Episode 4 Pet Island

Pets...don't you just love them?

In this series, we're going to meet

plenty of people who really really do.

It's like having more children.

It's as easy to have two or three as it is to have four or five.

Our obsession with them has even turned some pets into celebrities.

The internet love her. She always gets loads of compliments.

We would have a sort of core following,

the ones that read it every day.

Our love for them appears to have no bounds.

Later, we meet a racoon

with impeccable manners.

Sometimes Lola likes to wash her hands.

We make a jumper out of dog's wool.

I'm amazed that this is Guapo's fur, his wool.

And we meet a former agony aunt who

dreams of being a Roman empress.

What do you think?

Tina, you look brilliant. That's gorgeous, it's fantastic.

In Rathdrum, County Wicklow, lives

Tina Koumarianos and her daughter, Suzie.

Guess who?

People always wait until

family members have died

and then they do it and it's not really...

If you're going to do it, do it now. What's the point in waiting?

I'm not mad about tattoos

but I do think it's very lovely of her to do that.

Not to get skulls or something and that's lovely.

As well as sharing a love for tattoos,

they also share a passion for all sorts of pets.

We've had quite a few dogs here,

we've had a beautiful Saint Bernard, Monty

and now we have Domina, who is very

beautiful and has lots of skin.

Stumpy, who somebody threw over our gate

and our old lurcher, Sid.

This is Jasper, he loved me very much

for many many years we were very much in love

but when I adopted Monty, our Saint Bernard...

He just hates me, now.

I'm very surprised he's letting me stroke him

but he puts up with so much

and then he'll suddenly savage me.

Unfortunately, he's going to live until he's about 65

and he's about 23 now, so we have many unhappy years left together,

haven't we, Jasp?

So, we thought we'd get him a little friend, which is Timothy.

He's an Amazon.

but, unfortunately, he looks on Timmy as an hors d'oeuvre

so we have to keep them very much apart.

Do you know, no matter what kind of day you've had, when you open

that door you know you're going to get an incredible greeting.

They never seem to have a bad day.

They're just so happy to see you when you arrive home.

The true love of Tina's life was Monty,

a Saint Bernard, who has sadly passed away.

He did all sorts of charity work. There he is, look.

And, of course, he is in my sitting room now

because I had him cremated

and he's next to my mother.

My lovely mother, who I was so close to,

when she was dying, I asked her where she'd like to be buried and

she said, "No, I want to be out of this house

"and back in as quickly as possible."

And I said, "Right. Where would you like to go?"

She said, "I know exactly.

"Up here, where I can see the fire, the

"television and the garden outside."

And, then, when my beautiful big dog, Monty...

Oh no, he meant so much to me,

so I had him cremated and I put him down next to my mother

and I said, "There you are mum,

"now you've got a dog to walk."

So, the two of them are next to each other

and I've said to Suzie, whenever

anything happens to me, I want these two in with me wherever I go.

Sometimes I come in here and I just pat him on the box and I say,

"Ah, Mont. I miss you."

I loved him best of all.

Tina and the gang are going to Glendalough,

one of Domina's favourite haunts.

Come on guys. Let's go to church.

Do you know... Yes, she won't come in.

She's a little bit nervous

about coming into a church.

The Romans had them as war dogs and, then, they had them

eating Christians and fighting lions in the colosseum.

So, I have to keep her away from churches on a Sunday, just in case.

Don't I, Domski?

People are nervous of her but she loves other dogs.

She loves children, all children.

She thinks they're great.

Beautiful.

Look, there's Stumpy going in.

Good boy, Stumps.

This is very good for her joints, you know.

It's great to get the mobility

and in the water there's no...

-It builds muscle.

-It really builds muscle.

She loves this.

I'm not into exercise or any of those things,

so you ca...

Oh God! He's having problems.

Hi honey, how are you?

Tina has always dreamed of doing a photo shoot with Domina

and, later on Pet Island, her dream comes true.

In Kildare lives Martin Bailey with his beloved dog, Guapo.

