Sunday 27 June 2010

A successful Open garden at Gell farm.



























Its been a fairly quiet weekend, not many visitors here. The white cat has already found a home and they have also reserved one of the siamese type kittens which they will collect when they are ready in a couple of weeks. None of the dogs have found homes but the poorly ferret has been claimed by her owner which is marvellous, especially as she did not belong to rabbit hunting vermin! The ferret apparently had escaped from the house where she lives indoors , she is spayed and is called Tinkerbelle! Her owners were thrilled to find her having almost given up hope and we were equally pleased to see her go.I say that in the nicest possible way because it is great to see a pet claimed by an owner as it happens so infrequently.



A new collie has been admitted, she is one of three abandoned on a farm by their owner, I dont have anywhere for the boys yet so am advertising them hoping for some interest. They are 3 years old siblings, Mist, the female is a friendly dog but seems very unsure of herself and frightened of almost everything around her. I think they may have been shut up for some time to be so jumpy.I will be glad to get the boys away as soon as I can.Pictured here are Mist,Jim and Scott.


Today was the day of the garden Open Day at Gell Farm where Catherine one of our volunteers at the Porthmadog shop holds a fundraiser for Freshfields each year. This is the third one and judging by how everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, a successful one too. The gardens are really beautiful and I particularly liked th e large pond with Koi carp and other fish,it was so relaxing and nice to be away from the shelter for a few hours. It is a lovely setting in which people can wander round the gardens admiring the plants and have a cup of tea or coffee with a home made cake (or two). I am very grateful to Catherine and her husband for putting so much effort into this fundraiser ,it makes for a lovely afternoon out and raises money for the shelter too - I have just heard they raised £750. Brilliant.
Tomorrow Barbara is taking 6 feral cats to South Wales where they will be living on a farm and after their obligatory time kept safely incarcerated in a shed, they will have freedom again. These homes do not come along very often but its a real morale booster when one does and even more so when they raise the number of cats requested from 3 to 6. Perhaps this was partially(or mostly) down to my sad tale of how these cats can be in their enclosure for anything up to 18 months and hopw I long to see them all free again! It is true of course, they are safe with us but cats should not be confined and every day I look at them and hope for suitable homes to turn up for them. I cannot release any more here, there are already far too many loose here at the shelter and I dont want the equilibrium ruined..As it is the last cat I released - old Jimmy Ginger turns out to hate other cats and as for dogs, well he not only hates them he will attack at the slightest chance. He is the bane of the dogs lives.Poor old Bonnie was cornered by him yesterday and she was terrified.This by the way is a foxhound which the hunting fraternity say cannot be rehabiliated into a pet home because of their hunting instinct! Bonnie lets all the dogs, cats and everything else walk all over her (literally sometimes)There has never been a gentler more inoffensive animal as Bonnie. She is the third Foxhound I have had in my care and the other two Colin and Alfie were equally as gentle . So if anyone ever uses this to justify hunting saying that if there was no hunting with hounds all the hounds would have to be destroyed immediately because they are totally unsuitable as pets - well that is the biggest load of nonsense ever . I have first hand knowledge that these dogs make wonderful pets and anyone is welcome to see our lovely Bonnie happy in her Pet home.

We have had two litters of feral kittens admitted, both litters are young enough for them to be "brought round" and domesticated successfully and are already becoming friendlier after just a few days being handled.One litter is stunningly pretty, Rhian took this great photo which I am sure we will use for either next years calendar or a card of some sort. They are real chocolate box kittens.

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