Betty had her rabies vaccination this week and will go for a blood test in a few weeks to show she has developed immunity against the disease.  We can take her abroad right away but we won't be able to come back into this country until six months after the date of the blood test, which had to show antibodies have formed against rabies. This should give me just enough time to take her to France with us this Summer for a return date in late August. Barney will be done when he has finished the course of antibiotics he is taking. I was wondering how many of our members have taken their dogs abroad and what was the best way to travel with them? Has anyone flown with their dogs on one of the budget airlines, or is it just the ferry companies and EuroTunnel that are geared up to take them?  Can you take them on Eurostar? If you have any experience of travelling abroad with your dogs let me know by commenting here, or, post a reply in Doggy Talk under the Passport for Pets thread.

I've had a bit of a bad week with Barney my young Golden Retriever.  Firstly his old private parts injury started to bother him again (for those of you who didn't know, he sliced his penis open while running through some scrub at the local airfield - ouch!)  He's only a baby and the sheer joy of running out in the open air made him a little over-excited.  The vet managed, during a tricky operation, to stitch him up and he came home a few days later.  A couple of weeks passed and I suspected it had become infected (as he spent more time than usual cleaning it).  That particular area is very hidden and I couldn't really tell what was happening inside.  I booked him in for a check up on Friday morning as it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Thursday last week was the really stormy day and the winds here were unbelievable. After returning home from a very enjoyable 'wild walk' I hosed Betty and Barney down (don't tell Anglia Water) and dried them off on the back garden before letting them in the house. In the few seconds it took me to close the kitchen door, to stop them paddling through the house, four panels of fencing came crashing down next to the dogs and sent Barney flying, in a blind panic, down the drive and out into the road. Now, I live in a village that is not known for it's traffic, but, you guessed it, at that exact moment the fates conspired to place a silver Mini-Metro directly in his path.  I heard the squeal of brakes, and the thud, and, with my heart in my mouth raced to the road to see what the damage was. Fortunately, his youth had helped him to bounce and he was able to walk to me after I located him hiding in our garden, which was such a relief. He has taken a lump off his black velvet lip, just under his nose, and has a pink splodge there at the moment, but, other than that he seemed pretty unscathed, just shaken and a bit bruised on his hip (which must have taken the impact). The poor lady driver came back later on to check on him and he was well enough to lick her hand and wag his tail furiously. She told me that she rarely drives above 20mph through the High Street and I swore to myself there and then that I'll never mutter under my breath about, 'slow boats to China' ever again when I'm following a careful driver.

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The new rules can now be found in their rightful position, on the right hand side, at the top of each page. Even if you are a law abiding member of the community it won't hurt to have a read through them.  Understanding the rules will also help you to report inappropriate content when you come across it on the site. Thank you.

It's six of one and half a dozen of the other! I've had mail from both sides in the dogs vs other pets furore. As most of you will be aware DoggySnaps was designed to be a community website for people who wanted to share photos of their dogs with other dog owners and lovers.  In the blue corner I have  'Animal Crackers' who are not only passionate about their dogs, but also about the various menageries they have in their homes.  In the red corner I have 'SnappyDogs' who are up in arms about their wonderful dog site being being diluted by cats, hamsters, rabbits and other pets. What's an Editor/Referee to do?

As a compromise the rules have been relaxed slightly to all ow for one picture of another pet to appear within a dog profile - that's as a photo within your dog's page not as a separate entry .  I will delete any photos that don't adhere to this rule immediately, there will be no warning email. If the abuse continues your kennel will be deleted, I can't be any clearer, or fairer, than that.  Let me know in the forum how you all feel about this. Are you blue or red?

I am spending increasing amounts of time dealing with complaints about non-dog photos and then even more time writing to the kennel owner asking for them to be removed. To stop this getting any worse I am appealing to all our members to remember that this is a dog website. Everyone who uses it is interested, primarily, in dogs and they don't want to see your children's latest school photo, the safari to Kenya last year, your cat, hamster, snake, cockatiel, parrot, goldfish or metal dog ornament.

Please remember that when you joined DoggySnaps (the clue is in the title) you agreed to abide by our rules.
Here are the two most important ones again:

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