William is better today

I had another day off yesterday - whats the world coming to? two whole days off in a week! I went with friends to the Osprey project in Machynlleth ( there are three chicks in the nest) and then on to see the Red  Kites feeding at the RSPB reserve in Nant yr Arian, what a fantastic sight it was, over 100 of these beautiful birds swooping down in all their majesty - awe inspiring and apparently some days there are up to 300 gathering for their food. 100 was good enough for me!

On the return journey home we stopped to take a photograph of a lurcher which was in the Dog Pound and in desperate need of a place with us. He has a foster home as soon as Blue whippet goes to his new home in Plymouth on Sunday so he should be home and safe by the middle of next week. Judging from his nice white teeth I would put his age to be around a year and he appears to have a typical friendly lurcher temperament though is quite strong.there are also 2 more little dogs  in situ there so need to sort places out for them rather quickly.One is an elderly terrier female and the other a staffordshire bull terrier female. Isn't it incredibly sad that all over the Uk dogs are left unclaimed in pounds?

The farrier has been here today which makes for a very busy morning, all the new horses have had their feet trimmed and quite surprisingly Caradog the big chestnut was fairly easy to do. I had thought she may prove to be a litle difficult to handle as she is rather nervous but all went well and her feet are now in much better condition than when she arrived.

The Vet  Dafydd came out  to check on William and although he is no longer in pain, he has made it clear that he is not fit to be ridden so an early retirement is the answer for him. Such a great shame that such a handsome and comparatively young horse is 'out to grass' so to speak. Still better he is here than being passed around, at least his future is now secure and as you can see bu the photo his appetite is still good, he is pinching food from the wheelbarrow which Mei has left there for this evenings top up!
Ember and Freddy shetlands will be leaving for their loan home next week.Their new people have been busy  repairing fences round their fields
 to make sure all is ready when the boys arrive.

Mary lamb is doing well and we will be releasing her into the field with our other sheep, as soon as she has been wormed she will be joining them. She is a typically nervous animal, only those handreared tend to be friendly with humans, most have little or no contact with people at this age so whether or not she will change when she sees the other sheep unafraid with the staff,
remains to be seen. Next year could pose a problem when the time comes for her to be shorn! I can just imagine the high jinks there will be on that day.

One of our microchipped cats has been admitted today, she has been in the vet surgery for a week recovering froma road accident where she has suffered a damaged leg.She will be on cage rest for a while to see how the leg improves.We have been unable to contact the owner and have had no telephone call  to tell us she has been missing which is odd.Perhaps they are on holiday and have left a friend/relative caring for the cat? iF that has been the case the person has not reported her missing to us which gives me cause for concern.
Our kittens are going out pretty quickly at the moment but we have another litter coming in on Sunday from fosterer Mion.

Behaviourist Vicky finishes today though we plan to ask her to return when we can afford it, we have applied for a grant to pay for her to continue her stellar
work but at the moment there is not enough funding to spare for her to put in the necessary hours. In one week she has achieved much with both dogs and staff working together and it would be a shame if we were unable to carry on with this training.

Well thats todays blog finished and now I can take my dogs out for their afternoon exercise for which they will be anxiouslywaiting though perhaps I
will have a cup of coffee first - it may give me the required energy boost I badly need today. I have had the dreaded B12 injection(god I hate that word) but because it was overdue it takes a couple of days to kick in. By the weekend I will be my usual effervescent self!!!!

Ps: just heard someone in the village is feeding our ponies apples and other food, I was worried this might happen with them being in a spot where they can be seen by passersby.The problem here is that some of them have laminitis and this can be aggravated by the wrong diet plus of course we dont know what they are being given that could be highly detrimental to their wellbeing.I will put up a sign straight away.I just hope it will not be ignored otherwise we will have to bring them back to the shelter.