This week CityNews has rounded up best in the business when it comes to looking after pets.

Be it a fluffy kitten, a loyal dog or a talkative parrot, for many people pets can seem like family members. 

And, while we always want the best for our loved ones, why not our furry, feathered or scaly friends? 

Walk-in clinic for urgent veterinary care

“The Walk In Clinic for Animals is an after hours, no appointment, urgent care veterinary facility,” says veterinary director Bronwyn Orr. 

“We do non-life threatening admissions; vomiting, pain, lameness, all sorts of things that need to be seen, they are urgent and can’t wait, but the emergency clinics are not really set up for them. 

“A lot of the time you have to go and wait five or six hours for anything that’s not super urgent to see a vet and they are considerably more expensive, so we’re trying to provide an option that is quicker, cheaper and gets pets seen when they need to be seen.”

The clinic is open every evening from 7pm to 10.30pm, says Bronwyn.

“We’ve been in operation now for just over a year and in that time we’ve seen a couple thousand pets, which is really amazing,” she says. 

“We are really connected to the veterinary community and we work really closely with both the referral vets as well as regular vets.

“Every night at the end of our consultation opening hours, we send all of our histories back to people’s regular vets or GP vets.

“That means if you come and see us you’re not interrupting that relationship, you’re not losing your records, your regular vet is kept in the loop. 

“I used to work in emergency, in those really busy emergency clinics and they work off triage, which means the most critical cases get seen first, and everyone else has to wait. 

“That’s how it should work, it works like that in the human world too, but, I just thought there’s got to be a better way to help these people and their pets. 

“Their pets still deserve care, but they just are maybe not in the right place for it, so that’s why I started it.”

Walk In Clinic for Animals, 30 Totterdell Street, Belconnen. Call 0482 092824 or visit walkinclinicforanimals.com

A peaceful way to say ‘goodbye’

It’s difficult to lose a pet, and the team at Paws to Remember understands that, being a local family run business with a deep love of pets, says owner Cathy McIIhoney

“We offer a private, gentle and environmentally-friendly cremation,” says Cathy.

Paws To Remember uses a process of green cremation, sometimes referred to as bio-cremation or water cremation, that utilises alkaline hydrolysis to ensure a natural method of cremation.

“Water cremation was known to the New Zealand Māori,” says Cathy

“The bodies of chiefs or high-ranking individuals were sometimes immersed in hot alkaline springs.

“That was seen as a way to return the physical remains of the deceased to the land and to connect the spiritual and natural worlds.”

“Each pet is placed in their own private chamber, ensuring only your pet is returned to you.  

“The gentle nature of the process, which is not as aggressive as fire cremation, means more of your beloved pet’s remains are retained and available to be returned to you.

“We have a selection of urns to choose from; scatter urns, ceramic urns or timber boxes.”

Cathy says they are the only place where the service is done locally in the ACT.

Paws to Remember. Call 0414 107355, email info@pawstoremember.com.au or visit pawstoremember.com.au

Compassionate and knowledgeable pet care

“My husband and I have both wanted to be vets since we were young,” says Dr Natasha Webb, co-owner of Jamison Veterinary Hospital.

“For both of us it has just been something that we really enjoy doing together as a team.

“The key with our hospital is that we’re not a corporate-run hospital, it is a privately owned, locally owned, family-owned business.

“It’s very personalised and tailored, and we really believe in helping our clients make the best decisions they can for the care of their pets by involving them in the process.”

Jamison Veterinary Hospital opened in November, but before that Dr Natasha Webb and her husband Dr Charles Webb, also co-owner of the hospital, ran the Canberra Mobile Vets service for nine years. 

They continue to run the mobile ambulatory service, which provides mobile care for farm animals and pets, whereas the Jamison Veterinary Hospital is for cats and dogs only. 

“We also run puppy school, and are going to be doing pet health talks in the near future,” says Natasha.

“We offer all routine surgeries, including desexing, dental, lump removals, stitch ups, and then quite a few more advanced surgeries including orthopaedics, advanced soft tissue abdominal surgeries and we have extensive imaging equipment, including digital X-ray, ultrasounds and endoscopy and we have a very comprehensive in-house laboratory.”

Jamison Veterinary Hospital, 7 Lawry Place, Macquarie. Call 6253 1810 or visit jamisonvet.com

Aviary offers a great time away with the birds

Parrots, finches, doves and quail are among the birds ready to interact at the Canberra Walk-in Aviary, says owner and manager Mick Logan. 

The aviary is great fun for all ages. 

Now is the best time to get up close and personal with a range of friendly, free-flying birds, he says.

“While not all birds will interact with you, visitors get the chance to observe, up close, species of birds that otherwise would be hard to see in the wild,” Mick says. 

“We provide a small plate of food and a tub of mealworms and you can wander around and feed the birds. 

“Provided the weather is fine, you can have a great time feeding the birds, taking photos or just observing our feathered friends.”

The aviary is a 1000sqm planted walk-in enclosure that has more than 500 birds from about 65 different species from Australia and the world, Mick says.

“We accept student and senior concession cards,” he says.

The aviary is open every day, 10am-5pm, with last admissions at 4.30pm.

Canberra Walk-in Aviary, unit 13, Federation Square, O’Hanlon Place, Nicholls. Call 6230 2044 or visit
canberrawalkinaviary.com.au

Keep your dog busy, social and beautiful

A love of dogs and passion for grooming them means Debbie Hart, owner of Central Bark Pet Styling, enjoys every second of her work day.