Guapo has twice been crowned

Old English Sheepdog Of The Year in Ireland

and is famous across the nation for his wonderful coat.

I've been saving Guapo's wool since he was a puppy

because I always knew you can get wool spun.

I don't know where I've seen it but I know you can get it done.

So, I've been saving it for long long time.

This is just a little bit I have.

It's not like a hair, it's like wool. It's very very soft.

I've always known it's possible so I've contacted a lady

and she actually spins the wool.

I've been saving her bags of it. I've had it for over six years.

I'd like to get a jacket or a jumper or something made, maybe something I could show in...

I can't wait to see what he gets because he's been saying he wants

something for years now,

so, it will be nice to see

the result of all the hair.

But I've been talking to some Russian people at show and stuff and

they all do it in their own countries and it's supposed to have healing properties.

They'll make packs of it and put it on their back if they've arthritis and stuff like that.

So, I don't know how true that is but they use it for stuff like that.

Martin has travelled to meet Christine Casey in County Down,

who specialises in spinning and knitting with dog wool.

-Hiya, how are you?

-Hi. Christine, is it?

-Christine, absolutely.

-I'm Martin.

-Nice to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Do you want to head in?

So, this is your wool. It's all done. A black bin bag full.

How does the process work, how do you come to this from the bag of hair that I gave you?

It's a process that's done in a number of different stages.

-This is an old-fashioned Donegal style spinning wheel.

-Right.

And once you twist it, it turns into wool.

-The fibres all connect into each other and stick.

-Right.

So, you just keep going.

So, you've brought a jumper up to let me have a look at?

-I've just bought this.

-That's great because that helps

-give me a size to work from.

-Right.

-Do you want a pattern similar to that on it?

-Well, if you can, yeah, then whatever...

-Oh yes.

The size is quite good, I'd just like the waist

just a slight bit longer.

-OK, that's not a problem. I can do that.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you very much, I'm sure we'll see you soon.

-Lovely to meet you, Martin.

-You're very welcome.

-Take care. Cheers!

-Alright. I'll see you out.

In Kilkenny, lives James Hennessy,

owner of one of Ireland's most exotic collections of pets.

Bubo is a Eurasian eagle owl.

They're the biggest species of owl.

You find them in Northern Russia, Siberia,

so our cold Irish weather is mild for her.

She's fed every day, so I'm out with her at least once a day.

I actually often like to come out at night-time,

when it's nice and dark, because it's more natural for her.

It's nice in the night-time having her silently swoop in, take the food

and fly back. It just seems more natural

and it's nice to be part of it.

People have this thing about owls being wise,

they've got those big eyes

but she's fairly basic, a simple animal, you know.

If you haven't got food, she doesn't care, she just turns her back on you

and just walks away and sits in the corner of her roost,

indifferent to you and the world just passes her by.

With pets from all over the globe,

James has fitted out his house appropriately.

He comes from the savannahs in Africa, so he's a grass-eater.

We keep him outside most of the time and if he gets too cold,

and our Irish winters don't really suit him too well,

so, on the cold days, we'll bring him inside.

Personality wise,

he is your stereotypical grumpy old man tortoise.

He's quite hard to deal with sometimes but you leave him to

himself, he just does his own thing and he's happy enough to plod along

as tortoise do.

This is our female Chinese alligator.

She's here a couple of years now.

As far as I'm aware, there's only about 3,000 left in the wild.

If even that, actually.

She gets fed about two to three times a week, it's usually small mice or rats.

She'll digest pretty much all of it except the fur.

When she goes to the toilet, the fur comes out the other end.

I won't use my bare hands in case she misses.

We'll see if we can get her over.

MUSIC: Get Lucky by Daft Punk Ft Pharrell Williams

Reptiles can't chew. Their jaws, they won't go from side to side,

they'll only open and close,

you'll see her throwing it around in her mouth,

closing down, crushing it a bit and, then, swallows it whole.

And it is not just James who loves the pets.

This is Fred, and Fred is a Fijian iguana,

a critically endangered species in the wild.

