The Christmas Party was fantastic!
It was a very early start on Sunday to be prepared, up just before 5am and we kicked off with visitors at 9am so little Jack could head off to his new home with Amanda and family. Volunteers arrived and everyone was soon bustling about.

Em arrived with a car laidened with food and she set herself up in the marquee. Em outdid herself once more with all the tasty goodies on offer at the House of Badger refreshments. Amazing and wonderful lady. Em was very ably assisted by AlisonT behind the tables, as always they were a finely oiled team of foodie expertise. A big thank you to everyone who also contributed to the table too.

Midday and folks started to arrive and soon the yard was HEAVING with people and dogs. There was a very exciting moment when Santa Paws and their sleigh arrived in the yard, escorted by Rudolf and a couple of suspect looking Penguins. Photographic evidence of the arrival via Sharon, Kiki's mum.

Andy led the walk for us, and people hopefully found all the flashing light Santa's hidden in the bushes. Bernie arrived bringing a new arrival with her. The lovely Benji who soon made himself at home. After the walk it was back to the yard for much eating, drinking and merry making, followed by the dog show which was great fun.   Certain dogs couldn’t quite contain their excitement at the Doggy Lucky Dip / Hay Dive – Stitch & Blake!!!


Rob & Sarah were taking photos for folks and watching Andy and co trying to get everyone face the same way was very amusing! If anyone spots their dog and would like a copy, they are available for £3 each, with proceeds coming to Wiccs.
Email Rob or Sarah to order.
Rob : thefoxbrain@gmail.com
Sarah: s.j.cochrane78@gmail.com
Link to photos:
http://www.holdingthebags.com/event/68-wiccaweys-christmas-party/

Some previous adopters joined us last minute for the walk, coming all the way from Bristol, with the intention of finding another doggy as company for their Wiccs dog Indy and our lovely Gavin has found himself a new home in time for Christmas.

The entries from the walk were entered into a Grand Draw, and Vivien, Bryn and Ricky won the star prize, a lovely break away at a cottage in Devon.. The raffle was called and some hours later (!) all the prizes were taken - our raffles are legendary!! The raffle was absolutely amazing and the prizes were spectacular.

All too soon the light was fading and folks starting heading off home.
We hope everyone had a brilliant time, we certainly did. It was great to see so many happy dogs and people.

So a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who helped out and came to spend time with us. It was a wonderful day and we throughly enjoyed it. See you all in the New Year for the next one!

Christmas Walk & Dog Show

All welcome!
Come and find Santa's little helpers hidden in the hedgerows
and fields surrounding Wiccaweys HQ.
Its an Elf Treasure Hunt!

Date:
Sunday 7th December

Venue:
Wiccs HQ, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

Organiser: Wiccs
Tel: 07905 203254
Email: wiccaweys@aol.com
Please call or email to confirm your attendance so we don't start walking without you, and for refreshment numbers. Mrs Badger needs to know how many Mince pies to rustle up.  Nom, Nom! Please let us know if you are bringing your own dog/s or if you would like to walk a Wiccs resident on the stroll.

Start Time:
Midday.    Walking to start 12.30pm

Parking Availability:
Plenty of parking.

Duration:
Midday - 5pm

Hazards:
We do ask that visiting dogs who are not good with livestock and other animals are kept on leads for the duration of the walk.

Facilities:
Human and canine refreshments will be available throughout the day from the
legendary House of Badger.
Toilet.

Walk & Event Description:
Complimentary mulled wine and homemade mince pie on arrival for humans. 
Complimentary meaty mince pie for doggies on arrival!
The walk will involve walking around the fields at Wiccaweys.
Come and find hidden Elves in the hedgerows.
Then back to HQ for House of Badger refreshments, merry making and Christmas Dog Show.
5 dog show classes
Cutest Puppy, Handsomest Boy, Prettiest Girl, Most Outragous Oldie and Festive Fancy Dress.  £1 per entry. 
Santa Paws will make an appearance
Extra special Christmas Hamper Raffle with amazing prizes and a doggy tombola.
Gifts and goodies galore for woofers and folks available from the Wiccs shop,
including homemade crafts, and other yummy things.
Superb preserves from the House of Badger - they make excellent Xmas gift baskets! 
The House of Badger can also take orders before the show for goodies to be taken home.

Fundraising & Sponsoring:
A walkers donation of £5 in bucket would be very much appreciated.
A Secret Santa tub will be available for folks who would like to bring a present for a resident.
Our christmas pressie wish list includes tins of Butchers Tripe, trays of Nature Diet, Vet Bedding, Kongs.

We look forward to seeing everyone there.
HO, HO, HO!!!

The past couple of days have been very, very busy for Wiccs.  It's been pretty manic for Wiccs volunteer Sharon and Wiccs supporter Olwen too.  Sharon asked if we would be able to help out with a very sad situation.

A couple of weeks ago, an acquaintance of Sharon's lost her home due to medical issues and repossession.  The lady was a breeder of border collies and she and her family had been evicted from the home, however the dogs and cats were still at the property and in the hands of the management company.   Sharon asked at that point if we would be able to help, and of course we said we would happily provide rescue help as we had the space.  There were at least 8 dogs than needed somewhere.   Unfortunately at that point, the lady thought she could still sort issues out so we heard nothing more.

Over the weekend, things happened rapidly, the lady went to visit her dogs and found they had been removed and placed in an unknown location.  The RSPCA had come and taken some of the cats, although the dogs were still in the control of the management company. Thanks to the very hard work of Sharon, Olwen and the solicitor, the dogs were tracked down and their release was secured.  Olwen collected them on Saturday, 8 dogs in total. 

