Merry Christmas from All At Wiccaweys

Thank you to everyone who has sent Christmas Cards, pressies, letters and photos. :)
We really appreciate you thinking of us and the woofers.

Sadly, we've not been able to send everyone an individual christmas card this year, so please check out the main Wiccs Website for our Online Christmas Card to all our Friends and Wiccs Family.



Yuletide Greetings to All
Love
Sarah, Paul & All the Wiccaweys Dogs
xxx

Catching up again

It's been ages since I've had a few moments to sit and catch up on the blog - apologises to all blog fans.

Firstly I would like to say a HUGE THANKS to everyone who came to the Christmas Party. It was fantastic and everyone had a wonderful time. Thank you to all that helped out and mucked in. The party games were brilliant fun, and the fancy dress was a hoot - even if two pointy dog ringers (greyhounds) snuck in to steal the show with the most amazing outfits! It was wonderful to see our old charges again with their new families, even better when they all still recognise us and go all silly..... super wiggiliness awards go to Robbie, Jake and Ellie Bones. Extra tiddling with excitement awards when they see Sarah & Paul go to Robbie & Ellie Bones!

It's all go at HQ - the work has started on the new sewage system, so we are like a scene from World War 1 at the moment, with trenches everywhere! It's interesting to say the least. The new cooker has finally arrived after a month of mystery! It's a very long story, but the moral is - do not buy a cooker via Argos if it is going to be delivered by a bunch of cowboys known as Expert Logistics.

Today we have been without electricity as the workmen cut through the mains cable when they were digging one of the trenches. We got it back just before 5 this evening.

The dogs have actually been coping very well with all this work going on. We thought they would get quite rowdy with all the noise and strange men wandering about, but they've been pretty good, and only shouted at us when their normal walks have been delayed.

There is a HUGE hole in the field now, ready for the treatment centre to go in. It's massive! I'm half expecting to find a couple of lions trapped in it tomorrow! Well, maybe Glory Cat and Princess!

The soil is really clay here - and when you get down deep the clay is really good - any potters out there want a chunk? Authentic Wiccs Clay! LOL!

Nancy's pups are 8 weeks old tomorrow - and full of it! They are extremely bold - and very funny.

We are desperate to find Shep a new home or foster home. No-one is looking at him because of his age. It is such a shame, because anyone who meets him can't believe he is 16. He doesn't act like it and he doesn't look like it. He is a lot fitter and faster than most 7-8yr olds. Someone must give him a chance soon. Bless him. He had a lovely time at the Christmas Party.

We've had some upsetting news this week, and we are keeping everything crossed.
We are asking everyone else to do the same. Regular visitors to the Wiccs site will remember Hope. Hope was with us last year, and her story can be read on the Evil that Men do part of the section. Her Dad, Adam, phoned earlier this week to tell us that Hope was very seriously ill in the vets. 2006 has been a difficult year for Hope. At the beginning of the year she was very poorly and needed an overnight stay in the vet. This sudden illness seemed inexplicable and she responded well to anti-biotics and rehydration.

Early this month, Hope appeared to have swelling to her mouth area which was diagnosed as abscesses in her gums requiring 5 teeth to be removed. At the same time, a lump was discovered behind one of her nipples which the vet felt needed investigative surgery. On 19th December, Hope was operated on and a mass the size of an orange was discovered in her body cavity. The vet explained to Adam and Tracey that this mass was attached to various internal organs and the choices were to have Hope put down, leave the mass intact and let Hope continue untreated to see what developed, or to investigate the mass to see if it was something treatable. They decided to go with the surgery.

Adam & Tracey then received another call from the vet who told them that they had opened the mass to find it was a large puss filled abscess surrounding some surgical swabs which had been left in her from previous surgery. The mass was removed but they were warned that it was unknown if Hope would survive due to the potential damage this abscess has caused to her internal organs. Yesterday Hope received a blood transfusion. Hope has now been allowed home, however the vets have told her family that she is not out of the woods yet - and the next 2 weeks are critical for her. The previous vets and Laura the Dog Warden have been informed of the situation and what has happened.

Please, everyone keep everything crossed for Hope. She has been through so much in her life and this is so unfair. Adam, Tracey and family love her very much and are sparing no expense in the fight to save her life.

The best Christmas Present Wiccaweys & Hope's family could have this year would be to hear the news that Hope has recovered fully from her ordeal.

Not long now...

Until the Wiccaweys Christmas Party - details can be found on the main website.
Also our Christmas Art Auction and online 'car-boot' sale is on now - again, details can be found on the website. Come along and grab a bargain.

Look forward to seeing folks at the Christmas Party.

Ages...

It's ages since I've had chance to sit down and Blog Away. I'm afraid this is a short one too. Hopefully I can catch up properly next week.

We've been really busy as Blog Fans have probably guessed. Nancy's pups are really coming on now, and are marching around causing havoc! Little Horrors they are!
Dennis is doing great in his foster home, he's lost weight and is Super Dennis now! He has a new hobby too - he's taken up swimming and is attending hydrotheraphy sessions with his foster mum. I will post a pic soon.

Paul & I are going away on Thursday for our first ever break/holiday away together! We will be back on Sunday. Alexa is holding the fort, with other folks coming up to help on various days.

I am still about 40 emails behind at the moment, so if anyone has emailed and are waiting for a reply, please bear with me.

TTFN!
xx

Wiccaweys Calendars available now

A lovely lady called Mel has rustled up some Wiccaweys Calendars for us and they are on sale now.

The calendars are in a cd style case measuring 7.5" long by 4.5 high.

There are two designs available:
the first features some of the dogs homed by Wiccaweys
and the second is a tribute to our very special Grandad Brynn

Please state which design you require when ordering.

Calendars cost £8 inuding postage and packing with all profits coming to WICCAWEYS.
You can order and pay 2 ways:

To order by cheque, please contact Mel at: melanie_12@hotmail.com

To order via PAYPAL, please make payment to : melanie_12@hotmail.com

Wiccaweys









Brynn

Are you filming my best side.......?

Friday saw the arrival of the camera crew from Orion TV to film part of Project Puppy. They are following 'working dogs' from the start of their training through to full working. One of the dogs they are following is Wiccaweys K9 Firefighter Bonnie and her handler (daddy!) Steve Hogg.

The tv team turned up 3 hours early at 8am!!!! We were not expecting them until 11am and I had to ask them to go away and come back a bit later to give us chance to get sorted.

They headed off to the Truck Stop down the road for a while and came back about 9.30. We were just about ready for them. They started off filming with Steve, so that gave us chance to finish off and for Alexa, Liz and Tricia to arrive. They were helping out with things for the day.

It was interesting to see how these things are done, but goodness me - what a two & eight! We thought it would perhaps take the morning, but we didn't finish until gone 4 in the afternoon.

The presenter lady was lovely, her name was Kate and she is usually on Channel 5. She got collie'd good and proper and suffered a Gem-Gems 'I've been rolling in fox pooh' situation. Bless her - Kate - not Gem!

LAW visit

It was lovely to see Marie, Eile and Norma from Limerick Animal Welfare this weekend. They came over to bring Fizz and her babies to us. It was wonderful as the girls were able to meet some of the ex LAW dogs now. :) Lots of photos were taken. :)

Many thanks to Pauline for the loan of her super caravan for the girls to stay in... and for supplying the 'messages'. ;)

MASSIVE THANKS

Paul & I would like to give MASSIVE THANKS to all those folks that came to help out as HOUNDFORCE this weekend. Your help and support was very mcuh appreciated as always.

Our new donated shed was taken down, and safely shipped over to HQ.
Our grateful thanks to James Stratford for his very generous and kind donation.

We look forward to getting the shed up in the next few weeks. :)

So busy

The phone and email has been mental today.
The number of dogs we are being asked to take in on a daily basis is staggering at the moment. It must be close to 100 a week now. :(

Some people are being really nasty when we can't jump and help their dogs immediately. The number of times we are having the 'Put To Sleep' threat thrown at us is unbelieveable. Even on the answermachine today, one message said, if you don't ring back within 48hrs, don't bother as the dog will be PTS and dead.

????

I am fed up of people attacking us when they can't and don't get their own way.
We are people too you know - we have feelings - and we care passionately about what we do and the dogs we try to help. We feel for each one we can't save.

Neither of us have had a decent nights sleep for about a week now, what with one thing and another. When I go to bed, I drop off for a bit, and then I wake up and just cry for hours.

This evening, down the field, once again I was asking myself why we do it? I feel so close to throwing in the towel. And then one of the rescue dogs creeps forward and touches my hand with their nose, and I look into those eyes and I have my answer.

It's one of those weeks. :(

Paul's Gran died this morning. We'd been to see her at the hospice on Sunday, and she went home yesterday - she wanted to go home to die. She passed away this morning. Paul's dad is very upset, as is to be expected.
We think the funeral will be sometime next week.

Last night Amanda and Alex popped round to collect some wood, and they kindly fetched us some dinner when they nipped to Tesco. Mandy also got Paul a little something special, so he was able to relax while he watched his beloved LFC play last night. Thank you guys.

The RAPJAP's also popped in to see us yesterday, and hopefully will be able to join us this weekend for the HOUNDFORCE sessions.

Tomorrow Paul & I are off to see a large, posh, shed/workshop/garage that is being donated to us. We will be measuring up and starting to dismantle, so we have an idea of what size vehicle we need to collect it in. We need to move it by Sunday.
This is going to be our winter office/volunteers room - for the weather is rough down the fields and we need to get under shelter quick.

Nancy and her 4 babies are doing very well, they all seem to be gaining weight well. One of them must have been a Mountain Climber in a previous life, as he insists on climbing on top of Nancy's head on a regular basis.

