September QnA with RawPetMedics

Uh, soirée. Oh, we're live.

Let me come down a tiny bit so that I'm eye to eye with you lot. I will come down to your level.

Oh, you're coming down.

Very symbolic of me, thanks.

Join us in the pit. Yes, good to see you all, gentlemen, um, on this lovely Tuesday evening, 30th September. Is this the last— like, what way do you guys look at, uh, when does autumn kick in? Like, let's start at spring. What month do you think spring starts at?

Ah, now is this down to the equinox and the tides?

Just give me an answer, Bren. Just give me an answer.

For me, that's the 21st of March.

Ah, Jesus, that's the end of spring, surely. 21st of March. No, Nick, what about you?

I would say it's the first day you can take the dogs out without having to wear a hat.

Interesting. They are interesting answers. I'll be interested to hear what Fiona thinks. I was more looking for a date of the month. Like, I mean, What is there an official start of spring day? Like, do they say—

People say the 1st of March.

1st of March. Okay. All right.

That makes sense.

I like to go by the equinox. So the 21st of March. Yeah.

But then it snows in April and it just puts the kibosh on the whole thing. So I would, I would go by the weather and the, and the verdant goodness outside when the, when the, when the bluebells come through all that. Yeah.

Very good. Yeah. So it's the last day of September here, guys, which is a Q&A night, but we're just having a little twist. Tonight. Why the twist, Nick?

Our good friend Maudie Lambert died a week ago, and she was a stalwart of not just the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society but of the group that has come together organically over the last 4 or 5 years.

And we've—

we have come together as a really strong tribe, and Maudie was the heart and soul of that, and we miss her very, very much.

Yeah.

And, uh, ironically, she's, she's been with me personally. I'd love to, to hear your thoughts, guys. She's been strongly present, um, for us and for me. I've taken her on dog walks, I've spoken to her, um, and, and just her vitality is it, and just Memories of her silliness and her dedication and her attitude of just wanting to get things done has been very, very strong with me. What are your thoughts on beautiful Maudie?

Wow. Well, for me, definitely As you say, she's just a vivacious woman that had obviously known as the tripe queen. We did a whole load of stuff about tripe. Oh yeah. You know, it was great seeing her and doing both some comedic videos and some great— she was a real one for dressing up, whether it be a bread basket or a—

Wigs.

A wig or various aprons. She just, you know, and she enjoyed stuff. She really wanted the best for people. And that's the thing. She was, you know, all heart. And I just, it was great sadness. And, you know, we had long chats about her illness and You know, there's so many things came from that, and, you know, she truly wanted to live life free of all of the issues with certain medications and things like that for herself, just as she did for her pets and all of her clients' pets that she was, she was with. And she got to fulfill her wishes to the end. But, you know, from a point of view of Very strong-minded woman, probably not to be crossed, but fortunately never had to cross her. So that was, uh, you know, uh, we will remember her.

How about you, Conor? What are your thoughts?

Well, see, I, I met Marty in the flesh, you know, 4 or 5 times, really 3 or 4 or 5 times, usually at the gatherings, usually at the raw feeding veterinary society type gatherings. That's how we all came together. And the first time I met her was in Barcelona when really our gang, when everyone came together, really, we met a heap of people there. And Mari was just awesome. In my opinion, she was lovely to speak to and she was very nice and polite and gentle. So she had this exterior, oh my God, she's just a lovely kind of country lady and she's keeping sheep and then you get chatting to her and it's like— and so she was great fun. She was absolutely brilliant fun. So you just warmed to her immediately. Everybody that Matter was just, uh, mad about her and the center of the group, like you said. And she has been there from the very start with you and Nick, from the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society, the very first meeting, you said. And I can see why. She was just like, you know, just a gorgeous presence, so much fun, uh, you know, if you're sitting in the pub, you want to be sitting beside her type thing, uh, and just, uh, so that's what I knew her as. And then you could just say anything you want to her, very easy person to speak to, um, great advice, just a lovely, lovely spirit. And terrible loss.

She was—

I just loved the way she just loaded on everything. Our kids are the sheep on us, uh, on the group, making sure we're all like— it was just, um, yeah. So, uh, it really was. And if the— I kept on sending her messages in the last, last while, you know, just see how things are. And, uh, you know, just a lovely, gorgeous, upbeat, friendly presence. It's like, God, every time I speak to her, I just feel better, you know. So it's, uh, it's a terrible loss for, for our gang, and, um, and particularly for you guys who you knew her. You had far more contact with her than I did. But, um, yeah, we're all missing her terribly in our, in our little tribe.

So it's tough.

It's tough when somebody exits like that. It's very, very difficult. So yeah, she'll be missed.