They're gorgeous lizards but a little bit rare.

But pretty chilled out, pretty easy-going. He doesn't get handled a whole lot.

Oh, he's going to jump.

Yeah, so, hold your hand up there.

Up you go now. Bye-bye.

If someone was to buy one

and wanted to feed it, what would you tell them to feed it?

Dandelions,

strawberries

and berries.

And, making the house her own, is Lola, the raccoon.

We should be getting a leaf...

This is Lola and she's one and a half years old.

At the start it wasn't really my raccoon but then I started to

feed it and take care of her so then I decided it was my racoon

so they agreed to it.

This is a bowl of water and the reason why I'm putting down is

because sometimes Lola likes to wash her hands.

MUSIC: Wash My Hands by Kormac

Most of my best friends have seen her but I don't think

everyone has seen her. She can be grumpy at times because

in the morning she's just like...

But mostly...

It's quite sleepy most of the time.

I don't really go near her face

just in case anything happens but...

She likes it. She's like a mat.

Everyone loves having her around

but she is slightly Jekyll and Hyde.

If she's hungry, she'll try everything as food

including fingers. So she's nipped a few people, like that...

I'd love to have a baby elephant.

Ha, they don't stay babies so that's not going to happen.

You have crocodiles around the house but baby elephants aren't...?

I'd be very careful as to what the predator was,

its size, its capabilities.

The alligator that's in the house is this size...

You know, a cat would do more damage.

I would seriously weigh up the pros and cons of what the animal was and

make sure it was feasible to keep it

and that it wasn't ever - at any point could ever - be a threat.

If it was a safety issue, I wouldn't keep it.

Previously on Pet Island, we met foster puppy, Fred,

a Bichon Frise in need of serious medical care.

It is finally time for Fred's operation.

Fred was a congenital heart defect, he was born with,

essentially, like a shunt in the heart.

Whenever we're inside our mother's womb, our lungs are non-functional

and there is a normal, natural shunt that is present in the heart,

which diverts blood away from the lungs.

Whenever we're born, that's supposed to close off.

In a small percentage of individuals, however,

that doesn't happen. Fred, unfortunately, was one of the poor individuals that had

this problem and had to go through surgery to correct it.

Fred was quite tiny at the time of the surgery

so we decided on this particular occasion

actually to do a more traditional surgery.

So, his surgery involved actually opening up his chest

and putting little silk threads round the shunt and tying it off.

So, we can already see the wee gap

-that we're going to be going down cranially.

-Mm-hmm.

-Just there.

'The way that it has been is that we've very much

'followed the trends in human medicine.

'If you look at human cardiology,

'there are some fairly traumatic

'procedures that will be available that will revolutionise

'cardiac surgery and also the treatment of heart failure in dogs.

'I think that procedure as a whole, is very much dedicated to

'give pets a good quality of life.'

There's no point, necessarily, living if you can't enjoy life

so our aim is always to get animals back so that they can

physically and mentally enjoy their lives and have fun in the process.

Three weeks later and Fred is fighting fit.

Fred is absolutely fantastic, he's 100%

since he's had the operation.

Even a couple of days after the operation,

you could tell a big difference in him.

The scar is running from here...

All the way down to here...

It just healed so well that you can barely see it.

He didn't need to stay in the vets even that day,

he just recovered at home, went back to the vets every couple of days.

His heart rate has been fantastic -

there's no lasting damage, there's no murmur.

The vet said that the PDA was about to burst.

If they hadn't have got him then, he wouldn't have made it.

He was lucky to have made it over a year.

Well Fred will be staying with me long term,

until he's completely fit to be rehomed

and hopefully that won't be too long.

Tina Koumarianos lives in Wicklow with bullmastiff, Domina.

When I first got her, for the first two and a half years,

she was a nightmare.

And I said to my sister, "Do you know what,

"this dog is getting the better of me." She said "Tina, no.

"Think of her as the big fat ugly schoolgirl nobody wants to play

"with and you'll look on her in a whole new light."

