New arrivals

Today I went over to the RSPCA home at Leicester. We'd taken a call just over a week ago about a collie boy they had there to see if we could take him in. He was severely kennel stressed and also behaving aggressively towards other dogs. As we were full up, in the interim, I gave some advice, recommended a food change and asked them to call in a week, and as soon as I could I would pop over to see him. The lady called earlier this week and said that the food change had helped, and that he was improving. He'd met another dog and had been ok with them. So I met Sky today and it was obvious that he was just a stressed out little lad. The lady who had been working with him loves him very much and had been giving him special attention to help him while in kennels. He so wants to please. He is very well behaved and obedient. He just can't cope with kennel life. We popped him in the car, and he settled straight away.

Then they asked if I could have a look at another collie there. A little bitch, who was very dog aggressive. The lady was quite worried about her, and feared for her chances. One home had turned her down when she tried to attack another dog there when they had her out for a walk. We took her out, and again, it was obvious she was a confused and stressed out girl. I pointed out and explained why she was doing things, and how to solve them. Then I fetch Gem-Gems Stooge Dog from the car. The RSPCA lady was amazed when Bonnie behaved impecably. I explain what and how I was doing things - and why it was making such a difference. She was very relieved when I said I would take Bonnie today too. We walked both Bonnie and Gem back to the car together, and as we put her in the car next to Sky, she realised we'd walked past other dogs on the way and Bonnie had not reacted. She was amazed. She was even more amazed when Bonnie and Sky settled next to each other in the respective crates without a grumble or cross word murmured. They are both fantastic dogs, and I thank the lady at the RSPCA for calling us to take them on and give them the chance they deserve. Here is a video we took earlier of the 2 dog aggressive dogs together just after arriving - It just shows how easily these wonderful dogs are misread and misunderstood, and they are not the dogs people have them pegged as. Beautiful Babies!

Run Mummy Run!!

Been a bit breezy here today, so all the normal case of leaving doors open is going to have to change. Autumn has definately arrived. I was on a phone call, when I heard the sound of the hallway door opening - looked out of the window to see Jake, Martha, Daisy Bassett and little Poppy all heading out the front door (should point out now, the front door leads to fields, so nothing really to worry about). The wind had gusted through suddenly and blown the doors open. After apologising and saying hurridly - "I'll call you back".... I raced out of the room. Anyone who knows Martha knows she is a nervy lady, and is still being walked on lead in the fields, so I was over the moon when she came racing up to me when I called her, tail wagging and bottom following suit and a big grin on her face. She followed me straight through to the kitchen when I called her, as did little Poppy! What Stars! Jakey took the opportunity to steal toys from the hallway before heading back. Daisy sauntered back, Bassett Style, in her OWN good time - snaffling the cat food on the way past! Hound Dog! Once they were all safely back, I noticed that Blind Alun was missing - surely not - the doors hadn't been open that long? Oh yes - we have a Super Blind Dog - what was that character called? Daredevil? Yes, well, we have a Doggy Daredevil! He must have been like lighting, or wearing a clock of doggy invisability! He'd got out the door, negotiated the front garden, round the side heading for the veggie patch, veered off to the gate to the main yard and was sautering around by the training barn, before heading off to check out the office! No-one ever tell me that blind dogs are good for nothing! We know they aren't! I called him and he came racing over bless him. Never missed a foot, or bumped into anything. He is such a fab dog! He trotted back at my heel. What a sweetie. It's still windy here, so the doors are now firmly shut. Got to get out of the summer habit of doors wide open now. Boo Hoo!

We have had a lovely email and call from a lady called Rachel who would like to come and see what Wiccaweys does, and we are looking forward very much to meeting her. :) Folks who read Rachel's blog have been visiting the site all day - so a special HELLOOO to everyone from all the dogs (and humans) at Wiccaweys!

Queueing up to come in.

