25th October

Total for the week at Pets at Home was an amazing £434!!! 

The staff there are thrilled and say it is the best they have ever done.

Thank you SO much everyone who turned out to help.









Other news :-  Chance has been left at home twice today (other people in the house ) he was fine. Yahoo!

Concentrated on getting all dogs out for a good run in the sunshine as it hung on for one last day.

I am exhausted, looks like I am not alone!

24th October

We had a FANTASTIC last day at Pets at Home.


Lily




Sky

 Lily and Sky ( formerly Dolly ) came with their owners to see us.



Sam and Roxy came first thing and back again for the end of the day. Sam's numerous friends also came to support.

John brought his dog Sky who was very well behaved.

SOS Dog Rescue came with their gang.









Dave rescue pup

 David and Helen and Sandi were all there again.



pup from breeder

 And lots and lots of dogs including lots of Staffords and three Stafford puppies!











pup bought for £40 off Gumtree



We gave away all our flyers for the Stafford walk and most of the next batch Dave brought over.

Pets at Home give us £100 for each day we are there.
The money we collect goes into their charity fund Support Adoption.
On tuesday we collected over £50
On Wednesday over £70
On Friday over £80 I will let you know Sundays amount when we have it and the total for the week.

Thank you so much to all who supported us, it was one of the best weeks we have ever had.

We have so many photos I will put them on throughout the week.

After such a busy week you would have thought we would all be glad to go home.........but Roxy wanted to have......

...just one last fuss.

22nd October

Last Day at Pets at Home tomorrow. Sunday 23rd October.   10am/4pm   Do come and join us.



Peppa in her bandana.

 Chance is ok.
He settled enough the first night for us to sleep. The next day he came with me to Pets at Home along with Angel and Jade.
He is fine in the car. David Egan came over especially to have a look at him.
We have decided he is between 12/16 months. He knows nothing about anything which explains why he was so stressed in kennels. David spent some time with him and he was very good meeting people. By the end of the day he had learned to sit.

It was a good day at Pets at Home. Being a Friday it was busy. Sandi came to help, followed by David. My friend Steven popped in ( it was his birthday ) and Sam and Roxy came for the last part of the afternoon. So someone was there most of the day.
David had a great day time enjoying the dogs.
He helped a girl lead train her beautiful Stafford Buster.

It was a very good day.

Chance was better that night but was noisy some of the time and I had to restrict my movements to avoid upsetting him due to this and feeling exhausted I did not manage to write the blog.
tonight with Peppa gone things are so much better. Sapphire is back in her original crate and Chance is under the kitchen table where he seems much happier and settled almost immediately. Thank goodness!

Peppa was collected at lunchtime by her new family and I have heard she has already been to the beach.


Car park recall



Any spare change?



David just having too much fun with the dogs! They seem to be enjoying themselves too!

20th October

We will be at Pets at Home Godalming store again tomorrow Friday 21st October and Sunday 23rd October 10am/4pm  All welcome.

I am writing this from a new location, I have moved into the hall way with my back against a dog crate!
There is a reason for this, lets rewind 24 hours or so or even to Tuesday night.
Tuesday evening I spoke to a lady who was interested in adopting a small male SBT, she also had several more specifications. Encouraged with a possible home and the ensuing space left when Peppa went to her home on Saturday I emailed the kennels who regularly send me details of dogs they are desperate to find spaces for. I had noticed they had several nice males. If spaces are not found they go to Battersea, which is ok but it is a kennel environment and they have so many.

So I said I would have a space for a small male from 24th October.
Wednesday morning saw an early start and an excellent day at Pets at Home. I eventually got in tired at gone 6 pm. The answer phone was flashing and as I worked my way through feeding the dogs I saw there were 6 messages. I know something is afoot when there are so many messages.
I was right. Rebecca from the kennels had first rung before 9am about a small male she had and his reaction to other dogs pleading with me to ring back. She continued to ring throughout the day eventually about 3 pm she said I needed to get back to her else the dog warden would be taking the dogs to Battersea. There followed a final call saying all the dogs had gone and they had nothing remaining suitable for me.
Can you imagine how I felt? All the good conversations of the day suddenly meant nothing, I had let this dog down.
I have a friend Ali taylor, who works at Battersea. I messaged her and she said she was at Old Windsor the next day but she would see what she could do.
The next morning she rang bright and early to say the dogs were there at Old Windsor but which was mine?
'He is a brindle and white entire male,' I replied. 'They are all brindle and white males,' came the reply.
Rebecca said if you give him a cuddle he licks his lips! This seemed to help and Ali put him in an office.
I put aside my plans for the day, yet again, and set off to pick him up despite the fact we didn't have a space until Saturday.
When I walked into the building I could hear the most awful noise. 'Is that him?' I asked the receptionist with a sinking heart. It Was!
After signing him over, Ali showed me why it had been so hard to decide which one he was. There were several other similar dogs including a pup 4/5 months with mange. Ali would have been pleased for me to take him too.
Then I had a tour of the kennels. Nearly all Staffies. A short legged boy called Herman caught my eye. He had a black patch but otherwise he could have been my Lexus. He jumped up at the door and started making Lexus noises.
Time to head home, surely it had all worked out brilliantly, I had got the dog? But I couldn't stop thinking about the puppy and Herman.
New dog was quiet in the car. Once home I started walking everyone as today was my only free day to give everyone a decent walk.
By the time I got around to walking new dog, lets call him Chance I was beginning to have doubts and rang David Egan for advice on separation anxiety.
Once home all went well until I put Chance in his crate. He then began the most awful, frantic noise I had heard when I arrived at Battersea. Separation anxiety is the biggest no no for me. It is impossible to home them and impossible to keep them anywhere until this 'perfect' home comes along. What had I done? Our wonderful rescue had gone horribly wrong. We couldn't stand the noise! What about our neighbours? What if someone called the RSPCA? After all he sounded distressed.
I rang David in tears. He couldn't hear me because of the dog!
He talked us through what to do, especially not to reward him by letting him out.I drove to Pat H to buy a kong and fill it with peanut butter so he had a reward when he calmed down. The next plan was to sit with your back to the crate and slowly move further away.
This has worked, but I am still on the second step of the stairs and really,really need my bed now.
Come on Chance, we have given you a chance.....please take it.

