Sylvia's Diary 10-10-24

Another new week and what a start! Bill and I are up and out by 5:30am and it's dark here. We feed and check dogs then I get the surgery ready for vets but Saturday was completely different. I went to check on Slumber the Husky while Bill got the feed shed ready. Slumber had had two pups but decided the comfy whelping box with heat over head was just not to her taste and decided the cold floor, where she had scratched up all the new lino, was perfect. The lino had cost a few hundred to be professionally laid on the ground and up the walls not so long ago. I picked up the babies and put them in the whelping box and picked her up and did the same (I am supposed to pick up nothing but when needs must I have too) then went to get Bill so we could work out how to block her preferred corner and got back to her, back where she started.  When we got back she had moved the puppies back to the cold corner. This time Bill did the lifting (he’s not supposed to lift either after his heart attack) but there was no choice. We put up a collapsible crate to block her chosen space, then blocked it off with a puppy pen. Thank goodness she accepted this so all the family are warm and comfy.

Bill then went to feed the equines while I started feeding the dogs but I heard him shouting and I rushed over. Marmite (maybe the naughtiest Shetland in Wales) had got his leg into a hay net, turned and turned, fell over and was stuck upside down. He, on seeing Bill had thrashed about kicking Bill in his thigh. The tension on the net was such we could not untie it, and neither of us wanted to leave him with only one person. Together we lifted him (about a million times more weight than either should), got him to his feet and I untangled his leg and he limped off for a drink!  As the day went on his limp got better and better and I am delighted to say he came off fine, just his two human rescuers who did not! All that before 6.30 in the morning…. Crazy!!!!!

 Our homing numbers are down but intake numbers have increased greatly and this is biting deep into the funds and a big worry. Planning fund raisers is  great, but it's today that’s the worry, not next summer. I must admit Bill and I play the lottery once a week praying for a windfall but it has only come in the way of a free lucky dip and that’s never ever won.  

One of our cockers May was due to go to her home Saturday but you know the saying "don’t count your chickens before they hatch" well I have learnt not to. May is the sweetest girl and every one thought it was a done deal and that the family coming to adopt would fall in love with her and it would all end up happily ever after but sadly this was not to be. The lovely people turned up with their dog who was uncastrated. On meeting May he fell totally in love with her (but not in the way we wanted) and being a sweetheart, she did not tell him off. He was relentless with his affection, so the adoption could not go ahead. Life has changed a lot since I started rescuing. It used to be that vets understood the necessity of spay neuters and now many don’t want to do this anymore and now May is stuck here. She came in having to undergo big surgery as she had mammary tumours and was in recovery for a few weeks wearing a bodysuit. Now, in the evenings she goes to the office to get extra attention and when she goes in, she does a great clean up. You see, some of my dogs are in the office during the day until 4. Every walk or play time, they all bring back a ball and then leave it under desks, in corners, buried in the bedding, just any place any one can trip over them. May however is an amazing ball girl, she collects up each and every ball and takes it to a raised bed, then seeks out the next and lies with them all. I was thinking, If you are a Wimbledon qualifier, just how nice it would be after practicing your serves to have a “MAY” assist retrieving the balls. Please look no further, as she was born for the job and is very efficient too, oh and a complete love.

This is Rocky, a kind boy that the vet could not bare to put to sleep when his owner did not want him, so called us. He is a super boxer cross and just a pup really. He had a meet and greet, but the people did not like him, why you may ask.... Well they said it was because he drooled. Actually, he only does this when he is very excited. POOR ROCKY x

When dogs come to us, 9 out of 10 times we have no idea what they have been fed. We are sponsored by Arden Grange, a really good dog food company, so our food is really top quality. However, changing food instantly, especially to really good nutritional value food, when the dog could have eaten only white bread can cause a bad tummy. Arden Grange, has grain free food which is our next go to, however, another good company called CSJ gave us some tubes of Probiotics. We started trying them on dogs that have bad tummies. It's been a real success. No vets visit or have to pay the stupid prices to corporations; you can buy direct. It's even vegan and all made up from natural ingredients, have a look at CSJK9.com. I would share that gem with you, as it’s something everyone should have at hand. Of course, that does not mean you should skip a vet check if worried, but it seems to be a handy and effective tool. My dog Luca is learning to hold and thought he would promote it too, to help his buddies tums.

On Sunday night I saw a darling Bichon come in. She had been repeatedly attacked by a Jack Russell. To save her life will be hard, as the infection was so bad, I smelt it instantly. I shaved her and cleaned all the bite wounds carefully, and she bravely stood, and though it was so painful to let me clean her, she did. The vet saw her and gave her some antibiotic injections and pain relief. As you will see by the pictures, we all need to say prayers for this darling.

A few months ago we were given two of the most picture-perfect little pups. Both sadly had high grade heart murmurs. I knew they were too tiny to undergo an operation to try to mend their broken heart so I asked a very special fosterer to help. Milica took them into her home and loved them and cherished them, but before they were big enough for the surgery one died from heart failure whilst at the vets. Still too small to operate, Milica cared for the other pup, but sadly that pup died too. Milica buried them side by side. Milica has fostered so many heart patients, sadly some were lost as the operation was not successful. However, some are mended and homed. She is a wonderful, kind and dedicated fosterer, and I am SO grateful to her and others like her who give our dogs a chance of finding forever homes, and even if that fails, they are at least out of kennels being loved and cherished.

Quarrel is now our second longest staying equine. He used to have a stable and a yard that had our beautiful Guiarjiro beside him, and he roamed the fields with wonderful Molly too. Both have been lost within a short time of each other. Quarles mental health seems to have taken a bad turn. First, we had the vet do an examination and take bloods, but nothing was found. He's lost his sparkle and is what I can only describe as he is a really sad boy. He is worrying me a lot, and I am thinking of helping an older mare possibly from slaughter that could be a companion to him. He certainly shares no love for his neighbour at the moment. You know the book Black Beauty by Anna Swell was written to highlight the miss-use of equines, of their deep bonds with other horses, and with the sad abuse of horses. Children all over America were given copies of this book to teach them about horses. It was those children who wrote to the White House and stopped mustangs being hunted down and treated so disgustingly. Stopping stallions having their eyes shot out so they would herd into meat containers with their mares and foals faithfully following, stopped the mustangs being herded by helicopter until they literally had no hoofs left. All these changes because of one book and thousands of amazing children, and all started because of one rancher’s wife in the states, Velma Johnston. I so wish all UK horse owners could share the compassion and love of horses that Anna Swell had. She dictated some of Black Beauty as was sometimes too ill to write, she died a year after it was published. Getting a horse is a Huge responsibility. We cannot be with them all the time, but their equine friends are, they too have mental health problems.

 Thank you again for supporting the rescue, reading my diary, but most of all for caring.
Sylvia x