Pet Mums: When Four-legged Children Send a Card for Mother’s Day…

Sending a Mother’s Day card from her furry friend to say thanks for some seriously top-notch pet parenting is a trend that continues to grow year on year. Tired of the predictable range of card designs on the market, a group of independent artists and designers got working on a range of original Mother’s Day cards from pets and shared with us some of their personal pet stories – ranging from funny, to sweet, to downright bizarre!

Jess Coombs, the Cake Thief

Some people ask me why I named my greeting card business “The Cake Thief”. It was inspired by my mischievous little cat that has a taste for birthday cake, Brosie. Although partial to a bit of cake, he’s since been caught trying to hide bacon in the middle of our living room carpet. Not his most successful theft but I think it’s fair to say he has a taste for the finer things in life!

Faye Finney

So, I remember when it was time to take our Border Terrier cross for her first ever groom. She was a scruffy little scally wag and she needed a tidy up! I mentioned to my partner that I was taking her and he asked if it was okay if he could draw his vision of how he wanted her cut, ‘’sure’’ I said not thinking anything of it!

My partner comes up with some pretty wacky ideas so I should have seen this one coming really but 10 minutes later he hands me this little doodle on a bit of paper that has the title of ‘’Sylvia the 80’s Dog” and an illustration of her before and after her groom in sunglasses and a strong Mullet. I had a chuckle, asked if he was joking and then quickly worked out he was being deadly serious.

Mortified and rather reluctant to take the bit of scrap paper with me I took a stroll to the groomers. When they asked what cut she was going to have I presented this bit of scrap paper with “Sylvia the 80’s dog on” and cringed. Poor Sylvia had no idea what she was in for!

It’s safe to say the groomers gave me quite a look but they also had a good laugh out of it and accepted the challenge! When we picked her up from the groomers, I was scared and just couldn’t stop thinking about what an idiot she was going to look but there she was in all her 80’s Mullet delight!

4 years later, we’ve never looked back and her mullets have taken all sorts of forms with a strong moustache featuring too and pink and orange in her mullet as well. I always get the strangest looks on the way home but it does really make me chuckle and I hope it brightens other people’s days too! We recently took her to the groomers and asked for a normal tidy up and it felt SO wrong! We keep looking at her now and she just doesn’t look the same without her beautiful and luscious 80s Mullet.

Evie Garnett, Evie Garnett Designs

Bennie, my little Yorkshire terrier, would love running whilst nudging a football around with his nose. He wouldn’t let anyone get hold of the ball, and he’d get so excited he’d be foaming at the mouth after a while. The neighbourhood kids loved him so much, they used to knock on the door and ask if ‘Bennie can come out to play football?’! Move over Ronaldo, he’d not have stood a chance with Bennie around!

I now have three cats who are all crazy and completely different in their own ways. Maisie the youngest, loves to stick her face in my hair dryer while it’s on. Winnie has a random aversion to potatoes, and Joey stares at the TV when it’s not on – as if willing it to start displaying a big cat nature series. We also once had a turtle and they’d sit staring at it for hours, completely transfixed – even ignoring dinner time!

Sarah Best, Mrs Best Paper Co.

Meet Rufus Best – Shop Dog, Head of Security, Chief Paper Shredder, Best Friend.

At 14, he’s been with us through thick and thin, he’s witnessed a house move, the birth of Mini Best, he’s been there when I was ill for several months following a traumatic birth and now it’s our turn to give back. This little fella has just had surgery on his eyes after going blind within a really short space of time. They sadly couldn’t save the one eye but the op has amazingly enabled him to regain long distance sight in his remaining eye. The aftercare has been full on but we couldn’t be more pleased as it’s given him a better quality of life. He’s such a star, full of character for such a little thing and we love him so much 🐶❤️

Paige & Nikols, The Queer Store

We have a couple stories about Nell (our dog) so you can choose which one you like best. I refer to her in past tense because she passed away last year at the age of 16.

One day we had builders in the house and although we told them to keep the front door closed because of Nell they ended up leaving the door open later that day anyway. So of course Nell aged 14 at the time, strolled out the door and walked 10 minutes up the road to end up inside the local corner shop browsing!

Once we were in the car with my niece (7) and nell (16) in the boot and my niece decided to open the bit between the seats to say hello to Nell, she then proceeded to start screaming which panicked me. I shouted “what’s wrong, are you ok?” my niece then replied with “I caught a whiff of nells smelly breath.”

We took Nell to the beach one day, this was late in her life so she was nearly blind at this point. We let her off the lead because she tended to stay close to us, but that day she had other plans. She ended up walking down to the sea heading straight into it. We kept saying “she’ll turn round in a minute, she’ll turn around”. But she wasn’t and a big wave was coming, so my mum sprinted down to rescue her and ended up being swallowed by the wave, getting completely soaked. Whilst Nell strolled away dry as a bone and care free.