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January 18, 2005

Tai Chi

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This month we take a look at Tai Chi, an ancient craft that’s suitable for any age and any stage.

Walk around any bustling Asian city in the early morning and you’re bound to see countless locals practicing the ancient craft of Tai Chi. Public parks, gardens and even balconies are filled with people of all ages starting the day with this form of moving meditation. With today’s fast pace of life, there’s a lot to be said about the discipline of starting the day at a relaxed speed, refocusing your energies and reducing stress.

What’s it all about?

Tai Chi is actually a form of ancient Chinese martial arts that evolved into the practice of slow, tranquil movements. It has many reported health benefits including suppleness, stress reduction, mental alertness, better balance and co-ordination and is thought to be partly responsible for healthy longevity in certain Asian nations.

Who is it right for?

Tai Chi is suitable for most people from children to the elderly and can be performed by pregnant women and those in wheel chairs. You don’t need a medical check to get started as the pace is kind enough on “not as fit as I used to be” bodies.

How to get started?

Like yoga and pilates there are plenty of do-it-yourself home helpers like books and DVDs. However, you generally need to have completed formal classes with an instructor before feeling confident or motivated to go it alone. The basic set of movements can take several months to learn the right technique. And it’s important that you practice until you can follow a sequence of moves as if on auto pilot. So sign up for a block of classes and give yourself plenty of time to find your groove.

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January 14, 2005

Dog hair removal

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Question:

If you have dog hair all over your furniture, buy a roll of contact. Peel off backing paper and stick to lounge, then pull off. It’s heaps more effective than the vacuum.

Answer:

Joh, via e-mail.

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January 14, 2005

My neighbour’s cat

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Moving into a rental property while we were looking for a new house to buy, I found in the backyard what I believed to be a very sick stray cat. Its coat was all matted; it walked with a limp and was incredibly thin and frail.

Feeling sorry for the cat, I looked for a tag in the hope that I would be able to return it to its owner. While looking, I found it had open and weeping sores on its body. I treated the animal as kindly as I could and offered it some food — the cat ate all that it was offered voraciously.

We already had enough cats, so keeping it and nursing it back to health was out of the question. Deep down, I realised that I would have to take it down to the local shelter, as it was just too cruel to keep letting it suffer so.

I retrieved my cat cage and put the poor animal inside and drove down to our local animal shelter, knowing that it was unlikely that anyone else would take on such a sick animal.

A month later we received our neighbour’s mail so I went next door and knocked on their door to pass on the mail. The neighbour thanked me and informed me that she was quite upset because her cat had gone missing and asked if we had seen it. She went on to inform me that her cat was so old its coat was permanently matted and it walked with a limp. As she continued to describe what her cat looked like, I was quite horrified and ashamed to realise what I had done.

Knowing that it was too late to do anything about retrieving her cat, I replied that we hadn’t noticed it, expressed concern and hope that she would find her cat soon, and advised her to check with the local animal shelter just in case.

I then left as quickly as I could and went home, sick with dread over my actions, which I had thought to be the correct actions at the time. We moved a few weeks later into our new house and we never saw our neighbour again.

I made a point never to help any stray animals again.

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January 13, 2005

Golden retriever troubles

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Question:

How can we stop our four-year-old female golden retriever from “mounting” people when they come over? We have had her desexed but this has done little to solve the problem. Help!

Deb, via e-mail.

Answer:

Usually mounting behaviour is not sexual but dominant in nature, especially in a desexed female dog. She is trying to tell your guests that she is higher up in the pecking order than they are. Usually dominant dogs are pushy for attention, may resist being moved (eg, from furniture) and will be obedient for some members of the family and not others.

If there are no other problems such as aggression, you can just concentrate on training her out of this embarrassing habit. Have her on a lead when visitors come and work on her obedience so that you can ask her to sit as they approach. Give her a treat and praise when she sits and ignore any attempts to mount or jump (she will be under control on a lead).

Teaching her to drop is even better as she can’t drop and mount at the same time, but also because these are submissive behaviours — she is submitting to you. She needs to be reminded that as a dog her place is the bottom of the pecking order. She will accept this and realise that behaving appropriately gets her far more pleasant things — dogs are very quick to learn what works best for them!

