The Week that Was

Do you know what, I actually cannot remember what's gone on this week, it really is all a blur. I know for certain that kitten season is well and truly upon us and there have been kittens being found here there and everywhere. It's so bad that when an inspector rang me to see if we could help she started the conversation off with..."this is making me cringe but don't suppose"....I howled with laughter because I knew, and she knew I knew, exactly what was coming next.

Each summer really is as bad as the next and I don't know how we will ever get on top of this problem. How can we get people to be responsible pet owners and neuter their animals. This is something I have given far too much thought to and I've come to the conclusion, after running promotions of free neutering, taking the mobile theatre to their doorstep, that the only way is to pay people and isn't that a sorry state of affairs?

So, Monday saw the arrival of the 3 cats from the Macclesfield branch. Whilst they are all sweet natured and beautiful they are also very timid. It is so sad to see as they are only 1 year old two of them and 9 month old the other. It just shows how they haven't been socialised or suitably handled and it's just criminal. They'll be OK though and in time they will come round, and because they aren't black or black and white they will find homes easier than they would do otherwise cos people prefer pretty kitties - they are tabby, tabby and white and ginger and white.

We also admitted Annie this week, a sweetie pie again, barely 6 months old that was found lost and lethargic in Whalley Range (sounds like lyrics from a Smiths song, doesn't it?). She is timid too but she'll get overlooked in favour of the others. We also got a black kitten found in a cardboard box by the Colgate factory in Salford - going to try a press release to see if we can get her a home. We also got a 5 week old kitty found abandoned by wheelie bins, but she's had to be tested for ringworm and spent the week in isolation at the clinic, which is so sad because she needs to be being loved in a foster home. And lined up for first thing Tuesday morning is two 9 week old kittens and a tabby cat, plus I have 2 adults on my imaginary waiting list that are living outside being fed by a neighbour after the owner allegedly fled domestic violence. They are barely one year old, unneutered males, but there simply isn't any space for them so next week I'll find a way, somehow.


Rehomings have been desperately slow this week but we had a lovely surprise when a family visited the cattery on Thursday and chose our beautiful Sindy. The home visit was done the next day and she went home on Saturday - super fast or what! Angel has gone to her new home on Saturday too and I know a family are going along this morning to choose two cats too. So I can't wait. I've had a bit of a laugh with them and predicted who they will fall for...I'm going to be so wrong aren't I?

We have finished assessing our two new dogs Holly and Red and they went up for adoption on Thursday and they have generated quite a bit of interest so far. In fact there is a family in Surrey who are very keen on Holly, so I'm keeping everything crossed for her. But I confess to being totally gutted that we have not had one iota of interest in Jack the greyhound - it's really quite saddening.

And Prince, who found a home last week, is proving to be a very naughty boy with the family's cat. I got a call from them on Thursday asking for advice. They have reassured me it would be an absolute last resort to return him as everyone loves him so much and the "children would never forgive her" if she did return him but to say he wants to eat-cat is putting it lightly!!!! Thank goodness they aren't phased. I got Catherine to call them back as it took her a year to get Juno to tolerate Milo.

So, on to my favourite subject - bunnies! Despite declaring we are closed to admissions at the start of the week I had a very strong moment of weakness when a call from our vets came through about an 8 week old baby who had got tangled up in a football net and broken its leg. Initially I was asked to help pay the bill for the owner but I refused and I'll tell you why:
1. 8 week old baby living outdoors alone is very wrong
2. playing in the garden unsupervised with hazards around is not responsible pet ownership
3. vet bills is part and parcel of pet ownership and why we recommend insurance

OK, so the majority of these reasons can be easily explained - the people were likely sold the baby by the pet shop at this ridiculously young age, the people won't have been told they need to live in pairs and they've probably never heard of pet insurance and probably did little research into rabbit ownership just like so many other people don't do. But, getting caught up in the football netting is not something I can reconcile with and proves the bunny was not being supervised.

