Emergency Vet called out

Yesterday was spent in Powys where supporters have opened 3 shops to raise money for Freshfields.The shops are all a distance from each other, one in Machynlleth, another in a small village called LLandidloes and the third in Lampeter. It takes 3 hours to get to Lampeter so it was a long day, however the funding from these shops is making a big difference to the shelter and is also a great morale boost.There was a time last year when I doubted the wisdom of starting an animal shelter in this area.I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall, newspaper articles in the local papers brought no help and I seriously considered moving . This new support has been just what we needed to give us a little more financial stability. Volunteers are also now turning up to help at the shelter, all in all I am really hopeful our luck is turning and we are becoming more recognised as an organisation which is helping the community as well as giving shelter and care to abandoned and unwanted animals.Now all we need are people to fundraise for us, Freshfields in Liverpool has a small group of animal lers who call themselves Friends of Frteshfields.These lovely people have meetings regularly to discuss fundraising events and have coffee mornings, junble sales, antique auctions, quiz nights etc and over the years have raised a tremendous amount of money for the charity.I wish we could find some people like thatin Wales - maybe we will this coming year.
I have had correspondence from a prisoner in a lIverpool concerned about his dog which is here in North Wales.Ben is now with us, he gets on great with my big dogs and has been enjoying himself chasing them all round the fields. We are unable to rehome him until we know the situation with the prisoner who is in court at the end of this month. A nice family who have taken several cats from us have given a home to elderly Rosie, I was almost ready to adopt her myself so it was with some relief I handed her over to her new owners.I didnt want another cat as I have several already which along with William and Ruby the old cavalier leave me little room in my bed! I never intended to have an indoor cat when I moved here, I felt the dogs were hard work enough, however when the house was so warm in the summer 2 years ago (certainly NOT this so called summer) I left my bedroom window open and over the next week 6 cats decided to move in!!!!!No matter how often I evict them, they simply wait for the first opportunity to sneak in again.I have now resigned myself to the fact that they know where they are best off and no amount of persuasion will change their cunning feline minds.( I love them really)So I REALLY didnt want another cat ,It was just that I was feeling so sorry for the old girl shut in the cattery when she should have been lying in front of a warm fire.Now I can sleep easy tonight knowing this is exactly what she will be experiencing.
Whilst I was doing the last exercise for the dogs before the darkness came down completely, Meirwen called me over to the stables where she was feeding the oldponies.Ross (aged 32 years) appeared to be choking and was clearly distressed.He had taken only a few mouthfuls of food and this old pony loves his food.Something was badly wrong,the vet was called and he arrived 30 minutes later. There was definitely an obstruction and he gave Ross a muscle relaxant in the hope he would be able to bring up whatever had caused the blockage. He will need checking last thing tonight and if he has still not brought up anything we will have to call out the vet again. He assured us that Ross will be fine.
Ross pictured above