A very Trying Time

Further to my distress at the kitten dying, we had a visit from the RSPCA about it! If I was mortified before this happened , I was in a state of disbelief at this visit. Unfortunately I was out and Meirwen dealt with him. He expressed concern that the litter of kittens from which the deceased one had come, were all undernourished and questioned our feeding routine! This when it was quite apparent that every animal here is clearly well fed and bonny!I am so glad I was out because I would have had plenty to say to that. He then told Mei the litter had to be tested for all known cat diseases and wanted us to take them to the vet immdiately. Mei showed him the records we keep on worming and that they were up to date with their treatments and showed how much they were fed(4 times daily).He said they appeared ravenous, well sorry but young animals often are greedy and he should know that

When I returned I was infuriated, vets will not test for FIV etc until they are at least 4 months of age (why did he not know that?)and these are not yet old enough. Anyhow we sent them to the vet today and guess what, we have NOT done anything wrong in our care of them ! Apart from their stunted growth they show no signs of any other problem.

These kittens have always been frail and tiny and although they have grown, they ARE very undersized for their age. Rescue Centres do not always have strong bonny looking animals admitted and this is to be expected from time to time.Although they are small and skinny looking they have had every care we could give them and the only mistake (which turned out to be a very unfortunate one) made was to rehome one at this stage.

We held a meeting about it which was very illuminating, RHian showed me the records kept about them and Mei told me that she informed the woman(who reported us) that the kitten was not the bonniest but the woman insisted on having that particular one and as all seemed to be eating normally and passing normal motions Mei thought the kitten might benefit from a home. Sadly for some reason the kitten deteriorated, perhaps the trauma of the move set something off internally.Obviously we will not home the remainder of the litter and we will have them tested when they are old enough but I am very relieved to find out that the cattery staff have not failed in their duty of care and I am w aiting for the inspector to ring to discuss this at length.

During the meeting, the owner rang and told Rhian that she did not feel we were at fault and was persuaded to ring the RSPCA by her own vet who failed to ring us to find out details about the kitten. eg: he intimated we lied about his age and said the kitten was too young to be homed(he was 14 weeks)Anyhow she has said she will ring the RSPCA(I hope she keeps to her word) and would be perfectly happy to have another cat from us.

All in all it has been very distressing, not least because a precious life was lost.This charity is like my Baby and when aspersions are cast, I take it very personally. We may have little money and this is not a state of the Art shelter like the wealthier organisations in this country but the animals have the best of everything, food, veterinary care etc and equally as importantly they receive love and affection from the committed staff.

On a Happier note, 2 dogs arrived from the Dog Pound and our new foster person Kim was here to collect the German Shepherd cross which was a beautiful if shy animal(see photo) and today she came to tell me that she and her husband have fallen in love with him and want to keep him.I am pleased for the dog but sad to lose a foster home so quickly(it always happens sooner or later)The other dog is a nice little collie female , a longcoated one which makes it so much easier to home . Wilson the returned patterdale has gone to a new home today - Veronica is delivering him to a lady in Anglesey, heres hoping this is the right and final home.

I have a newcomer in the house, Toby is a 7 months shortcoated collie whose owner has been unable to keep due to ill health, he is a lovely natured animal who should not be with me for long.The youngsters are usually quite popular so I expect a few calls about him once his photo goes on the website.

Also safe now in our hands is Misty the mother of the disabled pup Teddy, he was collected by Rhian yesterday and is being boarded in local kennels for the time being.Her fees are kindly being paid for by a friend of Rhians.Misty is pictured here before she went into kennels.

The four horses being returned need to come in quite quickly now because the sale of the carers house is going through; I am checking out a home for the two shetland ponies but the two larger ones Dids and Buster will have to come to the shelter for the time being. I will be glad when the weather improves and we can put some of the equines out to grazing homes for a few months.

Finally, the charity token collection at Waitrose in Menai Bridge is going well, so far our charity has the most tokens in its box so if that keeps up we should receive a nice cheque at the end of the month. Judy In Holyhead went ahead (on her ownsome)with a collection outside Morrisons in Holyhead and raised a brilliant £220 for us and another supporter is planning a collection for Freshfields outside Tescos in Holyhead. This is really inspiring and I hope it will set the ball rolling for others to help out with fundraising.This year we need it more than ever.