First day of life for foal Jasmine.

Its almost the end of the weekend, only 2 cats were found homes but one of them "Evie" had been here for a long time - since she was trapped along with other feral kittens..Now six months old, she is still quite timid but is really coming along, allowing herself to be fussed over and even picked up. I had been hoping to find her a pet home and not a farm home so thank you Amanda for being kind enough to offer a home to her after all this time. Amanda also took an older black kitten so it was a good result.
Popped round to see new foal at friends in the village, these friends have several rescued horses and took on a pregnant mare a few months ago. Jasmine was born this morning!!!! I had to include this photo even though she is not a freshfields rescue! How adorable is she!

Lots of new arrivals and the Farrier pays a visit.

Today was a very busy day, the farrier arrived to check the feet of the equines at the shelter.We were particularly anxious about maggie, an elderly shetland pony with a real attitude! Maggie has a problem with her feet, they are called box feet so called because when she is due for a trim, it appears she is walking on tiny boxes!They are a peculiar shape. The problem is that Maggie does not like being messed about with so with this in mind she was sedated prior to the farriers arrival.Did this work? NO! It took 3 people to keep hold of this tiny pony , her feet HAD to be trimmed so there was a sense of determination and finally relief when Frazer the farrier was able to do his job.No mean feat, he looked exhausted after struggling with her for a good ten minutes. there is no doubt that the little shetlands are most definitely the most difficult to handle when it comes to this.
16 horses were seen today, so all hooves are nice and trim once again.
2 new cats arrived today, Laurel(My name for her\) a black female had been hanging around a local restaurant, she is a bonny cat and to be honest appears more like a much loved pet than a stray. I will look in the Lost and found book in case someone is searching for her. The other a pretty and heavily pregnant stray tabby cat had been around for 4- 5 months according to the finders. These nice people kindly made a donation to the shelter which Im sorry to say is a rare occurrence.If more people would help in this way when they bring an animal here, it would be a great help.
On the downside, a sick kitten brought which was brought in this morning , died this afteronon, always a sad time for the staff who have to deal with it.
Also brought in was a young cross staffordshire bull terrier female(sacha)She will have to be fostered until a home is found. Her owner had her locked in a shed all day until a visiting tradesman heard her crying and offered to take her away with him.Thankfully he agreed and now she has a chance of a decent life. Pictured above with a photo of Maggie the shetland pony finally nodding off after sedation starts to work.

Kittens galore

At last some of the kittens are moving, we have found homes for 5 over the past few days and amazingly some of the black ones which are not the most popular for some unfathomable reason. What a relief when they start to move, although each summer it is like this, there is always a bit of a panicky feeling July and August, the numbers of kittens rise and there are very few homes around.Now people are starting to return from holidays, we are becoming busier each day.The little terrier Maisie has gone to a new home, they were known to one of the staff, Rosie so we know ishe has gone to a good caring home.
We have taken in a number of cats recently including Forest and Seren shy grey and white cats whose owner has died.Unfortunately they were not neutered so they have had to pay a visit to the vet to get that little problem sorted out! Poor chaps!
Had a visit today from 2 friends from Liverpool who have been helping at the Liverpool shelter since they were schoolgirls. It was nice to see them, it can be quite isolated here and it is always nice to see old friends and have a good old gossip.

Home found for 2 ponies.

Although I was extremely upset at the unpleasant comments made by Paul Dalton, I am not wasting any more of my time or thoughts on such a person. I have better things to do with my time and my mind!
It is always good to find a home for the younger horses. Pepsi and Caspar 4 year old geldings are off to a new home in the next couple of weeks. This makes room for others waiting for places at the shelter.It is always hard to prioritise, there are so many equines in desperate need of shelter. The decision has been made so once these two have left us, we will be taking in an ex racehorse and his shetland pony companion.
It is still very quiet in the cattery, so few homes are being found for kittens, we have 40 and they are going very slowly.Hopefully the local paper will publish a feature about the appalling situation with stray and unwanted cats in this area(it seems to be the same everywhere at the moment)
Photo of the two ponies lucky to find a new home.

Abergele Dog Pound criticise charity

Well, not entirely unexpectedly I received a comment from Paul Dalton from the Abergele dog kennels. It seems he is extremely annoyed that this charity has tried to save the dogs condemned there last week.He seems to think that Freshfields had no right to make the appeal as we only save a couple of dogs a year!!!!!! WEhat difference this would make is beyond me, anybody out there able to understand his logic? For his information Freshfields saves literally hundreds of dogs and many other animals annually.What exactly is his problem? Surely he should be happy more people know about the unwanted dogs in this area. At the end of the day if I receive information that dogs are due to be killed, I will do everything I can to prevent this happening, as would any other dog lover or charity involved in the welfare of dogs. Michelle(his wife?) told me that the dogs were due to be killed last Friday, if they didnt want that information to be passed on to others why did she tell me? Was it to pressurise me into taking some of the dogs, if so that was a cruel thing to do. I felt it was a race against time, as did others involved in trying to rehome the animals.
I dont want or expect gratitude from the Abergele kennel owners, however to make nasty comments on my blog seems a little extreme to say the least.The actions of a guilty person dont you think?
Photo of Maisie the little cross terrier also from pound.She is around 10 months of age, is good with cats/other dogs/children, a really nice little dog.Homes needed for both her and Finlay the white GSD.

Race to save dogs.

This past few days has been taken up trying to find homes for 25 condemned dogs at Abergele Dog Pound. I emailed Michelle Chalk who runs a lost and found pet regester and within hours I was receiving offers of help from all over the UK. This was a fine example of the power of the internet.Thanks Michelle for sending out my urgent appeal and thanks to everyone who kindly responded with asistance. Thanks to this, to the best of my knowledge all dogs were saved.Unfortunately the person who rus the dog pound is no longer answering her phone so I am unable to find out if there are any dogs left, however the person who collected two of the dogs for Freshfields, did not seem to think there were many, if any left there.
The two dogs we have are a white German Shepherd, a very handsome, good natured animal and a dear little jack russell/kelpie cross female we have called Maisie.It is devastating to think how near these two lovely dogs were to losing their lives.How did they end up there in the first place? The Gsd had an owner who did not care enough to collect his dog when informed he was in the pound!!!!Maisie was an unclaimed stray. As all dog lovers know this scenario is occurring all over the country, and we are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers!
So the urgency is over, for now - until the next time. Look out for pictures of Maisie and the GSD tomotrrow (when my camera battery is charged"!)

Race to save dogs.