So tonight is dedicated to Maudie. Maudie, wherever you are, this is for you, my lass.

And if these guys have some spectacular colors, as they have over the last few weeks, it isn't me fiddling with the broadband. It is Maudie messing around with it. She loved a bit of art.

Yeah, she did. She loved a bit of art. Yeah. And so we decided to tweak Q&A tonight. And so we have members of our gang coming on and Who is this first member we're bringing on, guys?

Well, we're not going to leave her hanging on for much longer. I think what we'll do is we'll bring on Fiona. Some of you may have seen Fiona, Fiona Muir, in the— she forgot to finish off her name when she was doing her profile. And so you'll see her in the Facebook with a shortened surname. And from a point of view of She's been a big part of the gang. She did a great part of organizing when we did the Live Live, which was 18 months ago now. Must be at least 18 months ago. Time flies. And so, yeah, we just thought we'd bring people on, let them say where they're up to with doing their own thing with their own pets, maybe have some questions for us, maybe not, maybe just want to eulogize to everybody out there. We're going to trust them with those. Couple of guys have just done the videos for us, so we'll play those and we'll have a chat.

And I have to say that I think Fiona is in the same league as Maudie as being just a stalwart and just an injection of vitality into the group, into the tribe that has become— can't say the name of the tribe, but yeah, when we come together, Fiona is in the thick of it.

She's going to sort everything out.

She will be leading us. Strain in enormous— yeah, and we love it that way.

Yeah.

Oh, great. So let's bring her on. I might just hide us for a moment just to see if we can keep her connection as streamlined as possible.

So put you on the big screen, Fiona. She's gonna—

oh, she's coming on the big screen. There we go. Oh, she's nervous. She's nervous. Here we go. You're all on your own.

Am I still working? Yeah, I hope they're working. Thanks, thank you so much for having me on. It means a lot. I've, I've listened to you guys for many years, and it means a lot to be on tonight on this, uh, remembrance event. Honestly, I really, really feel very privileged, so I appreciate it. And, um, just to hear, echo everything that you're saying, the loss is, is so significant, and Molly will continue to leave a hole with all of us, but also a hole that's filled with love and laughter, and we'll keep that on. So yeah, thanks for having me on tonight to, uh, to remember our lovely Maud. Um, so the challenge that I got— can I just check you guys can hear me? Because my, uh, my connection was not great, which is why I sat on the stairs. So we're all going. So the, the challenge that, uh, we that you gave us was 10 minutes on something that's dear to our hearts on this subject. So what I've picked, I'm not in the industry, I'm a very, very lucky dog owner and having my dog has changed my life. I'm a relatively new dog owner, only having got my dog back in 2020 when not far off of RPM just starting out. So it was almost like tailor-made for me. So that journey of discovery I've been on has been really significant. So what I thought, rather than picking something I don't have the— I can't talk from, you know, qualifications and experience really, is how the informed pet owner is in spreading the word on the importance of fresh feeding. You know, a very simple message, but for me, a really, really important one. And it's close to my heart because when I got my dog, I didn't know it was a thing. You do your Google search and you get all of the brand names that we don't speak about on here, that they're the best thing. And that's exactly what I did. I'm very lucky that my dog hated kibble. So if he hadn't and he liked it, I may not be here. I might have to think I would have worked it out eventually. But so I really felt quite angry about how that whole amount of information wasn't available and accessible to me. And I thought I was relatively well informed. It made me realize, unless you know what you're looking for, you don't know what to go and search. So I said that's the— that's, you know, on events like and podcasts like this, we are typically people who are well-informed, and I think we have a role to play, a very significant role in spreading the word, as it were.

So Fiona, we're having a few problems with your internet, as you said, and so we're going to just see if I can— I'm going to see if I can hide your video and see if it keeps your audio going a little better. Can you just Say something to us. We'll see if we can hear you. Okay.

Okay. Sorry about my absolute rubbish internet that I hadn't realized was as bad as that. Is that any better?

Yeah, we can hear you.

No, not really. You can hear me now?

Loud and clear. Loud and clear.

I'll be quick and succinct then. So sorry that you have to look at their faces while listening to my voice. Can't be helped. So anyway, I could see a common thread. Through all of the people that I was basically learning from. And it really stood out to me. That means I can read my notes. He never even barks, my dog.

It's Muddy.

Muddy, say goodies.

