Tell Bought By Many Pet Insurance about your pets’ biggest mishaps - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[AmeliaMumsnet]

Having a pet is like having an extra member of the family; they can be a huge source of joy and comfort, but they’re also a lot of responsibility. Pet Insurance company, Bought By Many, want to hear about some of the smaller mishaps your pets may have had; those moments that remind you just how much they need you to take care of them.

Here’s what Bought By Many have to say: “We know pets can be mischievous and get themselves into sticky situations, so we’ve launched pet insurance with features no other provider offers. You can choose between policies that will never go up in price, give you money back if you don’t need to claim or cover your pet’s pre-existing medical conditions. Bought By Many is free to join, and 290,000+ people already have!!”

So, to get your hands on a £300 voucher, tell Bought By Many about the mishaps your pets have had - the funnier the better! If your labrador has ever broken into the dog treats cupboard, or your bird has fallen off its perch, or your cat misjudged a leap from one sofa to the next, post on the thread with your stories and you’ll be entered into a prize draw for a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

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My cat went face first into my vanilla fudge yoghurt and looked rather shocked!

One of my lurchers is really a bit brainless, and frequently gets shut in rooms as he can't work out how to flick the door open, can't find his toys when they go under the sofa - he marvels when ddog2 gets them out, and is very easily confused. When its chilly he wears a fleece coat in the house, and if it comes undone he is frequently to be found standing on the end of it, totally befuddled as to what to do! He really can't work out to just keep his feet still and pull his head back, bless him.
He also runs really, really fast but has no steering and frequently ends up in ditches as he can't stop or go in a different direction.

One of our cats has a passion for frogs. Once he catches one, he gently brings it in (never harms it) and after parading it around the house, will roll it in his litter tray - the litter tray full of clumping cat litter. As soon as the wet frog hits the litter, it becomes solid and effectively turns into a lump of concrete. I've lost count of the number of frogs we've had to wash off and secretly return to the neighbour's pond!

After washing

Our dog saw a dog he fancied on tv and jumped into the tv and smashed it.

Our previous cat was lovely but a very good hunter. Used to leave little present of mice on the doorstep and once , memorable, left a grass snake there. (We tried keepiing him in at night but she was still ruthlessly efficient)

So it was a bit of a relief when our current cat turned out to be much more placid and just didn't seem interested in the wildlife. We recently had to take her to the vet with an abscess - vet cleaned it up and the cat was fine but vet said it looked like she'd been bitten by a mouse.

On Christmas Day, while we ate Christmas dinner as a family, we popped our dalmatian into the living room so we could eat in peace....forgetting my children had left the contents of their stockings on the coffee table.

She ate 2 large Haribo pizzas (thats a lot of sweets!) and was sat shaking in the corner when we came back in, desperate to go outside.

She was horrendously sick, had a LOT of energy, and then spent the rest of the day sleeping it off!

I adopted my adult cat in Spring last year. A couple of weeks later he went missing, I wasn't surprised given he had just moved in, we are rural with lots of fields and woodland. I used FB to spread the word as he is very distinctive and has thumbs on his feet! Lots of responses, but no sightings. A week passed and I was beginning to lose hope, we'd searched high and low. A day or two later, my phone rang. It was a vet in BAYSWATER in London. Cat had been found in Hyde Park and fortunately had wandered into somebody's home who had then taken him to the vet to check for a chip. I couldn't believe it, neither could the vet or the finder! He had made it some 30 miles away, was thin and absolutely filthy but uninjured and alive . DS and I immediately drove into London to collect him. We were delighted and relieved! The local press got hold of the story and ran it, which brought a lot of attention. We can only think that he jumped into a commuter car or a delivery van and got out when he could. We were so lucky to get him back! These days, he doesn't venture more than a few feet from the house and hides from cars/vans so I think he's learned his lesson!

I forgot to say, we live in North Herts!

