2 collies homed, yippee.

Yesterdays blog certainly provoked an interesting response, I had some phone calls also wanting to know who "Rick"was. I am sure his comments were genuine and that he was not being critical of the shelter itself, he appears to have an interest in rescue situations judging by the links he sent and at the end of the day his concern was a justifiable one.
At the moment we have in our care, a staffordshire bull terrier called Jade(pictured here)Her owner failed to obtain veterinary care for her skin condition(mange) even though various welfare organisations had helped with fees. When she came to us she had received no treatment since June and her skin was so red and inflamed she was in so much pain that every step she took caused her pain. weeks later she is much improved though she still has a long way to go to be ready for rehoming.
Like so many of this maligned breed she is loveable and friendly with great potential to make a wonderful family pet.In the meantime she is living in the office isolated from the other dogs until she is no longer contagious.A collie I was caring for myself was homed a few days ago, he is another lucky dog being sorted out with a pet Passport ready for his holidays in France. Today 2 dogs have been homed- Gel (so many collies have this name) a middle aged collie from a farm, he has gone on a seven day trial to see if he can cope with the circumstances of his prospective long term owner who wants to take him towork with her ,and Scott the pup who was abandonded a few weeks ago has left us to live in Lancashire with experienced collie people . Our other youngster Sally should be going next weekend.Of course there are others waiting for our help as alwaYS. When there are so many we have to prioritise which are most urgent, which animals are most likely to be destroyed or abandoned? This is never an easy decision to make at the best of times but sometimes owners can be caring enough to hold on to their pets until space is found and others are obviously not prepared to do this. No contest! Those at peril HAVE to be moved to a place of safety as soon as possible.
Just one adult cat has gone today - one of our mums who came in with a litter earlier on in the year, well one is better than none!
I have been asked to home a pair of Pygmy goats, I have no goat safe fields here, maybe at some point in the future and if our financial situation improves,we can make a small area for such emergencies, its not uncommon for us to be asked to help with goats.The goat which we had at Freshfields in Liverpool years ago was called William and he was the biggest goat I have ever seen, even the vets were in disbelief at his size.He had been kept in a back garden since he was tiny and as he grew and grew,so did his horns and he was not averse to using them. We had him neutered immediately but of course the op takes some time to affect the testesterone in an animals system and William was one big dominant male! He was terrifying! Staff had to walk across his field to reach the midden where we piled the used hay and straw, we had to keep one eye on William and try to get to the midden before he realised someone was in his field. It was almost possible to tell what he was thinking.He would stop grazing and start staring at the intruder and then oh so slowly he would begin his walk of terror! The unfortunate staff member would start to walk faster, trying to push the filled wheelbarrow as quickly as possible, as he/she started walking faster so did William until both human and William were running.It was a game of nerves and speed, who would reach the midden first ? If William arrived first he would toss the wheelbarrow over and then make for the hapless human behind it. Fortunately he never quite made it and we would have to throw the contents of the barrow on the pile and quickly leap to safety over the fence. There was a sign on the fence saying "If you cant cross this field in 30 seconds,dont bother because William can make it in 20!"