So, I offered to pay for euthanasia or to take the bunny in. The owner said to the vet that her husband would be mad if he knew how much the treatment would cost and so could not spend that kind of money on the rabbit. So, the new kid's pet got given away and is probably to be replaced by another one for £10 from the local pet shop.

Dora, as she has now been named, has been operated on now and my Gillybobs is fostering her. Gilly has to gently introduce exercise so as to not jeopardise the repair. Yesterday Dora came out for a play in the playpen for the first time and I get the sneaky impression that Gilly is enchanted by her. The op so far will have cost around £200 and she will require a further xray to see how well it is healing and possibly even further intervention if it isn't healing well. So it makes you wonder, how much is a life worth (to some people)?

This case has contributed to my week-long ponder about how and when do we call time on an animal when the equivalent amount of money can be spent to rehabilitate/rehome so many more animals for the cost of just treating one. You see it never really used to be so concerning before because we were a relatively affluent charity but now that we aren't it's something we have to face up to. I don't have the answer but I know there must be one.

In Dora's case I do believe that it was money very well spent; she will heal and go on to live a very happy life thanks to our intervention. I've nursed baby bunny leg fractures before and they just get on with it even though they have to drag around an enormous cast, but you can't escape the fact that it all costs money that we don't always have.

The baby bunnies had their first photo shoot yesterday! They are not quite 1 week old but are all fully furred, eyes open, kissable little cutie pies! Two are distinctly runty and less developed and two are proper bruisers. I'm confident they are all going to make it but I am slightly dreading the next week or so as they venture out of their nest and start boinging everywhere cos the mess is going to be immense when it starts! But, it also happens to be the BEST bit of baby bunnying.

Catherine is now officially on holiday now for 3 weeks and we start the new month with 13 more animals in our care than we should have, despite rehoming 23 in May, and I have 3 events to organise this week alone and then a further 2 after that, not to mention all the vet runs and admissions yet to come. I am slightly panicked but it'll work itself out one way or the other, these things always do, but I'm not looking forward to the next week so I'm going to make the most of the bank holiday and get drunk!

I should be in work....

but I'm still sat at home. I'm not even washed or dressed yet, I've lost my mojo for the day ahead. To be fair I didn't get home until 8.30pm last night and was in bed an hour later feeling cold and tired, so it's hardly surprising I don't feel like moving, especially after having to spend an hour and half each morning cleaning out the 16 furry bobtailed bunny buggars in the house. Oh, and btw, there are 7 babies, and they are all so beautiful. They have their fur now and some are beginning to open their eyes and we have a variety of stunning colours. And what's even more remarkable is just how increasingly friendly and loving mummy bunny Hetty is being towards us.

It has been another bunny-themed week and we also had the crap start to the week I'd feared. Steve the cat was put to sleep on Monday, having not wee'd or poo'd in a week. He was having to have urine taken from his bladder via needle/syringe because manipulating the bladder was not promoting a response. I just didn't feel this was fair on him and made the call to end his dilemma.

I'll no doubt give you a full low down on the week in the next few days but I was just keen to share with you pictures of Prince in his new home. Well, out on a walk up Pendle Hill, but same difference! He is apparently being "as good as gold" in every aspect except Zara the cat, whom he wants to eat. Let's hope they can work through it, hey.

Must Be Love

I can't honestly say how I'm feeling this week. Perplexed is too strong, bewildered untrue and ambivalent a bit closer to the truth.

First thing Monday morning Hetty the bunny was looking distinctly slender, which could mean only one thing - she had finally given birth. I didn't want to disturb the nest but a quick glance suggested there were 6 babies. The exhilartion of the babies was huge, but within moments reality struck me - there would be bouncing baby bunny buggars within 3 weeks, pooing all over the house! Despite my reservations I was confident we had a good start to the week.

Monday was also our AGM. A necessary evil that always takes far more work than should be necessary and one I always have a sense of disdain towards. But it was all set up for us to have a quorate meeting and a strong turn out and thankfully it all went well. But before the meeting I was at the vets with our 3 new bunnies, 2 guinea pigs and one of my own, Megan.

