Lucies Farm Luxury Dog Hotel Guestbook

Reeba's Visit to Lucies Farm

Craig Walsh — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:30:00 +0000

Reeba stayed with us at Lucies Farm for the first time this month. Reeba is a great dog who loves to play and have fun.

We received this nice e-mail from Reeba's family this afternoon, and wanted to share it:

Hi Craig and everyone else who looked after Reeba at the doggy hotel:

We would both just like to say thank you for looking after Reeba for 2 weeks whilst we were away. He has come back a different dog, but in a good way. He seems to have grown up a lot during his stay and he looks extremely healthy, well fed and his coat is shining.

We viewed him about 4 times whilst we were away, and each time he was either wagging his tail, getting thorough care over his poorly paw by one of your workers or he was asleep.

We will definetely be using you again, hopefully in the near future, in fact I wouldn't even trust him to go anywhere else now, and I don't think he would enjoy it as much either.

Hope Barney is coping alright without him.

Thank you again

Kevin and Rachel

Crittersnaps! And Kittenwars

Craig Walsh — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 03:03:00 +0000

Our Crittersnaps! press release went out yesterday via PRWeb. I just checked the statistics, and we've had 25,909 page views so far, 49.5% from the United States.

I've been looking at all of the new blog-related search engines, etc. From Technorati to Furl to del.icio.us. It's all quite bewildering. In the midst of all of this I found a funny website that is both different, and similar, to Crittersnaps!

It's called Kittenwars. Each page displays two kittens, and you click the one you think will win a fight. It then tells you, a bit like Crittersnaps!, how others have voted. In the FAQ's on the website one of the questions is:

Can I have the Kittenwar code?

No. Sorry, Kittenwar will be firmly closed-source for the foreseeable future. Please don't e-mail us asking to make an exception, because we won't. It was custom coded for kittens anyway, and you'd get all kinds of horrible errors if you tried to use it to measure the relative cuteness of other things.

I'm more of a dog person than kitten person, but I still picked my favourites in a couple of the kitten "virtual" battles.

I also had a quick look at the www.hotornot.com website. I see that when you post your photo, you automatically get the code to add a button to your blog, webpage, and even (presumably) your HTML e-mail to tell your friends that they can vote for you. This seems like a good idea, and hopefully we can do a similar thing on Crittersnaps! in the weeks and months ahead.

To see how it works, please give Marjorie a vote. (Note that I didn't post my own picture. That would really be ugly.)

Sunday 20 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:54:00 +0000

This was my first visit. I settled right in and enjoyed everything. Can't wait for my next visit in December - Ebony
We've been coming here since October 2005 and wouldn't stay anywhere else.

New Crittersnaps! Website

Craig Walsh — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:50:00 +0000

We have one Guernsey cow, Carole. We milk her each day, by hand, so we can have fresh Channel Islands milk on the farm. I became involved with the English Guernsey Cattle Society and set up their website. Along the way I was asked to create a "virtual show" where eight cattle photos were posted each month --- cattle from all over the world --- and Guernsey enthusiasts were asked to rank them 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

There were no prizes --- only braggin' rights. And those didn't go to the cow who came in first, but to the person who came closest to the "correct" rankings.

This gave me the idea of creating another type of "virtual" show --- and instead of restricting it to Guernsey cattle, I wanted to include all types of animals. Cows and dogs, cats and rabbits, alpacas and goats.

Instead of ranking the critters, visitors would be asked to rate each animal on a scale of 1 to 10. In other words, it's a bit like www.hotornot.com and a bit like a cattle virtual show.

We asked some talented database programmers in India to work on this, at Epitome Technologies. The website was designed for us by Jeff Clark at the Vacant Canvas in Boston. Jeff has done several great websites for us already, including our main dog hotel website and our Berkshire - Tamworth pig website. (He's also created a fun website for us, Rear Admirable.) Lisa Haller of the Dancing Nomad came up with the Crittersnaps! name, and wrote the snappy copy.

The new Crittersnaps! website took us all about six or seven months to create. We're going "live" tomorrow, September 12, 2006, when we distribute a press release via PRWeb.

We hope that visitors will enjoy dropping in to vote when they have a few minutes. Visitors can either vote on random critters --- or can narrow the search to a particular type of animal (dogs, cats, etc.) or type/breed, or type/breed/gender.

To upload a photo, registration is necessary. There's a small charge of US $2.50 to upload an image. This will pay for a unique, fixed URL for the image. And statistics on the voting on your dog, cat, cow, etc. There is also a "meet me" facility where folks can meet each other, with the consent of both.

I hope folks will visit the Crittersnaps! website and have fun voting.

Monday 14 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 12:26:00 +0000

This was my 4th stay. I'm a bit shy but I really love it here. They took me swimming for the first time this visit. I wasn't too sure at first but once they produced a ball, I figured that it was just water polo and I loved it. Bella

Sunday 13 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 12:09:00 +0000

This was our third and, sadly, our last visit as we are returning to the United States. We have always enjoyed our stays here and really, really love the food. Cavi (on the left) and Mugsy (on the right)
This was my first visit. I loved playing with the toys in the pool. Great place to stay. Reuben
This was our second visit. Just weekend stays but what a break. We love to run and there was plenty of that. Harvey (on the left) and Bailey (on the right)

Saturday 12 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 12:05:00 +0000

This was our second visit. Last time it was winter so it was nice to visit in the summer. We even had a trip to the Malvern Hills. We're always a little slow to settle in but once we have we really feel at home. Can't wait to see what they do at Christmas. Brutus (on the left) and Peepee (on the right).

Friday 11 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:58:00 +0000

Gosh, I can't remember how many times I've come here but I do remember that I always have fun. 'Ceptin' for the car ride here and back. I hate that. Josh

Thursday 10 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:54:00 +0000

This was my first visit. Cool place. Can't wait 'til the end of the month when I return. Penfold

Tuesday 8 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:43:00 +0000

This was our first visit. We stayed here a long time while our owners were on honeymoon. Well, it was just as good here. We did a lot of swimming; even had a pool party. Cool. Hope Daddy lets us stay again.
Missy (on the left) and Ripley (on the right).
This was my first visit. Made lots of new friends. This is Zbigniew who helped me with my swimming. Cool place. Harvey

Saturday 5 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:24:00 +0000

This is my third visit this summer. I'm such a water baby that I love it here. I go swimming every day. Not to mention all the runs, the treats and the food. I can't wait for my next visit in September. George

Friday 4 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:13:00 +0000

This was our third stay. I'm really shy (Pippa on the left) but I've grown more comfortable here. It's beginning to feel like home away from home. I'm game for anything (Jessie on the right) so I always have a ball. Jessie and Pippa
This was my second visit. It's great. I get to go swimming in the pool and the stream. This is me having taken a muddy dip after my shower and before I went home. Well, I had to make the most of it!! Ellie

Wednesday 2 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:04:00 +0000

We're just babies so we didn't know what to expect. But it's like a holiday camp. We had swimming and runs and beach chairs and peanut butter and ice cream and everyfink. It was cool. Ruby (on the left) and Jasper (on the right)

Tuesday 1 August 2006

Doggie Guest — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 10:53:00 +0000

Hi, my name is Elvis. This is my third stay and I always have a ball. This time I got to go swimming in the outdoor pool without a buoyancy aid which was great. See you soon.
This is my third stay. All short breaks but I've thoroughly enjoyed them. Not too sure about the shower and the swimming though but I love the runs and playing with ball. Josh