That is exactly what he's doing. He's away chasing a fox. So basically, what was the altruistic nature of those that I've learned from? And that was that real common thread. I mean, my— luckily when I found raw feeding, the Bella and Duke team with the lovely Jude McCoy and all of them put me under Raw Pet Medics, taught me a lot. Raw Pet Medics has just been incredible. There you go, I'm being nice to you guys because really, you know, the amount of information that you disseminate is crazy. And then Conor put me on to Patricia Gethin's Facebook group. I learned so much through the lovely and late Patricia, and it was in that group that I met Molly. And, you know, all of these people had so much in common. You're my lovely raw food supplier. And ultimately, you know, you just mentioned Barcelona, the bigger gang that opened out, and everybody has something in common. And that's what it is. They just are giving their time for free, even if those people who are in the business, the amount of time they give for free to help others is incredible. You mentioned at the beginning, Molly just wanted to be good and do the right thing, and all of what she did through RFVS, her Simply Raw interviews. And so basically, there's just good people everywhere. And but my perception was that actually, this sort of altruistic behaviour seemed to be higher than the normal, you know, it was more concentrated than you would see in my normal everyday life. So I sort of thought, let's look at why are some people more altruistic than others? And I did a little bit of Connor Brady study at Georgetown, where people who exhibit strong altruistic behavior have larger right amygdalas, which is very interesting. And that's linked to being more sensitive to others' fears and wanting to alleviate that fear.

Can I just say, for Conor Brady, what's this part of the brain?

So psychologists— yeah, exactly. And psychologists have recorded those sort of acts of altruistic behavior in the animal kingdom, in bees, bats, ravens, and no surprise, in dogs. So I started, you know, that could be ingrained like at an evolutionary level to preserve the species. But I actually think it's more than that because if it was for that, you'd see it in other animals as well. So I found a study out of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, and they looked at can dogs be altruistic? And what basically what they did was they placed two dogs side by side in cages. One had control of a tray, it could either pull it towards it and get a treat or push it away and get a treat. And you know, it was overwhelmingly clear, you know, it was not a huge study, it was only 16 dogs, but they absolutely were willing to behave altruistically, even with dogs that were unfamiliar to them. So that started me thinking, my hypothesis is, does actually having a dog increase the likelihood of altruistic behaviour? Could be a PhD in it for somebody there, but that's what I see whenever I've come, you know, later in life to being a dog owner. I see it everywhere, and it made me think of the lovely Dr. Lee Hansen. Spoke at the Natural Dog Expo a few years ago, and her opening sentence always stayed with me. She said, everyone in this loves dogs. This is a great filter and a great place to start. And I thought, that's exactly it, you know, that this filters a lot of the stuff. And it could be that, you know, just by that love of dogs, that actually is saying an awful lot more about those people. So based on my experience, I would absolutely say that yes, having a dog increases altruistic behaviour, and our lovely Molly is a really wonderful example of that in all the time she gave. You talked about some of the lovely things she did. She would make us face creams and always snuck a bottle of wine illegally into, into ours in her handbag, so that we would find all those sorts of lovely things that you will always love. So my one tip then, you asked for it, would be so putting all that altruistic behavior to good use that everybody listening here I think is about. Remember, we're often talking to the converted here, so it's about spreading the word further. That's what I feel really passionate about, people who haven't heard about the importance of fresh feeding and natural healthcare for for our animals, how do we get to them? So bite-size chunks of information, keeping it simple, and giving people a sense of where to send to do their own research and get more information. Very importantly, meet people where they're at. In my first few months of my surgery, I made a mistake that still makes me feel bad to this day. I met a neighbor who just got a new puppy, asked what they were feeding, thought I was full of all this great information. She told me it was kibble, but it was a good kibble. And I said, there's no such thing as good kibble. And her whole face just dropped with this lovely little puppy. And I still feel bad telling that story now. So please don't do what I did. Meet people where they're at and build them up slowly with some, you know, little bits of positive information and ultimately be kind. Spread the word with warmth, kindness, and we never stop learning. So in a nutshell, be more Maudie.

Yes.

That's my tip.

Fiona, thank you so much for your time. I'm sorry that the internet's been a little bit glitchy. We will let you go. We'll discuss all of the bits that you've talked about. Thank you, though, for the sentiments.

Yeah, nice one. Thanks, Fiona.

Thank you.

And she's got a glass of wine, which Molly would very much approve of.

Yeah.

God bless you. Thank you so much, Fiona. That was heartfelt, but there was a little bit of science in there.

Yeah, I love that. Nice little mix.

Very good. Very good. Yeah. I've never thought about that, actually, the whole altruistic thing, because, I mean, we just, we do it because it's fun and we do it because it's interesting. And we do it because we like getting together and batting the ideas between us. And I was just speaking to clients in the States today and saying that if you want certainty, then food and nutrition is not really the place for you because there's a lot more shades of gray than there are blacks and whites. If you want blacks and whites, then, you know, go and Dr. Hills or Royal Cannon. But, uh, if you want the real world, the analog world, then, you know, think deep about nutrition, think about evolutionary biology. And, um, that's where we find ourselves, um, do you think that's become those ideas?

