Getting Down under » cats

Time to get into the mining industry

Mark — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:04:33 +0000

Hi all, well life down under has been busy and as there’s not so much news going on right now in the wonderful world of Australian Immigration I thought I’d write a quick personal update just so you all know that I’m still alive

Life down under has been pretty full on recently. On the job front, after 6 years working in financial services I decided to jump ship after being approached by one of the large mining companies here in Perth.

Similar lines of work (contracts, sourcing and procurement) but buying much bigger and more expensive stuff.

On the basis that I’ve not worked in the mining industry before I have to be honest and say that I’m currently working a tiny little bit outside of my comfort zone. That said, it’s only been three weeks in the new job and when it comes down to sourcing things ’strategically’ then you apply the same principals to just about anything.

I recon I’ll be just fine once I get my head around all the new forms that now need to be completed for each transaction.

Apart from the usual increments in salary and benefits that come with most proactive job changes, the new job also sees me working 9 day fortnights.This is the biggest bonus for me as it means I can work the same hours I’ve always worked whilst getting a little time back to spend with the family. As we move into summer it’ll be an even bigger bonus!

On the subject of summer, it’s late October which puts us into the middle of spring. I think I’ve mentioned before somewhere that the winter this year seems to have been a really long one. It’s been a great one for the garden but a chilly one for a family of British Expats who are just starting to get used to the warm Aussie sunshine.

Last weekend saw the first really warm day in a long time. Much to the discomfort of Charlie (our black cat for the benefit our our less regular readers) it hit 36C on Saturday and most days are now hitting the mid to high 20’s as we venture closer to the yummy Aussie summers.

Junior number one hit 7 years old this month and Aussie born Junior number 2 hit 2 years old

Time flies when your really having fun huh?

Getting a little bit warm and dealing with a hot cat

Mark — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:52:07 +0000

So it’s started to get a little warm here in Western Australia and yesterday it hit 40 degrees Celsius which is the first time this summer that it’s hit this temperature.

Today the forecast is a very warm 38 C and tomorrow (new years day) we’ll be hitting the 40’s again.

Nothing for a bloke to do really other then strip off, jump into the pool and enjoy a cold beer.

What if your a cat with a built in fur coat though?

Our cat Charlie really struggles with the hot weather. Being black doesn’t help and even the shade provided by the canopy covering our patio offers little relief.

Cats for some reason don’t quite understand the benefits of refrigerated air conditioning. In ‘Cat World’ it’s always bound to be cooler outside even though the wonders of modern air conditioning means that the difference between inside and outside temperatures could be as much as 10 – 15 degrees C.

Charlie after his brief introduction to a jug of water. I think he's plotting something

In the three years that we’ve been here we’ve tried a number of things to bring down Charlie s core body temperature during the really hot days.

As frequent visits to the vets have taught us, one of the few places where cats sweat is through their paws. They don’t have the ability to loose heat by panting like a dog or sweating like us humans do.

One thing we’ve tried was ice cubes in the water bowl. Unfortunately this approach will only work if you can convince your cat to get up from his shady corner for a drink. Yesterday this just was not going to happen and the ice cubes soon melt in this really hot weather.

What does work though is a big jug of water!

Now, I don’t mean that in the ‘chuck a jug of water over your cat’ kind of way

What we do is simply sit down next to the cat and give him a good stoke.

The sly part is between each stroke we dip our hand in the jug of water so that over a period of time we manage to give him a good soaking.

Anyone who has attempted to bath a cat will know that getting your cat wet is often not a very wise move. For Charlie though, he was either to warm to rip us to pieces with his claws or simply couldn’t be bothered. Either way he was happy to be given some relief from the heat.

Charlie has been showing an interest in the swimming pool of late. If he decides to start taking regular dips then I’ll get the clips posted up on Youtube!

Yes – I’m still alive

Mark — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:17:51 +0000

G’day all. Work wise, life down under has been ridiculously busy recently which is why Getting Down Under hasn’t been getting much love and attention recently.

Still, – I know there’s a small pocket of you who probably wonder what we’ve been up to when you wake each morning (not) so to appease these small few I’ll use this time on the train with my ridiculously small blackberry keyboard wisely and give you a quick heads up on what’s been going on down under.

Firstly where is Jeff? It’s been a very long time now since we saw Charlie’s feline brethren so all I can say is we hope he’s in a safe and happy place.

We got his annual vaccination reminder through from the vets yesterday so if he is out there he better keep away from all those bugs!