I've been getting plenty of mowing done now the Mower is all systems go again. Nothing like mowing the field in the dark! It's like a test from the Krypton Factor!

Look after the little ones GB..

We lost the last born little pup today.
We are gutted as up until this morning he had been doing fantastically well.
He crossed the bridge this afternoon.
We will bury him with his little still born brothers and sister.

Jackie thinks he probably should have been still born.
I feel like I have failed him by reviving him - should I have let him go on Friday? Let Mother Nature take him? I don't know anymore. At the moment everything seems so worthless.

First Sam this week, and now Little Pup.

Another heartbreaking and sad day for Wiccaweys.

RIP Sam

Sam arrived from Ireland on Saturday.

From the outset it was obvious he was not a happy boy. He was about 12yrs old, and found other dogs near him a huge threat. Watching him move about, it was blatantly obvious that his rear end and back legs were causing him pain. His rear legs shook as he stood, and when he wanted to lay down, he would just flop to the floor, he couldn't lower himself. If you tried to touch his rear end, he would snap out at you, meaning business. This was out of character for him, as it was also obvious he was a sweet old chap. We made him as comfortable as we could, giving him some pain relief and yesterday he had a lovely day sitting in the sunshine, sharing volunteers lunch and being fussed and spoilt.

Today he went to see Auntie Jackie. He was placed under anesthetic and his hips were investigated. The poor lad must have been in extreme pain for such a long time. Even under the anesthetic, the pain of moving his hips around caused him to almost wake in pain, and at one point try to sit up! Bless him. Nothing could be done for him, and he would be crippled completely in a matter of weeks/months.
We made the decision to let him go while he was still asleep and knowing that he'd had a lovely day yesterday, and with his dignity still intact.

Run free now Sam.

Puppies

I know people are waiting to hear news of the babies.

You will all be glad to hear that they are doing well. The late arrival is doing fantastically well, scoffing his little face at the milk bar and putting on weight.
I think a certain Grampy is watching over this little chap.
Nancy is a great mum, and we will try and get some pics soon.

Still an eventful day

18.30pm

The last little pup is holding his own, bless him. He seems a lot more with it now.
Still keeping fingers crossed for him.

So what else has happened today.

Well, this morning we had a follow up visit from the local Dog Warden & Environmental Health folks. It's a follow up visit from the visit that was made when we put in our Planning Application (which we still haven't heard about.
Paul was fed up as they are supposed to ring and make appointments for such things. I was too tired to care. I showed them round where they wanted to see - forgetting I was still in my pyjama bottoms, nightshirt and slippers from where I'd got up in the night to Nancy. Only remembered I was wearing my slippers when I slipped in the mud down the yard and landed hard on my backside! Great!

This afternoon Pauline and the boys came over to help out with things, bringing snacks - and making sure we had something to eat. Paul and I were hoping to get out to do some tip runs and get a new stairgate. Of course, the chances of us leaving the house together for a short period must have tipped the balance. While Pauline and boys were peeping at Nancy & pups, loud squeals were heard from the lounge. We rushed in to find poor little Monkey Peke with her right eye popped out and bleeding! Newish arrival Jake collie sloped off very guiltly.
Who knows what bought that on! Paul removed Jake from the room, and I quickly phoned the vets to let them know I as on route.

One problem - I can't find the car keys! Thankfully Pauline offered to take us over, so we bundle in her car and head out. Pauline even cancelled an appointment to help us out.

Monkey was very scared. She was in a bit of shock and I had her wrapped up in a blanket to keep her warm. We got there and Jackie managed to pop Monkey's eye back in. Thankfully there wasn't serious damage to the eyeball. Jackie decided that Monkey needed her eye sown shut to keep it in place while it healed, so we had to wait while she had an small anesthic.

While we are sitting waiting I realise that although I changed my top, I am still wearing my pyjama bottoms and slippers!

We get home and settle Monkey - she is none the worse for her ordeal, bless her. Paul is already out and exercising the gang. I take Pauline and the boys to meet Rachael and family. :) Pauline then kindly took some washing home for us. :) What a star!

We are just starting to return the days phone calls now, and sort out visits for the weekend.

What a day!

I think I need a

Then again... maybe not

13.30.

Nancy has decided she's not finished, and just had another little boy. He is way behind the rest, and really struggling. We've done what we can for him, and now it is up to him and Nancy. We are keeping our fingers crossed, but it doesn't look good for him.

:(

9.45

9.45 - and yes, it definately looks as if the weaker little girl is the last pup.
Nancy is looking after them well, and she has them all tucked up nice and warm.
Bless her.

She has breakfast next to her, and is taking little mouthfuls in between bottom cleaning duties. :)

Ulla has been up, dropping Lonnie back as she has to zap over the Germany. Sorry I missed you Ulla. Thank you for the croisants.

Rachael and her little family have settled in really well, and have been out for a charge around. They are currently wrestling each other to the ground.

I need to get my brain into gear as I need to make up the little keepsakes for tomorrow's Ghost Watch. Forgot about them in the midst of the hectic past few days.

Guzzling coffee by the bucketful at the moment. LOL! Lots to do and not really got time to take a nap. 5 mins left until the phone starts for the day!

Settled I think...

8.39am

Another little girl has arrived. It was a bit touch and go with her, as I could hear the fluid on her lungs, and she was very limp, and her tongue was lolling out.

I worked on her with Nancy watching, and together we revived her. :)
Nancy cleaning her, and me vigourously rubbing and doing the puppy swing to expell the fluid from her lungs.

Finally we got the puppy squeals, and the fluid came out of her nose.

Fingers crossed for her now.

The other 3 are very strong so far.

I *think* Nancy has finished now, I can't seem to feel another pup - but she could have one stashed out of reach.

She's had 7 ; the 3 stills - 2 beautiful boys and 1 girl. Run free babies.
And 2 boys and 2 girls.

What a night! I think Nancy deserves an extra special breakfast now.

:(

7.26am

Another still-born puppy. This time a beautiful baby girl. Very sad.
Nancy had cleaned her up, and I have placed her in the box with her brothers.

The other 3 are all wriggling and feeding well.
I think I can still feel another puppy in her tummy.

It looks like the still-born babies have come from the same 'horn'.
For folks who don't know about bitches anatomy, bitches have 2 'horns' that link up to the birth canal. They are either side of her body. So pups don't all come from the same 'horn'. If there was a birth defect or problem in one side, which has caused these little ones to be born still, then it wouldn't necesarily affect the other side. If that makes sense. It could be that the birth process takes longer for the pups to move down to the birth canal from one side too.

Very sad. :(

Getting the hang of this now...

Nancy is obviously getting the hang of this now. I turn my back for a moment, and she's popped out a beautiful baby girl. Little Miss appears to be a red & white girl, with little white stripes on her ears.

All pups so far are extremely collie looking, so I think our original thought that Nancy was kicked off a farm for obvious reasons is holding up.

:)

6.31am

Another arrival - another little boy. This one arrived kicking and shouting, "I'm here!" Nancy was much more interested in sorting him out. He's now jostling for position at the milk bar with his brother.

Luckily all the other residents are taking all the activity in their stride, and for the most are still snoozy - "Mother! Will you turn off that bloody light!"

Apart from Louis Peke, who has been banished to the bathroom because he is insisting on standing on the stairs shouting like a Town Crier!

Nancy still looks like a pudding!

:(

6.10am

Nancy is being more maternal with her first puppy now.

Sadly we have had 2 beautiful little babies arrive still-born. :(
Very distressing for all. Nancy, bless her, she cleaned them up and kissed them goodbye. We have placed them in a box and will bury them in a nice spot in the field.

Keeping our fingers crossed for the next arrival. Nancy is still very big.

Yep, it's another early hours ramble... Nancy has started...

Paul & I are up playing Midwives, so in between paw holding and pushing and heaving, I'm catching up with you all.

Hugely busy few days....

The week has started with lots of generous folks sending and delivering parcels and goodies for both Limerick Animal Welfare, and for Gavin and Millie, the children bacly injured by a petrol bomb attack in Eire. The kitchen looked like christmas had come early! There were also deliveries of cakeys for LAW - Paul and I looked longingly, but resisted!

Last night was an overnighter to meet Donal to collect the new arrivals from LAW - and to drop off all the goodies to go back to LAW. Donal was running late due to his ferry, and then getting held up on another drop, so I kicked my heels in the service station for an hour..... dodging the stranger looking folks that frequent motorway service stations at that time of night. Several coffees later, Donal arrived. Donal was amazed at the amount of stuff I had for him to take back. :) I told him, that was only half of it! I couldn't fit anymore in the car! I picked up the lovely Rachael and puppies, and little Shelley. All beautiful babies, and very well behaved on the the trip home.


I got home about 6.30 and Paul got up to help get the new arrivals settled.

Tricia arrived at 10am for dog walking and house sitting, and Paul and I headed off to Leiecster with Remmy Red Dawg to the vets for her op. She was in to have a nasty lump removed.

While we were at the vets we also collected Dennis, a 3 legged Wiccaweys collie who was being returned to us because his new home no longer felt they could cope with the onset of his old age. Dennis has been allowed to put on weight, and this is a contributing factor to his mobility problems, however he has settled back in well with us and is just a sweetie as before. He is struggling with the laminate floors, with his 1 back leg, but hopefully when he loses a bit of weight, it should become easier for him.

Once we were back home, Tricia was located down with the pups, trying to shove a few up her jumper for snaffling purposes! I seeeeeee!

Paul & I headed out again, and over to Coventry to collect some MDF that someone was giving us. Hopefully it will be used to kit out the Ambulance.