And, do you know what, when she drives me mad

I just think, "Yeah, nobody wants to play with you."

Poor old Domina, I love her.

DOORBELL RINGS

So, I have a very good friend called Beatrix, who is a photographer.

-Hi honey, how are you?

-Hi Tina, how are you? It's lovely to see you.

Lovely to see you. Hiya. How are you doing, honey?

'And she said, "Would you like a picture with Domina?"

'And I said yes.

'I said, "Listen, let's go all out."

'I'm going to dress up as a Roman empress and we'll have the'

dog beside us and have a picture that it'll be real fun to show.

Just hop over there.

OK, well, the jewellery is gorgeous.

This is the dress. I reran some of the Spartacus episodes

to see what the ladies were wearing

and it seemed to be a lot of very plunging necklines

and cap sleeves and flowing. A lot of jewellery.

I think the colour is very important, I think

-this could work great.

-Yes, yes.

Really fantastic, especially

if it's going down over you.

I'll do like that

and then have that clasped in place.

Yeah, that 's excellent.

Brilliant. Well, I'll get changed.

OK, cool. You've done brilliantly, well done.

What's really worrying is that I have all this lunatic

stuff in my wardrobe.

Where did I think I was going?

Now, what about this?

-What do you think?

-BEATRIX GASPS

Tina, you look brilliant. That's gorgeous, it's fantastic.

You've done awesome. You're just brilliant! Well done.

Now we'll have a bit of fun,

we'll frighten people in Glendalough.

I feel like a Roman empress with my slaves.

OK, lovely. Hold that Tina.

Wonderful. Tina, give your head a swing.

Lovely, gorgeous.

If you're actually looking away and then you turn,

it gives it an aliveness that you will love.

Brilliant!

Gorgeous.

There that's lovely. Oh, gorgeous.

OK, turn away again.

Turn and swing one more time.

One, two, three...go!

I think we probably have our photograph, in all honesty,

I think we have it.

Oh, that was lovely, yes, and I thought she behaved impeccably.

Normally, she's here with the other two dogs

and she goes wild, running round the place.

I think we'll get exactly what we're looking for and,

so, what I'm looking forward to now is going back and editing them and,

then, getting Tina in to choose her favourite photograph because

I think she's going to have quite a lot of favourite photographs.

Earlier, we met James Hennessy and his menagerie of pets.

James loves exotic pets so much that he's set up

the National Reptile Zoo, which is based in Kilkenny.

Today they are checking the health of the zoo's top predator,

Battle the alligator.

Listen exactly to what I say

and if I have to say something,

if you need to act on it, act on it straight off.

If it goes wrong, it'll go really wrong.

He's a big alligator - his jaw is as long as this

and the power in his jaw is enough to remove an arm clean off.

For his own safety, as well, obviously, we don't want to stress the animal out.

If we're doing it correctly, if we're doing it smoothly and efficiently,

the less time he's restrained, the less stressed he is, as well.

He knows something is going on so he's hissing there,

basically telling us to get out of his exhibit.

He's a big animal, so he knows he's bigger than us and he knows

he's well able to defend himself so he's kind of assessing the threat.

The first thing we're going to do, we'll get a rope on his top jaw.

it might seem like it's a bit extreme but he's a big tough animal

and it's not going to bother him in the slightest.

Hopefully he's going to open his mouth to me.

Good man, Battle. Come on.

Don't go over there.

MUSIC: Psycho Killer by Talking Heads

OK.

Can you grab as well?

We've really have got to pull, we have to get him over here.

OK. That's it, walk over. Are you ready?

Alright, keep the strain on.

Hold on.

Pull it back a bit.

I wouldn't like Battle to get a hold of my ankles.

But, thankfully, everything seems to be going to plan.

I want you to take his back legs.

If he starts to pull, lift his feet off the ground.

-OK.

-That'll stop him from pulling backwards.

Now, you can release a little bit.

He's restrained, he can't open his jaws.

His head, it's about the weight of a concrete block.

