Well the past couple of weeks have been hectic to say the least.
Last week Alexa and I travelled up to Crufts Dog Show all 4 days. Paul, bless him, manned the fort alone. What a Star.
We did our essentials shopping - bulk buys of wormer for the year, and met up with old friends from across the Country, and a couple of the girls from Limerick Animal Welfare too.
On Thursday, Wiccaweys were the lucky receipents of a Micro-Chip Scanner from Dog Theft Action!, and we were presented with the scanner by Daphne Townsend; President of Rugby Dog Training Club. RDTC made a £600 donation to DTA! for more scanners, and are also incredibly supportive of Wiccaweys. A very proud moment for us, and lovely to have our important work recognised and appreciated after the upset of the last few weeks.
Pauline & Fern, Sarah, Daphne & Ace, with folks from DTA! & PetLog.
On Friday, we had a supporters meet up, which was lovely.
The lovely folks from 'Colliewobbles' and 'Pet Perfect' kindly had Wiccaweys collection boxes on their stalls for us and we really appreciate their support.
Alexa & I were amazed at how often the Wiccaweys name was recognised and we got stopped by people for a chat. I was very proud and admit to teary eyes.
Pauline kindly treated Alexa and Myself to Best In Show tickets on the Sunday evening, and we had a wonderful time. Mary Ray's routine was stunning as always. From what I have seen of the BBC coverage, the camera angles were all wrong - and it is such a shame that folks didn't get to see what an amazing display Mary and the dogs put on.
Sad News
We lost our darling Remmy Red Dog the week before Crufts. The cancer had spread too much and she was struggling to walk. We let her go sooner rather than later, and with her dignity - and appetitie - still intact. She was given sleep at home, in her favourite position - snoozing on the sofa. We all miss her very much, especially Horace Peke, Tally and her special human 'boyfriend' Alex. Run free Remmy.
Planning Update - I can't remember if I have blogged about the Enforcement Officer visit, so apologises if I am repeat myself. The council are clearly determined to stop ANY rescue activity at the current premises because certain people in the vicinity do not want us here. Although the Enforcement Office didn't issue an enforcement notice on his visit, no rescue activity can take place now and if it does, he will be back. Once again, what was noticable by the people who came to support us during his visit - was how quiet it was. Not a peep from the Wiccaweys dogs. A couple of people who had not been to HQ before could not believe how quiet it is here, considering what we do.
Good News
Despite the planning news, Wiccaweys are being able to carry on rescuing, rehabiliating and rehoming dogs with the extra help from our wonderful foster homes. Our fosterers, both new and old have really step up to the mark when it has counted most and have gone above and beyond the call of duty to save lives. Paul & I thank them all from the bottom of our hearts - they are all fantastic.Val Philips at Valgrays and the guys at Border Collie Trust have been incredibly supportive and have kept in touch. They have both said they have been feeling the impact of us not working a full capacity. Ben from BCT told me at Crufts that their calls in the past few weeks, for dogs to be handed in, have increased dramatically and Val from Valgrays has emailed to say, "hurry up, we are full up - dogs coming out of every room, roof, shed, kennel!" Bless her. :)
Day-to-Day at HQ, the phones are the busiest we have ever had them. It is constantly ringing from 10am - 7pm. We are doing lots of behavioural calls which of course take time, and when we are finished with one call, we usually have at least 5 missed calls to return. We will get back to everyone, but it might not be able to be immediately.
We have many 'behavioural issue' collies waiting to come in for our help from other rescues, and we hope that we will be able to get back to working properly in the very near future.
Hope on the Horizon
There is HOPE on the horizon for the work of Wiccaweys continue properly again. After the enforcement visit, that same afternoon, Pauline, Mrs B, Paul and I all went to look at property which has great potential and is not to far away from our current location. It has no neighbours whatsoever - THANK GOODNESS, and although not perfect (whatever is?) would make a good base for Wiccs in the coming years while we develop and grow. It needs work and tidying up, but we are not scared of rolling up our sleeves and getting stuck in, and there are facilities there for us to be able to have an indoor training room among other things.
To secure this property we need to raise funds for a very large deposit, and to buy fencing for security etc. If people would like to make donations, our PAYPAL address is wiccaweys@aol.com
We really need to secure the new premises asap. Dogs lives are depending on it.
