Saturday 30th June

Val and team had a fantastic day at Battersea Old Windsor Open Day.
They were very busy and took lots of money, val and Stuart extend their thanks to their wonderful team :- Heather, Mel and Luci plus a few extras.
Luci's boss very generously donates wine and on finding they had run out she called her husband to bring more, which he did! Sounds like a story from the bible!

Nugget came 4th in Golden Oldie ... or was that Val ...?

Val judged Most Handsome Male, numerous friends called in to say 'Hi' but the highlight was when a little dog leapt onto Val when she was a having a quick break, it was none other than little Luci/ Molly who was being bought a harness at the stall next door and had heard Val's voice! And Val thought she wouldn't remember her.
In all a great day! Well done Val, Stuart and team, enjoy a well earned rest.

29th June

Tomorrow Saturday 30th June Battersea Old Windsor Fun Day .http://www.battersea.org.uk/get_involved/fundraising_events/
Val and Stuart Mann and team will have a stall do go and support them.
10.30am/4.30pm
Priest Hill,
Old Windsor,
Berks
SL4 2JN


Wishing them all the best the weather looks reasonable.






Then on Sunday 1st July come and see us here 

We didn't make it into the paper, at least not this week, maybe next huh!

28th June

This morning down here, we awoke to ghastly humidity like being in a sauna, which made you feel exhausted before you had even done anything.
The puppy worried me terribly by refusing to eat, just no interest in his breakfast at all and even after coming back from the ponies at lunchtime he only took a few mouthfuls, I am pleased to say he has picked up since and eaten well but not good for his anxious 'Mum'.
I cut the other dogs food down and their walks, apart from Lexus and Tara who I took up to the Rec, which was probably a bit much for Lex, he stretched out on the tiles of the kitchen floor for a while afterwards!

My lesson for a very 'small,' person had to be abandoned because the horseflies were so horrendous the pony became downright dangerous.
I am pleased to say it is much fresher this evening and everyones behaviour has settled down. At least we did not have to endure golf sized hail stones or flooding like the Midlands.

The Swallow chicks were fledging at the stables.

A lovely surprise at the ponies this morning when Nathalie called in with Dolly. Dolly was the puppy who came in on Christmas Eve 2010 and features in the posters used by Battersea  with her young owner Emma.

Nathalie and Dolly.

Despite the photographs I have not seen her since she went to her new home, she is now two, so it was lovely to see what a beautiful young lady she had grown into.

Possibly due to the heat we have unsually had no emails and no telephone calls. No word from our Roving Reporter, Surrey Ad out tomorrow ...

On Saturday it will be just four weeks until our annual weeks holiday at Seagull Cottage, Pagham.
Saturday 28th July/Saturday 4th August
We have managed to make a weeks break there for 6/7 years despite Dave being out of work and having all the dogs but it is always a challenge finding somewhere for the dogs and this year more so than ever as we have more dogs and less money!
Lexus and Spryte come with us. Khan goes to kennels. Val is going to have Tara. I think SOS Dog Rescue will have Saffy and possibly one other. Hopefully there is someone for Boycie.
So that leaves Angel, definitely needing somewhere,  David and Pat Bennet took her last year and she had a wonderful time but they have a prior commitment this year. She will not kennel and needs somewhere where she will not meet many dogs.
Chance and Boycie may also need somewhere.
We know it is a huge ask but if anyone could help we would be most grateful this is the only week we get a break in the whole year.

Could you help out by fostering Chance for a week?

Oh yes! If Jesse is still with us he can come with us, I know I am not the only member of my family who is hoping that he will be ...

27th June

Well we did it!
I managed to go pink and arrived at Pets At Home with half an hour to spare, or so I thought, only to find the photographer already there!
He claimed he had not been given a specific time but just been asked to turn up! Just as well we all made it then.
I texted Sam who was able to come straight down, looking fab as she had also coloured her hair.
 We were just waiting for Steve the manager who had nipped to Sainsburys.
Once he returned and stashed his shopping it was all systems go and ... over, literally in a flash!

I have to send the report so we will now have to wait and see if we get in and what line they take.


