Rosie finds a lump on Tilly

Tilly the 8 years old collie was due to go today, she has been spayed now and yesterday Rosie took her home for a grooming/bath session. Whilst she was grooming her she discovered Tilly had a lump on a mammary gland so the homing has had to be postponed until a vet has examined her. I am concerned that this was not noticed when she went in to be spayed!
This morning the staff and I held a meeting to tighten up procedures at the shelter, as I mentioned the other day, there is so much administration/paperwork for every animal which is admitted and although I am trying to get everything on a database on the computer it is taking time. There just do not seem to be enough hours in the day and when I do think I have a spare hour, something urgent crops up and I may have to rush off to the vet with a sick animal or deal with an unexpected problem by which time my spare hour has gone! Of course the answer is to have more staff but in the current financial climate that is a total impossibility. Right now I am pinning my hopes on the £84 million lottery winner being an ardent supporter of Freshfields and any day now I will receive an enormous cheque which will pay all the bills for both Liverpool and Wales shelters, refurbish both to a high standard,purchase more land for the horses to graze(probably next doors 13 acres) buy a new tractor, a new ambulance, horsebox large enough for several equines and finally security cameras.That would do to begin with! Not much to ask is it?
The people from Scotland have arrived and the initial meeting of dog and humans has gone well.They love Shooks and there is no doubt in their minds she is the dog for them and there is no doubt in my mind that they are offering the best home possible for her. I couldn't be more pleased.They have taken her out for a walk and will be staying overnight in Caernarfon and setting off back home tomorrow.Pictured here just before they took her for a walk. What a lovely life she has ahead of her.We are all very envious as she will be spending much of the year at Tignes ski resort in France and we are all desperate to do the follow up homecheck! Finding such a home for Shooks has made the day for us all.
Whilst we were having our meeting this morning, sitting outside the office to make the most of a brief appearance of the sun, I heard a cuckoo very close by and saw him/her fly out of the tree in my garden closely followed by two clearly very irate dunnocks(hedge sparrows). Was the cuckoo a female looking to lay eggs in their nest?Whatever the reason for the sudden flight she failed to return to the tree so had definitely been warned off that particular territory. It is the first time a cuckoo to my knowledge has ventured so near to the house,I usually hear them in neighbouring properties. Oh well It does not look like I will be seeing a cuckoo on my bird table any time soon.
There is still no sign of our missing cat I'm afraid.Iwill only mention him again if there is good news.
The kittens are going very quickly but mainly the very young ones.Still perhaps when they have all gone the slightly older babies will have a chance.We do not rehome until they are 8 weeks old, they need that time with their mum and their siblings so even if they are eating we still wait till they are a little more independent.Yesterday we had a call about a mum cat and kittens,the owner in a flat no longer wanted them(!!!!) so Gail (Gail looks after our cats here) who lived close to the address went to collect them.When she arrived he had given away three kittens aged just 6 weeks to the people in the flat above so there was just mum and one baby left. These will be fostered by Gails sister Tanya until they are ready for homing. A British Blue female cat has been taken into the Porthmadog shop, her owner is very ill and no longer able to care for her.Trisha has taken her home to foster for the time being until I can get up to Porthmadog to collect .
A gentleman called today worried about a donkey near to him in anglesey, he wanted to buy the animal if he had somewhere safe he could take him to. I would be happy to have a donkey here but feel he/she would probably be happier with others of his own kind so put him in touch with the local Donkey sanctuary Inspector. Of course there is always the possible problem of lungworm affecting the horses here so a thorough worming would have had to be done before moving him here. Nevertheless I was a little sad that we were not going to become the proud carers of a lovely donk.I have always loved them. One day I feel we will have a donkey or two at the shelter or maybe thats just my wishful thinking like the windfall from the lottery millionaire! I suspect I am more likely to have the donkeys than the money but dreams are good and so is optimism.