Something we never thought about was the fact that Jeff liked to jump into the back of open Vans and Lorries so he’s probably chilling out somewhere around Sydney about now.

Or, perhaps he just got hit by a car and we simply couldn’t find him. Either way, no more Jeff

I know its Mid May here in Australia but by UK Standards we are half way through the equivalent of November.

The mornings and evenings are now starting to get cold! We’re not talking freezing though. This morning at about 7am it was just a touch over 9 degrees Celsius. Perhaps ‘fresh’ is a slightly better way to describe it.

Certainly not short and t-shirt weather, well, not first thing in the morning. During the afternoon we are still seeing temperatures in the low twenties so not bad for late autumn.

I quite like this time of the year actually. Being the sunniest capital city in the World were still getting lots of sunshine here in Perth, just not the sort that melts your skin within 5 seconds of stepping into it.

In other news the missus has started back at work. Not quite full time but 30 hours a week. This meant we had to source child care for junior number 2 and after school care for junior number 1.

As child care in Australia will be quite an important subject for many of you then you might be interested to know that I’m working on a article on the very subject which I hope to post in the next week or so watch this space

The missus is working in the city so it’s nice to catch up for our regular coffee in the morning without the distraction of kids. You forget how important these times alone are sometimes when you’ve been surrounded by a little person (and now people) demanding your attention all the time.

Speaking of Coffee, Aussies love the stuff. You’ll find Starbucks in abundance in Sydney, although none in Perth for some reason. Perth still has several coffee shop per head of population so you’ll never struggle to find somewhere for your early morning caffeine fix.

Speaking of which, I”m at the station now so time for work. More Blackberry updates soon.

Jeff Update

Mark — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:29:01 +0000

Ok, well the update on Jeff is that there are no updates

It’s been over two weeks now since we last saw him and we’re now starting to get used to the fact that the last time we saw him really will be just that!

Junior is gutted and to be honest, we’re all pretty down about the whole thing.

Loosing a pet is always going to be a difficult time however literally loosing a pet is turning out to be even worse.

At least if Jeff had past away and we knew about it then we could do something about it and then move on.

The concept of Jeff just disappearing is a pretty difficult one to grasp for a five year old and is an even more difficult thing for a mum or dad to explain.

At the moment, Jeff has gone away on ‘holiday’, there will be a time when we’ll have to think of something a little more creative but the holiday thing is holding up pretty well so far.

In a way the last year and a bit in Australia for Jeff has been a massive holiday and I’m still glad that we brought him.

Back in west Yorkshire in the UK, Jeff was found as a kitten inside a plastic bag on a rubbish dump.

My sister got him from the local RSPCA shelter where he enjoyed the first three to four years of his life until she got a dog which didn’t get on that well with Cats.

So, it was time for the missus and I to adopt Jeff and bring him home to our place where he was introduced to Charlie (our other cat) and the wonders of outdoor living. (Jeff was an indoor cat at my sister’s place as she lived in an apartment at the time).

Jeff always enjoyed the sunshine and we never doubted that he’d love Australia and we were right.

There were times when he got a little to warm and had to come back inside or find a shady spot to cool off but all in all Jeff loved the sunshine here.

Jeff lying on our lawn or by the pool, his eyes half open, half shut in pure contentment will be our lasting memory. If he is on ‘holiday’ then I hope he’s having a damn good time!

Where’s Jeff?

Mark — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:31:49 +0000

Our regular readers will know that as well as dragging the missus, junior and I out to Australia, we also decided to bring our two cats; Charlie and Jeff to Australia to

Many people find the thought of spending literally thousands of £’s on moving two cats abroad a concept that’s difficult to grasp!

I don’t share this view though. At the end of the day they were part of our family (although a bloody big selfish sulky I want my own way part) and I also think that as a responsible pet owner it’s only right that we brought them with us instead of dumping them on another family member who had neither the time or inclination to look after two cats.

So nearly 15 months later, the older of the cats; Jeff has gone missing. No idea where either, the last time we saw him was Monday evening.

We always bring the cats in at night as it’s during this time they represent the greatest risk to Australia’s native wildlife. There’s also the chance that during this time they’re more likely to get into scraps with the rougher â€˜outdoor’ cats.

On the rare occasion they don’t come in they’ll always be sat by the patio door first thing in the morning, meowing their displeasure at the fact they had to sleep during the night on this strange foreign object called the floor!

So, Jeff’s been outside for 2 nights now. We’ve had a look around the local streets and can’t find any signs of Jeff as a ‘road traffic victim’ so the only thing we can surmise is the fact that he might be locked in a garage or a garden shed somewhere.