I cannot believe it is only four weeks tomorrow since little Jesse came, it feels he has been here for ever.
He is growing rapidly and has learned to drink water this week.
Up to now we have put lots of water with his food but now we have reduced that, resulting in him getting thirsty after lots of playing on Monday and finding a drink and distinguishing between being hungry and thirsty!
 He has a shiny metal, very shallow, water bowl that he is still highly suspicious of, thinking it is going to grab him or something!

I include some photos of him playing with Lexus, they are from my phone so not brilliant as it is a bit slow, but it catches some of the fun, enjoy ...

26th June

We have a photographer from the Surrey Advertiser coming to photograph us receiving the cheque from Pets at Home at 12.30pm today, Tuesday 26th June.




I will take Jesse pup and Tara so hopefully it will have some 'cute appeal' and we will get in ... here's hoping!



(If time I may go pink again, fell asleep tonight when I meant to do it!)

25th June

We have two events next weekend:-
Saturday 30th June Battersea Old Windsor Fun Day.http://www.battersea.org.uk/get_involved/fundraising_events/
Val and Stuart Mann and team will have a stall do go and support them.
10.30am/4.30pm
Priest Hill,
Old Windsor,
Berks
SL4 2JN

Sunday 1st July Woking RSPCA's Golden Anniversary family fun day with dog show.
11am/4pm
Brooklands Community Park,Sopwith Drive, Weybridge, Surrey.
KT13 0YU
We will have a stall there.

Saffy's scar today

People have enquired on Saffy's Appeal page how she is getting on.
She has healed beautifully from her op and is now back playing ball at 100 miles an hour but no home has been forthcoming. As I have already said there are so many Staffies out there people can pick up a puppy fo next to nothing so they are not going to pay to give an older rescue a home.

Eating grass, scar just visible.

 The rare good homes who come along are spoiled for choice with all the rescues being full of them, all lovely dogs with nothing wrong and their own sad story, so dogs like Saffy, Boycie, Angel Chance and Tara continue to wait ...

Look what I can Do?

Little pup has spent more time awake than asleep today, I may never get anything done again!
He did have a play wth Lexus though! Lexus was soo gentle with him, I watched them like a hawk but Lex was very gentle.

23rd June

That Puppy is now at the toddler stage, into everything playtimes lasting much longer, the stage when Mums say,'How come I thought it such hard work when he was a baby? All he did was sleep then.'

That apart, I always did prefer the tiny baby stage, now he is wreaking havoc destroying the house which I thought was long past that stage
. Of course it is not helped by the weather changing from summer to winter and back all the time, we have put the heating on this evening to try and dry clothes and the garden is under water again, flaming June indeed!
Little Jesses antics still bring us sunshine though, he overbalanced and fell head first into his dinner, recently. He looked so shocked, convinced the bowl had reached up and grabbed him!
 He had his first vaccination on Tuesday and weighed 2.7kg meaning he had almost doubled in weight from his first visit, but he is still very wee!
 His favourite trick is to wake up, come to the front of his crate, stretch is head forward then up, higher and higher then flip backwards into his blankets, I have caught him doing that on a couple of occasions.


This is, of course, all cheery stuff compared with the other things going on, especially the fact we still have not homed a dog, I have never known it so bad, but more of that another day.

18th June

Today we went up to the West Midlands for my uncle Clem's funeral. It was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man with 140 attending the service. We had seen Auntie Bid last week at my Dad's birthday get  together.

My uncle Clem was a farmer, and through most of my childhood was herdsman for a privately owned herd of Jersey dairy cows. We spent many days on the farm with my cousin Jackie just 5 weeks younger than me and Pete. The house stood on its own off a main road but it was always full of people popping in to buy eggs or just to chat.
 My Auntie Bid kept Labradors and had a litter of pups from her bitch Honey. Apparently there was a houseful when the pups began to arrive. She had six and Auntie Bid gave her something to eat and was about to leave her for the night when she produced another pup, then another, eventually having twelve! I remember my cousins and I would be positioned to make sure they ran round the back of the house when they were let out for their food.

