A CAT which survived for seven weeks trapped beneath a kitchen cabinet after its owners moved house has been reunited with the family.

Lucky 14-year-old Lucy, had been left behind when the Duke family moved from Stone, near Dartford in Kent to the Highland Capital.

Unbeknown to the Dukes, or the new owner of their former house, Lucy had become trapped but survived without food and apparently, no water.

Fortunately, she was discovered just in time and, having been nursed back to health, finally made it up to the Highlands to be reunited with her relieved owners at their new home in Westhill — three months after the move and at an additional cost of more than £1000.

Geoff Duke, who works for an Inverness medical firm, loaded up the removal truck before he and his wife, Debbie, and their children, Bradley (13) and Melissa (18 months) stayed in a hotel the night before catching the plane from Heathrow to Inverness. They had arranged to pick up the cat from the house en route to the airport.

“Morning came, the taxi was in the driveway with its engine running,” Mr Duke recalled. “We all hunted high and low but the cat could be found nowhere in the house.”

They assumed that the cat had escaped when the enthusiastic new owner started stripping walls with a sander the previous afternoon.

“The cat was clearly missing,” Mr Duke said. “Having made a very hard but obvious decision to continue to the airport, the upset and stress on the journey to Heathrow was almost unbearable.”

Their old neighbours took up the search, fixing posters to lamp-posts virtually all the way to the M25 and details were entered on “lost cat” websites.

“Several weeks went by, life went on, and we became resigned to the fact that we would never see Lucy again,” Mr Duke said.

But almost seven weeks after moving to Inverness, they received a message that Lucy had been found. She had been living under the plinth below the kitchen cabinets.

Subsequently, Lucy was taken to a local vet who initially thought the cat was dead on arrival but, after being put on a drip, she responded well to treatment.

“We were told that for the cat to survive after this time she must have an incredible will to live,” Mr Duke said.

“How the cat had survived with no food was a miracle in itself but, dehydrated though she clearly was, how she survived with no water at all, or where she was getting water from was a big mystery that we shall never know the answer to.”

Their previous neighbours looked after Lucy until she was certified fit to travel by the vet. Mr Duke flew down to collect her and then brought her back on a flight from Heathrow, seemingly unaffected by her ordeal.

The cost of Lucy’s disappearance included more than £600 in vet’s bills and the air fares.

“It is one of those things,” Mr Duke reflected philosophically. “She deserved it, given she could survive all that time and had shown an incredible will to live.”

Canadians are crazy in love with their pets.

According to an Ipsos Reid survey, Canadians would choose their pets over a partner.

One third of cat and dog owners said they would not marry, or even live with someone who disliked pets.

According to the poll, a quarter of cat owners say they would keep their cat even if their partner was allergic.

The poll also revealed more than half of dog owners simply cannot do enough for their pets – carrying them around in special shoulder bags, and even dressing them up, or sending them to a spa.

The survey showed pets are members of the family; Canadians include them in family portraits and keep their photos at work and, in their wallets.

You could call it the Ritz-Carlton hotel approach to boarding and kenneling your dog – doggy condominiums for the pampered pooch.

Bend Pet Resort earlier this year introduced the first doggy condos to Central Oregon after dog owners continually requested something more upscale.

“People would bring me their dogs and ask me, ‘Can’t you just take my dog home with you?’ Obviously, I couldn’t do that,” explained Bend Pet Resort owner Ken Gran-acki, who owns 11 American Kennel Club champion Samoyeds. “I really felt there was a market for more luxurious dog housing.”

When a dog checks in, it’s five-star treatment.

The 8-foot-by-8-foot rooms come with dog-sized wrought-iron daybeds, including the fluffiest of pillows.

These climate-controlled condos with white tile floors and walls also have cable access for canine guests to screen the “Animal Planet” channel, which is piped in 24 hours a day.

“We just thought having a 20-inch stereo television in each condo might make it feel more like home, so they could be less stressed and more relaxed,” Granacki said. “And some of these dogs really do like to watch ‘Animal Planet.’”

By the end of May, Granacki plans to install Web cameras in all six condos so dog owners can log in any time to check on Fido and see how his day is going.

But that’s not all these dogs get. They also get a personal valet of sorts.

Each canine guest of these condos gets walked several times a day and can have playtime with other condo guests.

Like the rest of the kennel, “room service” for food is always prompt and regular.

The nightly room charge: $45. A second dog, depending on size, can stay for an extra $30. In larger metropolitan areas, doggy condos can run $125 per visit.

Bend Pet Resort also has a “doggy spa” for special grooming and pampering. Spa treatments are extra.

With all the amenities, the resort aims to capture a human market receptive to pooch pampering.

