Ronnie's Animal Crackers

Marlene is a highly successful champion breeder, but her beloved Persian cats – she has forty of them at home – are falling out of favour with cat show competition judges. And the reason is their noses. Marlene’s cats have a “traditional” face with a long nose, but the trend in recent years has been to breed Persian cats with scrunched up faces, and short noses.We meet Corinne, a breeder of some unique and valuable French bulldogs; they are blue! Her favourite dog is Joules, a pampered diva.And Ronnie himself has his own issues to address. His new rescue dog Baz continues to give him heartache. Baz is comfortable with Ronnie’s wife Anne, but he has yet to give Ronnie the love he’s used to receiving from his pets. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.

A rather unorthodox approach is being taken by some in the UK when working with troubled animals: telepathy. We meet pet ‘psychic’ Michelle, who believes she can get inside the mind of animals.We also meet Bumble, an amazing seven year old Labrador owned by Demi. Bumble is a disability assistance dog from the charity “Dogs for the Disabled”, owned by university student Demi who is wheelchair bound. She’s one of only 280 of these dogs in the UK that can fetch, things, answer the phone, open doors and even empty a washing machine for their owners.In complete contrast, we meet retired couple Sue and Bryn who arrange a lavish, no-expense spared family wedding... for their Norfolk Terrier dogs Darcy and Todd. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.

The world of alternative therapy is well known in humans, but there are complementary therapists for pets too; and they claim to be able to heal even relationship problems. We meet Ruth who has a parrot and a dog, both rescued animals, but who are at war with one another. Ruth is desperate for a solution and takes them to complementary animal healer Elizabeth to see if she can offer any help.Ronnie’s own new dog Baz is a troubled chap, and has so far failed to bond with him. As a rescue dog, his background is a complete unknown. Ronnie can only even guess what breed he might be. But he is beginning to suspect that perhaps there might be a clue in his pedigree that could help explain this behaviour. We also meet Mel and Mike in Northumberland. Although neither of them have a background in farming, they now own and breed fifty alpacas. These extraordinary “camelids” originally from the Andes in South America are bred for their fine and expensive fleece. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.

In the final episode, a resolution to Ronnie’s own troubled dog’s story? The Secretary from the Kennel Club, Caroline, returns to visit Ronnie and his wife Anne to reveal the results from the DNA swab she took from his dog Baz. The results will hopefully show something in Baz’s bloodline that might help explain why he’s been in such a state, and point a way forward… We meet Donna, one of the few people in the country authorised to look after bats at home. Since 1997 Donna has been running a bat hospital and rescue service, dedicating her life to these endangered creatures. We follow her side-kicks Graham and Ross as they go on one of a hundred emergency bat rescue call outs they have every year. A little pipistrelle bat is rescued after being mauled by a cat; but will it survive? And we meet a breeder of one of the most unusual animals to be called a household pet, the pygmy hedgehog. Michaela admits that these tiny curious little creatures satisfy a maternal instinct in her, now that her own children are growing up. Please note, this version may differ slightly from the UK TX version.