My sister,my Mum and my daughter Sara holding Jesse.

Another memory I have is of visiting some friends of Uncle Clem at their farm in Uttoxeter. We saw a litter of Collie pups with their Mum and we were each given one to hold, I am guessing they were around 3/4 weeks old. We then went on a tour of the farm still carrying a pup who just snuggled in and slept. I still marvel that we were trusted with them and given this wonderful experience.
Jackie worked as a veterinary nurse for a while and while she was there adopted a puppy whose mum had died at just 3 hours old and hand reared her, also a kitten. Auntie Bid and Uncle Clem kept them both, the tiny kitten grew into a bruiser of a Tom called Russell who was always fighting but both he and Sophie never grew out of the habit of sucking and the house would resound to them sucking their blankets as they went off to sleep.

So most of my puppy memories are associated with my Aunt and Uncle, so how lovely it was last week, when the loss of my Uncle was still fresh and my parents were feeling the effects of increasing old age to take  our little pup Jesse and place him in my Aunts arms, new life, new hope little Jesse has already brought  a lot of joy.

17th June

Our baby is growing up! Little pup Jesse will be 6 weeks on Monday. We found him a little collar today and he wore it for a short time.
 He eats weaner food 4/5 times a day and has still been having milk from a bottle but as my very sensible daughter reminded me tonight he really doesn't need it anymore, so we will faze that out. I have puppy-proofed part of the garden so he now goes outside most of the time for his toilet. He loves the grass and stretches out doing frog legs!
He really is a feisty little chap and he already 'cocks his leg!' He really does, we could not believe it either! He also 'kicks back,' after he does a poo, one time managing to execute a back flip!
There are many theories on leg cocking. Khan at seven still doesn't. Val's Oscar didn't do it until he was eighteen months and then it was assumed it was down to Percy's influence!My first Stafford Joshua, started to do it as he reached puberty. Boycie sometimes does and Chance always does.
  I have been told they have to learn it from another dog, but that would not explain why Jesse does it so young. Perhaps he really does spend too much time with Lexus, who incidentally always cocks, everywhere.

 What is your experience? Do let us know.

16th June

Something happened towards the end of this week which really brought home just what we are up against in homing these dogs.
I had a message from a chap saying he was interested in 'Taking a Staffordshire on.'  I recognised the code and sure enough he was about three miles away. Although an adult he was still living at home with his mother and brother, who both worked full time but he was currently out of work. They had just lost a Cocker Spaniel and despite always having dogs they had no experience of Staffords.
I went to see him and they had a lovely large dog friendly garden. My concerns in giving them a dog were their lack of experience with Staffords (would they be able to cope with the exuberance, be responsible with other dogs) and the other thing was if circumstances changed. At the moment this young man was at home and could give lots of time to a dog but what would happen if he got a job or moved out?
I thought Boycie would be the one best suited to him. I discussed it with Val and we agreed to give him a chance and maybe let him foster for a while to make sure things were going to work.
We left it that I would take Boycie round the following afternoon, checking he had my number if there was a problem. I showed him the website and also mentioned the transfer fee.
I thought he was cooling off a little towards the end and would not be surprised if he backed out perhaps feeling a Stafford would be too much, in which case I could direct him towards another rescue.

The lovely Boycie who has lost out to a puppy yet again..

Sure enough at lunchtime today I picked up his message, he said they were going to leave it for the moment as they were ... GETTING A STAFFORDSHIRE PUPPY!

Unbelievable! Yet I don't really know why I was surprised, after all, Stafford puppies are everywhere, given away in Soho Square, ad after ad on Gumtree and other internet sights.Why are they going to pay £150 for an adult dog with issues when they can get a puppy for little more or maybe even less.

So this is what happens. People with no experience take on a cheap easy available pup sometimes it goes wrong quite quickly, after all Stafford pups can be challenging. So when its eight months or so they realise they have a problem and ring the rescue. Or maybe things are not so bad, but then things change, he gets a job, moves out, new relationship. te dog used to having someone there all day is now left. We get a call from Mum,' Its my son's dog, he is no longer here and I am working all the time, its just not fair on the dog.' I hear these words nearly every day. It is a vicious circle and just keeps going round and round.