Do you think that's become more society now? It's all ones and zeros. It's either it's got to be over here and it's got to be, or it's got to be off. And yeah, there's they find it really difficult to mix in between.

It's—

yeah, I think we live in a more combative society. You're either blue or you're red, for example.

Yeah.

And life, life is not that simple, you know. You're either a dog lover or you're not, or, uh, you either feed raw or you don't.

Yeah, you know, some people, you know, and, and within raw, you know, I—

do you feed, you know, a, a, an evolutionary diet? Do you feed a Yeah, roadkill, do you feed raw meaty bones? There is nuance and really it's just whatever works. There was a real marvelous, a guy called marvelously named Carvel Teat, who was the president of the American Holistic Veterinary Medicine Association. And he said wise words. He said, holistic medicine is anything that works. And I would suggest that good nutrition is similar. Anything that works, because each dog is going to be different. Each microbiome within that dog is going to be different. The gut health is going to be different within that dog. And so I think we are, what we are is we are weavers of many tapestries. To try and make a cloth that fits each individual patient, if I can get poetic for a little second. What do you think, boys?

And that brings me to something that I was asked on Q&A, you know, can we feed pumpkin? You know, we're coming into Halloween next month. People will be sort of like talking about what they can use. It's a seasonal vegetable, you know, butternut squash and pumpkins, you know, there's lectins in there. Certainly in raw, you know, can they cook it? But of course, you know, this is a subject close to Conor's heart, you know, for the prebiotic fiber source where you cannot give them enough carnivore fiber because it's not available to you for any reason. You can't go out there and get rabbit skins or rabbit ears and, you know, all of the other collagen sources or you just fear doing it. That for some people, as you said, you adapt and they will cook up some pumpkin and roast it and blend it into the food and that does a job for them. And we have to accept for them it works. And in those circumstances, we have to accommodate that.

Yeah, we're definitely getting— I think I can feel what you can feel. Everything is getting quite It's very yes or no. Like you said, it's ones and zeros, very yes or no. We're getting— we all need to, I don't know, need to remember to be a little bit more flexible. Social media is brutal for us. It really is, because it removes that difficulty of dealing with somebody face to face. You know, you don't call too many people dickheads to their face. It's just so easily done online and it's— and Everyone's as guilty as anybody else. You just react like dogs barking through a fence, like those videos. And then the fence pulls back and the dogs stop barking at each other. They kind of get awkward around each other because the fence has been removed and that's all right, fight time. And so, yeah, you have to meet people in the middle and you get a little bit tired with the— it can be very combative. I think that works, it sells, and that approach kind of gets clicks and stuff. And I do worry about that. I worry about that with my own approach. I tend to be bitching a bit more than I tend to be talking about all the positives and happy, happy. I tend to kind of complain a little bit, so it's easy to fall into that kind of thing. So it's tricky because that's where we're getting our message out. It really works to get the message out, to talk to people and reach people. So I've been thinking about that a lot for the last month or two. Things have been a little bit negative, I thought, a little bit. Not with us, but I can sense it, just shit online and whatnot. It's like, how much time do I want to spend online now? So anyway, that's a cause after my own heart at the moment. But nutrition-wise, you have to be flexible. 'cause people wanna feed different things. I couldn't give a damn what people feed anymore. As long as they're feeding real whole foods and stuff, cooked, raw, I couldn't give a damn what way you do it. We'll work with you, you know? Ah, Shaznay, what's happening?

So, well, we've got next one up. So some of the guys, just to, in case the internet was a little bit glitchy, actually thought ahead and recorded some stuff. So we're gonna, I'm gonna pray this works, 'cause if the sound doesn't work on this, I don't know what we're going to do.

So what we can do is lip read, or we can just interpret what she's saying, and we can put words in her mouth, which I think would be quite entertaining.

Right, at that point, I'm going to leave you to it then, Nick.

Shall we see?

Shall we see?

I'll take over.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

Let's go.

Hi, I'm Cheryl. I'm a dog trainer. I am a member and accredited trainer with the IMDT, which is the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers, and I'm also a canine nutritionist, and that was a diploma that I did about 3 years ago in canine health and nutrition. I practice in both, mainly doing more work on the behavioral modification front at the moment on, on a one-to-one basis with clients. I work for a business called Canine Connection Company down here in Kent, and I'm very lucky. I'm the only trainer. There's only two of us, so the business owner, Rachel, she is a very established behaviorist, and I've learned everything from her. And, um, that's brought me where I am today. So I want to bring the two together, really. That's my main goal, is, um, to bring a more holistic approach to dog training.