I thought one of the new bnnies was going to be put to sleep because he looked such a mess, and I also feared the worse for the pork boys cos they were so underweight - but thankfully they checked out well and I managed to find them foster homes so they could get the extra tlc they needed. But then came the shock...my bunny girl, who had not been right for a week, was the one to be put to sleep.

The week before I had spent the weekend nursing her and on the Monday before taken her to the vets but nothing showed up on examination or screeing. Megan had been abandoned in a terrible state last September and I had spent a long while nursing her through uterine cancer. So much so there was no way I could give her up for rehoming and she became the girlfriend of my big fella Biggun and my beloved little girl. But 6 months later, and within little over a week, a rapid growing secondary tumour had appeared, and so this Monday at the vets the growth was found and I had to face up to making an unexpected and sudden decision.

Once again I was feeling huge resentment towards my job, as all I wanted to do was go home and grieve for my beauiful girl, but I had no choice but to go back to work and stay late to hold the AGM. It's times like these that I feel quite angry that I have to give so much to this job. I was really cross that everyone ran off home as soon as it was over and I had just my usual stalwart friends to help me pack up. But my anger abated a day or so later after I allowed myself the time to come to terms with my loss. But it just seemed like a cruel irony that on the same day a nest full of bunny babies arrived, my beautiful girl had to leave.

The rest of the week saw the arrival of two new cats - one that remains desperately ill at the vets following a nasty RTA. The hope is that Steve the cat will regain the function to wee and poo, but by Friday things weren't looking great. He had suffered 3 fractures to his pelvis and a completely snapped off tail, which, if he makes it, will have to be completely removed. What saddened me so much was that he is barely 8 months old. To see him in pain but so keen to be loved was so sad. I'll know tomorrow if we have to let him go, let's hope it isn't another crap start to the week.

Then there was the other new admission, Cole, who is nothing short of bonkers. He was found roaming around the Premier Inn at the Trafford Centre and was brought into our care with an injured tail. The tip has had to be remoed but is seems that Cole could be responsible for the injury as he keeps attacking his tail. His wonderful foster mum has been doing research into this phenomonem and it could well be that he is attacking it out of stress or from some condition she has unearthed. I've watched him and it's a bit like he doesn't believe the tail belongs to him. So strange and bizarre, so he fits in perfectly well with rest of our animals and staff!

Catherine was off sick for two days this week, and bless her, she kept wanting to try and come in and I had to bully her to stay at home. I ran into her boyfriend and he told me she just loves her job so much and didn't want to let anyone down. Loyalty and dedication like that is so rare, and I think the world of her, and thankfully she is feeling better again but I can tell you - I hate driving around doing loads of the animal jobs because other people are such crap drivers. Catherine is away for the nearly three weeks after the bank holiday and I'm dreading loosing her, then I'm away after that and she's dreading loosing me. Oh blimey.

Best news of the week is defiitely the departure of Prince the dog. He left us on Saturday to go to his new home after waiting for one for 8 months. Sometimes I can kind of understand why some of animals get overlooked, especially the rabbits, but with Prince it always remained such a mystery to us all. I hope to goodness he is behaving himself along with Maggie, Jacob,Robbie and Tom - all cats that have gone to new homes this weekend as well as Ronny the rabbit who was dumped in a children's playground.

I think we are especially chuffed about Tom though because he was our first FIV+ cat and he got snapped up within a week of coming in. So chuffed and feel like it's a huge up yours to all thsoe people who insist FIV+ cats should be pts.

Our week ended on another high - our community pet health clinic in Wythenshawe went really well. We had 101 animals turn up, including a dalmation, I kid you not! So I'm going to have to do a press release with some kind of cheesey headline along those lines.

The vets reported seeing a variety of conditions and complaints that will hopefully result in follow up treatment being sought and us, ultimately having alleviated animal suffering. Some of the things seen/diagnosed/suspected included: a rare skin complaint, granulosing of wounds from flea dermatitis, hyperthyroid, hernias, an emaciated and worm filled puppy, extreme obesity in a rabbit who really should have had flystrike in this weather and given how soiled she was, another rabbit that needed to be put to sleep, another rabbit that was badly matted, dog after dog that was not neutered, kittens by the bucket load and of course, lots of staffies!

