My Kitchen Dogs

I cannot believe how close we are to our Open Day - next Sunday. There seems to be hardly enough time to get ourselves organised but I am sure it will all fall into place on the daY!. This year I have decided to hire a marquee and was fortunate to be able to hire one cheaply from the local Scout Group who will also be erecting it for us.Thats one headache less. Speaking of which,I have been troubled with bad headaches every day for over a week and think it must be stress related.There is so much going on at the moment and my brain does not appear to have enough compartments in which to store information! That seems to have been the problem since schooldays - I stayed with my sister Sandra the other night and we were going through papers my mum had kept which included my school reports from Streatham House School in Blundellsands,Liverpool. Apart from comments about my"unsuitable" hairstyle which made us laugh the general feeling from the teachers appeared to be that I seemed to have difficulty with several subjects(maths and scripture) and a general inability to "knuckle down".Most comments were "disappointing," "has ability but doesnt use it" and "needs to concentrate". So there you have it, Freshfields Wales is being run by a woman prone to wearing her hair in a socially unacceptable way(what does that mean?)who cant add up,doesnt know her new testament from her old, is lazy and unfocused and generally found to be lacking in skills!

Anyhow on to Shelter matters, its been a busy day today but one where the visitors failed to find a pet they took to. It is always frustrating when this happens.On one hand it can be said that it is best they do this sooner than take on a pet and decide it is the wrong one but its upsetting for the staff who so desperately want to see the animals find nice people to take them in. I have always said that the difference with Freshfields and many other shelters is that the staff truly care,it is not just a job to them and their concern and feelings for the animals is genuine.If they did not care they would not be working for a minimum wage, it can be very hard work as many of the youngsters here on work experience find out very quickly.

We have admitted a lovely grey tabby cat from Wrexham, her finder was unable to get her into any shelter nearer and in fairness she has paid to have her spayed which is very helpful.At the moment kitty is wearing a collar to stop her pulling her stitches out and she is very annoyed at this incovenience so nobody is able to touch her .Tomorrow when she is more settled I will ask one of the girls to try taking this collar off, they are far less likely to pull out stitches than dogs and we seldom have this problem with newly spayed cats. Of course if she shows undue interest it will have to go back on.

There are baby frogs everywhere ,it is becoming like an obstacle course trying to avoid them and to stop the cats finding them but as soon as a few are taken to a place of safety more appear!
They must have a death wish because they seem to congregate around the cattery in spite of the fact there are more suitable frog facilities .Vanessa is terrified of them and coming to work is a nightmare for her right now.

Molly seems to be feeling her age now, I notice when I was walking the kitchen dogs a few days ago that she does not seem as lively as she was and those who know the Great Dane breed say that 10 years is quite old for one.Ben collie too is becoming more frail, his back legs are not so good and when he has been lying down he struggles to stand up.Both are on tablets for their joints and Ben who must now be 14 years of age( i have only had him 2 years)is also on anti inflammatory and painkiller tabs. Only 11 years old meg lurcher is still full of vitality. (I have also only had her since she was taken to a vet to be destroyed 2 years ago) By the way when I call them the kitchen dogs this means their beds are there but they have access to the garden most of the day.They are not imprisoned in a kitchen 24/7. I am the only prisoner here!