Another busy day for calls for dogs needing help. Strangely, all the calls seemed to come late afternoon today. We have quite a few dogs due for arrival this week. 1 lad that was supposed to come in today didn't because his transport couldn't be sorted, so little Poppy was called in instead. She is currently curled up snoozing with Percy Chi after snaffling some of our Chinese dinner. Very sweet little lady. No, scrap that - they've just woken up and are doing wall of death round the lounge!

Jennie popped over today to go through the wish list and update it. :) Her collie Ty was refusing to leave! LOL!

Off to Leics RSPCA later this week to assess a collie they have and would like us to take on. Sounds like a stressed out little man, bless him.

Pauline has reported in that the Wheels Appeal has raised £2070 already! That is fantastic and thanks to all those who have contributed.

Hectic Weekend

Another busy weekend, seeing old friends heading off to new homes, and new friends arriving into our care.

On Saturday, Alexa, Carol and Pauline came over to lend a hand with the post show catch up! Alexa had a little tear in her eye as her foster dog Pete heading off for pastures new. After the general tidying chores were done, it was quite amusing to watch all 3 of them embark on a mass grooming session. LOL! Old Tally was leading them all a merry dance.

Saturday afternoon saw the arrival of Roz, Chris, Dave & the reprobates more commonly known as Robbie Der Teef and Remmi (the not so innocent!)! Chris promptly set about installing outside lights for us, now that the evenings are getting darker - and Wiccs HQ is darker than a dark thing in a dark thing factory at night! The lovely Roz spent Sunday catching up on some lawn mowing for us - and Dave was subjected to torture by Percy!

Thank you all for your hard work.
Sarah
x

Message from Pauline - Wheels Appeal:

Hi folks. As many of you will know Wiccaweys badly need a dog van and thanks to Steve Tubb (Doggy Cages) they have now got the chance of buying a decent caged model. The only problem is that we need to raise more funds to buy it. We have just over £1000 that we can use as a deposit from the proceeds of the show (thank you again to everyone who helped raise that) but we need to raise a total of £3000.

I am co-ordinating the Wheels Appeal. I am asking you if you can dig your hands in your pocket and see what change (or notes!) you have that you can spare to make this dream come true for Sarah and Paul (god knows they deserve it!). Last week, Sarah had to make a run to collect the dogs that had just come over from Ireland and it was a very tight squeeze to fit them in the Astra estate. A fully caged dog van is essential for the safety of dogs coming into Wiccaweys.

Sarah and Paul are planning some fund raisers, but obviously the sooner we have the money together the sooner Wiccaweys get the van. If you can help in whatever way and make a donation, big or small, please send a cheque made payable to Pauline Barr and send it to 18 Spencer Road, Long Buckby, NORTHAMPTON, NN6 7YP. This way all the money earmarked for the wheels will go direct for wheels.

To start the ball rolling I pledge £100.

Thank you in anticipation.

Pauline

Busy, Busy - and some good news

Busy night, we had an overnight run to meet some Irish dogs that had been waiting for a while to come over. All safely enscounced and settling in well. Little Star is a sweetheart, he was found down a river bank in a storm drain. Probably thrown in. He couldn't climb out. His details are in the ABC section.

Good News: The very lovely Steve Tubb, of Steve Tubb Fabrications, and a Wiccaweys adopter and supporter has offered us a lovely van at a bargain price. Its a 02 Fiat Ducato van with only 57,000 miles on the clock! AND it's Wiccaweys colours - a purpley-blue colour. The van was for sale on Ebay and the reserve was £3,000.

Steve has said we can have it for £3,000 and he will completely crate it out for us included in the price! That would normally cost another £1,500 alone! And he will sort out the signwriting too. And he will put 12mths MOT on it for us too!

I took it for a test drive yesterday and it drives lovely. CD player, electric windows, electic mirrors and a tow-bar. Only ever had light use, as it was Steve's own demo vehicle.

