Cats - Dogs

Tayto

This page is dedicated to a special friend, a brave little forlegged warrior, who lost his life in a car accident, while defeating the streets of Belmullet, County Mayo.

Tayto

Tayto got his name cause he arrived his private castle called Drom Caoin in a Tayto-box and his fur had the colour of the original Irish Tayto crisps. And I remember, he got very excited when he heard the sound of Tayto bags.

Tayto

This intelligent dog once followed us all the way downtown to the supermarket and waited patiently in front of the door. But after a while he was bored and wondered why the heck the Germans needed so much time to buy just a bit of dog food - and what else would they need. So he strolled in, checked the shelfs himself, gave a bark to say "Come on guys, lets go and find me a nice ladydog." And so he did on the way back home. He arrived about an hour later, exhausted, but happy.

Tayto

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Tayto and Fionn

Tayto was around, whenever we worked the garden of Irland's best Bed and Breakfast throughout the whole west, Drom Caoin, that is. He loved to play with the ball, which kept us from pulling the weeds, but can you resist, if such a cute lad asks for a match?

Tayto and Fionn

Besides the ladydogs big Fionn was his best friend and he even shared the ball with him. Fionn, in opposite to Tayto, is a calm, lazy dog. He was rather watching his spirited companion than getting involved into his wild games with a ball, that was far too big for him, but a dangerous foe, who had to be chased or worse, into Tayto's fight with a young furious horse.

Tayto and Fionn

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Warriors of the road

I always got a heartattack to see Tayto and his black friend hunting the cars. The black dog, some wild Irish breed, even bit the rolling wheels. All went well for a long time, but one sad day in 2002 Tayto wasn't quick enough and there was no help, when he got killed in a car accident. It's always hard to loose a pet, but at least he was a loved and free dog with a great personality, that remains in my memory.

Fionn

Now it's only Fionn alone, who welcomes the guests coming to Drom Caoin to have a wonderful week in a lovely house. Fionn has many tasks, has to organize the carpark, to survey the tourists, to make sure, they buy dog food every day, to look as sad as possible to get comforting words and tender hands stroking his soft fur. If it's not for Mairin's fantastic breakfast or Gerry's fresh fish, you should at least come to get to know this good old fellow of a dog.

Wild Cat

Before little Tayto lost his life he met this furious cat (and many more, I am sure). The other black dog was around too and so the two felt very strong and brave, but their bark was worse than their bite. They were too happy to have two human beings to hide behind their backs when the cat attacked them and looked at least two times bigger than usual. As the most independend pet she doesn't need no humans, she cares for herself.
But if she ever should get in serious troubles she can call the Cat Chat Feline Forum for help or just go back to her original task which is described in the poem of Pangur Ban, written by a probably Irish monk in the 9. century.

Wild Cat

Question - I have a black and white house cat that is acting like she's possesed by a dog! She burys her food,in the bowl, and runs around the garden like my next door neighbours dog when shes playing. Is this something to worry about? Shes quite overweight, and gets attacked by other cats when shes left outside.

Virtual Vet - It seems that she is merely copying the dog next door in her exercise routine, and this is a good thing especially when there is a weight problem, so don't worry about that. It's great that she still is interested in exercising despite her weight.
As regards her eating habbits, cats can have some unusual foibles when it comes to food, and in most cases there is little to worry about. Perhaps you should bring her to your vet and ask him to check her out.

This cat obviously has no problems with her identity, she definitively belongs to the other gang in Belmullet.

Connemara Cat

I was very disappointed of the Connemara Nationalpark, thought I would find the famous white horses in wild nature. Two in a paddock was all I did see, but ... there was the original Connemara Cat, who not only looks exactly alike my cat at home, but has the same crinkled ear, a strange desease, cats can get after a tough fight.

Watchers of the Ruin

A funny knight and his servant watched the old castletower in Rinvyle, a ruin, but full of interesting smells. They didn't mind at all to be pictured, sat down like proud owners and waited without even moving an ear until the camera was set.