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Paul O’Grady, we love you

We were so sad to hear of the passing of dear Paul O’Grady that we wanted to include a tribute to this great man on our humble site.

This is just a short story about Paul and about the time he ventured into ‘the dark side’ or so said Battesea Dogs home … but we here like to think he ‘saw the light’ :-). So cover your ears Mrs Mog we may mention dogs . What is for certain is that Paul loved all animals and kept many kinds at home including five dogs, pigs, sheep, chickens, goats, alpacas and even owls.

Paul O’Grady made viewers of For the Love of Dogs jump back in their seats when he ventured into Battersea’s Cattery (for the first time) and fell in love with a pair of orphaned kittens.

Paul with kittens Thomas and Toby

Photograph: © https://www.battersea.org.uk/

Sadly, at the time, as the kittens began to find their feet and as Thomas thrived, it became clear that Toby was struggling more than his brother as he was unsteady on his feet and his head wobbled uncontrollably. Expert vets said this kittten’s rare condition (passed on from his mother) would hopefully heal completely, but it would take time.

Paul took to these tiny creatures and, as he did with many of the dogs he encountered on his travels, wanted to take them home with him.

Paul O'Grady - RIP.
Paul, With some of his more usual ‘pals’ at Battersea.

Photograph: © Sky News

Born to a working-class Irish migrant family in Tranmere, Cheshire, Paul James O’Grady MBE DL moved to London in the late 1970s, initially working as a care officer for Camden Council. He developed his drag act in 1978, basing his comic character of Lily Savage on the antics and personalities of his female relatives.

Touring England as part of drag mime duo ‘The Playgirls’, O’Grady then went solo as a stand-up comedian in the early 1980s. Paul went on to present a string of highly successful programmes across the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, including The Big Breakfast (1995–1996), Blankety Blank (1997–2002), and Lily Live! (2000–2001). After winning several awards more work followed, For the Love of Dogs (2012–2023), Paul O’Grady’s Animal Orphans (2014–2016), Blind Date (2017–2019), and Paul O’Grady’s Great British Escape (2020). He also published several books, including a four-volume memoir.

He was given a special recognition award at the 2018 National Television Awards for the impact the ‘For The Love Of Dogs’ series had on helping find homes for rescue animals nationwide.

His contribution to animal welfare was also recognised with an RSPCA animal hero award.

We remember Paul as host of his own Radio 2 show (Paul O’Grady on the Wireless) on every Sunday for many years. He was the most friendly and down to earth presenter in all of his shows, and always had an amusing story to share with us listeners. We just loved him.

Paul, your kindness and care for animals was inspirational to us all.

RIP

 

 

References:

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

Heart Radio

Wikipedia

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The Kodkod cat

Cat of the Month ~ January 2018

The tiny Kodkod Cat or Guigna (Oncifelis guigna) is one of the worlds smallest and least known cats, and is in fact the smallest cat in the entire land mass of North and South America combined.

kodkod cat in the wild
a spotted kodkod cat in the wild

These felines are found in central and southern Chile, from Santiago to Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael (a distance of well over 2000 kilometers), and also in western Argentina (generally on the west coast of South America). Information about the ecology of Kodkod is largely anecdotal. Guignas have one of the smallest geographical distributions known for any felid, and therefore any information gathered by scientists or local people can improve our knowledge and assist in further steps in conservation.

The kodkod has a small head, large feet, and a thick tail. The length of a typical adult is around 45 centimetres, with a short 20 to 25 centimetres tail and a shoulder height of about 25 centimetres. The weight of a fully grown animal is between 2 to 2.5 kilograms (5 pounds).

The coat has a base color ranging from brownish-yellow to grey-brown. Guignas have black spotted gray fur, black dorsal stripes on their necks, and bushy, banded tails. The body is decorated with dark spots, with a pale underside and a ringed tail. The ears are black with a white spot, while the dark spots on the shoulders and neck almost merge to form a series of dotted streaks. Melanistic Kodkods with spotted black coats are quite common.

Kodkods are strongly associated with mixed temperate rainforests of the southern Andean and coastal ranges, particularly the Valdivian and Araucaria forests of Chile. These forests are noted as having bamboo spread under the tree canopy. These evergreen temperate rainforest habitats are the preferred areas for the Kodkod as they are less damp than deciduous temperate moist forests and coniferous forests. They are versatile and tolerant of altered habitats, being found in secondary forest and shrub as well as in primary forest. They will even be found on the fringes of settled and cultivated areas. In Argentina, for example, they have been recorded hunting in moist montane or mountainous forest, not thier preferred region, ranging up to the treeline at approximately 1,900 m (6,200 ft) in this and other areas.

A black Leopardus Guigna as photographed by Claudio F. Vidal
A black Leopardus Guigna, Photograph: Claudio F. Vidal

Kodkods are equally active during the day as during the night, although they only venture into open terrain under the cover of darkness. During the day, they rest in dense vegetation in ravines, along streams with heavy cover, and in piles of dead gorse. They are excellent climbers, and easily able to climb trees more than a meter in diameter. On the ground they stalk abd hunt birds, lizards and rodents in the ravines and forested areas, feeding on southern lapwing, austral thrush, chucao tapaculo, huet-huet, domestic geese and chicken.

In studies carried out it has been reported that male Kodkods maintain exclusive territories 1.1 to 2.5 square kilometres in size, while females occupy smaller ranges of just 0.5 to 0.7 square kilometres.

Whilst breeding, the gestation period lasts for around 75 days and the average litter size is one to three kittens. Also, they are known to live until they are around 11 years old.

The major threat to the Kodkod is logging of its temperate moist forest habitat, and the spread of pine forest plantations and agriculture, particularly in central Chile. In 1997 to 1998, two out of five radio-collared Kodkods were killed on Chilo Island whilst attempting to gain food from chicken coops.

There are two known subspecies of this cat:

  • Leopardus guigna guigna – found in Southern Chile and Argentina
  • Leopardus guigna tigrillo – found in Central Chile

The kodkod was formerly considered a member of the genus Oncifelis, which consisted of three small feline species native to South America. All of these species have now been moved into the genus Leopardus. Along with the Kodkod, the former members of Oncifelis were the Colocolo and Geoffroy’s cat.

Another Vulnerable Animal:
Like the Iriomote Cat featured in our blog of July last year, the Kodkod cat is an endangered feline. Since 2002, it has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List as the total effective population may comprise less than 10,000 mature individuals, and is threatened due to persecution, loss of habitat and its prey base.

Source: From Wikipedia & others

References:

1. BBC Television. Big Cats – Episode Listing (2018)

2. Small Wildcats. http://smallwildcats.com/ Please donate on this site ~ if you can afford it!

3. Book. Natural history and landscape-use of Guignas on isla Grande De chiloé, Chile

Author(s): Jim Sanderson, Mel E. Sunquist, and Agustin W. Iriarte, Source: Journal of Mammalogy