Excuse me a second, she's looking for a dog. Well, she's being— or she's being pursued.

Not sure what she ate. Hopefully it was just a bit of seaweed. Certainly not going to do her any harm.

Hilarious. Absolutely, I agree.

Um, sorry about that. Uh, yes, so I work with pet guardians, um, with behavioral issues, low-complex behavioral issues at the moment, although I'm looking to go down more of the behavioral route in the long run. Um, but I'm— my, my main interest at the moment and something I'm really kind of deep diving into, you could say, is— excuse me, I'm just going to call my dogs.

This is real life, folks.

Yeah, let's see if the dog comes back. Okay, let's hope she picks it up.

Yes, one thing I'm really interested in is the study of the microbiome and Obviously there's a lot we know about how diet can influence that, but I'm also looking at it from a behavioural perspective and I'm really, really interested in enrichment. And I'm—

yeah, we don't do enough of that.

The dogs now playing on the beach, which is very rocky, so hopefully none of them hurt themselves.

There you go.

Was that it? Was that the conclusion? Oh, okay.

So she's— so where are you guys at with microbiome? That was the length of her video. Either she tripped over and broke her leg at that point, length of the video.

I feel like she had more.

I feel—

yeah, she had more.

I have seen her commenting online, so I do know she's alive. She didn't get pursued by the—

whoever was behind her.

Yeah.

So, so yeah, guys, I mean, Conor, you talk about microbiome all the time.

Yeah. Can I talk about yeast? I'm going to get yeast into this conversation. Yeah, go on.

Can I— you talk about yeast. I'm just going to—

no, because I want to stick to Cheryl's point. But yeah, I think about, I think about biome all the time. But I used to, I used to think I knew more about it and now I'm just quite confused with it all. And so now I just talk about it less. I just, I observe and I listen to things that are coming out and I go, that's interesting, you know, kind of like when somebody starts to talk— who's that famous dude, um, with the black hair, the, the astrophysicist guy who talks? He used to be in a band. Do you not watch his YouTube? Yeah, yeah, that's it. Very good. Yeah, why was I talking about him? Oh yeah, so when people start talking, only get better. Even— that's right, fair play. Um, what a talented man. But when he talks about the universe, it's the same thing. You sit there and you just listen and you go, that's interesting. That's when I listen to, um, some of the more expert people talking about the biome. I just listen and go, that's interesting. But so yeah, I don't know because I've moved away from giving lots of probiotics and all sorts of things. And so the biome thing is an endlessly fascinating conundrum, but I think it's really interesting. I like the way bacteria communicate using quorum sensing. So they have chemicals off and they can adapt their behavior. They can all adapt what chemicals are releasing at the same time. They're in communication with each other all the time, like a large brain. I like thinking of it like that. I'd say they are very strategic and they've been around for eons, way, way longer than we are. We are the dusting of a fingernail. So bacteria have been here for a billion years, yeast almost as long. So they are— I just find it very interesting. I do know one last thing. Sometimes I think that when we're looking down a microscope at a bacteria and it only lasts 15, 20 minutes and then he's dead, that's his entire life. And to us we think, what a short life. But to him it's an entire lifetime. He could be down there. And while it doesn't look like he's doing much, he's communicating, he's having a laugh, he likes to look at her. She's not, you know, he's just doing all this. Normal stuff, you know, trying to have babies, trying to survive, having an argument with this person, you know, and then he dies. And we're looking at the microscope going, 15 minutes, God, they're just so insignificant. Imagine if somebody was looking down at us and they lived for billion years and they looked at our tiny little lifespan and they just saw us being born and dying and they just got to go, what pointless creatures we are. You know, I think about that bacteria anyway. So what else? Anybody else's thoughts on the matter? Wow. Sorry, guys. Yeah. I'm actually sorry.

You're going to get very profound at this point.

Yeah.

Have you ever had that dream where, you know how atoms and electrons and you've got that whole cycle things and then you sort of like you suddenly expand it out and then you start to think of the solar system and then you start to think of galaxies and then you start to think of, you know, as we get into the cosmos and then you start to think, can you imagine if we were just little quarks, you know, as as our galaxies floating around and actually we are just the blip of an eye.

Yeah, the leg of a chair. Leg of a chair. Completely insignificant atom somewhere, you know. Just like Dr. Seuss loved that, you know. It all happened on a snowflake, didn't it?

Yeah.

What are your thoughts, Nick? What's coming to mind?

I once saw a cartoon which stuck with me. And in the first slide, you've got these bacteria and they're holding cocktail glasses and they are chatting with each other and they're having a very civilized time. And then one in the second one, it's like, quick, a microscope. And they all go.

Yeah, that's good.