19th October

What a different day!
At Pets at Home again but so different to yesterday. Sandi BC was first to arrive, good to see her and have some support.
David Egan and Helen arrived about 11am and things really started to buzz.
Helen was very pro-active selling the raffle tickets. David took Angel, sapphire and Jade in turn and chatted to people about their dogs and any advice they needed.
We gave out the Stafford walk flyers to anyone who had a Stafford.
Angel behaved very well and loved looking round the store.
I met some old friends including Jackie from Vigil GSH Rescue who was manager of Treetops Kennels when I used to kennel my rescues there.

David and Helen left at 2pm and it was quieter in the afternoon but very pleasant in the sun and Jade and Angel took it in turns sitting in it with me.
A lady called Linda who is interested in adopting a male came to introduce herself and very much liked Jade, I did try to persuade her! Last but certainly not least Sam and Roxy called by to share the last stint and give some ideas for the Stafford walk route (I was being too ambitious with the distance and need to walk it and time it.)
The bucket was very heavy when I handed it in and given we raised £60 yesterday there must be a fair bit more today.
All in all a good day.
Day off tomorrow.
Back Friday

David and Helen are back 11am/1pm Sunday.
(Photos courtesy of P@H)

18th October

We will be at Pets at Home Godalming store again tomorrow Wednesday 19th October  10am/4pm
David and Helen from 'Living with Wolves' will also be there to give out advice and work with Angel.

A good first day at P at H for their 'Support Adoption' week. Jade, Sapphire and Peppa came with me. Peppa did very well though she was a little 'green' and could only cope with short spells on duty but she is still very young. All the staff at the store thought she was adorable and one girl said she thought Peppa must be the deaf dog as she had seen me 'signing!' That was a great compliment as I have just treated her as I do the others but reminding myself she cannot hear.
No helpers materialised and I did find it quite hard going, I saw one or two people I knew but if they are not from the 'Doggy' part of my life that is not always very helpful. I sold nearly 30 raffle tickets and some people just gave without buying a ticket.
It became obvious we needed flyers for the Stafford Walk to give out to any Stafford owners so we have printed some this evening for the rest of the week.
Sitting there did give me chance to observe things and one of the things I noted was there is no correlation between people and the cars they drive and cars are definitely status symbols in this part of Surrey and not dogs!
The people interested in Sapphire have rung to say they have decided against taking her which I think is wise, however, a lady today is one who liked Sapphire when she saw her over a year ago when we were collecting. She used to have a Staffie x and has horses but refused because she works full time. Sandi Beeton-Caird was with me and I remember she tried to point out the alternative for Saff and how much more she would get with the lady than at present. I reiterated this again today as I have often wished I had her number to tell her Saff was still with me, she said she would speak to her husband (usually the kiss of death) but let's hope.....
Peppa's new family are collecting her lunchtime on Saturday and looking forward to settling her in over half term week.

18th October

We will be at Pets at Home store Godalming 10am/4pm today......Please come and support us.

It looks like I won't be taking Peppa to Discover Dogs but for the best reason, she has found a home!
A lovely family who have had two of John Laker's dogs previously and have recently lost an old dog called Sally. They are looking forward to continuing Peppa's training.



Happy now, with his pal Khan.

 Also another enquiry for Sapphire. Again a long way away (Lincs) but also with a female Jack Russell so we are not sure it would work. They are getting back to me tomorrow as we would hate to miss a chance.

Lexus went for his follow up visit to the vets. His nail has healed beautifully so he was signed off but they explained that it was not normal at all and curled under. This was from when he was in kennels and he wore his nails right down and it has grown back deformed.
I have said before but for those of you who may not know, Lexus was in kennels for six months when he came into rescue before I had a space for him here. It is awful that he stills bears the effects of being in kennels all these years later and it made me think of all those dogs who end up in rescue and bear the scars mental and physical long after they have found a loving home.