She was so small and in a busy car park she could have easily been run over.

Without even thinking about it, I scooped her up and took her back to base. 

Zara when she first came home

She was so skinny when we brought her home and was clearly very tired and hungry so we fed her and she soon had a little snooze on my chest as pictured above!

Zara settled in so quickly, we couldn't imagine her not being part of our home and has since become a much loved part of our family.

A few weeks later we came across this little guy...

The photo above is the day we adopted Harry. Previously known as Divo, Harry had been found in a warehouse. Chained up with no food or water, a lovely lady rescued him and took him to the local pound. Unfortunately Harry was still not quite out of the woods at this point... With the pounds being full, the next option was unthinkable in my mind but was due to happen. Harry was going to be put down!

On the day he was due to be put down, a wonderful lady known as Nadia came in to foster a dog and luckily for Harry she chose him. Soon after that we got wind that he needed a home and instantly fell in love with him.

He was so skinny when we got him home and very nervous too but we soon fed him up to a healthy weight and built his confidence too. He'll always be a sensitive soul but has a heart of gold.
As our stay in Cyprus came to a close, we flew back to the UK and of course flew Harry and Zara with us too! 

Both pets love the cooler climate of the UK and have settled in brilliantly. It's been over a year since bringing them here and we're so pleased they like it here.

This year we're hoping to take Harry on some little breaks and seeing as he has his own passport from travelling to the UK, we thought he might like to visit somewhere via the Euro Tunnel. We love including him in our adventures but Zara isn't quite so keen... (funny that, being a cat!)

And did you know that Euro Tunnel are holding a competition? You could win a luxury three night stay for two at Château De Saint Paterne in Normandy. It's of course pet friendly too! The trip also includes a free Eurotunnel short break return ticket valid for up to five calendar days for the winner, their pet and one vehicle, a £300 post office travel money card aaaand a year’s supply of pet food, from Arden Grange, especially chosen for your pet.  All you need to do is share your pet story on your blog, but hurry the closing date is 25th January!

So that's my rescue story of the pets. I hope you enjoyed it and if you enter the competition be sure to link me to your post as I'd love to read your story too!

See you Tuesday!

Simple DIY Dog Treats

I'm back today with what I want to class as a crafty post? Kind of anyway but nevertheless it’s fun, simple and easy on the purse too!

Being a dog owner, I like to do what’s best for Harry and know that he’s eating good quality food. I’m also a crafter and thriftier at heart so with that in mind I thought it’d be fun to make some dog biscuits, knowing exactly what goes into them and knowing there’s no preservatives or rubbish in them either! I can’t take credit for the recipe as it is in fact taken from Caesar Milan’s website (see here) but I’m going to show you a step by step tutorial with pictures so you’ll know what the biscuits are meant to look like at each stage.

To begin with, you will need:

Ingredients

o    2 ½ cups whole wheat flour (substitute regular flour or oats if your dog is sensitive to wheat)

o    1 tsp. salt (or less)

o    1 egg

o    1 tsp. Beef or chicken Bouillon granules (1 beef oxo cube)

o    ½ cup hot water

o    Added extras such as bacon or chicken broth, eggs, oats, liver powder, wheat germ, shredded cheese, bacon bits. (I went for cheese)

Directions

Start by pre-heating your oven to 180 (°C)/ 350 (°F) / gas mark 4

Dissolve your oxo cube or bouillion into hot water and stir

Add the stock and remaining ingredients into a bowl

Mix the ingredients before kneading into a dough until it forms a ball. This takes approximately 3 minutes.

NOTE: The mixture will start off very sticky then quickly becomes very dry. You may be tempted to add more water but stick with it and it’ll soon become a ball. You need the mix to be dry in order to make crunchy biscuits.

Next roll the dough out until it’s ½ inch thick.

Cut your dough into slices or use a cookie cutter/ bone shaped cutter. (I picked mine up on eBay)

To get the most out of your dough, re-roll the excess to make more biscuits.

Place your dough pieces on a tray.

Cook for 30 minutes.

Once cool, serve up to your doggy! (I’m sure they will thank you for it.)

As you can see they really are simple to make and the great thing is Harry LOVES them! Jack (my mum’s puppy) was over when I made these and was my doggy model in the video below:

As you can see the recipe makes a lot of biscuits, which keep fresh for up to a week or alternatively they can be frozen, with them lasting up to 6 months in the freezer.

I hope you liked this doggy inspired DIY. Don’t forget to check out my previous doggy DIY which was this super simple dog bed!

Have you ever made dog biscuits?