We received the call on the way home to say Remmy was fine and ready to come home.....translated as, "Remmy is awake and barking the surgery down......!"
After much laughing our end, we said she is probably starving hungry - as she hadn't had any breakfast, and everyone knows Remmy loves her grub...."give her an emergency Sandwich...STAT!"

I dropped Paul off and said thanks and goodbye to Tricia (who made off with 2 puppies up her jumper for fostering purposes) and it was back over to Leicester to collect the daft old bat. Remmy thundered out of the surgery like a thing possessed - "I'm starving - get me an emergency MacDonalds!!!" and there was me worried about her all day!

When we got home, Paul was already out exercising the mob, and had fed them all. So I just had to sort out the cats and the new arrivals.

We settled down to sort through the days emails and calls.

Nancy was showing signs of whelping - she trashed her nice bed nesting! She was doing some lovely impressions of a cow asking to be milked! I've never known a dog moo like that before!

Nothing was happening at 10.30, so we went up to bed. They always wait until you aren't looking! We were listening out for noises. Paul got up to nip to the loo about 3am, and all was quiet. I followed 5 mins later, and heard the unmistakable squeak of a newborn pup. I popped the landing light on, and looked downstairs to see a newborn pup at the bottom of the stairs. I went down. He was next to a big pooh and still in his sack. Nancy was back in her bed looking scared. She must have got up to have a pooh and a pup popped out too. I cleaned him up and put him in with her.

Nancy is not feeling very maternal, she is very scared and bewildered. Luckily she is letting him feed, but isn't that interested in fussing and cleaning pup at the moment. She is getting very worried when he squeaks and makes puppy noises. Poor love. Hopefully the maternal instinct will kick in as the milk starts to flow a bit more. The main thing is she is letting him feed. I've wee'd and poohed him as she wasn't interested in doing that, but she was watching and taking notes. Fingers crossed she gets the idea as more babies arrive. We are waiting for the next one to arrive....... She is a right little barrel, so goodness knows how many she has stashed away in there......

Will keep you all posted on arrivals....

The Ghosties are coming....

Saturday coming (28th) is our Ghost Watch Event - details are on the website - we still have a few tickets left if you are feeling brave!

So, what's been going on recently...

Well, Moss - he of the mysterious inflating face.... well, his face deflated again, and he got the all clear to head off to his new home, so his new daddy Chris came and collected him on Friday. The vet is still mystified, but we are all leaning towards Juvenile Cellulitis - it usually occurs in puppies. Moss had to be awkward! LOL!

Have had some new arrivals. Jake, Kirk and Beauty. Jake was left alone by his previous home for 23hrs a day. A neighbour asked for permission to find him a new home and he is here with us. Kirk is a lovely little pup from Rochdale - saved on his PTS day. Beauty has come in from her home, she was too active and not getting the attention they thought she deserved.

We have some Irish dogs arriving this weekend, so Saturday will be busy with them arriving and getting ready for the Ghost Watch.

Good thoughts and well wishes will be needed for Remmy Red Dawg on Thursday as she is going to see Auntie Jackie to have a very nasty lump removed. Although she is still stomping and hurtling around, she is an old lady for an Irish Red & White Setter, so obviously the op is more dangerous for her. :(

Buster's ashes came home with me today, bless him.
Wilbur had his check up and he is fine. :)
Gem had her staples removed, and was waltzing round the surgery like she owned the place!
Poor Polar Cat still has his bad limp. He has nerve damage, and has no feeling down the back of his left rear leg. He has feeling at the front of it. He was very brave again today and made me proud by not hissing, spitting, scratching or biting - he was very well behaved, bless him. He is still on crate rest for another 2 weeks.
Poor Polar.

We have discovered some very nasty internal lumps/masses on Heidi, so she is having tests run on those. Its a terrible shame as she is coming on so well, weight, coat etc - and is playing like a puppy now. She has a wonderful nature, and loves everyone and everything. Fingers crossed for her.

Speak soon All....

Bits & Bobs

We seemed to get a fair bit done this weekend. Thanks to Mr&MrsB, Anna & Dan, Pauline & troops and Tricia for their help.

Paul's workshop had a good clear out which was long overdue.

Some of the gang found new homes which was fantastic - good luck guys.
On Saturday we had a new arrival in the form of Brandy - he is already safely ensconced with Wiccaweys doggie, Smokey and his family, The Robinsons. Brandy is now renamed Bandit, so it's Smokey and the Bandit. :)

Moss has had one hell of a weekend, on Saturday, his face blew up like a balloon! Allergic reaction possibly. Emergency trip to the vets and he was on antibiotics.

Timing was everything, because after a long wait, Moss finally had a potential new home coming to meet him on Sunday! We phoned Moss's potential new daddy to explain, however he was terribly excited and still wanted to come and meet him, even though he knew he couldn't take him home on Sunday.

On Sunday, Moss was more cheerful, although still looked like the doggy version of the Elephant Man. Moss met his person, and they had a lovely time down the filed together. Love is blind, as Moss was adopted then and there. :) His new daddy is now patiently waiting for Moss to be ready to go home.

On Monday, Moss was a bit low again, he was back at the vets for his check up. We decided that he would stay in, so he could have the antibiotics introvenously, and they could keep a close watch on the swelling on his face. At the moment he is a medical mystery! He sauntered off with the vet nurse, with promises of fluffy beds and treats without a backwards glance! He's still there at the moment, apparently the perfect patient, eating them out of house and home! LOL! He has the nurses wrapped around his paw!

The car has been feeling wallowy again, and Paul had a look underneath to find that a rear shock absorber has come loose again. All we need is a rubber bit and what looks like a large washer to sort it - but can you buy these seperately? No so far - you have to buy the whole absorber! Argh!

We have a pregnant bitch here at the moment, and she looks fit to burst. Waiting for her to start whelping..... Nancy is very nervous with people, so it's going to be fun!

Right, I'm going to try and get some paperwork done today.

A few moments to catch up before we kick off for the day...

Mr&MrsB are here for the weekend with Tigs and Daisy Dog.

Paul & I managed to get out last night for a while. It was lovely to get out, but stupidly it also made me get really upset too.

Once we were out and in the car, Paul & I had NO IDEA on what to do, or where to go. We hadn't finished everything in time to go to the cinema, and we just didn't know what to do. We drove around for about an hour while we tried to decide what to do. We honestly didn't know what to do. We had no idea where to go.

It really hit home that Paul & I have no life other than the rescue.

I sat in the car in tears. I think it seemed worse because of some of the calls we have had this week, where we have both been made to feel useless, guilty and frustrated by the callers because we haven't been able to leap and help them with their '1' dog immediately.

It is very sad when you are in your late 30's, you get a couple of hours spare - and you live such an introvert lifestyle now that you have no idea how the normal outside world is functioning anymore.

We finally found a pub/food place near Lutterworth, where we had a meal. It was very nice and the surroundings were nice and comfortable, with plenty of space. One of the ladies serving made us feel particularly welcome after she noticed my ' Tree of Life and Pentacle locket. She obviously follows a similar path to me.
We had a lovely meal. Now we know where to go if we get some time away.

We are just getting ready for the first arrivals. AnnaB is coming up today to help with dog walking etc. Leanne & Lynda are bringing little Zach over to meet folks. I think Pauline and co are coming up to see us later. We have an Irish run a bit later on too.

Ok, best get a few calls done first.

A hell of a week so far...

It's been a rotten week so far.

We lost Buster on Monday. Run free Buster, your little rubber legs will be young and strong again now.

On Monday Wilbur was also in the vets. His remaining eye popped out badly and had to be removed. Surgery for Wilbur is always a risk because of his heart murmur - so Monday was very fraught. Auntie Jackie worked her magic and Wilbur is recovering well.

While I was out picking up Wilbur, Paul had our own boys & girls and Moss out exercising... Moss HATES anything small and furry, cats, rats, small dogs - anything.

Polar decides then is a good time to stroll across the field, instead of skirting round it... within reach of Moss. Moss got hold of Polar. Polar was in a bad way, Moss had really hurt him.

Thankfully Polar held his own and has been back to see Auntie Jackie today for x-rays etc. He has a nasty limp, but nothing is broken, so it is time and rest.

Dear old Flossie went to the vets today for x-rays and tests. She has been getting more and more unpredictable, and has been launching herself at both humans and dogs.

Little Gem, my sweet Jack Russell had to have her head stapled today due to Flossie's last unwarned outburst. :( Gem was very brave, but looks like Frankenstein's Dog!

Flossie was found to be unwell, something that couldn't be solved, so we made the upsetting decision to let her cross the bridge while she was still under the anastetic. Doubly hard on top of losing Buster this week.

I am still trying to catch up on emails, letters, sending things out that need sending - so please bear with me. At the moment I feel like throwing in the towel and hiding in a dark room.

The phone is really busy again, and I know Paul is starting to feel the pressure. He is exhausted, bless him. Hopefully Mr&MrsB are going to dog sit tomorrow evening for us, so we can get out for a couple of hours. It's been a horrid week and we think we need a break for a bit. Hopefully we can get in at the cinema or something.

Paul has sent out emails about the Ghost Watch event. I made a booboo when calculating things and thought we had to pay for something that we do not have to pay for. This means that we have been able to reduce the tickets by £15 to only £35!

Tricia was a star again, and came over for dog walking duties today. She also saw Little Jet off to his new home - good luck Jet! We had a very handsome new arrival in the form of Brock. His mummy is poorly, so he is looking for a new home. He is exceptionally handsome!

Yesterday we had a none-collie arrive - the beautiful Nala - a young Siberian Husky. Bernie bought her down from the pound. Her time was up. She is now safely in an experienced Sibe foster home with friends of Alexa. As I type, she may even be having her first taster of husky racing!