It sounds all doom and gloom but it really was an uplifting day because we really made a dfference, and some animals got to see a vet that they may otherwise might not have done. I have to plan for our next pet health clnic in August, but time is fighting against me, but I'll get there. In the meantime I'm looking forward to greeting 3 new cat arrivals on Monday who are coming in from the Macclesfield Branch.

The inspectorate in Macclesfield removed 41 cats from one home and the branch took them all in and have managed to rehabilitate them all. I got a speculative call on Thursday from the branch and I seemed to make their day when I said we'd have 3. I said we would take anyone, and it's quite excitng not knowing what you are going to get - it's like a lucky dip! And of course we should also be able to take in a new dog too.

On Saturday Floyd, Angel and Olive were resevred and Duke the dog's home visit passed too. So I'm going to be greedy and hope for some more reserves today but will leave you with these gorgeous pictures of little kitten Oscar meeting his new playmate Lucky for the first time. Isn't Lucky beautiful. Want!

I love my job

I've just caught myself by surprise, and just heard my brain saying, "I love my job". I'll be honest, I haven't felt that way in such a long time, not because I don't, but because I am too often overwhelmed by it all.

This morning I received a wonderful email update on a very timid kitty we had called Tiger. To see him now, in his new home, just made me feel so proud and that we really can achieve the impossible. It prompted me to go and look at the other updates listed under 'success stories' on our website (www.rspca-manchesterandsalford.org.uk)and it provoked the unconscious response of my brain saying 'I love my job'. I feel quite relieved to be honest, I think sleeping in until 10am for the first time in months has probably had a lot to do with it but hey, don't knock it is what I say!

So, midway through the week I still hadn't had time to upload my latest pic of kitty Oscar and now it's Sunday again there's two to share with you. He is a fully fledged tiger now, using a litter tray and nearly almost entirely on solids, and next week he will be moving to his new foster home and getting a play mate too. We aren't out of the woods just yet but we're not far off!

On Wednesday evening my lovely friend and trustee Jemma asked me how the week was shaping up. I took stock and realised that actually, we had been very busy once again. By Friday my friend Mark, who is also a home visitor (big up to the home visitors please!), asked me how I was and I said "stressed" to which he replied, "Forgive me if I'm not surprised". So, let me tell you about our week.....

Weirdest bit of all is that the phones have been dead. The only calls we've had through have been misdirections for the RSPCA vets in Eccles, it really has been weird, and of course means less enquiries about adopting an animal. But we have admitted 9 new animals, which is an awful lot for us. I know it doesn't sound it but when you consider we shouldn't really have much more than about 40 in our care at once and we don't have an animal centre and we usually only take in around 25 a month - 9 equates to quite a lot really.

Monday saw Holly dog arrive, a beautiful, if not overweight collie x lab. Her owners had had a baby and couldn't cope any more and at 8.5 years old I worry how easy it will be to get this girl a home. Thankfully she is a lovely all rounder but at the moment she is subdued and bewildered as to why her who world has been turned upside down and to make matters worse she has come into season in kennels. Can't surely get much worse for her, can it?

Monday also saw the arrival of Robbie, an RTA victim who had been taken to a vets 5 days previously, given pain relief on admission but nothing further and Monday morning was the first we learned about him. I'll say no more about this, as I'm still grinding my teeth about it, but thankfully after admission and assessment by our vets he is up for rehoming and I do believe someone is going to see him today.

Wednesday saw the arrival of Olive (you can meet her and Robbie on our website). Let's just say we all know she has arrived. She is a ginger and white 4-5 month old bonkers, mentalist kitty! She is a true Susie kitty but has been palmed off on to Mel, one of our new staff, and she may never foster again at this rate!