People say of little Jesse pup, 'O he wont be hard to home.' Certainly nearly everyone who has met him so far has offered to take him off my hands, half of them don't even like dogs let alone Staffordshire Bull Terriers but he needs a home where they have a particular reason for needing a puppy, like Kerry who adopted Rhea for agility, he is certainly not going to someone who is going to hand him back when it gets tricky.

This is the reason we cannot home any dogs, not because people think they are dangerous, that just makes it hard to walk them down the road.

13th June

I apologise once again for lack of blogs. A certain little pup is thriving but it does take its toll!
Dave and I pass each other at strange hours, one going to bed the other getting up!

It is hard doing puppy care and keeping everyone else happy, it reminds me of something written by Michael Rosen in a book on early parenting. He talks of how it is almost impossible to achieve one small job when you have a young baby, like buying a tin of peaches, some days you manage to buy the peaches, some days you don't!

Jesse pup is now five weeks old, six on Monday and booked in for his first vaccination. He now wakes four times in 24 hours for a feed of weaner food, toileting and a play followed by milk before he goes back to bed.
 One of his favourite games is running up and down the hall way and swinging off the loose thread of an old material bag that is hung on the door. The clean dog blankets sit in the corner and he drags them out and when he has had enough curls up on them and falls asleep.
He has to come with me if he wakes when I  am taking someone to work or college and today he ran around at the ponies and met Basil and Chelsea, sniffing their noses. He has also met my friends Spaniel and a dog called Obi, neither were very impressed.

What Me?

The last two days I have taken Tara and Lexus to the football field, avoiding the mud. They love it and charge around, especially Tara who shoulder barges poor old Lex.
 However today we were later, Sam came with me, when we got there there were some big lads sitting by one of the goal posts in the middle of the pitch, one was kicking a ball around. I thought they were too far away for the dogs to take any notice, but I was wrong! Lexus spotted the ball and he was off like a shot, straight as an arrow, we barely had time to take a breath let alone shout 'Grab the ball, he is after the ball.'  Instead the lad with the ball saw him hurtling towards him and thought he was going to bite him so dropped the ball and fled. Lexus grabbed the ball, sliding sideways to a  halt.
 I was yelling it was the ball he wanted and he wouldn't hurt them but he would destroy the ball at which the lads mates urged him to save the ball but it took me to get there and remove that rogue.
I told them he was really very old and I was surprised he could see that far! They murmured sympathetically But I doubt they were convinced..
Thankfully the ball survived and Lexus stayed on the lead for the remainder of the walk.
My son looked at me questioningly  and said, 'Responsible ownership mum?'

10th June

Don't forget the banner.

Well done to Sam Keen, John Ayres and Lynne Carver for manning the stall at Love Your Pet show at Fleet today.
Apparently they had a good day with the rain holding off. Sky was 2nd in 'Prettiest Bitch' and Roxy 3rd in 'Dog the judge would most like to take home.' There was some interest in our older dogs.

Setting up

My thanks to Sam and John for doing this today making it possible for me to see my father on his 91st birthday ( yes the same day and age as the Duke of Edinburgh, and slightly fitter than the Duke!)

The pup came with us increasing his experiences by motorway travel including the M25 and meeting lots of different people. He is out for the count now! Lets hope he does as well as last night when he went from 12.30 to 7am.

7th June

Our next event is Love Your Pet, Fun Dog Show at Zebon Copse Centre, Fleet. GU52 0ZE on Sunday 10th June 11am/4pm

I will now not be going as it is my fathers 91st birthday and at rather short notice we are having a family get together. This is made even more poignant by the death of my Uncle, after a long illness, on Wednesday.

Samantha Keen and John Ayres have kindly agreed to step into the breach for which I am very grateful. I am sure they will cope admirably and Roxy and Sky will be perfect ambassadors for the breed as always.

5th June

How is your Jubilee weekend going?

Ours is of course dominated by the little pup.