We've had conformation that the people from Orion TV would like to do their filming in the next few weeks. They are following K9 Firefighter Bonnie's career from start of training to full operational duties. Best cut the grass then! :)

Right, more calls to return. Back to it.

Buster Peke Unwell

It's Monday morning, 5am and I'm using the time to catch up with the blog.

Buster

Been up since 3.30 with Buster Peke. He's not very well at all bless him. We are off to the vets first thing, and we are not expecting good news. We took him on Friday as he was loosing his balance and has been unable to support himself. He's eating and drinking fine and doing lovely poohs, but he's unable to move properly. :(

We wasn't sure if he had had a stroke, or he just a bit of an ear infection. We all know how ear infections can knock you off balance. As he was eating and drinking fine, we decided to treat him for an ear infection and see how he went over the weekend. He's been on antibiotics, but he's not improving. He is now starting to get distressed because he can't move himself around properly. He's still eating and drinking fine though! And loves his warm milk before bedtime.

Buster has always had 'rubber' legs due to a birth defect, so this is double frustrating for him now. Before he has managed to get himself round at a considerable speed - and I can see that his Peke pride is taking a battering with not being able to do things for himself anymore. Paul was working it out last night, and we think Buster is about 16.

Please think of him in the morning when we go to see Auntie Jackie. Our little Buster Bum - Professor Slugsworth.

The weekend

It's been another hectic week and weekend.
We've had several new arrivals, and several residents leave for new homes.
Good luck to all our babies in their new homes.
Saturday morning, Paul and I left Alexa holding the fort while we went and collected a 'hen house'. When we got there - said 'hen house' was actually a very large, 2 storey, childrens playhouse! Paul and the chap took it down and we got it loaded into the ambulance. It is much bigger than we thought. Colin is coming over in the morning to help Paul put it up, and I think we will use it as a puppy playroom for when it is too wet in the garden for little ones to race around.

On the way home from collecting the house, we got the phonecall to say our Irish arrival was nearly with us, so we picked up the lovely Heidi on route home.
Poor darling had been kept locked in a room in a pub with no water or food. Someone reported her owner to the Garda (Irish Police) and they broke in a rescued her with not much time to spare. She has been building up her strength before travelling over to us. Heidi is a total sweetheart - and she has a lovely nature. She still has plenty of weight to gain, but her eyes are alive again now.

Alexa was here from Friday evening - which pleased the Loved Up Lurcher no end! It meant he got to sleep upstairs!

On Saturday Bernie arrived bringing us a lovely little collie girl from Rochdale. Bernie stayed for some collie mugging and Paul teasing! Bless her.

Liz and family came to meet us all and see about fostering - they took the lovely Lofty home with them. Liz arrived clutching food parcels - Paul couldn't believe his luck and has eaten everything in sight! LOL! YumYum - home made cottage pie and chicken pie!!! And Oatie cookies!

Pauline and family came over on Saturday and Sunday to help us out, and huge thanks to Colin for getting our tip runs done for us. Big thanks for Pauline taking our washing home to do (the washing machine is having a crisis of faith). We are less 'doggy smelling' again! Not for long though!

Ulla and family also came up on Sunday to help out, and caught us still in bed! A lay in after being up with Buster for a couple of hours in the night! All the dogs where still asleep too! I won't mention the Search for Tesco... hehehehe

Tricia was here dog walking and all the gang are very grateful for that. Both Tricia's foster dogs found new homes this weekend - and she made off hurridly with Jet the puppy up her jumper at the end of the day! Someone check that woman for puppies on the way out!

Other stuff

A lovely lady called Heather popped in to see us during the week and bought us all some goodies. :) The doggies have toys, leads and collars and some wonderful blankets, and Paul and I got the most yummy carrot cake!! Needless to say, there is none left!

Tricia has kindly agreed to give us a day in the week helping out. Bless her.
This means if Paul and I need to get out somewhere together we can. It is an enourmous help to us.

Ticket sales for our Halloween event are very slow at the moment, and I'm wondering if I should cancel it. Pre ticket interest was huge, but now it's slowed right down. It's disappointing this is probably our biggest pre-christmas fundraiser and we hoped to boost the coffers in time to see us over the busy christmas period - when lots of dogs need to come in, but not many find homes.

People keep asking if we are going to have a Christmas Event this year. To be honest, I don't know. If we do, we will have to find a venue to hold it in. It's all going to be down to time - and at the moment, I don't think we have the time to organise anything.

We are hoping to do a Christmas Auction of some kind, probably featuring collie art. We have been donated some lovely prints by artists and we are trying to decide the best way to use them - plus it means I get to look at them a bit longer!

Been sent details of a rather smart van this evening. The colour of it is Wiccaweys Purple! Oh well.

Guess that's about it for now, Buster seems to have drifted off to sleep, so I'm going to see if I can get in a hour or so sleep now.

TTFN Blog Fans - please think of Buster tomorrow morning.

Where does the time go?

It amazes me how quickly the time goes between my Blog updates. I think it's a few days, and then find out its a couple of weeks flown by! That will be that famous 'Wiccaweys Time' again.

So, what's been going on - apart from the normal routines.

This weekend just gone we were hoping to have a HOUNDFORCE weekend, but we had to cancel it last thing on Saturday morning, due to lots of volunteers going down with severe illnesses - flu etc. A couple of folks decided to still come, and we got some of the smaller jobs done. But the bigger ones we had hoped to get done before autumn and winter set in properly have had to be postponed. Thanks to Mr&MrsB, Marisa, Amanda & Alex for all your help. Thanks to Tricia for dog walking duties under extreme weather conditions on Sunday...... she was beyond the discription of 'drowned rat'.

We've had comings and goings, with dawgus's heading off to pastures new - good luck guys! Be good!

Arrivals include Bob & Jack, 2 extremely lovely middle aged chaps who joined us yesterday. We have a motley assortment arriving on Thursday from Limerick Animal Welfare. We always look forward to the LAW dogs arriving. I am particularly looking forward to the arrival of Sootie! She reminds me of a Steif Teddy Bear - and I want to find out if she makes little 'grrrrrr' noises as I tip her forward!

Smudge is continuing to make wonderful progress..... She and Paul are like a double act! She REALLY loves her Daddy. hehehhehehehehehehhe... Paul, of course, is playing it cool, but I've seen them singing and dancing in the kitchen and the secret snuggling going on!

Little scaredy Evan is taking all this singing and dancing in, from the safety of his bottom shelf look out point. He is making much slower progress, but he is getting there.


Grandad Brynn's ashes are home now, and he is now with all his friends on the altar. Alexa's friend Carol made a lovely photo and sentiment plaque which I have also placed with his ashes.

I still can't manage to put into words everything I want to say. Paul says I will get there in time, but even just typing this little bit about him has reduced me to a quivering wreck again. I just can't explain how hard this is, and how much I miss him. Even with all the others in the lounge - it doesn't feel 'right' - the house is so empty without him. I am empty without him. I will burst into tears at the drop of a hat - I did yesterday in front of everyone when new arrival Bob did something that reminded me of GB.

I suppose the only way I can try to explain is to say, I have had 10 micarriages in my life - and as much as each of those hurt and I struggled to go on with on life - I never, ever, felt as much loss, grief and pain as I have been feeling over Brynn. I know Paul is feeling it too.

I know lots of people will not understand those feelings 'for a dog' - but I know lots of other people will. I hope me saying this publically will help those people grieving for a lost friend to know that it 'is ok' to feel like that about our four legged companions. Just because other none-doggy people don't understand, doesn't mean it isn't natural or right for you to feel the loss deeply. There are others who understand and others you can talk to if you need to.

I have Grandad Brynn's silly wavy bits of hair from behind his ears in a locket now. I love that silly old codger so much.

Catching up!

Hi all!

It's been a busy time here at Wiccaweys, and I'm just catching up with myself now.

We are sure everyone is aware that we lost our beloved Grandad Brynn just over a week ago. Last weeks Wiccaweys show was dedicated to him. Our compere for the day, Liz, made a very beautiful, moving and emotional speech about Brynn before the Veteran class. We are still finding it very hard to come to terms with, and Brynn's loss has hit us terribly.

Brynn was such a special dog.

Show News

The show was a fantastic success and we truely believe that Grandad was smiling down on us all that day. The weather was amazing - beautiful sunshine - and so hot for September. We had amazing demos and it was wonderful to see all our 'babies' with their new families. So this is a HUGE "thank you" to everyone who came.

It was a fabulous event, and everyone we've spoken to said they had a great time. Hopefully, we'll be able to have another event like it next year.

There was a wonderful write up on the show in 'OUR DOGS' last week, thanks to our wonderful Judge Nick Mays, and hopefully there will be further coverage this week. We are currently compliling an "Online Show Photos Scrapbook". We have hundreds of photos to add, so please bear with us.

HAUNTED HALLOWEEN GHOST WATCH

The tickets for the Haunted Halloween Ghost Watch being held at Donington Le Heath Manor in Coalville, Leicestershire are now on sale. Remember though that the places are strictly limited (only 35 places available) and there has been a lot of interest so order your ticket now to avoid disappointment.

The event is on Saturday 28th October. and will start around 7pm and go on until around 2.30am!

Ticket price is £50 and includes a buffet and hot/cold drinks, a keepsake momento for all fearless attendees. We have Mediums and Spirtual Communicators attending.

Tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
Payment for tickets can be made via PAYPAL or NOCHEX to: wiccaweys@aol.com
If you prefer to pay by cheque, please email: wiccaweys@aol.com for details

I'm really looking forward to this event - it should be a really good evening.