And I saw that probably 30 years ago and it stuck with me.

Yeah.

What does it mean? I don't know, but it is quite funny. And I think the insignificance thing plays into our discussion about Modi and life and life is short, you know, and death is guaranteed. And yet we don't talk about it. And I think I think we should live as much as we are able to the full. Yeah, people have mortgages and children and, you know, difficulties and what have you, but take joy in moments when you can. Even if you're opening a tin of beans, just marvel at the engineering of the tin or the nutrition in that tin of beans because That's all you've got. All you've got is today. Again, I'm wandering into kind of philosophical territory, but it is Modi's show, so I'll do it anyway. Life is short and precious, and as much as you're able, grasp it and make the most, I think.

Yeah, yeah. So say all of us. Living in the moment. I mean, we all, you know, spend too long thinking about shit that happened in the past. We spend too long worrying about stuff in the future which hasn't even come yet. And it's just like, you know, it's— yeah, you just want to be out in the garden, you know, playing, playing with a ball and your dog and the kids. That's the good stuff. That's the stuff you remember. You don't remember all the other shit. I imagine all those little bits and pieces and YouTube videos I've watched. Nobody's talking about doing more work or having better cars or any of that shit. You're thinking about the time you had that crap holiday down on the beach and you had to drink tea be in the car with your folks eating a pack of crisps, you know what I mean? And they're your memories, you know. Any of my memories of my mum and dad were similar, you know. So you just think back to the really simple stuff that sticks in your mind, the good stuff. So yeah, there is a lesson in that. We need to slow down a little bit and smell the roses. Smell the bloody roses.

Yeah, yeah.

Or smell your dog if they smell.

Yeah, yeah. Love the smell of a dog. I love the smell of the top of his head. Oh, I love that. Smell of his ears.

Oh, are you one of those?

Yeah, yeah. And I like pressing his nose to my forehead. He runs up the top of the stairs. He doesn't quite run at the moment, but he still wants to get to the top of stairs. And then he stands there and he puts his nose out and I climb up the stairs and then I press my forehead to his nose and we sit there for a few seconds and then that's it. That's, that's, yeah, that's our little routine. I love that. Dog nose is my favorite. The smell of a dog's ears and dog nose. That's a bit weird, isn't it? That's what I like. That's what I like about my dog. What about you, Ben? You're going to say something. Choice.

I very much look, you know, I think that's a cause for everybody just to, you know, they, they often see as an end of life for their pets. And, you know, it's a devastating time and it's a really hard, difficult time. And we are sometimes having to help them reflect on all of the time that they have spent, you know, in the moment with their dogs, all of the memories that they do have. And it's, it's hard, isn't it, when you're having to go through that and helping them appreciate the things that you would hope they appreciated at the time. And sometimes life is a rush. They've just gone through life too quickly, and they do need that. There's some great counselors out there for those people that are in bereavement for their pets, and most of that is based around, look, But, you know, it's natural to go through grief. It's natural to feel the hurt, you know, to all go through those 7 stages, you know, from denial all the way through to anger and ultimately, you know, to despair and everything in between. And then the upset. But that's part of healing for everybody. But then part of that for me, and what I found most useful, is just thinking of all of the times that you've had a great time with them, that you can remember those great moments, the laughter, the, the wonderful, you know, environment that you were in, the great foods, the whatever it is that you've experienced with them. And therefore, for those of you who've got pets with you right now, this is a time to say, right, think As Nick said, death is inevitable, but actually you can make a difference right now by spending some time enjoying them in the moment. So do it, get out there. You don't have to find some glorious white sandy beach in the middle of the Caribbean to do that. It can be—

Conor's right there right now.

It can be your local walk, you know, the best bench, your view that you can get from the top of the moor, whatever it is, just take some time, sit down and be with them. Maybe enjoy the rainstorm because there's another one coming. Yeah.

You know, I always say to my clients, health is a very boring state of affairs, but sometimes just sitting back and enjoying that your dog is running around and they're not hobbling, or the fact they are running around at all and they're not under the ground. That is a wonderful thing. And same for you, for yourself, you know, if you haven't got backache, give praise for that. If you haven't got a headache, give praise for that. If you haven't got a terminal illness, be thankful to whoever or whatever you want to be thankful to. Yeah, take the time to just enjoy what you've got. Yeah, I think it's really important. It's difficult to do, but it's kind of very easy to do as well. It's just like, yeah, I'm having a pretty good day today. It could be terrible.

Yeah, we're nearly obliged to do it because, you know, you're living in bloody paradise here. Imagine just walking down to the supermarket and there's food there anytime you want it, unmolested. you know, house and a car. Yeah, exactly. Have everything you want, you know. Bloody hell, we are never happy. But it's, uh, anyway, yeah, right.