If he doesn’t come home today then we’ll probably need to do a letter drop down the street tonight asking residents to check their garages! This in turn will probably add another day as peoples letter boxes here in Australia or normally located at the bottom of their driveway so seeing a letter on their front doormat before turning in for the night probably won’t happen.

To be honest, we are getting a little worried. He’ll be fine without food for about a week or so but will need water pretty soon if he is locked in somewhere!

He’s also getting on a bit and last time he was at the vets we were told he had a slight heart murmur.

Hopefully, if he is roaming the streets, his collar and the fact that we had to have him micro chipped as part of the process to move him out here will help him find his way home!

Here’s hoping anyway

Feline Aids in Australia – More Jabs for the cats

Mark — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:51:56 +0000

Poor cats, I actually thought we had everything covered when we did the pre travel vet checks and got all the jabs sorted before moving out to Australia.

One of our Cats, Charlie had a bit of a limp some time ago so we took him to the local vets to get checked out.

It was whilst at the vets that we learnt all about the wonders of feline aids, a desease which is pretty prevalent here in Australia.

FIV or given its official name; Feline Immunodeficiency Virus is a common virus worldwide with the number of infected cats dramatically increasing over the last 10years.

In Australia approximately 7% to 29% of cats test positive to infection, many of which die from FIV related illnesses each year.

Although FIV is very similar to the AIDS virus in humans (destroying the immune system leaving the animal susceptible to infections), humans cannot contract Feline AIDS (FIV) from infected cats.

Apparently the disease is past on through saliva if one cat bites another when scrapping. As we’ve noticed a couple of rough looking cats (and appreciate both Charlie and Jeffs enjoyment of the odd rumble) we thought it would be time to get both boys sorted.

The jabs are given in a series of three injections over a period of 4 – 6 weeks. We took both boys in over two weeks ago where they had a blood test which was tested on the spot.

Thankfully, both cats are ‘clean’ although they both gave us ‘the look’ when they were having the blood taken from their front paws!

If you’re thinking about bringing your cats with you to Australia I’d suggest you ask about getting the FIV Vaccine before flying out here. This way, should your cat get into a scrap the money you spent getting your furry friends here in the first place won’t be completely wasted.

In other news, Jeff needs his teeth doing again (we had them done about 12 months ago). Another $300!

Might be cheaper to have them all taken out and feed Jeff cat soup. I wonder if they do dentures for cats

Cat Update – Charlie and Jeff take on Australia

Mark — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:27:07 +0000

Well, it’s been a while since I blogged about the furry felines so I thought I’d write a quick update to let those of you interested know how the cats have settled in down under.

To be honest, I’ve been pretty surprised how easily and quickly both ‘Charlie and Jeff’ have taken to their new surroundings.

Both cats have got into a bit of a routine although I have to say that a large part of this routine appears to be associated with finding an appropriately cool and shady spot for a snooze.

The non resting hours are spent meowing for food. Teasing the dogs, which have recently appeared next door and chasing flies.

Charlie, the younger cat has been the more adventurous and regularly disappears over the fence, only to be reappear some two to three hours later for some food and a quick power nap before venturing out again.

Jeff, the older of the two seems happier within the confines of the garden. This may be due to the 6 foot + high fence enclosing the garden which Jeff struggles to jump over (unlike his younger housemate) but even when Jeff ventures out of the front door to the unrestricted front garden, he very rarely venture more then a couple of metres away.

One thing for sure is that neither of the cats enjoys the heat.

During the really warm days both cats looked truly uncomfortable. Even with the air conditioning on they struggled to find a suitably cool spot.

One thing about cats is that they really struggle to get rid the excess heat. Unlike dogs cats don’t really pant and the only place they secrete sweat from is their paws.

On a couple of occasions we thought we’d lost one of the cats (normally Charlie), only to find him hidden in a cupboard or, on one occasion sprawled out across the bottom of one of the shower trays in the bathroom.

We tried our best to help. Ice cubes in the water bowl offered a little relief and pretty good results were had applying a small amount of cool water by hand to their coats.

It was pretty obvious that during these really hot days neither cat were particularly comfortable though.

Still, it is now officially autumn and although it’s still hot, we’ve not had the extreme temperatures that we saw for a few weeks now and both boys are spending a little more time outdoors.

Both cats appear to be enjoying the slightly more bearable temperatures and we’re still chuffed that we made the decision to bring them with us.

The cats are members of the family (insert godfather theme music here) and I recon they’re just as happy to be living in Australia as we are.