Well on Monday my 7 year old Siamese has been put on lifetime probation for spraying my beautiful 1960s vintage silk dress, I had just had it dry cleaned ready for an event this summer. I think my dear boy was attracted to the smell of the dry cleaning fluids on the dry cleaning bag. He has been so friendly this week since, almost like he knows what he did!!!

Ozzie (RIP) had a thing about next doors cat. He used to sit by the fence and spy on her through the knot holes but would casually gallop inside if she climbed on the fence to look at him.

One night next door were woken by horrific noises coming from their cellar. It transpired that Ozzie had broken in through their cat flap and that he and next doors had had the mother of all fights, during which they had managed to knock open the cellar door and fight their way down the stairs (we should have called him Zorro) . They then knocked over loads of boxes and tins, including a tin of fence stain, which burst open. Ozzie/Zorro then disappeared for about 6 hours, when he turned up he was covered in fence stain. Phone the vet who said bathe immediate then bring in as ingesting it could be dangerous if he tried to clean himself. Luckily he hadn't licked any off, but his poor back legs lost all their hair and he had to wear the collar of shame as just punishment, well, no, because his skin was so sore .

He still hated next doors cat, and carried on spying on her as long as she lived there.

On the first day we let our cat out of the newly installed cat door she got a fright and ended up 40ft up a tree. It was impossible to reach her. No branches - just a straight trunk. We had to scout around - late at night - for a long ladder. Eventually found one and DP went up trembling. Got her down. She did it again two nights later and we just left her up there all night. Since then, we have had a wrap of silver foil around the tree and hope that dissuades her. Cats, eh!

Our Labrador x Patterdale went to work with DP one day, during the middle of harvest when the maize was covering the land. DP has swapped his shoes for his wellies as always on arriving at work, and was chatting with a colleague when he noticed something in the dog's mouth. As the dog is a rather keen rat hunter, DP assumed that's what he had, and called him back. DDog turned to look at DP, long enough for him to see that in his mouth was actually one of his shoes, before running full pelt into the middle of the maize

The shoe was never found, and I still hear the complaining about it on regular occasions! And, of course, we still have the other shoe in the cupboard upstairs!

And although he considers it more of a win than a mishap, here is the lovely DCat after finding the saucepan of chilli.... bet he regretted that in the morning!

My labradoodle was very ill after scoffing most of a Christmas Cake.

We were guests one Christmas and a homemade Christmas Cake, lovingly, brandied, covered in marzipan, icing and homemade decorations, was left within paws reach.

I nearly died of embarrassment and my pooch nearly died from eating icing, decorations, marzipan, and fruit cake soaked in brandy.

My dog recovered but we haven't been invited back....

My labrador came in fro a walk and looked particularly uncomfortable. Not so long later they were sick. A brown paper bag with a chicken kebab in it. Fully intact!! Ewwww!

Our much loved and sadly deceased first cat had many good points but he was not a good mouser. One year a mysterious smell started to develop. We suspected that it might be the remnants of a dead rodent - almost certainly of natural causes - but the smell eventually dissipated and we thought no more of it until the time came to clean behind the cupboard next to his food bowl. There we found, not a dead mouse, but a pile of desiccated Whiskas. The dopey fluff ball had been allowing the mice to steal food from his bowl.

My daughter's favourite picture book is called 'Crunch', about a greedy guinea pig. Our copy has several pages with large chunks out of it...because our guinea pig ate them.

This is our 3rd baba of the house, who LOVES making friends with everyone and everything...even bees. This is a photo of the silly billy after he tried to make friends with a bee nest in our garden. Unfortunately they weren't so keen to share their honey with him! This photo makes me cringe with his little snout all swollen up, but it makes me laugh too because it's a perfect example of the strange mishaps he gets himself into for being so friendly and adventurous.

I have lots of examples, but I'll share just 2. Our first dog was a handsome Rhodesian Ridgeback. Just after Christmas one year I bought a duck from the reduced section of Tesco for a bargain. DH and I had it for dinner, and then I returned to the kitchen to clear up. You're probably ahead of me now. Yes, every last trace of duck was gone and there was only one possible culprit. However innocent he looked.