He can still swing it side to side.

I couldn't sit here on my own with him,

he's actually strong enough to just pick me up and walk off with me

but we can now have a good look, physically, and make sure

he is as he's supposed to be, that he's 100%,

he's no injuries, which we can't do if he's in the water.

You can feel it when you're dealing with crocodiles and alligators,

you can feel when he builds up, when he gets upset, when he's annoyed.

It's very hard to explain the feeling

but you know when he's not happy.

So, he's pretty chilled and pretty relaxed.

We're going to measure him.

The first thing we're going to do is get his length.

Either estimate it down or go underneath.

Pull it nice and tight.

I want to double-check that underneath, as well.

2,570.

Ooh, careful there, lads!

You got him? Happy?

Yeah, that's grand.

Thankfully, Battle's only problem is a broken nail.

You see here, just one of his nails.

It looks like it may be a bite from CC. He's just got a little mark in his nail, a little hole in his nail

so we're just going to note that so we can keep an eye on it, if we see

swelling around the toe, a sign of infection or anything like that.

Generally, he's in great condition. Really good condition, nice and healthy. Nice big fat tail but not

too fat, he's not overweight, he's not skinny.

No issues at all with young Battle.

I wouldn't say they feel like pets in the traditional sense how people

would see them as pets but you

definitely get attached to them.

After a few years opening the zoo,

I actually tried to make a conscious effort where I would separate the two

and try not to have animals at home,

apart from the family dogs and stuff.

And it didn't work.

It was just one of those things where I felt like they should be

that little bit more and they eventually filtered their way in

like they always do

and before we knew it there was crocs in the house.

Back in County Down, it is time for

Martin to pick up his jumper.

-Hey Martin.

-Hi Christine, how are you?

-Grand and you brought the dog.

Oh, lovely. Brilliant.

Oh, wow.

And would you take it out of the bag? To see what do you think?

It's really heavy.

-Yes. There's a lot of...

-It's extremely heavy.

Wow. It's gorgeous.

It's so heavy, I can't believe it's so heavy.

Yeah. I've put a diamond design down the front and two wee

-cables down the side, just to give it something a bit different.

-Yeah.

I gave you a wee brown stripe down the back of it there, too.

I love it. I love the stripe. Actually the stripe really stands out for me.

And that's just random,

that's just the way it came out and the way it spun.

How long would it have taken though from start to finish?

Well, it's probably altogether about 90-100 hours

from the bag of hair that you gave me

through to the finished garment now.

That's a lot of nights.

You have to do something to keep your mind off your work. You need something a bit different.

-I think you should try it on and see...

-I can't wait to try it on.

-..what it's like.

-Can I go to the bathroom and pop it on?

-Absolutely, you go ahead

-and see what do you think. Yes.

-Cheers.

Stay here, Jewel. I'll be back in a minute.

Oh my goodness, that looks really good on you.

It's so big, I feel like I've been to the gym for six months...

Yes, that's the quality of the hair itself.

Because it's quite thick wool, it will knit up that bit bigger.

It fits like a glove, it fits just like the black one only for its...

Yes, I used the black one as a good template when I was siding it.

It feels like I've nothing on. It doesn't feel like I've any jumper on...

You feel it when you're holding it, you don't feel it once it's on.

It feels quite natural...

It's really warm because, as you say, it sits up a little bit

so that holds the heat in, traps the air.

You were right it needed the two or three inches more.

I did because, the black one, when I bend over, it comes up me back.

It was quite short and you are tall, so the wee bit extra length...

-I love it, it's brilliant. It's great.

-That's good, I'm pleased.

Jennifer will be delighted to see it because she really wanted to see

what it would look like as a finished product.

Yes.

Martin is clearly in love with his new jumper

but will fiance Jennifer feel the same?

I have an image in my head what...

Yeah.

Well, babe. What do you think?

Wow, it's gorgeous. Turn around.

I like the stripe on the back that she did.

DOGS BARKING

Oh, it's real.

OK, princess.

Is it itchy and scratchy?

