30th March

A brief blog tonight as I am suffering from "man-flu", given me by the men in my family, namely my husband and son. I am sure you are aware of the implications of me, a mere woman, having "man-flu".



Sandy



Well,it's all gone a bit quiet now Monty and Dave have been homed.

Feeling lousy as I do it was a struggle today to walk the dogs when all I wanted to do was  lie down.

We are always getting calls and emails from people wanting to re home their Stafford and they say, "We just can't give him what he needs, anymore." If I had a pound for every time I have heard that we would have covered the cost of Cleo's operation several times over!

The reality is the rescue dogs in our care are exactly that, rescues.

We try to give them as comfortable a time as possible and it is ten times better than kennels, but we are not their home and we have to live with that tension all the time, we cannot give them all that they need.

Spare a thought for those rescues in our care. Sapphire who will have been with us for a year next month.



Sapphire still waiting



Sandy who has now been here since October last year, still waiting for a home of their own.

29th March

Cleo operation Appeal    Only £99    left to raise.  If 20 people give £5.00 each we will reach it........Go on start the ball rolling  give your £5.00 today!

This was forwarded to me recently described as the best email ever.

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard.

I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head. He then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar:

'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 - he's trying to catch up on his sleep.

Can I come with him tomorrow?

28th march

Cleo Operation Appeal

Things seem to have come to a standstill on our appeal for Cleo......so I have something to encourage you.

Do you remember I mentioned Reuben's Fund, this was a fund we started to raise money for Reuben's op and people were so generous we had some left over, this was to be used when a dog needed an urgent operation. At the moment we have £195.43 in the account. If I transfer £150 over towards Cleo it will bring our total to £401  leaving us £99  left to raise!

That's a far more reachable amount, let's GO FOR IT!

Lush a shop in Guildford have chosen us as a charity they want to support during Animal Awareness Month

We have been asked to do a presentation in store on Saturday 16th April, more details when I have them. 

Cleo is progressing really well and using her leg more and more, her scar is healed and hardly visible.

We get her out for 5 to 10 mins a minimum of three times a day, not including the last trip down the garden at night.

During Lexus's walk today he ate grass and threw up then he and Khan were moved to one side to allow an elderly gentleman with a Poodle to pass, when they went to walk on Lexus managed to fall off the bank and lay like a stranded beetle flailing his legs in the air! I guess it's tricky when you have a solid body and such short legs! Let's hope the Poodle didn't see.

27th March



Lexus and his ball



A bleary eyed blog on the morning the clocks go forward!

I love this time of year and always think it will be ok to lose an hours sleep, after all, it is spring! However, when it comes to it it's so hard. I think the winter takes it toll on you and we are all feeling pretty low this time of year. Not to mention the effect on babies and young children and of course our pets!

The dogs have been out of routine here this week already. It started when Spryte had a flea treatment applied so we swapped her with Lexus to sleep in the crate overnight. Despite reminding my husband to close the kitchen door, he forgot and we were woken by whining and barking at 6am. I think we ignored it, to our cost, and when we eventually gave in and came down we found they had messed in the living room and tipped the dog food bin ( which was on a chair ) all over the kitchen floor! This was right next to poor Sapphire, one can only imagine what she thought!

The next morning we were woken again at 6am by Lexus making his unique cries. This time I leapt out of bed and took them down the garden to avert disaster, which turned out to be not a moment too soon as Lex was still feeling the over indulgence of the previous morning!

Saturday morning it was only me who had to be up early but there was Lexus again before the alarm had gone off. I dragged myself up and took our three out to the garden. Back in and it's breakfast, the rest of the family were still sleeping but this is when Lexus launches himself forward barking furiously in anticipation of food, as I have spoken of before. We have tried to break him of this habit ( incidentally he never does it on holiday so it's definitely learnt behaviour ) but it is easier to stop him when there are more people around, but this morning I was alone. Due to the lay out of our kitchen you have to weave between work surfaces and table to get to the dog food by which time Lexus has launched himself from the place he was told to "Sit and wait," and is barking furiously in front of Sandy who now thinks this is what happens in the morning and joins in!

Needless to say I failed miserably and the rest of the house, and possibly half the street were disturbed yet again. Though I couldn't help admire the amount of energy he puts into this performance and the amount of belligerence displayed in not waiting quietly!

This morning however, we beat them to it, but though officially late morning it still feels like the crack of dawn."Yawn!"

25th March



Sandy by the river



What a lovely week of weather!

I hope you have enjoyed walking your dogs in it. It really doesn't get much better than this as it's not too hot yet, just perfect.



Three Reds Spryte,Sandy and Khan



Cleo enjoying the sunshine on one of her physio walks



I walked Sandy, Spryte and Khan with my friend this morning. We took them down to the Tillingbourne to cool off. Khan loves the water and goes in most days this gave Sandy the confidence to try it and she went in several times obviously a new experience for her.

Cleo is still doing well on her 10 minute walks, learning to use her leg again, the lovely weather certainly helps ( just what the doctor, or vet,ordered.)

23rd March

Cleo Operation Appeal

Target £500           Amount Raised So Far  £251 

Cleo is doing really well, so nice to have the buster collar off. It has been very pleasant getting her out for her ten minute walks in this warm dry weather. I try to slow her down so she uses her leg instead of hopping and she is using it more and more. It's like dog physiotherapy!



Dolly



I am sure you are all desperate to hear how my "dog poo pit" is getting on. If you remember I was putting in a base of stones to a depth of about 6 inches. This took quite a long time as I collected the stones from various places, but it was ready at the end of last week. Then in went the poo! Quite a lot as it has built up over time ( not a pleasant job ) then it is sluiced down with buckets of water, or the hose and the biodegradable chemical added. I am quite pleased with the way it is going and once we get the back log breaking down it should be easy with the smaller amounts. It has used a lot of the chemical which is quite costly, and it still needs more water added and it is a bit smelly but I am confident it is going to work well and be environmentally friendly.

Some pics of a very grown up looking Dolly in her new home.

22nd March

Cleo Operation Appeal

Target £500        Amount raised so far  £251  

Please help us reach our target, even if you can only give a few pounds it all helps.



Simon and Bullseye



Thank you to all those who have donated so far.

For months now I have been saying to people who ask us if we can rehome their Stafford that "The homes just aren't out there anymore." But it seems I was wrong! Since we have had Monty and Dave on the website coupled with a warm, sunny weekend we have had no end of enquiries.......only one problem though when we tell them Monty is reserved but would they be interested in one of our other dogs, the answer is always......."not really."



Sandy



 So, there are plenty of homes out there, just not for the real rescue dogs like Sandy and Sapphire,  Bullseye and Syd....just fair weather owners browsing on a sunny afternoon.

How do I feel about this? Let's not go there, not on a warm spring day............thank goodness for people like Alfies owners ( blog 19th March ) else you really would be looking for someone else to run GDSBTR!



Syd



Sapphire