Le Petit Futé est un voyage Guide de tourisme et de Nouvelle-Zélande – Bons Plans, visites, conseils et practical information. Le Petit Hôtel Sumner fournir un hébergement B & B en français langue voyageurs, et est également l’emplacement consulaire française à Christchurch.
Telephone
03 326 66 75 (in NZ)
or outside NZ:
0064 3 326 66 75
Look at me now : The continuing story of Kara the Scottie
Hi there all Scottie lovers…It’s almost 15 months since I left behind my friends at Juscot Kennels in Hamilton, and I’ve had my 1st birthday at Le Petit Hotel. Despite having inherited a twisted right hind leg, I’m doing my utmost to be part of the hotel day to day operations…answering the door, checking the guests in, plus security duties, so much so that several of Bruce & Martine’s guests have suggested that I climb into one of their suitcases & go home with them… Unlike many of my 4 legged relatives, I have developed my own vocabulary for use in the hotel..eg. when I want to go outside, I don’t bark, but I do a bit of a quiet sing song. I’m also quite good at singing along with the piano!
Sometime in the next few months, I’m going into hospital to get a CT scan done on my crooked leg, to see what can possibly be done to help me…but I’m a good patient, so it won’t be a problem.
My shiny black coat at the moment makes me a difficult camera subject, but attached here is a recent photo taken on Christmas day with one of my presents.
Until my next post…yours truly
Kara
Friends of Le Petit Hotel
At the Marriner street frontage of Le Petit Hotel, Martine has some Lavender of the ‘Grosso’ variety growing. This particular lavender is a (heavy oil bearing) hybrid between Lavandula angustifolia and Lavandula latifolia.
At this time of the year, the brilliant purple/blue flowers of the lavender draw hundreds of friendly bumble bees, small youngsters and large adults, who climb up & down each flower head, while probing into each tiny separate flower. Unlike honey bees…bumble bees eg. Bombus Terrestris are not normally aggressive & can be easily watched closeup, especially if they have become intoxicated with flower fragrance or just tired with hard work. The larger queens often find their way indoors accidentally as they seek a place to make a home.
Le Petit Hotel, St Martin
Le Petit Hotel, St Martin, is a superb – on the beach, Caribbean Hotel, on the shore of Grand Case Bay.
Le Petit Hotel-St Martin offers unique world class resort accommodation and guests enjoy easy access to the Island’s nearby renown French restaurants.
Owners, Kristin & Marc operate Le Petit Hotel together with L’Esplanade Hotel and both St Martin/ St Maarten hotels provide exceptional Trip Advisor Winning comfort & service.
Le Petit Hotel, Sumner
Anatole France Quotation; Le Petit Hotel; & Bobby calves ill treatment
In a previous blog post I made mention of a French writer’s quote regarding dogs and humans. That writer was none other than Anatole France ( 1844-1924). Anatole received the Nobel prize for literature back in 1921 and the true quote was: “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened” And so it is we read now about the ill treatment of bobby calves on our NZ dairy farms, as their owner operators strive to produce higher and higher profits from ever increasing dairy herds. It was Mahatma Gandhi who wrote: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” Without being too simplistic, isn’t it greed for money that has become more of the main driver in terms of how we farm our animals such as sheep, pigs, hens & now cows and their calves?
Scottish Terrier : Lessons from a dog’s life at Le Petit Hotel
A French philosopher whose name I can’t recall, once wrote that to understand fully one’s soul, you need to first love & understand a dog. I often ponder this view, as Martine & I move onwards with Kara, our new Scottish Terrier. Here at Le Petit Hotel, we look at our Juscot Scottie, her physical disability, and her ability to surmount the difficulties it presents her; and then ponder her unmistakable happiness at the thoughts which obviously flood her mind, when she anticipates being taken for a simple walk by either of us. It’s a constant reminder that the simplest things in life can & should be enjoyed.
And so it is with an American NY Times contributing writer Dana Jennings. Dana’s New York Times Health blog is an ongoing story of one man’s brave journey with cancer. It’s an exemplary human story of adaptation, courage, gratitude, resilience, and the ability of the human spirit to rise above adversity…and well well worth a read.
Lessons from a dog’s life ( See Dana’s posts about his 13 year old dog Bijou)
Kara, Le Petit Hotel’s Scottish Terrier
It’s been some months since we last reported on our ex Juscot Kennels Scottish Terrier.
Our beloved Kara has now learnt to trot slowly on her lead, so much so that she can now keep both back legs doing what they are supposed to do rather than bouncing along. Most of this significant improvement has come about by taking her for deliberately restrained walks around Sumner village, and keeping enough tension on her lead so that she has a chance to place her inward turning leg on the ground. There is no doubting the sheer pleasure she gets from these daily outings, to the point that she is very insistent that we do take her!
In much the same manner as our dearly departed Maggie, Kara has grown into a real social icebreaking individual, taking great delight in meeting incoming Le Petit Hotel guests, then rolling onto her back for attention. She is due for her little op next month so we will be taking the opportunity of having fresh Xrays taken of the impaired back leg.
Dachshund & Scottish Terrier tibial torsion
As per a previous blog, our new Scottie Kara unfortunately acquired a genetic condition loosely and variously labelled as Dachshund type tibial torsion, chondrodysplasia, pes varus deformity etc.
Essentially, she has an unusual bilateral hind limb gait in which she throws her right limb inwards as she walks, which we all hope is of a mechanical nature rather than a painful one…although with Scotties you can’t easily tell. Standard Xrays have not shown precisely where the tibia is twisted.
Current thinking among the experts is that we wait and see how the condition progresses as she develops and then perhaps have a CT (computed tomographic) scan of both hind limbs carried out.
Our concern is not so much the cosmetic appearance of the disability, but whether the condition may be a future arthritic nasty for her and in that situation we would have to look at the possibility of surgery to straighten the tibia.
In the meantime there’s no one who likes going for walks more than Kara, & her true Scottie – mile a minute dashes around the confines of Le Petit Hotel, have us wondering when the inevitable crash is going to happen. She must have heard about Maggie’s big shoes, because she has developed very respectable terrier paws, assisted no doubt by the furious digging which sometimes takes place in the hotel car park.
Kara is one super lovable scottie, a real character with quite a vocabulary.