We have a very short last one. Let's, um, we've got time, I think, for Sasha to come in. I'm going to give Sasha the full screen treatment. She's going to kill me for that, but we're gonna see.

What's the name of our little collie there? What's his name?

Indy.

Indy. Very good.

Yeah. Right. Here we go. Sasha, you're on.

Hi guys, I'm Sasha. Some of you might know me from working with Nick at Holistic Vet. I've been with Nick at the practice while working remotely for Nick for almost 5 years now. But before that, I I was working in conventional practice as a qualified veterinary nurse for almost, almost 30 years, but I worked 8 months of COVID lockdown in the COVID madness era and it just about broke my soul, so I decided to start my own self-employed self-employed business as a mobile veterinary nurse in the community, and I can— I just offer, you know, nail clips, things like that. But it also gives the opportunity to discuss more holistic ways to care for our pets. This is Indy.

Look at that hair!

Savage!

We're talking on Indy here.

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I, I just wanted to do, um, a very short introduction to me because I'm sure the lads will get me on RPM Live at some point in the future. But wanted to do this for a very special person that we lost from the Royal Feeding Tribe recently, a really, really good friend, Maudie, who left us last week, and it's still, it's still almost impossible to believe really. So I wanted to do this for Maudie because she was always pushing me to try and do things because she got over her fear of getting in front of the camera and she was amazing. Well, she was just a general all-around amazing human being, and, um, yeah, she'll be missed. She'll be missed a lot.

Yeah.

So this one's for you, Mods. Rest easy.

Nice one, Sash.

Wow.

She's really modest. She is a very capable woman, and her— she, she is a powerhouse of compassion and communication. And she, I couldn't do, couldn't run my business without her. She is really fabulous. And that was a big thing for her because she hates even more than Maudie. And when Maudie started, she was absolutely terrified. And so for her to do that was a tribute to moddy, and good on you, Sash.

No, good.

You're great. You're a natural. Absolutely.

Yeah.

And you, you said it. Yes, we will. Come on. Yeah, come on to Raw Pet Medics and, and, and talk to us about fetid poisoning, raw, all that stuff.

Talk to us about COVID Oh yeah, done that.

Yeah, talk to us about that.

And actually, yeah, the importance of the veterinary nurses within the profession. You know, you've got a shortage of vets out there. There are so many things that nurses can do. There are so many nurses now working out in the community. There's some great organizations where you can find those. So if you're really struggling getting your pet into a vet's and that, you know, they just stress out and you need some home care, there are some great nurses out there doing home visits. You can get recommendations, you know, and it's certainly worth looking at.

And Sasha's business is called Paws at Yours. Paws as in these, at yours as in you.

And she's from Wales. She's from Wales.

North Wales. And massively capable, passionate woman.

Yeah, she's awesome.

Great respect to her.

Yeah, absolutely. I love having a few messages with her. She's great. She's on the exact same line as I am on absolute most things. So if I need to have a little rant—

Oh, you're going to have that whole thing about is it a particle or is it a wave?

Yeah. No, excuse me. If I'm ever ranting about something, I've got maybe one or two people in my life who I'll send. I just record like a voicemail and say, who am I going to send this to? But if it's a proper rant and I'm like, wishing harm on somebody, it's like, okay, there's only so many people I can send this message to. And you send it to Sasha and she's just on your side and go, yeah, that's just not fair, you know. So I love a bit of Sasha for that. Yeah, she was very close to Marty too. So yeah, tough because those girls have their own group. We have our group, which I just thought was just all of us together, boys and girls, but then the girls splintered off and they've got their own version of our group, but it's just the girls. So we only just found out about that a few months ago. And so the lads were just, yeah, we were still trying to get over that matter. But I heard that group is even darker than ours.

That's why you're so jealous because you want to know what they talk about.

Yeah. But yeah.

Karen won't tell you.

