THE OLD MAN IS SNORING ....

Sorry, couldn't think of anything to put as a heading, but it's raining and pouring so that's the first thing that came into my head. To be honest rescue is almost at crisis point, there are now 40 dogs in the system which is the most we've ever had since I took over 8 years ago. As we do our best to work our way through them, sort the homechecks and make sure the home we've picked is the right one, today one of the owners decided that now he had the details of the new family for his dog it was a good time to tell us he'd rehomed him themselves! It's not even as if we don't keep the families informed of the progress as they get a letter to tell them we have selected a home and are just waiting on a homecheck but I guess people can't wait, with this many dogs in the system we're bound to be much much slower than we would like to be as fitting it all around a day job can prove to be frustrating at times. But we'll keep plodding along and over the course of the next few days I need to find space for 3 (maybe 4) new arrivals when all the kennels are full!
Tonight is going to be particularly difficult as we have been called out to collect a dog from an old lady who's due to move into a home on Friday. The poor lady is now senile and doesn't fully understand why we need to come and take her dog away, with the help of her family we've left it as late in the day as we can get away with and tomorrow the house will be packed up ready for her to move on Friday morning, let hope she copes ok with what is going to be a very upsetting time for her.

Oh what fun we had ....

The last few days have been a lot of fun, as you know the shed (that we are grandly calling a kitchen) was erected at the weekend and on Tuesday the washing maching and tumble dryer was installed inside it thanks to Reggie's fabulous plumbing work. First thing Wednesday morning, Sue and I were very excited at using the new facilities (yes we really are that sad) and on the second load of washing we suddendly reaslised that the kennel area was slowly flooding. A friend of ours who's trade is ground works just happened to have popped by for coffee - so that was his afternoon gone because the underground pipe that was taking the waste water decided it didn't like suddendly having to do so much work and had completely disintergrated underground! We had our own little natural spring there for a while (well if you don't count the soap suds). As it turned out the washing machine wasn't even supposed to be emptying into that drain so we now have a lovely ellaborate peice of pipe work going into the man hole - that was after driving around for 2 hours yesterday afternoon trying to find the right sized pipes as no one seemed to stock the ones Reg had used.

ROLE OF HONOUR:

Shed - thanks to Peter and Beverly
Plumbing/electrics - thanks to Reg
Washing Machine - puchased from the Heart Foundation charity shop, Fareham
Tumble Dryer - thanks to the Heart Foundation charity shop, Fareham
Emergency drain works - thanks to Mark
Oh what fun .......................

I'm still here!

Yes I'm still alive, thank you to all those that actually took the time to ask LOL. Thanks also to all the people that helped out last week in the kennels whilst I was otherwise buried under paperwork, it's so nice to know theres people there when needed!
The weekend was spent putting up the new laundry shed that Peter and Beverly have donated, there's a second hand washing machine and tumble dryer on it's way so the bedding crisis is now officially over!

Knock on ...

My extended time off has obviously had a huge knock on effect with just about everything, customers complaining they've had to wait so long for the orders and almost 30 bulldogs looking for new homes!! I don't think we've ever ever had so many in the system at any one time. I've got help in the kennel every day this week, so I can get a really good run on the office stuff. Lets hope that life has nothing left to throw at me because I don't think "my dog died" is an acceptable reason for not sending the VAT return in on time!!!!!