Sadly, the dogs were in very poor condition.   They have all obviously suffered a severe bout of fleas which has resulted in allergic reactions in some.  The kennels had treated them for this.  One lad is incredible overweight.  Their coats were all in pretty bad condition with massive matts and in some cases, the coat had fleeced to the skin.  They were all very smelly.   One dog whilst being examined and bathed by Olwen was found to have many old wounds and injuries caused by other dogs attacking him, including a large untreated abcess on his ear and nasty bites to his back legs and 'gentleman area'.   He was taken to the vets straight away and treated.

Sharon and Olwen spoke to the owner at length, along with her husband present and it was agreed that given the current circumstances and for the welfare of the dogs it would be best if they be signed over so they could find new homes through rescue.  The lady had previously told Sharon that should the dogs ever have to go into rescue, the only one she wanted them to go to was Wiccs. 

Sharon took the youngest lad home with her, and Olwen contacted the breeder of another girl.  Thank goodness for responsible breeders as this lady received the email on Sunday night and was there collecting her own breeding back at midday the next day.   Cudos to them.

When Sharon phoned me on Monday morning to explain what had happened it was panic stations as we were almost full with very limited space available.    A telephone call to Shirley was made, with a brief breakdown of the situation and she immediately agreed to foster one of the current residents.  She drove over the same day to collect Max puppy.

I travelled over to Olwen's and bought the first 3 dogs back home.  Wilson, Flick and Rory. 
Rory is a Red Setter and belonged to the lady's husband.  He particularly wanted Rory to come to us as he is an older chap and just a totally dote.  A real Wiccs ABC oldie.

Yesterday another phone call was made to Lins, and she has also kindly offered to foster an existing resident which means we freed up the space to bring back the other dogs needing rescue space.  It was going to be 2 today, Jet and Tiff, as Olwen was going to foster Mac, the lad with the wounds.  However Mac was so upset seeing his friends going without him, the decision was made for him to come as well.  He was very pleased about that, and was extremely happy to see his Uncle Rory when we got back to Wiccs.

So its all been a bit  for the past couple of days with Paul holding the fort, me travelling backwards and forward, dogs going on foster and moving around to fit these babies in. 

Sharon and Olwen are a bit  after it all, but very well done ladies!   

The work now starts to get them all ready for new homes.  Obviously coming from a breeder, ALL of the dogs need neutering.  Routine stuff wise, they all need vaccinating as the lady doesn't believe in conventional vaccinations and they also need micro chipping, worming etc.    A few will be needing some regular Malasab baths for a while to help get their skin back in order and in some places their coats look like they have already been to Chez Wiccaweys for a haircut - they haven't, Olwen had no choice in some case with the matts etc.

Despite this, they WERE loved by their owner and it is one of those extremely sad situations where a medical condition has taken hold and led onto much more.  Its very, very sad.   

The dogs all have AMAZING temperaments and are a wonderful loving bunch.  
If anyone is stuck for something to do this weekend, walkers would be very much appreciated.

We have some wonderful doggies with us waiting for new loving families.  Could that be you?

Check out the website and give us a call, your new best
friend is only a phone call away!

Our thoughts are with the staff, supporters and dogs of Manchester Dog Home after the devastating fire last night that claimed the lives of over 40 canine residents.   Many lives were saved thanks to the bravery of folk and the rallying of the community around the home is amazing.

The actions and behaviour of some humans and the lengths at which they will go to destroy a rescue never ceases to amaze me.  They are beyond comprehension.  I don't think they can be described as human anymore.   I trust in the hope that the full weight of the law is able to bring all these people to justice.

What an absolutely brilliant day Sunday's Autumn Dog Walk was!!  The weather was amazing, really, really warm - HOT!  We had a great turnout, and there were collies all over the place having a wonderful time together.   Organised collie chaos - just as we love it to be!!   Em's came up top trumps once again with the amazing House of Badger refreshments tent, ably assisted by AlisonT.    Thank you very much Ladies.  Everyone was well fed and watered with yummy treats, both human and canine.   We had a mini dog show with 2 classes, the boys were outnumbering the girls this time.  Everyone got a prize.   Andy now has competition when it comes to winning tickets on the raffle, Blossom and Sparky's Mum is the current champion.   It was really wonderful to see everyone and their doggies and we hope everyone had a great time.  Thank you for joining us.  xxx
See you all in Dec for the Christmas Party.  Date to be confirmed, but will be either the 7th or 14th Dec.

Check out videos and pics of the day below.

 

 

 

This Sunday's Autumn walk will be raising funds to go towards the Wiccs vet account which is currently just under £5000.    We hope to see lots of folk and woofers on Sunday for a lovely day out with scrummy goodies thanks to Em's & The House of Badger.

If anyone who can't make the walk would like to contribute to reducing the vet account, we would be very, very grateful.  You can do so directly by phoning Vet4Pets, Kettering on: 01536 511500.

We would dearly like to start reducing the account now. 
Chris and Sarah have been amazingly supportive of Wiccs, especially so over the past very hard 18 months and they have made sure that all the Wiccs dogs have continued to receive the level of vet care they always have done, even when we have been struggling due to lack of homings etc   The account standing is a constant worry and we long for the old days when we could pay for visits as they happened.
If folk who make a donation would like to let us know they have done so, I will make up one of my shabby chic signs for them to say thank you - they can be personalised.
Examples below:

Of course, if folks would prefer to make an anonymous donation, then we would just like to say thank you very much.

Thank you all for your support.   xxx