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January 7, 2005

Reality TV for cats

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Question:

Hi Dr Julie,

It’s my cat’s 10th birthday soon. I remember you mentioning a DVD called “A Walk on the Wild Side”. Can you please tell me where I can buy this as my cat loved the preview we saw and would like to see the full movie. Thanking you in advance!

Chelsi, via e-mail.

Answer:

You are correct: the DVD is “reality TV” for cats and is called “A Walk on the Wild Side”. It features critters such as fish, birds and crickets up close, with realistic sounds to get cats interested. It is available online at www.catsizeentertainment.com or at pet stores and vets.

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January 7, 2005

I had my kids’ father thrown in prison

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Rob and I married in 1994 and were happy raising our three daughters. But a few years ago Rob began to change. He bought a motorbike, shaved his head, covered himself in tattoos and started to hang around with a mob of rough bikies. I knew he was smoking marijuana but as he never did it in front of the girls it wasn’t a major concern.

Then, last year, all our lives changed. Rob got behind with our rent and we were evicted. He started to abuse me and the girls. We moved to a farmhouse 15 kilometres out of town and from then on his mates came over every Friday night. They’d spend the entire weekend drinking and taking drugs in the shed, and they rode in and out at all hours of the night and day.

I asked Rob what was going on and he told me they were using and selling heroin and cocaine, then he grabbed me around the throat and warned me to shut my mouth. I knew I had to get the girls away. I was also pregnant again, but I hadn’t told Rob. I’d been waiting for the right time.

A few days later he seemed in a good mood, so I told him. Thank God the two eldest children were at school and the little one was asleep because Rob went absolutely wild. He accused me of having an affair, then he hit me so hard in the stomach I could hardly breathe.

That night I lost the baby and he even made me drive myself to the hospital.

Finally I rang my sister Teresa in South Australia and told her everything, and she promised to help. Her husband John is a policeman, and we hatched a plan to catch Rob in the shed at the weekend.

Now all I had to do was get the girls and myself away from the farm the next Friday.

Rob always told me he’d never let me leave him because I knew too much but I begged him to let me take the girls to his mother’s place, 175km away, for the weekend.

On the Thursday night he agreed to let us go. I rang John to let him know I’d be away for the weekend and everything was set to go. At last it looked as though I was going to get out of the hell I was trapped in.

On Saturday morning I got a call informing me that Rob and six of his friends were at the police station. The drug squad had raided our place and found drugs with a street value of $20,000, plus $15,000 worth of cash and stolen goods. This was a much bigger load than even I knew about.

Rob and his mates are now locked away. The girls and I are living with his mother until I save enough to move to another state. Rob’s mother didn’t know what he was up to and, naturally, she’s very distressed, but I’m happier now than I have been for years, and she’ll never know I was the one responsible for her son being thrown in jail.

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January 6, 2005

Quit now

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By Annette Campbell

The new year always comes loaded with hopeful resolutions but many don’t actually make it into action. Right at the top of many lists is the declaration: “I’m going to quit smoking!”

No one knows the reality of how hard it is to quit more than Sydneysider Michelle Stanger. But now that she’s succeeded, Michelle also knows first-hand how great it feels.

“I feel like a different person,” says Michelle, 42, a part-time administration manager and mother of nine-month-old son, Jack.

“I haven’t had a cigarette now for five-and-a-half years, and that was from having smoked a packet or more every day. I definitely feel so much better. I don’t have that continuous cough and wheeze, or the horrible taste in my mouth. And when I wake up in the morning I’m not exhausted.

“I will never go back — especially now that I have a baby, because I don’t want smoke around him.”

Michelle says she’d been smoking on and off, “forever”. She started at 13, quit at 19, started again at 21, and then smoked at least a packet a day until her last cigarette ever … on July 25, 1999.

“That was the day I went to a health retreat,” she explains. “I was actually going there to lose weight but I thought if I gave up smoking as well it’d be an added benefit.

“They say withdrawal symptoms usually occur on the second or third day but for me it was day four. I was a basket case! I had more of a psychological reaction and was quite distressed and miserable. I cried and slept alternately for the next 18 hours and when I woke on the morning of day five, I actually felt much better. By the end of that day I felt fantastic!

“Since then it’s been quite manageable. I still have cravings, especially during social or stressful situations. But every day it gets easier.