Olive was found stray and struggling to walk. X-rays revealed she had multiple fractures to two legs and very poor bone density, which led the vets to conclude she'd had a poor diet that caused her to have fragile bones that would damage easily. Olive has clearly had several weeks of cage rest to allow her fractures to heal. The result? A completely mental kitty that behaves like a rocket has been shoved up her arse and then lit. She is brilliant.

A stray rabbit from Moston was the next admission, a gorgeous albino with a lovely temperament and very easy to handle. I got sent a picture of him sunbathing yesterday and it is so lovely and reassuring to see bunnies relaxing after going through such an ordeal. But that wasn't the end for our admissions on Wednesday, oh no. I had a moment of weakness and said 'yes' to Inspector Paul who'd responded to an abandonment report and found 2 bunnies and 2 guinea pigs dumped in a tub in Wythenshawe Park.

With me being horribly allergic to guinea pigs my mate Hannah scooted up to the boarding place the next day to check them all over for me. It seems that we have 2 very elderly underweight pork, one manky underweight male bun and a potentially preggers girl (cos she was in the box with the lad who wasn't neutered, so we doubt she was neutered either). I'm at the vets with them all Monday so we'll get the complete low down then and I shall embrace the allergic reaction too!

The last admission of the week was 3pm on Friday afternoon. Inspector Jason chose his moment to ask if we would hand rear a kitten that "isn't likely to make it". Of course my gob went on automatic pilot and said 'yes', to which Jason said he wished everyone was as helpful as us. Yeah, no, it's just everyone else places their brains in gear before speaking and remembers it's 3pm on a Friday afternoon!

The story is odd, but in a nutshell 2 kittens (approx 2-3 weeks old) fell out of a second floor window last weekend, of which ours is one of them. I am, of course, being cagey about sharing the full story, but that perhaps gives you enough of a flavour. Our little kitty is very poorly, nothing broken, but very poorly and has been hospitalised all week but the vets could find nothing wrong with him/her. Kitty is obviously the runt of the litter, desperately underweight and has no appetite at all, so our foster mum is having to really encourage him to feed. I went to see him 24 hours on and he looks fragile, but still has a set of lungs on him like you wouldn't believe and was capable of running around and going in the litter tray, but he is not right. I've told his foster family that as soon as they feel it's time to give up I'll go and get him, but they are keen to fight on and do all they can. Our volunteers are amazing.

So yes, it's been a busy week. I have ever mounting guilt for not being able to blog more often than on a Sunday morning, but then I think you'd rather we were helping these animals than pissing about on the tinterweb. The best news of the week is without doubt the fact that our long stay dog Prince (been with us 8 months) has found a couple who have fallen in love with him. They came down from the heart of Lancashire on Saturday to see him and they feel love with him even more.

The not-so-good news of the week is that my home bunny count is 10 and rising! The bunny girl I told you about last time is indeed with children. They are now bursting to get out of her and in the last 24 hours they seem to have moved into the 'engage' position so it's really any time now. When she was examined at the vets on Thursday they found 3 skulls and I got to feel them! It was so amazing, but with it taking me an hour and half each morning to see to the existing 10, more furry feckers is just what I need...roll on Glastonbury Festival, please!

That'll Learn Me

It has been a roller coaster week of emotions and I'm ending the week with 10 rabbits in the house.

I started this shortened week compiling my usual end of month reports and by Tuesday lunchtime it was looking like it was going to be a nice and quiet week and I could finally get on with some fundraising planning, I mean i even spent time dilly-dallying over what categories we would have in our Fun Dog Show this year, but within a matter of hours the equilibrium was shattered and there-in started my roller coaster week.....thank god it was only 4 days long, but having said that, all the bunny mess I'm going to have to clear up this morning is not amusing!

The inspectors have been overwhelmed with abandoned cats and kittens this week and I suspect with there having been such a deluge, euthanasia may have ended up on the cards in some cases - it really has been that bad. By Tuesday afternoon I had a mum kitten and an entire male taking up residence in our offices, by the following morning another pretty kitty had joined the clan too (obviously not all living together, that would be stupid).

