Benny

Aside from a disturbing call last thing on Friday from a man who, in all seriousness, said he was going to eat his daughter's pet rabbit unless we took him/her in, we've had quite an uplifting week. Truly.

Animals have been reserved - woo-hoo! Animals have gone to new homes - double woo-hoo! And we've received some very welcome financial boosts.......triple- riple woo-hoo!!!!

It started with a surprise cheque through the post for £500. It was from a team of staff at a company called Skanska who won an internal competition and nominated our charity to receive the winnings. Things like this just don't happen to us more than, maybe, once every year or two. So the shock and delight was incredible. The money has meant that we can give our dog Benny everything he needs to recover from his ordeal.

Benny came to us 3 weeks ago, desperately underweight and lame on his back leg. He had actually been rescued 8 weeks previously by the RSPCA inspectors from shockingly neglectful cruelty. At this point I have to be careful about revealing info, but he had basically been shoved in the backyard and forgotten about.

Benny should weigh around 22-25kgs but when he was discovered, he weighed a pitiful 9kg. Yes, truly, 9kgs. The inspectors said they could lift him with just one arm.

Benny is now up to 16kgs but his recovery is slow and his muscle atrophy very apparent so he is going to hydrotherapy every week to help build up his strength. As Benny will be with us a while before he returns to full health the £500 means we don't have to worry about the additional costs involved with him being with us for longer. It also means that our dive-bombing water babe can continue with his hydrotherapy for as long as he needs it, even post adoption if necessary. I've only seen video footage of him swimming, but boy does he love it and it is wonderful to see how much pleasure such a cruelly neglected lad is now enjoying out of life.

And then, last night, we got to learn that an alt/grunge night in town called Rusty Cage had held a fundraiser for us and raised the phenomenal sum of £850!!!!! I mean, how awesome is that! This will likely make the difference to us being able to pay some of the bills this month, which I can tell you is a huge relief - I may not be scared to check the bank balance, for a change!

It costs on average £23k a month to run the charity and we've had such a shortfall each month for so long that our reserves are down to just 4 months worth. So, you can imagine receiving financial support like Skanska's and Rusty Cage's means we can feel less anxious about paying the dreaded bills.

But alas the cuts still have to come and next week I have face up to phase one of this and implement a very reluctant decision. For now, I want to enjoy the sunny Sunday that's on offer and live in hope that tomorrow morning will find lots of messages on the answer machine from people who have been to view our animals and want to reserve them. Arrgh, let me live in hope, please!