We phoned the vet in a panic and they advised bringing the dog in. He stayed with them for 24 hours and was absolutely fine. Our wallet wasn't. The bargain duck cost us a small fortune in vets fees.

My second adventure featured our Rottweiler. An incredibly loyal, obedient, soft bear of dog. He was always good at recall and would coming bounding up to you the second he was called. Until DH was walking with him one frosty Boxing Day morning. The were in the field behind our house and for once the dog Didn't come when he was called. DH was quite concerned that he might have injured himself as it was so out of character and so he started walking towards him still calling.

As he got closer he could see the dog trying to eat something, and assumed it was a dead animal or bird. Which I suppose it was. It was also plucked, tied, prepared for the oven and wrapped in cellophane. And still frozen.

We can only imagine that someone in the village had left their turkey in their garden, possibly to defrost, and something, probably a fox, had made off with it. We never found out who it had belonged to though - or what they had for dinner.

My boy (terrier cross, no longer with me) liked nothing more than running through the woods. Had a runny nose for over a week so took him to the vets. Vet looked at him then said he thought he might have aspergillosis which is a serious fungal disease. He needed a second opinion so said we needed to go and see a specialist in Shepherds Bush.

Off I went with my sister (we lived in Surrey) and on the way there he started shaking violently on the back seat of the car. I was panicking thinking he was having a massive fit when he suddenly did an almighty sneeze and out flew a big grass seed! The little shit had obviously been sniffing around as usual and this went up his nose and embedded itself in his nose lining.

We carried on to the specialist anyway and I showed him the culprit. He still insisted that my dog had the procedure done to make sure he did not have this disease. He was clear but the whole episode cost £500 (yes I did have pet insurance so only cost me £50). This was at least 20 years ago so heaven knows what it would cost now.

I was so relieved as I loved that dog, I'd just been through a messy breakup and to lose him would have devastated me. It didn't stop us going to the woods though, that was his favourite place. I still miss him today.

When I was a child our cavilier King Charles spaniel liked to eat small pine cones, however she later found out that she hated pooping them out, ouch!

My red setter, a very picky eater, snuck into mother in laws kichen and ate most of the Sunday roast which was resting prior to carving!

Ok. This is the most mortifying moment of my life but here goes.

Was walking my dopey dog on a thick extendi lead as he likes to ignore me in general and is 50/50 with other dogs. He's a staff x and stupidly bouncy for good measure.
Near my mums is a lovely lane to walk down. No pavements, thick woods both sides and pull ins for bits to get into the woods. Mutt always is at the very end of the extension. He rounded a corner into a pull in before me, and the line started quivering. I'm yelling him whilst dutifully being ignored, and I can hear a bloke yelling get down, I rapidly reel the line as I'm running towards him picturing him eating other dogs or licking someone to death, to come face to face with a blokes bare arse and a semi clad women. They've obviously pulled into the pull in for a quickie (one car each) and for reasons I'll never know picked her mini to do the deed in, she's topless and dying, poor blokes trousers are round his ankles so he's teetering precariously and my bastard dog is jumping all over the pair of them and tangling the lead all around them, I am still yelling at my dog (I mentioned he ignores me right) and the guy is not impressed. Eventually i grab the stupid thing and realised the lead is all around this blokes legs. He can't do anything as he's now about to fall over. Disentangling my dogs lead whilst inches away from the guys ass was not what I ever envisioned on a dog walk.
None of us knew where to look and I did debate just leaving them with a new dog!!!!

This was over 14 years ago. Daft dog is now 17 and I still haven't quite forgiven him!!!

DH has a couple of fish. They're easy to look after and no trouble... or so we thought. We got up one morning and one of the fish had jumped out of the tank!
DH was distraught and couldn't pick it up, so I did. I could feel it was still alive so I threw it back in the tank. It's still alive 7 years later!!!