We are now frantically trying to work out how to raise the extra cash to secure it. We have the £1,000 raised from the dog show, so we have a start. :)

It's very exciting, so fingers crossed we can raise the extra. It would be so wonderful to have a really decent van for the rescue - and it would mean the long planned for Irish trip could finally happen.

Post Show News

Well, we are starting to catch up with ourselves today. Paul has the phone firmly glued to his ear-lug and is starting to make headway into all the calls that need doing from the past few days. I'm sorting out all the cheques for the show expenses. The brilliant news is that once all those have been paid, it looks like we will have raised around £1,000 from the show! So thank you everyone.

We are looking to use that money towards a new collie ambulance/van. Anyone who know us well, knows we don't have much luck when it comes to vans. We tend to drive them into the ground due to the amount of miles we rack up, and the fact we have to buy 'cheapies' due to limited funds. Our trusted old astra is starting to feel the pace now, and we dearly need another proper caged out vehicle for the collections and vet runs. Fingers crossed we can find something reasonably decent for the funds available. :)

We really need something reliable so we can finally organise our long planned trip to Limerick Animal Welfare in Eire. It's been in the pipeline for a year now. As well as visiting with our friends over there and seeing the places where a lot of the dogs come from, there are several collies in Ireland who have been waiting to come to Wiccaweys for over a year. These little souls are very timid and have been through terrible times. They are with a lovely chap who gives them a safe haven and regular meals, but doesn't really have the facilities to do much more. They only know Tom. None of us want them to come over on the normal transport runs. I want to spend a little time letting them know me before bringing them over myself.

Thank You!!

Paul & I would like to thank everyone who came a supported the show, and all those who mucked in and helped on the day. It was a fantastic day, barring the wind, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. The atmosphere was really lovely, and had a real ambience of a celebration of the dogs and their families. Everyone was happy and smiling - including the dogs. I'm going to try and thank everyone, but I do apologise if I miss anyone, please don't take it personally, and just give me a kick. Firstly, thank you to our Fun dog show Judges, Nick & Sheena - brilliant and happy judging. And to Patch for judging the agility - the course seemed to promote happy faces. To Lindsey & Teddy for their obedience display, and Gina and the lovely Cassie for their Heelwork to Music display. To Pauline, Dewayne, Amanda, Penny and AlisonT on the refreshments - stirling work as always guys! And Colin for doing supply runs. To Dot, Hayley and David for battling the wind in the entries tent, thank you all. To Tricia and her Mum for holding down the tombola; Jenn for manning the bric-a-brac; Dee, Vince and Isaac for the face painting and bargains stall, Diane for the craft stall, Joan for face painting. Huge thanks to Liz for being the Compere without compare once again. Alexa for the dog walking, promoting and everything else I threw at her throughout the day. Dougie for helping Paul on the Wiccs stand - mainly hanging onto the gazebo so it didn't blow away while Paul saw to folks. MrsB for cakes and raffle ticket selling. To everyone else who bought cakes for the stall - especially Frodos Mum for the wonderful GB cake. I still haven't cut it yet as I want to take a photo. Bridget and friends, & Mum & Dad for acting as ring party for Patch at the agility rings, and Premier for the loan of the equipment. All the flyballers who came to strutt their stuff. Ros & Nicola for the healing and massage stall. Richard & Jennie for all the help with anything that needed help with, and for the KCGC gate. Alison for running the KCGC tests. Rob for letting us use his field and Steve for marshalling the parking, signs, setting up and taking down and everything else. Carol for her wonderful Wiccaweys display board and the brilliant owners club badges. Toni & Graham for the Guess the Name of the Dog competition (where did you get that collie?) Laughing Dog for their sponsorship. Everyone who sponsored a class or game, and all the other rescues that came along with their stalls. Alex, Greg & Mitch for helping out - especially Alex for Daisy escorting services. And finally to all the Wiccaweys Dogs and their wonderful families for coming along to see us. It makes us so proud to see you all. I hope I've got everyone. One thing, please, please email your piccies over if you have them - I didn't get chance to take one photo all day.