Latest news with #rescueanimals
BreakingNews.ie
11 hours ago
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Funds being raised for woman (85) whose thatched cottage burned down in Cork
Close to €6,000 has been raised to purchase a mobile home for an 85-year-old woman whose thatched cottage near Inch in Killeagh, Co Cork, was totally destroyed by fire. Margaret Adams moved to Ireland from the UK two decades ago. She lived 'very happily' in her beautiful little home with her rescue donkeys, dogs, and ducks. Advertisement Unfortunately, a fire broke out at the property on the morning of March 20th last. Margaret was fortunate to escape with her life as the blaze took hold so quickly. Her friend Bernie Fleming says that the 'quick actions' of a neighbour led to the saving of dogs Misty and Freddie. The dogs are the the pride and joy of the kind hearted pensioner. The other animals owned by Ms Adams were not in the cottage when the fire started. Advertisement However, Ms Fleming says sadly Margaret lost all of her other possessions. 'Everything she ever owned. All her memories were gone. It was a terrible ordeal for her. As Margaret had no relatives in Ireland she went back to the UK to her brother temporarily but she now wishes to return to her own place again. Sadly she had no insurance on her home. It was a thatched house and the company she was with prior weren't covering homes with thatch anymore. Advertisement She is now in a situation where she cannot afford to rebuild it so she is hoping to get a mobile home for which she has only a tiny budget. This is far from ideal for Margaret at (close to) 86 years of age plus health issues.' Ms Fleming says that Margaret has been hospitalised a few times in the past year. She indicates that funds are being raised to get a 'good mobile home' with heating, double glazing and possibly insulation. 'It is going to be very difficult and so very sad for her when she returns again to the ruins of what was once her beautiful home.' She adds that all local people want to do is raise funds to get Margaret a little place where she can feel 'comfortable and happy again' with her beloved dogs as it is her 'dearest wish' to get back to them. Donations can be made to the Adams Go Fund me appeal at
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
That's enough pro-pet propaganda! There are at least seven things that humans do better
I am starting to think the international research community might be in the pay of pets. It's not an allegation I make lightly, but have you been following companion animal news recently? First, research from the University of Kent concluded pets were equivalent to £70,000-worth of life satisfaction and wellbeing, roughly equivalent to the psychological benefits of being married. Then, in a Hungarian study, dog owners reported 'greater satisfaction with their dogs than with any human partner except their child'. And now a survey of 31,299 pet owners reveals 58% of people find cats and dogs more comforting than people at stressful times, outranking spouses, friends and kids. It all feels a bit OTT; a bit, 'Did a dog write this?' Someone needs to fight back for human relationships, and it falls to me. This is not a position in which I ever expected to find myself. British women of my vintage tend to model ourselves on the late Queen, wearily tolerating humans but joyfully enthused by corgis and cows. In girlhood we fixated on guinea pigs or ponies (shades of Penelope Chetwode, who on becoming pregnant, said: 'I wish it could be a little horse'); now we manage our menopause symptoms by acquiring and then lavishing love on rescue donkeys, a flock of homicidal geese or a goldendoodle with psychological problems. It's pretty much a given that we prefer pets to partners. I'm certainly more physically and verbally affectionate with my favourite hen than with my spouse: 'I adore you,' I whisper fervently, cradling her in my arms and kissing her tiny, empty head. When my husband puts his arm round me, I tell him he's hurting my dodgy hip and wriggle free to complain about the recycling. But at the risk of alienating my community, I do like him much better than any pet. Because there are things partners can offer that pets absolutely cannot – and I don't mean sex (though, yes, that too). Opposable thumbs Human thumbs are great: no hen has never made me a sandwich (or, indeed, chauffuered me on a four-hour trip to Preston to collect more hens). Moral support When I was made redundant, my dog sat on my knee for five minutes, tops. In a crisis, my husband can be counted on to conjure 14 schemes of escalating insanity to resolve it while mixing me near-fatally strong drinks and inventing disgusting insults for my adversaries. A comforting physical presence is good, but jokes and dry martinis are better. Sharing the burden Your dog, cat or horse doesn't care about persistent black mould, unauthorised overdraft fees or why the boiler is making that ominous noise. It's understandable – but it's also sort of rude. You live here too, mate, and much of the overdraft is attributable to: your Dreamies habit; stealing and eating an entire fruitcake; trying to die from a tummy ache (a horse thing, apparently); and so on. Lifespan Unless you have a tortoise, one the greatest tragedies of companion animals is our incompatible lifespans. If your pet is a tortoise, it's worse: you'll need to consider succession planning (our sons are bafflingly unthrilled by their future reptilian responsibilities). A sense of occasion Humans generally know when a fuss needs to be made. Pets have no sense of occasion, except in the sense that your birthday/wedding/Beyoncé gig is precisely the time they will eat an entire fruitcake or be struck by life-threatening tummy ache. Manners I don't exactly have dowager countess etiquette standards, but I do have limits, and jumping on to my plate to steal my lunch, as my hens do, crosses a red line. My husband would never do this; nor would he dream of waking me at 4.45am to demand breakfast, like my best friend's cat does most mornings. Gossip This is the clincher. Yes, a companion who can speak is a mixed blessing but consider this: pets never want to share an exciting neighbourhood scandal they've discovered, chew over family drama or engage in scurrilous speculation about acquaintances. You will never catch your pet's eye in public and know how much fun you'll have later rehashing what just went down. And that, for me, is the pinnacle of relationship satisfaction, whatever Big Pet tries to tell us. Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
