Justice

This week has been positive. We have achieved a lot in a short amount of time, opened our hearts and doors to quite few new animals and moreover one of the inspectors won a very distressing case.

You may have read about it in the papers, about a dog whose owner failed to seek veterinary attention for their dog who was in so much pain that he couldn't open his mouth without screaming. Amongst the punishment dished out they received a 10 year ban on keeping animals, which meant their cat could not remain with them and so they agreed to sign her over to the RSPCA.

We took her in this week and I can't tell you how pleased we are to have her because she too was in a very bad way. At this point I have to be careful what I say, but needless to say it will cost a good £200 to get her back to full health, assuming that we can, poor love. I guess her and her dog companion's plight can't help but make you wonder just how many other animals are out there suffering in silence, needlessly.

I was disturbed to the core this week when the news reported the outcome of an investigation regarding a toddler who died in front of a gas fire in Baguley. Like it or not the similarities are there - a defenseless being at the mercy of adults, suffered for no good reason.
Whilst I was really pleased about the sentencing of the animal owners, many around me were dismayed, and rightly so I suppose, because in reality who is going to 'police' a 10 year ban on keeping animals? And the £200 court costs they were fined are nothing compared to the costs that will have been incurred in helping both the animals and seeing justice take place. But I guess for many of us it is because justice has been sought and found that the result is satisfying, or maybe more accurately, satisfactory. But, as always, I can't help but find myself wondering just how many more animals and children are out there, undetected.

This week has seen an even greater rise in cats needing to come in. I don't really know what is going on but currently on our waiting boarding we have 19 cats that need to come in - we only have 11 spaces! Obviously this does not include the ones where I say 'no' or ones that we will have to take in (for a variety of reasons). I feel quite panicked about it all if I'm honest, largely because I'm fearful that we will slow down on cat adoptions again because we have a whole host black and black and white cats - the least popular colours and always the longest to find homes. In fact, thinking about it, we exclusively have these colours in the cattery now because Billy and Hattie were reserved on Friday!

I suppose you could argue that it's a kind of racism? It's exactly the same for the bunnies; albinos and black bunnies take months to rehome and some years ago, because of the this phenomenon, all 5 of my house bunnies were black/white because they never found homes,. so they came home with me....
.....oh, the days of only 5 bunnies are long gone, my house is just a giant warren these days (and all the better for it, I say!).

We also said 'hello' to Mikey this week. He is a lovely collie x, approx 18 months old, whose owner went home to Romania leaving Mikey in the care of friends, but he never came back to England. The friends themselves returned to Romania and Mikey was left abandoned in the property they had rented. Despite all of this he is such a sweetheart and ever so good natured. After an absolute soaking from dog walking yesterday in torrential rain he had no problem being towelled down by a complete stranger. What a love. Oh, and he smiles; he is a real smiler! So, after his assessment we will get him up for adoption and hopefully he'll get snapped up, although, and this sounds terrible, he isn't a big 'looker', hopefully people will fall in love with his personality.

We had 3 dog viewings this week. One for 10 year old Yorkie Elmo, who is now reserved - hoorah! And two for Sid (pictured above) but each time no-one turned up. This has become such a frustrating phenomenon. We always urge people to let us know if they can't make it because if they don't it means we have to hang around on site and the dogs miss out on extra play/walks as a result. I don't know what more we can do to overcome it and I'm sure we aren't alone in experiencing this. Above all, I feel so sad for Sid because whilst he is unaware of it all, it is another week in kennels for him.

Sid really is adorable and I love him so much. He has such a wonderful character and spends every Wednesday afternoon in my office. As soon as he falls asleep he snores and trumps! When he is awake he talks to me and throws himself at me for cuddles; how can you not love him, really!

Well, let's hope Sid is third time lucky next week and gets another viewing........and adoption please!