Mum and kitten are now called Abby & Gayle (check them out on our website) and they were unneutered and living with an unneutered male! I had to get them to the vets asap and so the next day they were 'done' and yes, one of them had early signs of pregnancy. Tut. I won't even tell you the bullshit story we got about them or else I'd be here all day, but needless to say they were not strays, they were owned by the 'finder', or at least she didn't deny it when the inspector put it to her.

The entire male was imaginatively named Tom by the inspector who rescued him and within 12 hours he had stunk the 1st and 2nd floors of our building out! He was taken for neutering immediately and much to my elation he turned up FIV+. That sounds weird, so i best explain...

....some years ago a group of leading animal welfare charities got together on this matter and agreed that all cats that tested positive for FIV or FeLV should be euthanized. So it became set in stone as a policy that we had to abide by but last year we decided against this policy because the chance of an FIV+ cat transmitting it from one to another is 1-2% and it does not necessarily shorten their life span nor does it necessarily compromise their health. It took 3 committee meetings of debating with various bods advising us and in the end we chose not to put to sleep these kitties. We are very proud of this policy and Tom became the first kitty to test positive for FIV since we adopted this policy a year ago! Tom can only be rehomed as a house cat on his own (unless the potential adopter has other positive kitties) and I am so chuffed because he is such a lovely guy.

But by the end of play on Wednesday my elation had dropped to desperation when new kitty Sindy arrived with pendulous titties and a swollen belly - allegedly having been found in a box in Urmston - but the 'finder' couldn't show the inspector the box, so no doubt another bullshit story. Following examination it transpired that she wasn't pregnant but rather had not long given birth. I shall contain my expletives at this point and leave you with it to think about. B*****ds.

Thursday was just the pits....our cat Dinky, who has been battling with cystits for 2weeks was getting a whole lot worse. She was urinating a lot of blood, drinking buckets and totally spacing out. Dinky was stray for a very long time and still has the terrible fur matting and dental disease she came in with, we've had to get her urine infection sorted first, which 2 weeks ago saw her urinating puss and blood, she is still in a scrag-taggle state.

Then on the same day newbie rabbits Vincent and Domino from our 'fleeing domestic violence fostering scheme' were found to be suffering with terrible dental disease and Vincent, who just has one ear (yes, groaning is allowed), was found to have an abscess tracking down where the ear canal would be. I went home feeling very low and facing the very real possibility of euthanasia for all 3 the following day depending on what the exploratory investigations revealed - just the pits.

I finally got home at 7pm Thursday night when Catherine texted me to say....I've just seen a stray rabbit on a busy main road whilst walking Juno. I checked what the bunny looked like and Catherine described the image of a wildy, but she persuaded me to go out with her, so off I went back to Chorlton and the two us went 'hunting wabbit'.

Wow did we strike gold! Pictured is Henrietta, Hetty for short, she is an agouti lionhead and a very pretty one at that. She seems to me to be pregnant, which is slightly shattering to say the least cos the last thing i need is a litter of baby bunnies in the house. But because there is a 7 day law for stray cats and dogs, i.e. they can't be rehomed, neutered etc for 7 days, I thought it best to apply it to the bunyip too, so she is sitting it out in my home for a week just in case sprogletts come along. If not she will be scanned in 7 days and hopefully neutered and be up for adoption. She is a very pretty lady so I'm confident she will be snapped up.

So, Friday finally arrived and we took in 2 new dogs.....guess what breed they are? Yes. you've guessed it, staffies. Two girls seized by police during raids on premises potentially used for dog fighting. But I have been given the utmost reassurances that they were not used in any shape or form and are very lovely dogs, but you'll understand my reservations on this one, but i suspect as soon as i meet the dogs I'll fall in love, such is the way with me and staffies and rotties.

My mood was greatly lifted with the news that the two bunny boys should be able to overcome their dental problems with corrective diet - i.e. no dried food! And that Vincent's abscess was not too impossible to overcome, so because he is on antibiotic injections for the next 3 months the boys had to come home with me. Just what I needed.

