9th May

Syd is doing brilliantly in his new home.

Cleo is doing great back in her old home.



This is my gang!



We have two lovely new photos of Dolly.



Dog Tired!



Pets At Home again tomorrow  Tuesday 10th May  10am/4pm

7th May

The rain is here! Very obligingly falling at night so far,"Good growing weather," my father would say.

I have checked out David Egan's website http://www.livingwithwolves.co.uk/  he is the behavourist I met at Pets At Home yesterday, I was quite impressed, see what you think.



Here is Blaze who we homed to Luci three years ago. He is resting by a fence at Badminton horse trials.



 



6th May

Apologies tonight for a brief/late blog, I have been out to a curry evening in my role as vicars wife. It was most enjoyable.

Pets at Home was good if a little slow. I sold 30 + raffle tickets and had some good chats. There was some surprising support from old ladies who knew (for one reason or another) that Staffies do not deserve their bad reputation, this happened several times. Also met a behavourist who offered his services for free and a couple who adopted a dog from me four years ago and have since had two daughters who he is wonderful with.

Syd is settling well. Jackie is falling in love with him (according to John) although she drew the line with sharing her bed with him on the first night! He is one lucky dog and they are very happy with him.

Cleo went home!



Ready to go.



Showing her healed leg.



Reunited with Paul.



5th May

Syd is in his new home tonight with John and Jackie Wilson.

They are one of the nicest couples I have ever met particularly in their passion for Staffords and rescue Staffords.

They met Sandy, Sapphire and Jade first. John liked Sapphire and Jackie liked Jade. Then we went to meet Syd. Jackie had some misgivings as we didn't know how Syd was with other dogs but these were soon dispelled when she met him and we took him for a walk. We saw another dog and Syd took no notice as by then he was heading for home and his post walk biscuits!

He really is a lovely boy, like a big teddy bear. He weighs a whopping 24kg!

There were lots of tears, John and Jackie were upset too as his owners said goodbye but I reckon he is one lucky dog.

Tonight is Cleo's last night with us, I spoke to Paul who cannot wait to have her back.

Before that we have a day at Pets At Home, it would be great to see anyone who can make it.......and any dogs of course.....

4th May

Firstly, Jo's meeting with the dog warden went well.

It was just the dog warden plus a work experience girl,Jo, Dave and Jo's dog walker Lenka. The housing officer was not able to attend. There has been one complaint and the dog warden is obliged to follow up but the whole thing is at a preliminary stage and it would be absolute worse case scenario that Socks would be put down. Socks behaved perfectly greeting the warden and curling up on the work experience girls lap!

Dave explained to the warden that he was there in a dual role as a support to Jo as one of his parishioners and as a representative of Guildford Staffords as Socks was one of our dogs.

I should imagine the dog warden was somewhat taken aback but I have little time for our local dog warden and make no apology for sending Dave dressed in his clerical collar and letting Mr Warden know Guildford Staffords have contacts in higher places than the local council!

We have been contacted by http://www.rescuereview.co.uk/ who have added us to their directory.

If anyone we have homed to in the last two years would like to contact them and write a review about us we would be most grateful and there is the chance to win a years supply of dog food for us too!

Our dates at Pets At Home in support of pet adoption week are Friday 6th May/Tues 10th May/ Friday 13th May and Sunday 15th May. I found I was able to do a Sunday after all.

We will be there 10am/4pm each day. If anyone is able to turn up they will be most welcome.

Syd's big day tomorrow. Do wish him luck.

3rd April

Two bits of news I can't wait to pass on.

Paul, Cleo's owner came yesterday, Bank Holiday Monday, to walk Cleo with me as I wanted to be sure he could keep her using her leg and show him what I had been doing with her.

It all went far better than I had hoped and the result is he is taking her home on Friday, a week earlier than planned but better for all involved.

It was very touching to see how fond they are of each other and Paul remarked that you would not know Cleo had a problem with her leg now. Her fur has almost completely grown back and her scar barely visible.

The other bit of good news is I have a retired couple coming to see Syd on Thursday.

They have over forty years of experience of owning Staffords and their last dog (which they lost in January) came from Scottish rescue.

Let's hope it all works out.

Do think of Jo tomorrow morning. She adopted Socks from me about four years ago. She also has two German Shepherds and a terrier.

Socks has never been an easy dog with terrible separation anxiety and dog aggression. Jo has done wonders with her but now she is in breach of her housing contract due to the dogs barking and she has a meeting with the dog warden and housing officer tomorrow. She may lose all her dogs. We have agreed that if she has to get rid of Socks she should be PTS as it would not be fair on her to rehome her.

I offered to attend the meeting but due to committments I cannot make it so Dave is going instead (in his dog collar) I will let you know the result.

2nd May

Sam and I walked sandy and Spryte up to Steven's abode to drop off a note of apology following my outburst on Friday.

It was good to see Sandy have a really good run. She is getting much better at staying close most of the time.

I was surprised to note, that, whilst we have been distracted by Easter breaks and Royal Weddings the Bluebells and Rapeseed flowers have already started to go over.

No season is ever quite the same but the following poem, surprisingly, by A.A.Milne of Winnie The Pooh fame, for me, catches perfectly this time of year. I hope you enjoy it

The Invaders

In careless patches through the wood
The clumps of yellow primrose stood,
And sheets of white anemones,
Like driven snow against the trees,
Had covered up the violet,
But left the blue-bell bluer yet.

Along the narrow carpet ride,
With primroses on either side,
Between their shadows and the sun,
The cows came slowly, one by one,
Breathing in the morning air
And leaving it still sweeter there.
And one by one, intent upon
Their purposes, they followed on
In ordered silence ... and were gone.

But all the little wood was still,
And if it waited so, until
Some blackbird on an outpost yew,
Watching the slow procession through,
Lifted his yellow beak at last
To whistle that the line had passed ....
Then all the wood began to sing
In morning anthem to the spring.

AA Milne