No, she won't. Yeah. Sasha introduced me to Karen. Actually, Sasha said, we're looking for someone. And Sasha goes, I've got the perfect person. Person. And so yeah, just rang up and just say, I don't know you, do you want a job? And she's like, yeah, it's like, great. And her life's been hell ever since. I'm sure she's listening, she is laughing. But yeah, anyway, yeah, but there's loads of us in that group. There's, uh, there is the current president of the Royal Veterinary Society over in Mallorca, and we've got a wonderful Neis. Who was Neis ever president of, uh, She's in Barcelona and a number of people, Christian from Chile and all sorts of multicultural additions to that group. That group is great. It's my go-to. It's a nice place to be. So every time we go out, we meet up like 2 or 3 times a year at various events. And it's good fun. Isn't it funny when you get a group of friends that like the group of friends you grow up with are, you know, your family, you're kind of just, you're stuck with your family. Okay. You're born into that and you walk around on the same piece of carpet and you're not guaranteed guaranteed to love each other as much as you dream on Facebook groups. Now, I'm happy enough with mine. We can all sit down and share a pint together, all my brothers, and everything's great. But I'm just saying, and same with the lads you grow up with, you're playing football with them and you're in school with them. But the next group of friends that I've in this group of friends here with you guys and this group that we have, that is a group that we are all, we are into the same things. And so you can just totally be yourself. You can totally speak your mind. You don't need to hold back. And I really don't care if you agree or not. It's just like this is, whereas, you when you're with your family and your group of friends who grow up, there's always a bit of politics, there's always a bit of bullshit that you need to manage that's been going on for years. And you always remember this back in the day. But with this group of friends that we have, I just find it an absolute tonic when we get together because it's therapeutic because you can just get together, speak some stuff. Most of us agree on most things, and if we don't, we're not going to hold it against you. It's great. So that tribe thing, I never really got it until until you get it. And then when you're in one, it's like, oh, it really is, um, it's an awesome little outlet to have, you know. So you don't want to be losing anybody from us, that's for sure. So it's, uh, it's a very valuable resource. I hope for everyone to get that because, uh, talk about enjoying life. That is my favorite times of the year is when we're meeting up and, uh, just talking and bullshitting and having a bit of fun, you know. That's, that's the good stuff, you know. So, uh, yeah.

Yeah.

And if you want to join us at any of those, there's the RFES conference out in Mallorca.

Oh yeah.

That's coming up on the 17th, 18th of October. Wonderful weekend. Some of us spending a bit longer. There's some great people that have joined that tribe almost, you know, from Peter DeBias to, you know, Rita Hogan, you know, people that we've had on as guests as well. Have coming to the air. We've got Billy Hoakman, we've got Caroline Ingram. It's great to sort of get to see these guys in those organizations. We've obviously, for those of you who can't travel out to Mallorca, because I felt Conor was missing out, I thought I'd invite him across. So back in Yorkshire, Rita Hogan is going to be joining us and we're going to have a little get-together in West Yorkshire. So if you just look out out on the socials, you'll probably see some stuff. If you want to join us at Steph's Pet Pantry, you can see Rita, myself, and Conor, and see how you get on. You know, if you find your tribe, brilliant. You know, you'll find loads of people you can talk to.

And if you're on the West Coast of the US, I won't be in Mallorca this year, sadly, because I'll be in San Diego the week before, and I can't get any more time off than that. But if anybody's on the West Coast of the US and you want to come down and say hi, I'm going to be there for 3 days with my shades on. Hopefully it's going to be nice and sunny and yeah, floating around.

You just can't wait to get out of wet Ireland, can you?

I can't wait to go over there, to be honest with you, just to see the sun again. It's actually been really warm. It's a little bit damp, but it's been very warm. The mushrooms are all coming up now, so I'm being brought out again to pick all sorts of delicious, colorful items. Yellow chanterelles are my favorite. Not that you're going to ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway. And they're tiny little yellow trumpet-like mushrooms. They are the most delicious mushroom out there, and, uh, they grow in the Wicklow Mountains, in the old woods in Wicklow Mountains. So I'm gonna go pick a heap of them. So yeah, there you go.

So if he's not here next week, we know.

Yeah, he's lost his shoes.

And, and please, if you've seen some weird, wonderful coloration of their videos this evening, uh, that's because he's also picked the wrong mushrooms I'll send you a photograph from last year's haul, colorful-wise.

Wait till you see this picnic table, one of the picnic tables in the world, just covered with red, yellow, orange. Like, it's stunning. Every single one of them edible. You have to be brought around by somebody. Don't munch on a hunch, everybody, if you're thinking about picking mushrooms. I bet you Marty would have liked that. I bet you Marty would have liked that as a practice, uh, you know, outdoor kind of stuff, foraging and whatnot. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, she was a big one for foraging.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, big time.

Yeah, good stuff, guys. Um, I don't fancy going on to Patreon.

Patreon, we love you very much.

I think it feels like we've come to a conclusion, and yeah, I think we draw a line there and we just say, uh, Maudie, thanks for everything.

Thinking of you.

We'll see you soon. Yeah, some of us quicker than others, who knows. We're going to keep partying. We're going to keep on, we're going to keep on pushing the message, the raw feeding, the natural, the natural nutrition. We're going to keep on pushing the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society. And thank you for the impetus that you helped generate with the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society and, and the tribe. Absolutely wonderful.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, don't need to add to that.

Great.

Take care, guys. We will see you next week.

See you there.