He continues to thrive and grow and now sleeps downstairs in his own bed after Saturday night where he disturbed me through the night scrabbling around in his box without really waking for a feed. He has also outgrown the box which didn't help. So we have now completed two nights with him downstairs and last night he went through the night from 1am to 6am. He was four weeks old yesterday so now I think we can move off the milk onto the weaner food. I have sought advice from someone experienced in hand rearing puppies for the behaviour side of things and apparently he needs as many experiences as possible over the next two weeks.

Another name suggested itself during the sermon at our Diamond Jubilee Service on Sunday. Apparently the Hebrew word for Jubilee, although it does not fully translate, is Yodh, so I thought we could call him Yodi, but no-one else is convinced so we are sticking with Jesse for the moment.

I missed a photo opportunity the other day when Lexus was in his crate making goat noises and Jesse sat in front of him just looking. I thought Jesse might be asking, 'Why are you making that funny noise uncle Lexus?' 'Cos if I keep it up long enough, son, they will let me out of this darn thing. But don't let them know we know that!'
 I don't know if its a good idea letting Lexus influence him, there is already a strong likeness and pup was sleeping with his tongue sticking out Lexus fashion the other day!

Sunday was our only day of officially attending something for the Jubilee celebrations with the church service which I enjoyed, followed by a BBQ which I had been really looking forward to but in fact I found a little disappointing. It was not helped by the weather and not very well attended, by the time I had eaten a hot dog and had a glass of Pimms the lack of sleep caught up with me I could hardly keep my eyes open so went home to bed and slept through the whole of the river pageant which I had wanted to see!

My eldest daughter has been working all weekend at M&S where it was surprisingly busy, I found the same in Sainsburys yesterday, I was also struck by how miserable everyone looked compared to the people at the street parties. I can understand if you want to just be quiet and do your own thing but not just carry on as normal and be miserable with it! I think it is great to have some special days, I still have to do all the dogs in my care and my ponies but I am making the most of these few days of celebration.

I did manage to see the concert last night and hear Prince Charles announce that his father was in hospital, then watch it twice a few minutes later on the news and I have now heard it repeated about six times!

Thoroughly enjoyed today, I met up with Sam Keen and Jon Ayres at the pub to say 'Thank you,' for their help with fundraising they also had a cuddle with Jesse. Sam had Kodi in tow a Great Dane x Mastiff the size of a small horse and a real crowd stopper.

Congratulations too to Roxy Sam's Staffie for winning best rescue at the Surrey County show.

It has been a wonderful few days and I for one have thoroughly enjoyed it.

2nd June

It's raining! What a shame, still I am sure it will not dampen the British spirit.

Jesse the pup continues to thrive. He has his weaner food twice a day which is helping to fill him up.
His playtimes are getting longer and he can now run a bit as well as walk and jump too.
He now takes himself back to bed when he has had enough.

All my family are helping out.

There are several people I have been meaning to thank for donations (I am sure you know who you are) I apologise, events have rather overtaken me, but I will do it soon.

1st June

Sorry for lack of blogs and blogs being out of sync I am feeling a bit tired!
The pup is thriving. He has been checked by Jane the vet and pronounced to be in excellent health. He has unbelievably grown already and grown little teeth which were certainly not there when he came in a few days ago. He has been wormed and has now started on weaner food morning and evening as well as milk. We have decided to call him Jesse after the chap who brought him to us. We all agreed it was a great name just hesitation as I have a daughter Jessie, but as we normally call her Yassen we thought we could get away with it, I am already feeling pretty vague so we shall see!

Saffy has had her stitches out and her lymph gland checked and all is well. She celebrated with an extreme game of ball at the ponies.

We have received a cheque for £495.38 from Pets at Home Support Adoption for our days during their last fundraising event.
This with their last cheque and the bits we have got from recent shows must make nearly £1000 putting us in a much stronger position than a few months ago.
Thank you to all who contributed or supported in ANY way.

Do you remember the man who we thought would be  a perfect home but wanted a puppy?
Well we found him a puppy through another rescue and they gave us half of the adoption charge as Val had homechecked.

So things are looking up!

Enjoy the Jubilee weekend.