“One thing that’s made me stick to it is mentally rewarding myself for every day or week or month or year I haven’t smoked. Just thinking ‘well done, fantastic!’ The fear of failure also helps — who wants to go backwards?”

So you’ve made that new year’s resolution to quit smoking?

Quit Victoria has made planning your attempt easy by developing the New Year Quit Pack. It’s free and available by calling the Quitline on 131 848 or visiting their website, www.quit.org.au

“It’s full of tips and resources to help smokers cope with the tough times they might face when quitting in the holiday season,” says Quit’s executive director, Todd Harper.

“Keeping with the festive spirit, the New Year Quit Pack includes a lift-the-flap planner in the tradition of an advent calendar. The planner covers the countdown to your quit day and the weeks following. Each flap gives you information on why you are ready to quit and how to go about quitting.”

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December 30, 2004

My girlfriend’s cat

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I met my girlfriend two years ago while holidaying in Bali. We connected immediately and I found myself spending most of my time with her. When my two weeks were up I found it difficult to leave and I knew I wanted to see Beth again, and she felt the same.

When I got back to Australia I contacted Beth and we met up for coffee. She lived one and a half hours away, but it was worth the drive. We started seeing more of each other and officially became a couple. Six months ago we decided it was time to live together. I packed up my “bachelor pad” and moved into my girlfriend’s house.

For the first four weeks it was fantastic; I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. However, the next few weeks turned the tables. Beth owned a cat she had had for six years – her Grandmother, who is now no longer with us, gave it to her for her 21st birthday. At first the cat, “Madge” wasn’t an issue, until the Madge started to become possessive.

Every time I got close to Beth the cat would attack me. At first it was OK, until one Saturday afternoon I sat down next to Beth and Madge leapt across the room and clawed at my face. Out of self-defence, I pushed the cat away. Beth defended Madge, yelling at me as she walked out the door, accusing me of never liking the cat.

Not wanting to have an argument with my girlfriend, I thought I’d try and make it up to her by cooking us dinner. While in the kitchen I saw a mouse run across the pantry floor and under the fridge. I put a few mousetraps around the kitchen to kill the vermin. Forgetting about Madge, I carelessly put a trap where Madge could reach it.

The next thing I know, I heard the trap go off and Madge screeching. My heart jumped to my throat and I knew something was horribly wrong. When I looked, there was Madge with her paw hanging limply from the mousetrap. I took Madge straight to the vet where they had to amputate her paw. I took Madge home and explained to Beth what had happened, leaving out that it was I who laid the traps, blaming it on one of the neighbours. I feel awful about what happened and could never tell Beth the truth.

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December 30, 2004

Scaredy-cat

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Question:

I have a cat and a dog, and the dog always chases the cat. We’ve heard all these things about the cat “taking a swipe at the dog,” but our cat seems to be too afraid to do anything. My mom wants to give the cat to her friend because she (the cat) is too afraid of the dog to even come in the living room, but I was wondering if there’s anything we can do to make the cat less afraid of the dog, and teach the dog not to chase the cat?

Pearl, via e-mail.

Answer:

Most often cats of the house are in charge. I know my Golden Retriever is terrified of my cat Scooter, so this is not a problem. Your cat, however, is obviously frightened of the dog so you definitely need to step in.

The cat needs to feel secure in her home, so give her a cubby or hidey-hole somewhere up high that she can get away to relax. You need to give them separate parts of the house or keep the dog out and cat in. The dog should be on a lead whenever around the cat and needs training to break this chasing habit. Teach the dog to sit and reward with food treats for behaving calmly. He needs to associate calm behaviour with good things, and being sin-binned or having privileges taken away when he reacts to the cat. You can try squirting with water or making a loud noise but this is likely to scare the cat, so he needs to be under control on a lead.

You will probably need the help of a trainer or behaviourist. Slowly you can desensitize the dog not to react to the cat. It will take time and patience (and consistency) on your part and if you can’t manage this, the cat may have a happier life living elsewhere!

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December 30, 2004

Vegemite iceblocks for dogs

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Question:

Fill ice cube trays with vegemite dissolved in hot water; let cool, and then freeze. Serve to your dog on hot, sunny days. Our dogs love them!

Answer:

Francine Webb, via e-mail.

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