Hot nights, cats and bikes

Mark — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:27:13 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted any Blog updates but I’ll use the excuse that work has been pretty hectic recently.

Life in Australia is still great although we’ve had a couple of sleepless nights due to some very warm weather we’ve been experiencing recently.

During the daytime the weather has been in the 100’s which is no big deal (well, actually it is but it’s kinda nice), but during the night the temperature hasn’t been slipping down to much lower then 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Normally this would be almost manageable but in addition to the high evening heat, the humidity has also been pretty high which has resulted in a few sticky nights.

The new house we moved into in Kinross has air conditioning in the main living area only (Kitchen, lounge, Dining-room) but nothing in the bedrooms.

We thought about this when we went for the house but decided the house itself offered us more in other areas. We also remembered that when we spent a month in Perth during our Rekkie last February. The house we stayed in in Sorrento, only had a ceiling fan to help dissipate the heat and we managed pretty well.

This was the warmest night we’d experienced whilst staying in Australia and although a couple of fans in each room helped a little it has taught us that when we rent or buy our next house we’ll need to make sure that air con in all rooms is a prerequisite

Cat News….well well well..exciting news on the cat front. Both boys have been released into the ‘wild’.

A good thing about the back garden is that 1) It’s not a bad size (think on the lines of a couple of large tennis courts and 2) it has a large 7 foot high corrugated metal fence all of the way around.

We weren’t really sure if this would keep both cats in but after being in the new house for just over a week we decided to let them have a sniff around.

Letting the cats outside for the first time took me back to the days when we let Charlie out in the garden for the first time when he was still effectively a kitten (remembering that Jeff came to us as an adult cat from my sister). It was a pretty momentous occasion as both cats came out through the back door, blinking in the bright sunshine.

The older cat, Jeff was pretty happy just sniffing around. Charlie on the other hand seemed pretty intent on escape, prowling around the perimeter of the fence looking for weak spots.

Now remembering that we had once seen Charlie spring (and I think spring is a good term here) from the floor in our kitchen to the top of our Fridge freezer in one giant leap. It wasn’t a surprise to see Charlie walk down the side of our house one minute and then return about two minutes later taking his first tentative steps across the TOP of the fence.

We saw him disappear amongst the palm trees in the next door neighbours garden but were happy to see him reappear some ten minutes later.

Jeff on the other hand remains in the back garden, his springiness has obviously subsided with age although as an ex house cat he’s obviously happy enough taking it easy, enjoying stretching out on the grass with the sun on his back.

Funnily enough, now both cats understand what the big wide world looks like, they very rarely venture outside. Both cats will pop out for a couple of minutes. Realise how warm it is and then come back inside to lay down on the cool tiles in the Kitchen.

No ‘presents’ have been brought back yet although I did see Charlie trying to grapple with a grasshopper the size of a small family car the other day.. no fatalities yet though.

Travelling to work has become an experience. As its a good 25 minutes walk to the train station and the busses appear to arrive at random intervals I have invested in a bike.

Yes I am turning into a right eco warrior, you’ll be hearing stories of me tying myself to tree’s some day soon. The bike journey to the station takes me just under 10 minutes. They have ‘bike lockers’ at the station where I secure my trusty steed during the day.

All I need to do is buy myself a helmet. I wouldn’t have been seen dead with a cycle helmet in the UK but it seems to be all the rage over here. It’s not a law or anything but pretty much all of the health and safety conscious Aussies wear them…just common sense I suppose.

I am a little concerned that even the extra large cycle helmets appear a little tight on my head so I think it’ll be time to pop up to the local cycle shop this weekend to get a proper fitting!

More news to come

Update: Kirsten kindly pointed out in our comments that it is actually against the law to ride a cycle in Western Australuia without a helmet.

So as well as being an Eco warrior, I’m a law breaking rebel as well… Looks like I’ll definately be getting the helmet this weekend then

Cats picked up and a closer look at their transport

Mark — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:07:22 +0000

Well, as promised yesterday, here’s a quick update on the cats arrival.

When we picked the cats up from Byford yesterday we received an official AQIS receipt for each of them.

The receipt looks like it followed the cats through the whole process since arriving in Australia and includes an official â€˜release from quarantine’ notice and AQIS stamp which is good to have as it proves that both cats have been â€˜through the system’ before release.

I think we’d be safe without it though, unless of course someone picked up on a meow with a slight hint of a Yorkshire accent. It’ll be reet tho.