Van News

Regulars to the Wiccaweys site will know that Wiccaweys doesn't seem to have much luck with vehicles, and as you may have read, the Wiccaweys van has broken down again. We're now fundraising to try and buy a new one. We are loath to waste another large amount of money fixing her again for basicaly the same problem. We have been advised that it is now a money pit.

We have been lucky enough to secure a set of new cages for a new vehicle at a bargain price, and now we just need to secure a new van! We have seen one we have our eye on, but we need to raise £3,000 very quickly in order to secure it. If you are in a position to help (large or small), we'd love to hear from you. Remember, even ordering a ticket for the Halloween fundraiser will help us enormously. :)

If it helps, you can make a donation online via PAYPAL or NOCHEX to: wiccaweys@ aol.com

Smudge Survives living Wild

Last week we were called out to help a little collie who had been running wild for several weeks after being abandoned. The little collie was seriously let down by the local authorities in the area who would not help to bring her into safety. Luckily a local couple took pity on the little collie and fed her, whilst trying to find out who could help.

Paul and I arrived at the house of the chap where the dog has been visiting.
We arrived to the sound of a dog barking, and I crept round the back of the house. I caught a glimpse of the collie, a little tiny Red & White one as they scurried off in the the bushes and then the field behind the house.

We went in to talk to the chap. It was obvious that we were not going to get near the little soul. We were armed with ACP and a can of Butchers Tripe. Luckily the Smudge, as the couple have named her, was used to coming up to the house and the people there had been feeding her. The man had made a makeshift shelter round the back of the house and near to the field that Smudge would come into to sleep. Smudge always stayed within a specific area, so we were confident that we could drug her and she wouldn't go too far.

A bowl of laced Butchers Tripe was put out, and the man tapped the bowl with a spoon. We waited. 5 mins later a little nose appeared and scoffed down the goods...... and scurried off quickly. Now we had to wait.....

While we are waiting the man told us the story of Smudge, - and the storm from hell starts up. Thunder, lightening, torrential rain like I've never seen before! Smudge has been running loose since the last horse fair. This location is very close to 2 busy roads, not least the A46 - which is as good as a motorway. The chap had contacted the council and the local dog warden who wanted nothing to do with it. They would not help at all. He was even told that it would be best all round if Smudge was knocked down!

We give it 25mins, the ACP should be working - but no let up in the storm. The chap goes out to check if Smudge is in the temporary shelter. Smudge is used to him coming and going, so we do not want to alarm Smudge if the ACP hasn't kicked in enough.

The chap comes back to say Smudge is there, she was thinking about bolting, but when he walked back to the house, she stayed put. He said she was very unsteady on her legs and looked dozy.

We give her 10 more mins for the effect to maximise. The storm is continuing like nothing on earth and the thunder and lightening is directly overhead. The rain is coming down in sheets.

We go out to see if we can get Smudge.

Oh no! - Smudge is not in the little shelter!

Then Paul spots Smudge - the storm has sent her to hide under the base of the Oil Tank! With no way of reaching her, as the base is brick and slabs, concreted into the ground.

The rain is hammering down, but there is no-way we are not going to get her now. We could see from Smudge's eyes that she was terrified. Poor little soul.

Gem-Gems goes in under the tank to try and tempt Smudge out, but she is too scared.

We know Smudge is still very hungry, so we throw in some more Butchers Tripe. Smudge edges forward. Good.
I put in some more, laying a trail to just outside the base and I wait by the side.
As Smudge edges forward, Paul is pushing wood in from the side of the base to stop Smudge retreating back.

A little nose pops out, grabs the butchers tripe and retreats again quickly.

I put down some more... Smudge leans out again, but as I move slightly, Smudge ducks back in.

More tripe goes down, this time a little further away. I have a slip-lead waiting, but I realise I am not going to be able to get this over Smudge's head quickly enough. It's going to have to be hands-on.

Smudge comes out further and eats more, I don't move this time. Smudge retreats a bit and waits.

I put down more tripe, in the same position. This is it.

Smudge comes out, head and shoulders. I make my move and grab Smudge on the scruff.

Poor Smudge is so terrifed at being handled. She does what any terrifed dog would do, and turns round and sinks her teeth into my offending hand. But I am not letting go now! I'm hanging on for dear life. Paul rushes round and gets the slip lead over Smudge's head, and I quickly wrap Smudge up in a blanket. We hurry to the car and get Smudge safely into a crate.

Mission Accomplished!!

We were both soaking wet through, and I was dripping blood everywhere - but Smudge was safe.

Please say hello to Smudge on the website. You can get up to date on her story on this thread:

http://www.wiccaweys.com/forum/index.php?topic=637.0

And see the progress she's made on this thread:

http://www.wiccaweys.com/forum/index.php?topic=689.0

A happy story that keeps getting better.

Lumps & Bumps

This week we have taken in 2 lovely collies who have been saved from pounds. Both are middle aged collies, and on close inspection, both have been found to have rather nasty lumps in places they shouldn't have lumps. Both are booked in the vets this week for investigations and we are keeping our fingers crossed for them.

Robbie News

On a final happy note, I'm sure you all remember "Robbie" who came in with those terrible wounds on his neck. Well, this weekend, little Robbie went off to his new home. It's rather like seeing a child all grown up and leaving home for the first time. He's been adopted by a regular on the Wiccaweys forum, so everyone can keep up to date with his miraculous progress on the site.

Oh well, feeding time beckons - back to the rabble!

The Heart of Wiccaweys has stopped beating.

Our beloved Grandad Brynn passed over the Rainbow Bridge this morning.

I can't say anything else at the moment because my heart is breaking and I feel like my soul has been torn in two.

Brynn.....Brynn.... We love you.

Run Free Basil

Our latest update starts with the very sad news that Basil has left us and passed over the Rainbow Bridge.

Basil crossed over the bridge at around 2pm on Friday afternoon - but he chose to make his journey naturally and without help, laying in his own bed.
We'd just arrived at the vets, and I had carried him and his bed into the surgery.
Basil decided that was the time for him to leave us.

I held his paw and stroked his head as he slipped away.
Run free old friend. I hope your last weeks with us were happy ones.

It never gets any easier with old collies - only 2 days before leaving us Basil was marching around the garden and eating sausage and chips! He just went to bed and never got out again.


On Saturday, Paul & I had a day off. We both needed to get out for a while. Mr & MrsB, and Nina from James Wellbeloved kindly invited us to attend the first ever 'Tails of Achievement' Awards at Newbury. Tigger had made it through to the final 15 and we went along to support him. It was a lovely day out - even better because a cooked meal was thrown in too! Peter Purves was the compare for the day, and what a lovely chap he is with the dogs. Tigger was a little woofy with Peter, but they got there in the end, and we have the photos to prove it. Paul and I were extremely proud of Tigger on the day. He coped with all the bustle brilliantly and took it all in his stride. He made a new friend in the shape of another deaf dog - a rather pretty Boxer girl. Although Tigger didn't win any of the top prizes, Paul I were just over the moon that he'd made it through to the final 15. 6 months ago, Tigger wouldn't have been able to attend such an event - he just wouldn't have been able to cope mentally. The fact that he could was a tribute to Mr&MrsB love, care, patience and devotion to the imcomparable MrT. Tiggs was the true winner in our eyes. :)


The van is still dead, so nothing to report there.
We really don't know what to do at the moment. It is very frustrating.


It's only a few days to the show and preperations are now in manic mode.
The term 'Blue Arse Fly' seems to spring to mind at the moment.
We hope that lots of folks turn out to support us.
We are hoping to have a parade of rehomed Wiccs dogs, and I would love to get them all together in the ring for a giant group shot. :)
We are still desperate for the loan of some agility equipement. If anyone knows anyone they can butter up to help, we would be very grateful. :)


We are very worried about Grandady Brynn at the moment. He is not feeling very well. He had finally lost his sight, bless him and he is find that very confusing. It is breaking my heart to see him. He is having trouble settling at night, and is calling for me. I'm sleeping on the floor with him at the moment, as that is the only way he will settle. Mostly, I'm not sleeping - just watching him and crying a lot. :( I can't bear to think about him not being here with us anymore. Brynn is the heart of Wiccaweys, and it feels like that heart is about to stop beating.

Good & Bad..

Hi Bloggers,

The Good News - Little Robbie is doing very well, and Auntie Jackie is extremely please with his progress. His wounds are staying clean and he is such a good boy for taking his medicine and having the antibiotic gel put in.

The Bad News - only 2 weeks after sailing through her MOT, Flossie the van has decide to die on us BIG TIME - AGAIN!!! I can't blooming believe it! I was on the way home from the vets - and suddenly, strange noise, rattling, banging, smoke billowing from behind and then complete cut out!! I managed to coast to the side of the road, and phoned the RAC. I broke down on a busy stretch of road, and even with the hazzards flashing and the warning stripes on the back of the van, people were speeding past! One person even over-took another car as they were passing me! Very scarey.

The RAC man came out and diagnoised Cambelt and tensioner and valves again. It's not looking good. We can't believe it - Flossie has only done about 3,000 miles since the new cambelt and head was fitted. It's so unfair!

There were 3 dogs on board with me, and the RAC man was very good asking if I had penty of water on board for them, and did I need him to get some. Bless.

So then we had to wait for the recovery truck. Wilbur rode up front on the way home! We got home about 3pm.

Kate who adopted Benny has kindly stepped in, and is picking up the doggies that stayed at the vets for various bits and pieces.

I REALLY can't believe this has happened again. It is so frustrating and upsetting - especially after all the fundraising and all the money we spent getting Flossie back on the road. We are totally gutted.

I'm just glad it didn't happen yesterday when when I was on ovenight Irish pick up.
We had 9 arrivals yesterday.