-No.

-Ohh, it's lovely.

I love the colours.

The light and the contrast of the grey, it's really nice.

It's not what I thought it would be.

It's much thicker.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

It's like seven years, nearly, of saving his wool and we end up with this.

Good job, Guapo.

Yes, this is your jumper.

It is time for Tina to choose her photo.

-Hi, how are you?

-Great, thank you it's lovely to see you again.

Always lovely to see you, Tina.

How did it go, honey?

Fine, thank you. It went well

If you grab a chair and come and have a look.

Lovely.

Oh, that's nice!

-I like her in that.

-OK.

She looks good and wrinkly like her mother.

Ha ha. Don't be saying that.

Now, this one here, I really like this one...

-Yes, I like...

-Because it's got the turn of your body in it,

-I love how the red...

-Yes.

-..is the whole way down your body.

Yes, it's really great.

Basically, we're down to three, so we'll just...

I like the stance on the left and the middle.

OK, it's your choice.

I think this one here. Yes.

'The problem is there were

'so many lovely pictures that it's very difficult to know which one'

to choose but I've think taking the whole scene into account -

Roman and this, that and the other - the red was very important.

So, although I liked the one sort of side on,

you couldn't see much of the red and...

No, the one I've chosen, I think, will look great.

Now, it's over to Vlad, the framer.

-Hi, Vlad. How are you?

-Hello, Tina. How are you?

Did you manage to get it finished?

Yeah.

Oh my God, that's fantastic.

I love the frame.

That's much much better than I thought it would be.

I think that looks brilliant.

That'll definitely take pride of place in the house now.

I think it's great.

And what scenery!

And what a fabulous model.

Right, are you ready for the reveal?

I know you were against this.

I'm not against it.

Right, what do you think of that?

Ohh.

That's great, isn't it?

Well done.

I think it's lovely. It's a really artistic,

well-taken photo. I think it's really great.

You did awesome, Tina.

Woo, hooray!

We're happy, we're happy.

It's great.

In Belfast, Fred's recovery is going from strength to strength

and he has found his forever home.

This is his favourite teddy, he loves it.

Simon plays with it all the time.

We first met Fred when I joined Cavaliers and became a fosterer.

His foster mum at the time, that was looking after him,

done my house check so she knew me

and because he was so unwell the other dogs had caught kennel cough

and he wasn't allowed to be in the house at all with them

so she had asked me to take him and we totally fell in love with him.

He knows exactly what he's doing,

so he does. Where's he going to. Where you going?

Then I found out his foster mum was going on holidays

and I slipped it in there about looking after him.

For a couple of days, to be a week, to be forever.

He came and stayed for a week and then fitted into the family

and just always stayed there. He's going nowhere now.

He never left.

This is the way he is when he sees other dogs

and we try to let him go over and speak and

it kind of calms him down after that

but he just gets so excited.

He just wants to be a part of it.

He's got small man syndrome.

Because see if there was a smaller dog, it wouldn't bother him at all

but because they're the bigger, the better.

We do have to go every six months and have him checked out.

He was at the vets about two weeks ago...

Two, three weeks ago he got checked out and they said he was

spot-on. He sounded everything and said, "This bits fine."

so, just be every six months just keep going back

and getting it checked but he seems perfect,

he seems happy at the moment, so he does.

Couldn't get a better wee dog otherwise.

He's just so peaceful, he'll play as much as you want

and if you don't want to, he'll just lie on your knee and watch TV, as well, so he will.

He's brilliant.

Could not and will not ever think of ever being with out him.

Next time on Pet Island, we're in Cork expecting a new baby.

This is a good way to show them that good things happen when the baby's crying,

so they start feeling good when they hear the sound of the baby crying.

In Belfast, our Chihuahuas face the snip...

There us a possibility the dog can also become more aggressive.

And we meet Taylor-Rae and her valentine...

She's spoilt rotten. She gets a bath three times a week,

-she gets Coco Chanel perfume sprayed on her.

-SHE LAUGHS