WHITE FEATHERS

The one thing this week has taught me is that no matter what happens in my life, I can never get away from Bulldog Rescue. With everything we've gone through and the struggle we've had at work to even begin to catch up, the number of people who constantly call needing their dogs rehomed increases with each passing day. Sometimes I just want time for me and this week I realised that could never happen - and then this morning the worst possible news, the legend that was Winnie Pooh had died. Like I wasn't beating myself up enough .... I'd been out already this morning to pick up the Reggie's Den delivery but it was so early that instead of going to the kitchen, I went back to the bedroom and layed on the bed watching TV for a further half an hour, if I'd not done that Winnie would not have died on his own. It looked like he'd had a fit of somekind, and the most ironic thing is that he only ever had one fit in his life - 5th November 2001! today is 5th November 2009. When Winnie arrived here he was thin and unable to walk, the vet diagnosed him with hemi vertabrae and gave him about 6 months, insisting that he'd never walk, we proved him wrong on both counts, as he got stronger he got up on his back legs but it was at least a year before he ventured into the house, coming as far as the back door but refusing to cross the threshold. then one day he came into the kitchen and from that day on he realised the joys of being a house dog far outweighed those of being a kennel dog. He continued to get fatter, more unfit and grouchier as he got older, and none of us could understand just how this dog kept on going - but he did until this morning when time finally caught up with him and that initial 6 month diagnoses became almost 9 years.

So I'm sat there, having buried the 2nd dog in 7 days thinking I really can't be doing with other peoples problems when there's a call from the RSPCA, a dog we had rehomed 2 years ago had turned up with them during a seizure of 4 dogs yesterday. The Inspector said that the owner had gone down hill very quickly as she'd only been out to her a month before, but after her car had given up the woman no longer went out and after a month of the neighbours having not seen her they called in the RSPCA who found 4 very imaciated dogs (one of which has had to be put to sleep), several dead budgies and an dear old woman who's apparently been sectioned. It makes you realise just how quickly things can change and if you know any elderly people with animals make sure you watch them closely as Lilly is now back here weighing a mear 13kg. This is one of the major reasons why we keep the microchips in our name, because if it had been in the owners name this dog would have gone into the RSPCA system and we'd be none the wiser. To be honest I was grateful for the call out as it meant I didn't have to speak to anyone, but surely that's the end of this run of bad luck ..... isn't it?

If anyone would like to make a donation to rescue in Winnie's memory we'd be very grateful. For many years he was the public face of rescue (until the Harrods incident) and he lived a very long and happy life I'm sure. And the reason why this blog is called "white feathers"? So many people tell me they find white feathers after they've lost their bulldog, the morning Rosie died I spotted one outside my bedroom window, that should have given me a clue as to what was about to happen but we were so busy running around after Katie's accident that it didn't register until afterwards. Whilst burying Winnie I turned to see a white feather in the willow tree in our little graveyard at the bottom of the garden (which is now host to 13 bulldogs aged between 2 days and 13 years). That white feather is actually very comforting and some beleive it's a final goodbye.

De Ja Vue ...

Reading last weeks blog it feels like things are no further forward. In fact they are well and truly behind like you would not believe. We were actually making some progress catching up with the back log and then Wednesday night my daughter decided to crash her car - and crash it good and proper she did too. No one knows how she walked away from this, but there is one very lucky Midhurst deer out there who by standing in the middle of the road caused Katie to swerve, spin, hit a tree and roll the car several times (the deer is fine by the way - so many people have asked about it LOL). It was quite early on Wednesday evening but I still felt really ill with a UTI so had literally just gone to bed when Katie's friend who was behind her in her own car rang Jason with the message "Katie's crashed her car, it's bad, get your mum here now". The message I got was "Katie's crashed can you go and pick her up" so to arrived with all the blue lights going and to find her car on it's side was the biggest shock of my life and something no mother should have to see. I can only be grateful that she came out of it with hardly a scratch by crawling through the back window but she said there was a moment of shear panic before she realised the back window was smashed when she couldn't get out! The sight of me running around the crash scene in my PJs sure gave the Fire Crew a giggle though if nothing else.

The next day was spent rushing around getting the insurance sorted and removing belongings from the car when all of a sudden, with no warning whatsoever Rosie, our 10 year old bitch (and only one left from our first litter) just sat down and died - as quick as that which threw an already shaken up family into complete shock. So I'm sure you can understand that nothings been done around here for well over a week now and for that I can only apologise and promise everyone both with the rescue and with the Mail Order company that we are doing our best, although right now it feels like it's never going to get better and every phone call and email brings another complaint. But I am on anti biotics now and fighting fit (whatever that is LOL)