“I’ve been dog grooming for eight years, I’ve owned Central Bark for five years and I’ve been involved with animals for 40 years,” says Debbie.

“I expanded from having a small, home salon because I basically just wanted to look after more dogs. 

“We’ve just moved from smaller premises in Gungahlin to much bigger premises in Mitchell.” 

After noticing a gap in affordable doggy day care services in Canberra, Debbie Hart focused her attention on being able to help more owners and their pets.

“Since COVID-19 there has been an increase in interest in doggy daycare, because people were at home and now they’re back in the office and the dogs get a bit anxious,” says Debbie.

“That’s the hole we fill.

“The doggy day care runs Monday to Friday, from 7.30am until 5.30pm. 

“The dogs are fully supervised, we have vet nurses and dog trainers on staff and we also have enrichment toys. 

“They get plenty of exercise, so they sleep well when they get home, they learn to socialise very well. 

“My favourite bit is when I see one of my dogs out, and they recognise me and come up to say hello.”

Central Bark Pet Styling, 5/26 Sandford Street, Mitchell. Visit centralbarkpetstyling.com.au or call 6174 4203 or 0410 467850.

Giftware that celebrates your pet

For Sandy Borgo, owner of Charlie & Chums, dogs are so much more than just a pet.

“Dogs are my sanity,” she says. 

“When you don’t have anybody else, your dogs are always there for you.

“I’ve got two and whatever room I go in, they follow me.

“My dogs are my solace in life and I’m not the only one, many people say that. 

“They give you something to live for.”

Sandy’s love for dogs encouraged her to buy a particular keychain while travelling in Venice, and when she returned home she was inundated with compliments on it. 

“Everybody just marvelled over it, they thought it was fabulous,” she says. 

Sandy says that although it was from Venice she knew they must’ve had to buy it wholesale from somewhere. 

“So I sat there and searched the internet,” she says.

“I started with that and jewellery, in pop-up stores, and then I had a shop for four years.”

Sandy is online only now, but she still has a huge range of products available.

“I’ve got dog collars and leads, I’ve got plaques, I’ve got giftware, I’ve got some spec holders or reader rests, I’ve got ponchos, scarves, bright metal plaques that talk about the breed of dog and what they’re like, I’ve got dog hooks, I’ve got a lot of gardenware, pots beautiful metal ornaments that go on the wall and make your garden really pop. 

“I’ve got little sculptures of dogs and cats in metal from an artisan company, some of them are broken down from old 44-gallon drums and made into sculptures.” 

To ease the delivery process, Sandy also does local drop-offs free of charge. 

“Particularly in the southside, about a 10-20 km radius within the area,” she says. 

Charlie & Chums. Call 0402 097580 or visit charlieandchums.com.au

Cat grooming for all breeds and temperaments

For Kate Herlihy, the decision to go into cat grooming was simple, “I started grooming 20 years ago because I love animals,” she says. 

“I have a passion for cats particularly and it’s an area of grooming that has been neglected in the market. 

“The kinds of cats we’ve bred now, the Persians, the ragdolls, lots of soft fluffy hair, they would never have been able to survive in the wild, they’re dometic breeds, they require grooming to survive.

“A lot of them get horribly matted, they get greasy, they get sores under their fur, they’ll actually pull their own hair out sometimes if they’ve got knots.

“In a nutshell, there’s this massive need, and cat grooming as an industry is still massively under serviced. 

“As a dog groomer a lot of people were bringing me their matted cats and asking if I could do their matted cats, too.

“So I started out with that and I obviously realised that it’s a very specialised area that would require a different kind of handling to dogs, and particularly the anxious cats. 

“If you try to groom them the way most people would expect you to groom a dog, you’ll injure the cat or you’ll get injured yourself.

“I love cats, I understand their behaviour and I’m able to tailor and cater for the differences between cats and dogs, which is why I set up my cat-only salon so that I could work in a one-on-one specialist way.

“My particular focus is anxious and aggressive cats and gentle grooming.

“Having a salon set up specifically for those kinds of cats means that I can have the owner stay with them, which they can’t in a big commercial salon.”

The Whole Kitten Caboodle, 50 Hewlett Circuit, Florey. Call 0424 567526 or visit thewholekittencaboodlecatgrooming.com

‘Mind, body, bowl’ – holistic care for dogs

For six years Lucienne (Luci) Amundsen, has been providing “whole dog” care to Canberrans and their pets. 

“On one side of Canine Culture we’ve got a services space where we work directly with owners and their dogs,” says Luci.

“We offer a behaviour-based, structured day school where we really focus on socialisation with dogs.

“On the other side we’ve got our retail section, where we’ve extended our approach with what we do in our service-based business, looking at letting dogs be their best selves.

“We offer a really big range of all sorts of foods, supplements, training gear, all that kind of thing, that is intentionally picked to be within the range so that we’re offering people really good quality choices to pick for their dogs.

“It’s the same gear that we would choose to use.”

Luci says this multi-angled approach to the way they support dogs and their owners is what makes Canine Culture so special.

“It’s all about the relationship that we have with our dogs and what we share with them,” she says. 

Canine Culture,  2/23 Raws Crescent, Hume. Call 6193 9414 or visit canineculture.com.au