“Bend people want this. It’s a dog-friendly place and it’s pretty high on the median income level,” Granacki said, explaining why he took a chance on building doggy condos. “This is the type of (dog) housing you’d expect to see in Scottsdale, Arizona, or certain cities in California, like Redondo Beach. It is very upscale, and there is a demand for it now in Central Oregon.”

Besides the wrought-iron beds, there are no metal bars or wires in the condos. Sliding glass doors on each condo allow dogs to view other canine guests, “so they don’t feel lonely,” Granacki said. “It also allows us to see them.”

After construction began on the condos last summer, Granacki’s wife, Kari, wondered whether they would be financially successful.

“I was a little scared whether we could fill these condos,” Kari admitted.

But the condos have been booked regularly since the resort began taking reservations in January.

“February, which is usually our slowest month of the year, we actually found we were short a (condo) suite because one owner extended his stay – he was supposed to check his dog out in the morning and we had another dog coming in that evening,” said Kari, laughing at the memory.

“I’d say not having enough (condo) suites to go around is a good problem,” Granacki joked.

During spring break, all the condos were booked and reserved a month beforehand, Granacki said.

Dog owner Donna Cook booked early enough to reserve a condo for her yellow Labrador during spring break. She plans to do it again this summer when she goes to Mexico.

“Well, we’d never left her alone before, so I guess we were feeling a little guilty,” Cook said with a chuckle. “I wanted her to feel like she was at home, and she got walks and playtime and TV … that is a little embarrassing to say. We may be turning into one of those kind of dog people.”

Cook’s not alone.

According to the national survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturing Association, American pet owners are expected to spend $40.8 billion on their pets in 2007, the largest chunk coming from dog owners.

Companies like Paul Mitchell, Omaha Steaks, Origins, Harley-Davidson and Old Navy all offer dog product lines ranging from shampoo and pet attire to gour-met foods.

Granacki, who bought the 10-acre Bend Pet Resort five years ago, said he researched the area before he bought the boarding and kenneling business. He said he found a U.S. Census Bureau report about Bend’s many dog and cat owners.

“We cashed in our 401(k), we sold everything and we put every penny we had into this place, and our business has more than doubled since then – and that was before the doggy condos were built,” Granacki said.

The gamble of building the condos and adjacent indoor training arena has paid off.

“It cost us $300,000 to build this whole new building and already the condo suites have, so far, paid for the (monthly) mortgage on it,” explained Granacki.

Granacki is expanding his business to include “interactive doggy day care.”

He’s found nearly a dozen regular clients who don’t want their dogs home alone while they’re at work. For $20 per day, you can drop off Bowser early in the morning and pick him up in the evening.

A number of area kennels offer doggy day care, including Pet Paradise, Park Your Pooch, Paws & Claws, La Pine Pet Bed ‘n’ Bath Inc. and Lightning Creek Pet Resort. Costs average roughly $12 per day, from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Overnight stays are common at kennels, too, with costs averaging about $20 per day, which typically includes a daily walk.

But as far as doggy condos, Bend Pet Resort appears to be breaking new dog ground in Bend.

“People love their pets – and we cater to that kind of customer,” Granacki said.

Pet food’s been a hot topic as of late. There’ve been product recalls, contaminated wheat gluten, salmonella-laced pet treats, and lots of recipes for “homemade” pet food.

When we heard the news on our ranch, we didn’t have to rush out and check the label on our dog food. I guess you could say our two ranch mutts have been on a bit of a homemade diet their whole life.

I wouldn’t say their diet is free of contaminants, but it’s never killed them.

I don’t know that I could recommend the ranch dog diet to anyone who’s concerned about the safety of off-the-shelf dog food. But I’ll share with readers the ingredients that keep our dogs well fed and happy.

Carnivore canines

Our dogs have a varied, seasonal diet. In spring, they roam the calving pasture in search of the expelled placenta of parturition. I know it’s pretty gross, but I’m sure I’m not the only rancher with dogs who prefer afterbirth to dry dog food.

In summer, they travel the calf branding circuit to gorge themselves on what we daintily refer to as Rocky Mountain Oysters. They’ll eat all day long on the byproduct that results when bulls are turned into steers. They’ll have a bit of a hangover the next day, but they’re always recovered by the next branding.

Throughout the year, they trot up and down the byways in search of fresh roadkill. Sometimes they settle for less-than-fresh roadkill, or carrion as they call it. Rabbits, deer, raccoons – I know what they’re grazing on because they usually drag a drumstick or two back to the yard.

Ranch dogs don’t mind eating wild turkey once in a while. I’ve never seen this myself, of course, but I’ve heard of ranches where a turkey will mysteriously die on occasion when there’re a hundred of them lined up on the feed bunks every morning.