The phone has been red hot with people wishing to hand dogs in, for a variety of reasons. Paul estimates we have been asked to take in 35-40 dogs in the past week alone. :(

Right, off for feeding duties. :)

Welcome to the Real World of Rescue - the part you won't normally see.

This upsetting news is from our friends at Limerick Animal Welfare.
Sometimes you have to be hard hitting to get the message across, I'm putting it on the blog for that reason. This is what rescuers and volunteers have to live with and why they carry on doing what they do. To try and stop this.

This cut me to the core this morning.

Aug 2oth: It is a very sad time for us here at LAW.

One of our volunteers rescued little Elliott from a very bad situation.
She knew in her heart when she saw him nothing could save him. Elliott was just five weeks old. He was the most beautiful puppy ever.

Our volunteer rushed to the vet. Elliott's stone cold body was limp in her arms. He whimpered very softly, such sad and lonely sounds will never leave our volunteers memory.

As she reached the veterinary hospital little Elliott drew his last breath in this world. As he died our volunteers cried in despair, her tears fell on his body showing him how much she cared. Elliott died surrounded by love.

Our vet told us that Elliott died from starvation and neglect. The fleas were hopping of Elliott's body as he was dying.

How can this still happen in 2006?



Run Free little Elliott.

Another week starts

Firstly can I say thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes and healing thoughts for little Robbie. He is doing very well, and is a very brave boy about having his wounds treated. He is back at the vets this week, and Auntie Jackie will decide what we need to do next for him. Thank you to everyone one who has sent a donation towards his vet bills. We really appreciate your kindness, as does Robbie. :)

The lovely Alice found a new home this weekend, she has gone to live with Alison and family. We wish her well, and hope that she helps to fill the space left when the wonderful Brodie passed over the bridge. Mabel looked very pleased to have a new friend to play with.

Now I am going to be serious and get cross.
We are being plagued at the moment by what can only be discribed as complete TIMEWASTERS.

I'm sorry if I am going to sound harsh and upset people, but it really is getting above a joke - and there is only so long you can smile politely for.

It clearly states on our HOW TO ADOPT section that people should only call if they are READY to adopt a dog, and COMMITTED to adopting a dog. We ask people not to call if they are about to go on holiday etc - but to call when they are ready.
It also clearly states that potential adopters will need to meet the dogs at Wiccaweys HQ, unless the dogs are in a foster home. This is something we again inform people of during telephone conversations. Obviously people are incapable of reading, or listening.

We have had several people ask for homechecks recently, only to inform us afterwards they are not looking to adopt for a while, as they are going on holiday....etc...etc..

On Friday, a dedicated volunteer homechecker carried out a homecheck which involved a round trip of over 100 miles and a total of 5 hours! She did this out of the goodness of her heart to help get a dog into a new home. It was further than she would normally go - but she put herself out, to help us and the dogs.

On Saturday we received an email - not even the courtesy of a phone call - to say that the people thought we were too far away to travel. SOMETHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN WORKED OUT BEFORE THE HOMECHECKER DID THE TRIP!! It isn't bloody rocket science!

All our homecheckers are VOLUNTEERS, they help the rescue out to do their bit to help rescued dogs find new homes. For someone to waste a homecheckers time and goodwill in this manner is a disgrace. It is totally selfish and disrespectful to the person giving up their time, and lets not forget money - homecheckers do not claim expenses - they give everything freely. It is very disheartening for the homecheckers, and us, when they are treated like this.

SO PLEASE - only enquire about a dog and request a homecheck if you are really serious, committed and ready to adopt a dog.

I'm sorry if this upsets people - but its how I feel. This kind of thing can lose volunteers, because they start to lose heart when it is happening continuely.

Hello Blog Fans

Hello Blog Fans,

I'm sorry for the lack of 'blogging'. It has been so busy at Wiccaweys, we've hardly had time to breath. I'll try and catch you all up as best I can.

First some good news. This morning we received a fantastic donation from Royal Canin - in the form of 6 pallets of their Sensitivity Control food. In all they have donated over £4,000 worth of food to us, and we are extremely grateful to them, and I couldn't possibly put into words what this means to us. A huge thanks to Andrew Sanderson from Royal Canin for arranging all this for us, and a big thanks to Chris from FSSART for suggesting us for this donation.

Now some upsetting news. Yesterday we took in 5 dogs, 1 little collie girl from her home and 4 welsh pound dogs. 1 of the new arrivals is a little puppy boy of around 3 months. Robbie has come in with the most attrocious wounds on his neck. It is so upsetting as he is a wonderful little boy. We rushed him to the vets immediately and he was a very brave boy while his neck was inspected. We were told he had a small cyst on his neck following a vaccine reaction. We did not expect him to have half of the back of his neck missing! He has THREE tears in his neck where you can see his muscles and inner workings. Some of these tears are more than 3 inches in length. They are infected and very dangerous for him. Robbie's full story, with photos if you can stomach them, can be seen in our news section. We will keep you updated on his progress.

We have 3 very scaredy dogs with us at the moment, Little Evan who arrived from Ireland 2 weeks ago, and 2 poundies from yesterday. All 3 are seriously traumatised and are terrified of human contact. They panic if you look at them.
Evan has made some progress in the past week. He likes the company of other dogs, and this morning he came into the garden when I called him, although he gave me a very wide berth. He had a run round with the dogs, almost wagged his tail and then ran back to his secure hidey-hole in the kitchen. The other 2, no names as yet, are hiding away. We'll give them space for a few days, and let the other more confident dogs do some of the work for us for a bit.
Long and slow roads ahead for these 3 souls.

Basil the 19 year old finally joined us. He is a character, and he and Grandad Brynn have chummed up. I think they like to sit together and chat about the youngsters exploits! That, and when their next bowl of chicken soup is going to be served to them!

Also in the older dog world, we have been joined by Dennis (the Menace!) a very handsome Red and White chap from Ireland - who can't believe his luck - regular meals, a garden to play in - and young collie women to chase after!! Wooohoooo!!
Poor Dennis arrived with a terrible ear condition and he had to have immediate attention for that, which involved an operation - but that hasn't stopped him from playing kiss chase with the girls!

Flossie has come to us from a Welsh pound, she is a middle aged lady - lives up the the Flossie name - fiesty and funny! She is a brindle and white colour.

There have been lots of comings, but not that many goings recently - its the time of year. There does seem to be a lot of faffing about going on at the moment.

We have been working hard on getting ready for the show, and Paul is working on a newsletter at the moment. Thankfully Liz and Deborah have been helping out with the fundraising and PR side of thing for us.

After our fundraising message in the blog, we are very grateful to the folks that have offered help, suggestions and signed up for our Friends of Wiccaweys scheme - you are all wonderful and we very much appreciate your support and good wishes.

The car has now passed her MOT, which is great news....
Even better is the fact that Flossie has passed hers! We took her to the garage who did the MOT and work for the car - and she sailed through 1st time!!!
We were advised she needed a couple more tyres changing in the next couple of months, but they were still legal. I was in complete shock! I expected her to fail miserably! It proved that the previous garage were intending to rip us off for almost £500's worth of work!! I was really distressed prior to Flossie's MOT that she would fail miserably and that she would be off the road again, as we wouldn't have the money to sort her out for a while. They worried me to death for nothing! Seriously unimpressed! The garage did find an oil leak - I could actually see it when she was up having her underneath inspected, so she is going in soon to have that looked at.

Right, I'd better get on. Speak soon.

Time to be Serious

Well, a more serious note for the blog.

We're desperate for people to come forward with fundraising ideas to help Wiccaweys continue and develop. The summer has been a very quiet time for homings, and that is having an impact on what we can achieve.

But, more importantly than the fundraising, we need volunteers who will take the responsibility of running some fundraising things. Because although we get lots of ideas, we simply don't have the time to make them work - after all we're looking after the dogs.

There have been lots of people who really make a difference by making donations, running fundraising evets, etc. When you think that the majority of the dogs we rehome cost more in veterinary care than the donation we ask for, you can see that it's very important that we raise extra money outside the adoption donation system.

We've had a few dogs that have cost over £800 for veterinary treatment before they could go to new homes - they are worth every penny of that money. We believe that no dog is worth more or less than another, which is why we don't have a sliding scale of adoption fees. If adopters want to donate more, it is always gratefully recieved. It's worth remembering that by making that donation, you're not only adopting a wonderful dog into your family, but helping to fund the next dog that needs help.

If we don't find new ways of raising money for the rescue, with the current costs we are going to have to stop. We don't want to do that - we think we do a good job and try our best to help as many people as we can for free. The ironic thing is that the more we help people, it doesn't necessarily translate into more income for the rescue. We're heading toward a situation where we're asked to help more and more on resources that are staying the same. In fact, we're being asked to help more and more by the big rescues who have the resources, but not the know-how to help collies.

Here are a few stats. Last week, the Wiccaweys website got to the 100,000 visitors stage - with on average 275-300 visitors a day - 2000 visits already this week. That's a lot of visitors over the years. If you think about it, imagine if we could have raised the relatively small sum of £3 per visitor - Wiccaweys could buy it's own place for that!!

The forum currently has over 200 members. Imagine if each forum member could just raise £5 per month - that would make such a difference to Wiccaweys. A swear box can add up pretty quicky, so even if just 10 people out of those 2000 visitors started a swear box for 2 weeks that raised £20, that's an extra £200. To Wiccaweys, that's a lot of money.

This blog entry isn't here to make anyone feel guilty or awkward, but perhaps we can get some ideas / volunteers happening. It doesn't matter if you can't donate if you can help with organising something. Selling cakes at work, having a 'swear box' at home or work. Perhaps even having a box where every time you log on to Wiccaweys you stick 20p in it.

