6th March

Many thanks to all who have donated towards Cleo's operation.

Total raised so far is a fantastic £145   

On the eve of her op I thought I would provide a few more details and also respond to some of your comments.

We took Cleo in two years ago when she was just under a year. She came from a south London home. The reason they wanted her rehomed was the mother was working and the grown up children did not help and Cleo was messing in the house.

I had her with me for a few weeks, there was no problem with her toileting as long as you went down the garden with her and made sure she did what she should.

We homed her to Paul who works in a garden centre and lives on site.

We had not heard from Paul for sometime but he contacted us to tell us about cleo's op and to ask for money towards it, as he did not have her insured.

The problem with her knee had started from a knock and initially her vet thought it could be treated by rest.

When it became apparent she would need an operation the vet reffered her to Anderson Abercromby for a second opinion but said she might be able to do the operation herself which would work out much cheaper.

The original price we were quoted by A.A. was £2500 !! We were also told they were expensive but the best, and on our first approach we were told they did not give discount.

After the consultation with A.A. they found a further complication in her hip but on hearing SBT Welfare and others were paying they reduced the fee to £1607.20

On seeing the report Cleo's vet felt they were the best people to do it as it was more complicated than she would like to tackle and felt  staying with them would cost less in the long run.

However, when we approached SBT Welfare they felt it was too much money and that we should find a cheaper option. They gave us the number of a vet fairly close who could do the standard operation much cheaper ( not taking into account the complication .)

I spoke with him and he turned out to be very lovely and honest and straightforward. He thought the price we had been given by A.A. very good and explained he was not an orthopaedic surgeon and could not do any better than Cleo's original vet and in Cleo's best interest we were better to stick with the referral.

So that is what we did, with SBT Welfare contributing and us finding the rest.

Phew! No wonder I felt weary last week. I hope hearing how we reached this decision may help you decide if you want to support us in this.

The other point is insurance. It is reasonable to ask why she was not insured. We do not insist that people insure their dog when they adopt from us and we have discussed whether we should start to do this. (several of our dogs have had similar operations paid by their insurance.)

We have decided to suggest, not insist, that new owners take out insurance and will amend our adoption forms to include this and the name and address of their vet which is not currently on our forms.

We are committed to every dog we have ever homed and we are willing to help or take a dog back however long it has been and we are very pleased to be able to help Cleo and see her back to full health, I cannot state how strongly I feel about this. Whenever we agree to take a dog in we do not do it lightly or without it affecting us in some way and we remain committed for the rest of the dogs life!

Cleo's rehabilitation is not going to be easy and will take a lot of time and effort from me as well as taking up a much needed space, but I am happy to do this, I hope you will feel moved to support us too.