Bertie enjoys his foster home.

Bertie pictured here is a dog craving for home life and a confortable knee to sit upon, his foster person tells me that he sits on her knee with his eyes half closed in apparent ecstacy.Another bonus is that he appears to like children and is very gentle with everyone. That is not a common terrier characteristic but it is a good one and will make him easier to house in a suitable home.
It is definitely a day for wearing thermals and waterproofs. Big Molly hates this weather, she feels the cold and it can be an effort to coax her out for a walk.(I know exactly how she feels,I would rather be snuggled up in bed myself) The Maggie Marthas (the old Yorkshire terriers)go as far as the door,look out and run back into the warmth. The only ones who seem to enjoy their exercise whether it is freezing cold, raining, snowing or blowing a gale are the collies who just love being outdoors racing about. Having said that they all still like to return to warm beds and I will never believe that any dog prefers to live outside in a kennel if it has the choice of living in comfort with the family indoors. Over the years I have successfully rehomed as pets - working sheepdogs, gundogs, stud dogs, ex brood bitches,all of which had been kept on chains or kennelled outside in often dreadful conditions. There has never been one returned because it wanted to live outside!
The old Tractor is refusing to start this week and this has meant individual bales of hay are having to be carried to the top fields, not an easy trek especially in these conditions where we are having to fight against the wind to stay upright. We normally use the tractor which is equipped with a large spike at the front, to lift and move the large bales of haylage into the fields. When there are so many horses and ponies, the small bales do not last long enough and the large ones are more economical too. I am trying to find someone to come and fix it but have had no luck so far.
Another kitten has gone to a home today,I continue to be amazed that people will venture out on days like these (today is wilder than yesterday)but I am pleased that the kittens are being homed. Todays kitten was the last of the litter which had been living in a car so we now have a small pen free for any emergency admittances.
Gail is taking an older kitten to the vet this afternoon,he has the runs - antibiotics and a light diet of scrambled egg have done nothing to allay the problem. I keep worrying that the vet will refuse to see our animals until the bill is paid but I am paying as much as I can every few weeks. This is the first time in the 7 years the shelter in Wales has been open that I have not been able to keep on top of it. I am thinking lots of positive thoughts for a better finacial siutuation in 2010.If anyone would care to join me in this please feel free to do so. The more the better! Mind you if anyone reading this has won the lottery or come into extremely large sums of money, I am not too proud to accept handouts! This course of action might be a little quicker than the positive thoughts but either will do.