The littlest things when they add up can make a huge difference. We'd like to still be doing this in 10 years time, but we'd like Wiccaweys to have it's own premises, with state of the art doggy bedrooms, excercise fields, agility equipment, training facilites. That's our dream for the collies (and those other pesky monsters!) and we need your help to realise something that could make such a difference to so many collies.

Summer is a particularly difficult time as we have a 'lull' in adoptions. People go on holiday and usually wait until around August/September to think about homing again. Unfortunately, this is the time when lots of dogs come into rescue. We've got a huge waiting list of dogs waiting for us to help, lots of lovely doggies waiting for homes but a lull on potential adopters.

Very soon, we are probably going to be looking at building specialised new accomodation for some of the dogs (doggy bedrooms - not kennels no wire mesh in sight!), and we'll need funds for that. The problem is at the moment that special projects have to be funded from the central kitty - which drains the resources.

This is a rallying call - who's with us?

Seems like Ages....

.....Since I've been blogging - I just realised it is almost a week! Where does the time go?

The foxes have still been prowling around, but the dogs seem to have got use to their noise now. The cats have all appeared present and correct.

The weather has been unbearable and all the animals have been feeling it. The dogs don't know what to do with themselves during the hottest parts of the day, and they have all been a bit grouchy. I know how they feel. The goats are just laying around during the day avoiding the sun. The cats have been crashed out in the front garden or down in the meadow.

There has been no let up in the evenings or at night either - it is still stiffling. Grandad Brynn has really felt it, and I have been up with him most nights as he can't settle. We manage to get him to catch a few zzzzzz by having on the landing directly opposite the bathroom's skylight, with a cold damp towel drapped over him. He will settle for a while like that, and actually has a proper snooze. During the day though, he is an absolute terror and I am constantly having to bring him in from the garden as he wants to be out there sunbathing, and it is far to hot. I have to bar his way to the garden and then he sits there shouting at me!

Saturday saw Fly going off to a new home. She has settled in well and is very happy. :) Saturday also saw 2 new arrivals from Ireland. Clifford and Ella. Both are rather lovely. :)

Lots more phone calls this week, and I have been starting to get to work on the Wiccaweys Autumn Show (details on the main website). There is huge amounts to be done. I also need to get my backside into gear and organise the Wiccaweys Haunted Weekend. We have kindly been offered a ghost watching event, so I shall have to get a date confirmed and tickets etc sorted. That should be great fun. Really looking forward to it.

The car failed it's MOT on Saturday, but it was only something really small - a tiny bit of brake pipe - which is incredibly annoying - even more so, as the garage can't fit us in until a week Friday to repair it and re-test the car! The week after that Flossie is due, and we already know she needs at least a couple of hundred spending on her! Why do MOT's always seem to come along together?

The extremely lovely Teresa went to her new home yesterday, and we are sooooo pleased for her. It really warms our hearts when the oldies find new homes. Oldies are such wonderful dogs to have around. I honestly couldn't imagine home being home without an oldie or 2 (or in our case - several!) creaking about the place.

We were supposed to be taking in a 19 - yes, you read that right - 19 yr old collie this week. The Oldies Club asked us if we would give him a space. His owner was being evicted and couldn't take him with him. A transport was arrange to bring Basil to us, but sadly when the Oldies Club volunteer went to collect Basil at the arranged time, no-one was at home. We don't know what is happening with Basil at the moment. :(

Last night was another Irish run. I estimate that both Paul and I haven't really slept in 48hrs now, what with the heat, dogs keeping us up, watching Brynn like a hawk and other stuff. I was worried I was going to be too exhausted to drive, and unfortunately no volunteers were able to help out. Alexa normally would, but she is having problems with her eye again and can't drive at the moment. I did ask for help, but no-one was available to help. I guess it is a bit much to expect people to want to drive through the middle of the night to meet up and collect dogs at 4am.
Luckily last night the adrenalin seemed to be in overdrive, and I was ok. I left home at 2am and got back just after 6am. The new arrivals are lovely. We have Buster & Misty who are 2 Yorkshire Terriers aged 8 & 10. I know.... not collies! LOL! They were constantly getting overlooked in Ireland due to their age. We also have the very lovely Benny, a severe cruelty case who is an angel, and finally Hugo - a rather smart young collie chap. They all travelled very well, and tucked into breakfast happily when we got home.

Buster & Misty are right characters - they certainly do not act their ages - and I suspect, apart from their attempts at World Domination, they intend to age as disgracfully as possible! They have lovely temperaments and they are absolutely hilarious!

On the way home they rode shotgun in the front of the van with me. 10 mins after leaving Donal, Misty decides she is bored, so disappears down under the van seat. I did wonder if she was going to have a poo. Then I hear rustling and she jumps back up with a squeaky ball! She'd found a bag of toys! I kept getting a ball thrown at me, and barked at if I didn't throw it back quick enough. When she was bored of that, she went back under the seat and got another toy. When she came up with a tuggy ring, Buster decided to join in, so I then had them playing tuggy on the front seat for 30mins! LOL! The front seat looks like a Yorkie Adventure Playground!

Well, calls to return, etc.... etc....
bye for now Blog Fans. :)

Another Day

Paul thinks we have a fox prowling around. That is probably why a couple of the dogs haven't settled as easily at night. He had to get up to a couple of them last night, and the night before we were woken up by the sound of something probably meeting a sticky end. :( Paul went down the field last night, and he could hear something milling around in the darkness. We've not seen a couple of the cats for a few days, so I hope they are alright. :(

Dal phoned this morning to say that the neighbours had called him to complain about the dogs barking at night for a couple of nights. I explained that we think something is prowling around at night and Dal was going to let the neighbours know for us.

The fox can't get at the chickens as they are safely tucked up in the porch at night, and I can't really see him/her taking a swipe at the goats. Foxes don't like pygmy goats apparently.

Will have to see what tonight brings. We are going to move the dog that is on the highest state of fox alert - the others just sleep through it all!

Yes, its 2.45am.....

....And I'm up blogging!

A few of the dogs are finding it difficult to settle because of the heat and the stillness of the night - so I'm downstairs with them so we can have the windows wide open. They've called me down. There is nothing like hot sticky dog kisses in the middle of the night! Thanks gang!

I thought I would use the opportunity to catch up again.

Another busy week so far, with a new arrival every day of the week at the moment.
On Monday we had Moss, Tuesday Harvey arrived, Wednesday Petra joined us, and yesterday Tina joined us from Rochdale. She was save from the pound on the day she was due to be PTS and bought down by the ever wonderful Bernie, and Coryn. We have 2 more dogs arriving from Ireland on Saturday.

Yesterday also saw lots of visitors, Helen came over the do some dog walking - and thankfully yesterday morniing started off a little cooler than the rest of the week - but it was soon horrible again by mid morning, so thank you to Helen for getting some of the dogs out and about before it got too unbearable again.

We also had visitors in the form of Sam & Mark Squirrel who came over to collect the ever lovely Alice for fostering. Princess Alice has made herself at home at Chez Squirrel and is being spoilt rotten from the photographic evidence I have seen so far.

Claire from White Lodge Long Dogs also popped over to see us, and kindly bought us a little patio table and chairs she no longer needed. Thanks Claire.

Best of all, both Claire & Sam came bearing gifts in the form of Cakes! Yum!

The week has not been without its sadness and Wednesday evening we heard the very sad news that Brodie, a beautiful Blue Merle boy belonging to a friend, Alison, had crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Brodie was a wonderful old man, and I know he will be deeply missed by his family, and all those who knew and loved him. Run free Brodie.

Alexa is up tomorrow evening, and I think she mentioned cooking dinner again! WhooooHoooo!!!

The weekend looks like it is going to be a busy and hot one. Saturday, Fly has people coming to meet her, and I am taking the car to be MOT'd before going off to collect the new Irish arrivals. I haven't even looked at the board to see what is happening on Sunday yet.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for the Astra & her MOT!

Right...... it looks like they are 'chilling' out a bit now, and have settled down again - I'm off to bed.......

Another busy date in the land of Collies

The day started with the phone ringing early..... Must be Monday! :)

I left Paul manning the fort and drove up the M1 to meet up with Melp's Trevor. Mel & Trevor have kindly given us a small freezer, so we can have lots more iced towels ready for the dogs..... and ice lollies for us and the volunteers!

After meeting Trevor, it was on to the farm store to collect some more fencing materials.

Once that was all loaded, it was off to Leicester RSPCA to meet and do an assessment on a collie they had, and wanted us to take on. I met up with Helen, one of our adopters, and up until very recently the local dog warden for that area. Helen is a regular visit to the centre and has previous arranged for collies to come to us for help.

We met Moss, and to be honest, from the discription I had been given on the phone, I was expecting a neurotic, out of control lunatic. What we met was a very lovely, very handsome, normal, happy, friendly - but BUSY, collie chap! He loves to play with his ball and is a really nice lad. He really wants to please, and has good basic obedience all ready. He is going to make someone a smashing pal. I was supposed to just be assessing him today, and collecting when we had space - thinking he was a looney - but as he was so good, he came home with me there and then. His full details and pics will be on the site soon.... He is a bit of a collie Brad Pitt - it has to be said!

When we got home, Paul was with visitors who had come to meet the lovely Doc.
While we sorted out Doc's paperwork, Moss made the most of playing ball with Doc's new 2 legged sister! Hey, you've got a new home mate - I can borrow her for a bit.

Moss's dog socialising skills left a little to be desired, and after pretending to be Doc's best friend, he decided to bully him. Moss was taken to meet our gang - and Buffy in particular. Buffy Rough Justice - sorts the bullys out! Moss tried it on the once. He won't do it again, and has now spent a very pleasant afternoon learning that having collie friends is much better than being a bully. Racy-chasy games are great fun!