In addition to the cats import certificates, we also had another bill to pay, the cost of the quarantine.

The total bill for both cats at Byford was a pretty reasonable $1067 (about £426 by today’s money). Remember though that this doesn’t include the cost of actually getting the cats over here which was the bill settled with Airpets before we departed.

Included in this cost and in addition to the cats â€˜rent’ was 2 x vet checks per cat ($71 each) quarantine entry ($10), Audit of veterinary certificate ($27), recovery of the airline handling charge previously paid on our behalf by AQIS (33) and conveyance of cats and dogs (picking them up etc – ($95).

The 30 days lodging was charged at $13.55 per day for the first cat and $10.55 for the second. Keep in mind that both Charlie and Geoff were sharing accommodation. I’m not sure what the charge would have been had they not got on so well

When we got home? Well, let’s just say they were slightly cuddly. Even at time of typing (some 30 hours later) it’s like having two little shadows following us around.

Both boys are still in excellent condition and it’s obvious that they have been well looked after.

I must say though, they were still carrying (and shedding) a large amount of fur when we got them home which makes one wonder how frequently they had been brushed (although they are short hairs and not one of the more exotic longer haired felines requiring more attention).

Still, once we got them home, a good brush for each and they were looking as good as new and about half a kilo lighter.

Their little claws needed a trim to, we did see lots of scratch pads for the cats when we originally visited them at Byford but these appear to be have been very rarely used.

Both cats seemed delighted to try out the leg of the sofa in the house we are currently renting though; a habit we will need to get them out of before our new sofa arrives this Saturday at the new house in Kinross.

It was actually quite funny but having a wooden floor, we could hear both cats walking around during the night.

At one point it almost sounded like Charlie was walking around in a cat sized pair of high heals but somehow I don’t think he’s into the cross dressing scene just yet.

As for the cat boxes prepared by Airpetsâ€¦Have a good look of the pictures above and below (each opens in a new page – click the picture in the new page again to see the full sized version):

As I mentioned in yesterdays post I was pretty interested to see what the quality of these boxes were like and I must say the boxes were excellent!

Not to big and not to small and the quality was great to (all of the boxes are made by staff on site at Airpets and they obviously take great pride in their workmanship!

Although, being confined to such a space for over 24 hours would have been a pretty significant bind, on the basis that both boys would have slept for a good part of the journey over to Australia I’m sure it wouldn’t have been too bad.

As you’ll see in some of the pictures, Charlie (the cat lying down with the white paws) and Jeff (the all black cat) have done a good job of modelling their transportation boxes.

Make a note of the funnel attached to the front of the boxes for the addition of water during the journey. Also, see the two small ring’s on either side of the rear door? This is how the box was sealed apparently).

There are also plenty of extra locks and catches on the back of the boxes to ensure your loved ones don’t escape en-route.

You’ll notice in the pictures that both cats look pretty chuffed to be back â€˜home’. If I really think about it, I don’t think there’s been a minute when I’ve not heard them purr.

The Cats come home

Mark — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:50:29 +0000

Well, it’s been a very long time without them (nearly three months) but today we’ll be picking up the cats from Byford.

Since we originally visited the cats we’ve made a conscious effort not to make any additional contact as it didn’t seem fair to get their hopes up (if cats are capable of such a thing).

Still, in the meantime they have still be in our thoughts and we’ve been busy getting together lots of new stuff for them; â€˜Ant Free Double Dinner’ bowls, toy mice, balls, streamers, tunnels and scratch pads (in the hope that these will use these to keep their claws in trim instead of attacking the new sofa). Oh, and about half a hundred weight of kitty litter (my job!)

The cats will be coming back with us this afternoon to the house we are currently renting in North Perth. They will remain here until this Saturday when we all move again to the new house we will be renting for at least the next six months in Kinross.

They’ll have to get used to being house cats without the freedom of the outdoors for at least a couple of months but comparatively speaking, the amount of space they’ll have in either house will seem positively palatial by comparison to the holding pens they have both called home during the last couple of months.

It’ll be quite interesting as we’ll be bringing the â€˜boys’ home in the same pens that they travelled out to Australia in. I’m keen to get an idea of the type of boxes Airpets used to send the cats here and will of course report back with any interesting findings.

I’m sure the cats will be looking forward to the comforts of Air conditioning to. Both of the cats where in fur shedding overdrive pretty soon after their arrival in Australia and its forecast to be a muggy 36 degrees today! Pool little blighters, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were half bald by now!

That’s all for now

Getting Down under » cats

Time to get into the mining industry

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