The eight dogs from the breeders are doing well in their foster homes and some have already been found homes so pending successful homechecks this week, at least 5 of them will be going to new lives very soon. The oldest poodle ,9 years old Peeps, is having an emergency dental operation today, his teeth were so bad, he was unable to eat! 4 years old Sadie is unbelievably timid, I can only liken her to Oliver,my little Romanian beauty who took a full year to bring to the point where he would allow me to touch him and another year before he learned to play and to make friends with other people. Poor Sadie is another product of a breeder who did not bother to socialise her dogs from a young age. I cannot visualise a time when this poor dog will be suitable for rehoming.I see a long job ahead of me! Just Ozzie the cockerpoo and Woody the cocker spaniel now need homes.I am very pleased that most have found homes so quickly.
It is all systems go here at the moment as we make preparations for our fourth Open Day.John is busy strimming the nettles which are growing in profusion everywhere, Vanessa is cleaning the tack we are selling on the day, volunteer Bill is also strimming, Mei is painting and laminating posters for our display boards. I am doing and printing them in between trips to suppliers for various odds and sods,Jac is doing the cat display boards and everyone else is mucking in to help tidy the place for the big day on Sunday. It is a very busy time and as luck would have it, two of our staff Teg and Kevin have had accidents (off site) and so we are two people down for help. The weather forecast is not great but we are keeping our fingers crossed that there are enough sunny periods on Sunday to make it a successful day. AS well as our popular Dog show which will be under cover in the barn,we have decided on a few different attractions this year with more to attract families with children. North Wales Fire service are bringing a fire engine, we have an inflateable Equaliser game for adults and children alike, a (very good) caricature artist , a hair braider and this year we have a refreshment van instead of our makeshift café in the stables! They will be selling food as well as hot and cold drinks.The Marquee will house the usual stalls , our much loved visiting Dalek will be back as will The Archery team giving people a chance to have a go at thei r sport. If you live locally Please come along and give your support, we put a lot of work into our Open Days and we really do need to raise more funds to continue our work in the area.
Wnston the FIV cat is now free to potter around our shelter.We made our decision based on veterinary advice and new information which is now available.The most likely way FIV can be passed on to other cats here is if blood is drawn by cats fighting .Winston is so laid back, the other free roaming cats have totally accepted him and he is so much happier, even to the point where he is looking healthier every day . New information about FIV or Feline Aids , which is not transmittable to humans or other species of animals, suggests that in a group of cats with just one FIV cat, the chance of the others catching it is as small as 1%.The other interesting fact is that the virus has an extremely short life outside the cat’s body which also makes it unlikely to be passed on to other cats through faeces . It seems that the old more scary information was not based on realistic conditions and was in fact based on the results of laboratory cats(poor little cats) which had huge amounts of the virus injected into them and were confined in totally different conditions than an average cat. Years ago I met an Australian Vet who was shocked at the way we gave an automatic death sentence to FIV cats, in his country they simply neutered them ! At last we are now armed with more up to date facts and can pass this on to people who may now consider adopting one such cat.
Sorry this is a short blog, there is just too much else to do leading up to Sunday. Hope many of you will attend. We will be holding it whatever the weather is like so please come along.There will be shelter if needed.
PS: the cattery will be open throughout the day and there will be a small parade of dogs needing homes in between the pedigree and mixed breed classes. Reservations will be taken on the day.