This evening I met up with Pauline to go and look at the field we are being allowed to borrow for our Autumn Show. It is lovely and we should have a really good time there. The show date is looking at being the Sunday 10th of September - please watch the main website for details. :) It is very exciting. We are looking to line up lots of demos of things people can do with their collies, collies in action - as well as a fun dog show. We may even be able to offer camping for the Saturday night for people who are travelling a distance, with a bbq in the evening. Watch this space!

We've just finished reinforcing the goat enclosure - Harvey had perfected his drop and roll escape technique..... My poor hanging baskets! LOL! So now we are going have our tea and sit and watch a film..... hopefully without Tess sitting on my head!

Ciao for now!

What a week!

It's been one of thos weeks at Wiccaweys.

Sorry the blog is so far behind to all Blog Fans.
We've been off line for a few days this week thanks to a BT mess up. Many phone calls later speaking to several different people at BT, none of whom were singing from the same hymn sheet - and then several calls to AOL who BT started to blame for the lack of broadband connection. A rather interesting game of 3 way telephone tennis....to BT....to AOL....to BT.....to AOL..... you get the picture! We finally have broadband access back on this morning. We managed to get online yesterday and late Friday via dial-up.

Last Sunday we had some new family members arrive, in the form of 4 pygmy goats. They are Harvey, Rosie, George & Mildred. They are absolutely gorgeous and very funny. They are supposed to be heading down the meadow, but so far they keep sneaking up to the house to try and eat my hanging baskets - and to see what everyone is up to! They are very nosey!

Earlier in the week I went over the the Army's dog training dept in Leicestershire.
We have been approached by them to see if we would have any dogs who could enlist, so I went over to check out the facilities and training techniques for myself. They are looking for dogs to do sniffer work. The training is all based around 'ball work - tennis balls' and it is all very postive. No choke or check chains used at all. The training is similar to what the Fire Service Search & Rescue guys do. I was impressed with what I saw, and will stay in touch with them in the future.

On Wednesday, the lovely Gwen headed off to a new home - she has little girls to spoil her rotten!

Paul started to try and replace the shock absorbers on the Astra. MOT due in the next week or so. We have been supplied with the wrong ones! We have now been told the ones we need are 'electronically controlled' shock absorbers and are much more expensive! Oh joy!

The phones have been as busy as ever, and when we finally got back online on Friday afternoon we had over 300 emails to go through! We do seem to be getting a lot of phonecalls from people just about to go on holiday, and people asking for homechecks and then once they are completed telling us they are about to go on holiday. We would much rather people wait until they are actually ready to adopt a dog for us to go through all the procedures. Homecheckers rush around and give up their time to get homechecks done as quickly as possible, so a dog can get into its new home. It is very disheartening for them when we have to tell them after all their hard work etc that the home they have just checked isn't actually looking to adopt for another month or so. We won't reserve dogs for people while they go away, and we are being asked that more and more. People change their minds about things, and in the meantime a 'reserved dog' could have lost out on another home. That is entirely unfair to the dog. This has happened in the past, and that is why we will not do it. That might sound hard and unmoving, however our duty first and foremost is to the dogs in our care.

Friday evening, Alexa & Dougie came over for the weekend. Alexa kindly made dinner for us all. :)

Saturday was another busy day, luckily Alexa & Dougie were with us, and Liz also came up to help put. Saturday saw Lulu & Harry go off to new homes..... and also one of our longest staying residents....Tall Ben!!! Good luck to all - but of course, especially Ben!

Better shoot off - another busy one today and people have just arrived.....

Catching up again

Well, the end of another busy week and no doubt the start of another.

We've had 3 new arrivals today from Ireland, Teresa a wonderful older lady, and Harry and Timmy - 2 lovely mischievous boys.

Lynda & family came over earlier to collect a new foster dog, after the lovely Bobby found himself a new home earlier in the week, so big thanks to them.

Plenty of phone calls to keep us occupied, although a lot of them seem to be behaviourial and dogs needing to come into rescue. Enquiries offering homes seem to be quiet at the moment, but that will be the time of year.

The samples of our new exclusive designs for polo shirts arrived yesterday and they look fabulous. Paul has been busy working away on the other designs we would like to see on shirts.

Merlin The Lurcher is not a happy bunny at the moment, he knows it is the weekend, and his one true love, Alexa, isn't here. He has been looking out for her since Friday. He will turn into a giggly love struck loony tomorrow when Alexa comes up!

I'm not sure what Grandad Brynn has been on recently, but he is an old man on a mission! I guess the hot weather has recharged his batteries again! This week he has been patrolling the garden at a rate of knots and he seems more positive on his back end again. He is a wonder! Thursday evening he helped himself to pizza from our plates!

Batty old Meg has discovered a great new game - it involves stealing old plastic pop bottles and using them at battering weapons against the young whipper-snappers when they get out of line!

They are a funny bunch!

Becca has a Huff!

Well, how do you upset an old collie in one easy move? You take her sofa away from her!

Yesterday evening Alison came over in her van and we went to collect the 2 leather sofas we'd been given - they are lovely! While we were out, Paul moved the old sofa and chair out of the living room, and mopped beind them to clear out resident doggy hairy tumbleweeds!

Becca threw a right paddy! She huffed and puffed, and stomped round the room! Then she went and stood exactly where she would lay on the sofa and GLARED at Paul...."and just what am I supposed to lay on?? Uhmmmm??" She stomped out to look at the sofa outside, and back to the blank space - huffing and puffing and making a big fuss of laying down - ON THE FLOOR - where her sofa should be!

The look of relief on her face when the new one was bought in was a picture!

Has anyone tried to bring a sofa in, while you have 15 odd dogs all trying to try it for size before anyone else?

The Big Fat Red Dog, Remmy is over the moon with the old sofa that is now on the patio at the moment - Ohhhhh Yes!! She can lay outside in comfort now!

Huge thanks to Alison for picking them up for us.

Pauline and Mitchell came over last night too, to pick up Beko to take back on foster. They both got to see 'The Lurcher', Merlin, having one of his mad - super-speedy moments. It was really funny, especially when he runs at full pelt into one of their little play tents and stops dead - he goes in at such a speed you expect him to come flying out the other side. Then his little pointy nose peers out, checks for chasers and launches himself across the garden again, with his pursuers hot on his heels!

Alison met the feline residents last night, and a few were very happy to come and say hello and have a fuss. Brilliant. We should be able to think about foster, or even permanent homes, for them soon.

Flossie had her service yesterday, and her pre-MOT inspection...... YIKES!
We are waiting for price details on the stuff that needs doing for the MOT now.

Today started off with a lovely HUGE thunder storm, with lashings of lighting!
It was right over head, so the thunder was very loud. Bran isn't keen on thunder, so he was doing his woofing and 'call of the wild' impressions! Paul & I got absolutely soaked to the skin as we got caught in it while we were down the yard! Tess thought it was brilliant and wasn't fussed at all. Gem, who normally isn't bothered by storms, got a bit scared, and hid under one of the vans. I had to crawl under to get her out!

When we got back to the house we just chucked everything straight in the washing machine - thank goodness no one arrived early! Welcome to Wiccaweys, the rescue home run by streakers!

Today has been another busy day, lots of calls to catch up on. We still have some emails to wade through. Been trying to catch up on snail mail today too, and get stuff I need to post out to people. I had hoped to get some more jar painting done, but time has got away from me again for that today.

Paul has been working on another project that will hopefully help with fundraising. We are getting so busy now, funds are really tight all the time. He is working on an online Wiccaweys One-Stop-Collie-Shop, where we will be able to sell things like our polo shirts and t-shirts, and the treat jars etc. It is very exciting.

Took a call from a local RSPCA centre who have a collie they would like us to assess and take on. I'm going over to see him next week. He has a few issues and problems, so I hope we can help him through those.

Been sorting out for the new Irish arrivals. We have 3 coming on Saturday, and probably about 10 waiting to travel now, including 3 older ladies who's owner have passed away. We need to get them over asap as they are currently living 'home alone' with friends and rescue workers going in to see to them. Neighbours are threatening to send them to the pound - where they would be PTS immediately.
This one will be a sad one, as homing 3 old dogs together is going to be preety nigh on impossible. We will see how they go, and whether they can be split up, firstly into foster homes. If they can't, then to try and split them up would only cause them to pine - and that would be so distressing for them after loosing their owner. They would all have to become permanent residents so they could stay together.

We had a big hairy arrival today in the form of 'Boots' the Old English Sheepdog. His family have a new baby arriving very soon, and as Boots is a very young and bouncy young man, they didn't think they would be able to give him what he needs.
He's a cheeky chap, and good fun.

Back to it......

The Never-ending Story

The past couple of days of been filled with phone calls from people wanting to hand their dogs in. There are various reasons and situations. It is all very sad.

At the moment, our waiting list for dogs to come in from peoples homes is 2 months.
Paul is doing his best to provide people with advice in the meantime, however in some cases I can see he is just hitting his head up against a brick wall. People have been downright rude to him because we aren't able to 'jump to it' and take their dog in immediately.

I suppose it could be the hot weather. I wish people would realise we really want to help their dogs, and when we say we can't help immediately, it isn't because we don't want too - its because we physically can't.

We've

Flossie is in for her service tomorrow, fingers crossed nothing horrible is found structually. We are having to wait until we can sort the timing out.

Alison is coming over tomorrow to give us a hand to go and pick up a couple of leather sofas we are being given. They are a bit too big to go in Flossie because of the cages, so Alison is bring her hubby's van over to collect them.

The cats are a little bit more friendlier again today, it is really nice to see them coming round so well. They are lovely cats.