Like all good ranchers with impeccable management, I, of course, never lose a cow or a calf to sickness, weather or chance. But I’ve heard of guys who lose calves and have a ranch dog or two helping with the carcass disposal.

Their dogs will disappear behind the hill for a couple hours every day, drag back a leg bone or two, and they see a noticeable decline in the draw down on the 50-pound sack of co-op elevator dog food they keep in the shop.

Not for all

Nobody needs to write and tell me how dangerous the ranch dog diet is for a loving pet and companion. I’m certain that these free-roaming eating activities are completely out of balance with the required nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

But I’m not about to chain them up. Part of the joy of country living is letting your dogs be dogs and enjoy some freedom. Of course, running free does have them eating like a coyote most days.

I think the diet does toughen them up a bit. They fend off salmonella, scoff at bacteria, and might even survive a dose of melamine in a contaminated batch of wheat gluten.

And, in light of everything that’s been in the news, I’ll let them take their chances out on our meaty domestic range before I head to town to buy any imported Chinese wheat gluten.

At two weeks old, the five kittens in the Hester household are starting to show some independence. When Emmy, the only girl in the litter, stretches her legs and makes her way out of the box, it’s Bailey who picks her up by the scruff of her neck and carries her back.

And it’s Bailey who begins to lick her clean from her adventure across the living room floor and who begins to nurse her.

What’s unusual here is that Bailey is a dog.

Part Chihuahua, part Pomeranian, the one-year-old dog has taken up co-parenting duties with Oreo the cat, mother of Emmy and the four male kittens born earlier this month.

“This is Animal Planet stuff,” said an amazed Maria Hester, herself a mother of five, along with her husband Jack. “There’s so much sadness in the world. We wanted to share this.”

Hester admits that in the beginning, Bailey’s interest in the kittens worried her, but that Oreo didn’t seem to mind the help.

“In the middle of the night, Bailey would sneak out from under my daughter’s covers to go sleep with them. We realized this was OK with everyone,” she said.

Bailey and Oreo were inseparable before the birth. At about the same age, weight and colors, some may wonder if the kittens were just confused at first. But now, they think nothing of piling in the box with both moms snuggled in around them.

Typically a laid-back dog, Bailey became anxious after the kittens arrived.

“Within a week we noticed changes. When people come in she barks intensely,” Hester said.

Then she realized, Bailey was lactating.

“It’s amazing. And they’re sharing. They take turns,” Hester said.

Oreo was a rescued kitten herself, found over a year earlier in a Dumpster by a friend. Hester was homeschooling her four children, expecting a fifth and having a rough pregnancy and didn’t get the cat spayed, as planned, before the cat snuck out one day. (The family also includes a 125-pound epileptic chocolate Labrador.)

She and her children have families ready to take two of the kittens and are hoping to find homes for the others where they can keep in contact.

“We’re all very attached,” said Hester, who used the experience as a biology lesson for her kids, ages 14 to 5. She and another mother of five gathered their children to watch the birth.

“I thought, ‘This is so cool,’ ” said 9-year-old Alexa. “It looked disgusting, but cool.”

The first two kittens were breech and required help from Maria to get them out. Then Oreo hid behind a couch for the rest of the birth.

“Look how healthy they are,” said Maria of the kittens. “They’re getting twice the love and affection. I think this is so amazing. It will make for well-rounded kittens.”

A Google search of “dogs nursing kittens” actually produced more results than one may expect, but local veterinarian Eric Pugh says the bonding of Bailey and Oreo’s kittens is uncommon.

“It’s pretty unusual. Any species can nurture another species, but it is unique, for sure,” the Plain Township doctor said.

He said the kittens cannot be harmed by dog’s milk. In fact, many formulas used by veterinarians for puppies and kittens are very similar.

While the Hesters are clients of Pugh’s, he said he has not yet seen the kittens for himself, but adds that as long as the mother cat feeds them, too, for at least the first two weeks of life, they should remain healthy. After that, they can have regular cat food. Four weeks of nursing, he said, is optimal.

ONE HAS TO WONDER exactly why Argentinean boffins were feeding Viagra to hamsters in the first place. What deviant practice had they in mind and would pictures subsequently appear on the web?

But putting aside these unsavoury thoughts, whatever the reason, the scientists at the National University of Quilmes in Buenos Aires appear to have stumbled over a cure for jet lag, reports Nature. Obviously, the hardest part of the experiment involved training the rodents to swallow the blue pills rather than storing them in their pouches.

The hamsters’ body clocks were advanced by six hours, the time taken for a transatlantic flight from New York to London, allowing them to resume wheel-oriented activity 50 percent faster than those not taking the drug. It remains to be seen if sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, will have a similar effect on humans or whether they will be otherwise distracted and not notice the symptoms of jet-lag at all.