Kittens Left in A Box.

I arrived home from York late last night, what a welcome I received from dogs and cats. I was exhausted and couldn't wait to get into bed. Old Pwty the tortoishell cat WITh ears(as opposed to Holly, the one with No ears)sat on my chest purring all night long.That is not her usual behaviour, she is quite standoffish as a rule.I think it safe to say that she was glad to see me back.Holly. for once in her life had to take a back seat.

Anyhow it was a productive couple of days .Duncan and Cathie ,the people at the York Publishing offices were very helpful, very down to earth - how lovely that one can be rude(in a funny way not  a nasty way) to someone so soon after meeting , and vice versa. Seriously they were great ,very nice people who were  very professional and instilled me with confidence that they will do a good job for me, or rather the charity.  The book should be ready for sale end of November(all being well, and if there are no problems on the way to the production line.Knowing my luck the machinery will all break down the day before mine is due to be printed!!.No . I must not think negative thoughts.It WILL be ready on time, it WILL be ready on time. The draft copy of the book which is called  'The Dog With No Name' has been sent to Paul O Grady and I hope he likes it, especially the photo of Trixie the Jack Russell which he sponsored during his Lily Savage era.

In spite of torrential rain here, it did not prevent visitors turning up and I am so thrilled that the lovely black and white cat ,Eva has been adopted today, just as I had hoped before I went away.
Oh No, there are new  kittens on the block!

A box with three beautiful kittens (seen here)was left in the car park outside the Vets Surgery in Pwllheli yesterday, they had all escaped from their cardboard prison  and when the staff arrived to work, the three escapees were miraculously still outside the surgery.Considering it is next to a very busy road, it was amazing they were still in one piece.There was a note with the kittens saying the owner could not cope with them.Well I have a message for her, abandonment is NOT the answer and it was a miracle these three did not come to a tragic end. The answer would have been to have the mother cat neutered but hey, that takes all of one telephone call  to get a free neutering voucher and an effort to be made to get the cat to the vet. Pretty difficult!

 We are full to capacity, maybe she rang here and I told her that was our situation , who knows, but I have ended up with them anyway  now , and we are  struggling to cope ourselves. It is so easy to pass on lifes little problems to others isn't it?

This may be an animal shelter but we are not miracle workers, we do not have unlimited resources and   a large number of staff. We struggle also a great deal of the time, with lack of money, lack of space,personal problems (usually mine!) but at the end of the day we all need  to face up to whatever is troubling us and find a way to deal with it. Life isn't easy for many people, thats a fact, it should not make us abandon pets, children , our old people. Of course that is just a personal opinion and I may well be castigated for it but sorry -  being a self opinionated little madam, I am sticking to it!

I know  I do sound a little harsh, but it is very worrying when more and more cats are being abandoned and we truly are completely lacking in room for anymore. I hate turning people away but I have to be realistic.We have around 160 cats here at the moment, a huge amount to feed and care for, vets bills are enormous and I would feel happier  with at least two more full time members of staff .If Only ! That just is not going to happen unfortunately so in the meantime I tend to panic quite a bit when our resources are stretched to the limit. .

Little chestnut shetland pony Honey (on left with pals Caspar and Rocky) who is blind in one eye has developed serious breathing problems and whilst I was away, Mei felt compelled to call out the Vet who diagnosed her(the pony not Mei) to be having  an asthma type attack and gave her an injection to aid her breathing.Today she seems a little better but she does sound bad. On monday I will buy some dust free bedding shavings for her stable . The girls are soaking her hay but it is awful to see her struggling so I hope the treatment given  by the Vet will help her.

A couple turned up this afternoon who had almost run over a dog on  a busy road not too far from the shelter. They said that he was running in the middle of the road, looking in all the cars as they sped by.  First of all my reaction was of gratitude that they stopped to help him, the second thought was of sadness that they were the only ones who cared enough to do so. I am hoping Vanessa will take him home tomorrow, he is a nice quiet collie, middle aged by the look of his teeth , a little nervous but very sweet and affectionate. He does smell quite badly so he is either a farm dog or has been kept outside  for a long time.
Finally, I tried to upload the front cover of the book but failed to do so, I will sort it out and publish it on blog tomorrow.I am now going to make a dash for the house and hope I don't get too soaked doing so.It is definitely a night for lighting the fire and cuddling up in front of it(with the dogs of course)  A good book , a cup of tea and some nibbles will make it all perfect.

How little it takes to please me nowadays!