Starved

So, I may have only been back 3 days in the office but it has felt like one giant chaotic whirlwind and I'm grateful for the bank holiday weekend.

Everywhere is once again in cat crisis and because we are closed to cat flu and our foster homes are full with plenty too many ill kittens (chlamydia, skin infections, flu) we've been unable to help ease the burden and we've been turning away too many cats from the inspectors, clinic and AWOs. We then only get a call from a desperate Leeds Branch with a multiple animal case and 40 cats due to be signed over in the next week - can it get any worse? No, please don't answer that, please! I agreed to taking 4 in the hope that in a week's time we will have somewhere for them to go. (Teah, I know, but I couldn't say no.)

So, what has struck me since I've got back is a few themes going on at the moment. Our good friends at Dogsbolg contacted me this week to see if we could confirm the trend they were seeing on their site that the amount of puppies and young dogs being listed for adoption has doubled since the start of the year.

It really got me thinking and I realised that this theme of ill-thought through decisions to purchase puppies has been increasing on our advice line and so I recounted how I had been on the phone to a lady for over an hour that day about a puppy that was now 'unmanageable' and that the day before it was a call about an 8 month old cocker spaniel, the other day it was an 8 month old bichon frise and so on and so fourth. In fact, our very own Boris came in because the owners could not meet his puppy needs and it was the same with Hank and Lily and Diaz and probably few more this year too.

The other theme to our work of late has been the number of new admissions we have had in the last week who have come in having been under fed or not been fed at all. The rogues gallery above is the furries in question.

Ferg and Seb came in together both underweight and as you'll see from Seb (white one) he has a lot of weight to gain, the beautiful bunny girl was left to starve to death when her owner could no longer be bothered with her (we are having to wean her gradually off dried food to a proper rabbit diet as she had never been fed hay or veg before) and then there is Misty, the Weimaraner, whose owner went awol and the police had to break into the property to rescue her.

So all in all quite an event few days, I'm sure you'll agree, but I feel like we are back to doing what we do best - helping those animals most in need.