Dinky's second urine sample showed she was improving , as was the space cadet impression, so she is in our offices (for there is nowhere else for her to go) and Catherine and I will be monitoring her for the next few days and if she makes a good improvement then we will test her kidney functions.

But then, just as the day was looking better one of our bunnies in boarding had to be rushed to the vets with a very very nasty bite wound and infection on the lip. No idea how it could have even happened but needless to say she had to come home wth me for 3 weeks of antibiotic injections. At which point had a count of 10 bunnies in the house 3 ailing, one possibly pregnant and the rest being my grumpy lot who are deeply offended by the intrusion!

Of course, as always, there were many more stressors during the week, and a particular one, that I cannot talk about, really did tip me over. My quiet week never happened, I've had to bring loads of work home but I'm pleased to report that Jack the greyhound is doing well, and had a jolly good scale and polish of his teeth yesterday. We also found out about his history from his ear tattoo and now know his date of birth, how many siblings he had and how many went on to be racers, one even got killed in training in Ireland. VILE.

The highlight was undoubtedly getting pictures of Diaz, Sasha and Princess in their new homes - all of which you'll be able to see on our website under 'success stories' - and of course saving Tom from death. But what I neglected to tell you was that in April we rehomed 28 animals - just brilliant, and makes this roller coaster ride a helluva lot more worthwhile.

First Taste

I went to see Oscar on Saturday and in a week he has doubled in size and doubled in cheekiness! He was an absolute delight to watch him awkwardly run around, pounce and chase and generally being a cutie pie! He was introduced to his first taste of kitty food later that day and his foster mum reported that he LOVED it.

Oscar's foster mum and dad are doing the most wonderful job and I was so chuffed to see they had been keeping a chart of how much greedy mcgreedy was eating each feed. When I visit him next week I will take more pics and share his development...he has yet to learn litter tray (he's too young yet) which meant that both me and his foster mum got covered in pee - oh the joys of babies. (Give me a furry one any day.)

So, as promised, an introduction to our gorgeous new greyhound Jack. He came into our care late Thursday afternoon. He had come to our attention via a member of the public because he was consistently being put out in the owner's backyard.

The story has it that he was owned by an elderly gentleman who had a lifetime of 'belongings' in his home, piled high, with just pathways through rooms in his house. He had another very elderly dog who was sedate and used to the pathways, but with Jack being only 3 and quite a big lad he kept knocking over the piles of 'belongings' so the elderly man kept putting him outside.

So we got to learn about the situation and found that the owner could not cope with Jack so we offered to take him in, and I'm so glad we did. I haven't yet him met but everyone who has has given me the most glowing feedback, like Hannah, yesterday:

"Jack is absolutely gorgeous. He's so soft and would rather sit and be fussed than run around. But when he does run he runs along side you and very good at walking to heel. We took him out with Prince and he wasn't bothered, Prince seemed to like him too. He greets everyone like there his long lost friend!

It's made me want a greyhound - so easy to handle. Hard to take a picture 'cos he just keeps coming over and trying to sit on your knee for a fuss!

Covered in fleas though poor laddy."

(Don't worry, he was treated for fleas the day before and they take while to die.)

I really hope it won't be long until Jack finds a wonderful new home, like our dog Princess, at last!

I told you about her a little while ago, having been kept indoors and in her own excrement for 6 months and then abandoned over a long weekend and drank the toilet bowl dry. Well, she had a viewing on Saturday (one of many but these folks actually showed up) and they fell in love with her. So the home visit is underway and if all is ok she should be a Wallasey beach babe by next weekend, how cool would that be!

Hydro-Pip!

I just had to share with you these wonderful photos of our former resident Pip having hydrotherapy yesterday.

This little love is very lucky to have his mum Debs, as he has a number of issues, not to mention muscular discomfort, hence the water bobbing.

These pictures are just fabulous - go Pip!

Tomorrow I have updates on Oscar the kitten and ur new dog Jack - a beautiful greyhound!