Theme of the week...

...has most definitely been 'abandonment', but it all feels really positive because we've been able to be there for the animals and take them in. So, let me tell you who we've met this week.

Well, first up was little Sophie, the cutest little leggy staffie cross pup ever! She is approx 10 weeks old and was found on a field all on her own with cuts to her face and neck. To be honest, they look like bite wounds from a bigger creature having mouthed/bitten her. They ahd to be flushed out under anaesthetic but they are healing nicely and she is now safe and sound in the care of one of wonderful foster mum's. She is very adorable, but very hard work like puppies can be at this age, and the foster kittens in the same home are still quite unsure about her, even though she is smaller than them!

We willbe able to look for a home for Sophie in seven days time and I have no doubt she will get snapped up; she really is so sweet.

I heard about the next cutie pie just after I had dropped off Sophie at her foster home. A puppy had been found tied to the railings of a block of flats with all his belongings and a very sore paw. He was taken to our animal hospital for the night and I collected him the following morning.

The poor love had a fracture to his leg, which is presumably why someone has abandoned him because they were worried about vet costs. Fred, as we've called him, is doing really well and the fracture is able to heal on it's own with the help of pain relief. But what a smashing lad he is. He is about 4 months old and good as gold. Fred sleeps through the night in his crate without any trouble, he is toilet trained and he loves his cuddles and is great with all his foster mum's other dogs too. He seems to be a crossed with a staffie and something like a collie and whilst he isn't likely to win 'Most Handsome' in a dog show his personality well and truly makes up for it. Fred is ace.

We have to wait 21 days before we can rehome Fred because an 'abandonment notice' has had to be served, but his leg will need a while to heal anyway so it's not too bad and he's lurvely!

And, if that wasn't enough excitement for one week, a box of 7 baby rabbits was abandoned on a member of the public's doorstep so guess who has seven babies hopping around her home? Yes, me, the greedy bunny lady!

One of them, Sky, was about a third bigger than the rest and was bullying all the others so I had to separate her. She also doesn't look anything like the others but presumably they are from the same litter? I guess we will never know....

The pics above show all but Sky. There is Juniper, Twiglet, Jeffrey, Horace, Penelope and Pogo. How good are those names? Not guilty - Hannah is. I drafted her in to help sex and name them as she is infinitely better at naming than I am. They are a lot smaller in real life than they look in the pics but they are every bit as gorgeous and they are ever so friendly. They absolutely adore their hay, which is so good, and they are going to make the most wonderful companion animals when they are old enough. In the meantime I get the pleasure of baby bunnies (eating me out of house and home). I really love them. (I think you all have got the picture by now that anything furry, but especially with a bobtail, gets very big thumbs up!)

We also admitted this week a lovely 1 year old lab x collie called Buster and on her way in, in fact as I type, is a female American Bull Dog. Sadly, we have no movement on the cat front and remain closed to visitors as the skin test results have not yet come back. Even more troubling news on the cat front is that some of our kittens are looking likely to have cat herpes and so we are now waiting results on them too. The cats really are having a tough time of it so we have been spoiling them all this week with fresh chicken and gourmet pouches.

I remain upbeat though, and after having done our rehoming statistics for September there is every reason to be so. We rehomed 27 animals in total - 6 dogs, 9 rabbits (which is a record) and 12 cats. That really is the first time we have rehomed more rabbits/dogs than cats. I really am not sure why but hopefully things will pick up on the cat front soon for their sake and so we can help more as the demand again this week to take in cats as been just as bad.

Tomorrow we are celebrating World Animal Day (it's actually Mon 4th October but we wanted to share the celebration with as many people as possible). At our Chorlton shop we will be on hand to talk all things animal related and RSPCA and to share out cake. Yes, cake! So, if you are around between 11-1pm please drop by.

Actually Saturday is looking really hectic as we also have a volunteer home visitors training course in the morning and a craft workshop in the afternoon with Rock Corps volunteers helping us make props for our Madhatter's Tea Party in November. It's going to be a hectic day but I'm really looking forward to it. Bring on the cake!