We hope you enjoy reading this.

Dave & Rachel

 Houdi’s Story

A few weeks ago we got a phone call from the nurse at our vets. There had been a Saluki Lurcher brought in as an emergency the night before and she wondered if we could help with him. Houdi was found at the side of the road by the tip in Peterborough with a badly shattered front leg. Both ends of the bone were poking through the skin and he also had a large open wound on his wrist where he had been walking on the joint due to lack of feeling and use in the leg. The local large rescues had advised to put to sleep or at best amputate the leg but staff felt that in such an attractive, young and otherwise healthy dog that it would be better to try and save the leg if possible……………..that’s where we came in.

We agreed to take on responsibility for the dog and also for the vets bills so that they could try and save the leg. Houdi spent the next five days on a drip being given fluids and antibiotics to try and control the massive infection that had got into the wound. Also due to the high degree of swelling it was difficult to tell whether or not there was still any feeling in the leg. We reluctantly agreed that the vets would amputate if they felt there was no other choice but on day five (Tuesday) the vets felt that the infection and swelling had gone down enough to be sure that there was still blood supply and feeling to the leg so they went ahead with an operation to plate the fracture.

Two surgeons and two nurses worked on the operation. As far as we know the surgeons are not charging for their time and one of the nurses even went into work in her own time to assist in the operation to help keep the costs down. Wednesday morning we got a call to say that the operation had gone well and things were looking fairly positive. Houdi remained in the vets for another week as he was initially having daily dressing changes done under sedation. By the following week though, he was on dressings every other day and without sedation so we got a call to say we could pick him up and bring him here.

This was the first time I had seen this dog and he was GORGEOUS. He was also very subdued and wary of things but he was also amazingly placid and gentle. Two days later I took him for his bandage change and got my first sight of the leg. Houdi was, and still is, absolutely amazing with his dressing changes. He is lifted on to the table and he just lies there and doesn’t move whilst the old bandages are cut away. The dressing always sticks a little to the open wounds but he never moves or flinches, just lies there until the new dressing is finished and then waits patiently to be lifted off the table.

Not content with all this drama and attention, Houdi decided the next weekend to worry us even more. On Saturday he vomited up a large piece of cloth which had obviously been in his stomach for some time. We thought that was the end of that but he continued to vomit bile all through the day and he refused both food and water and seemed a little under the weather. I rung the vet nurse for advice and continued to try to get him to take fluids. Sunday morning he was still not eating or drinking so I took him to the vets who gave him a thorough check over and an injection to stop the vomiting. They also changed his antibiotics and gave him some other tablets to help settle his stomach. By Monday morning he was still not eating or drinking so when he went for his bandage change he was sent over to the other branch surgery for x-rays. There was nothing showing on them so it was felt that his problem was just severe irritation to the throat due to the size of the object he vomited. Finally Monday evening he started drinking and by Tuesday morning he was eating again.

 I would just like to finish by saying a big THANK YOU to the vets and staff at All Creatures vets at Chatteris and March and to Vetsavers at Wisbech (all part of the same group) for all their help with Houdi. For calling us to give him a chance and for helping to keep the costs of all this down as much as possible. We have not yet had the bill for any of this work and it wont be cheap, although they are helping as much as they can, but when you look into a pair if the most wonderful deep brown eyes and stroke the velvet ears then, whatever the cost, its got to be worth it.

 Holyhead run

At the beginning of November we were expecting two dogs from Ashton. Early in that particular week we noticed that the situation in Ashton pound was starting to hit crisis point so we phoned Marie and told her that if she had three dogs ready to travel instead of two we would take the extra one to free up another kennel space. On Friday morning when the dogs were due to travel I phoned to see who was on the trip and discovered a crisis looming. The transporters van had broken down and that meant that NOTHING was coming. It also meant that no spaces were to be freed up for dogs needing to come out of the pound to avoid being pts. In desperation Dave and I started looking at the possibility of going over ourselves with the car to collect the dogs, just to save more innocent lives being lost. It was very late Friday night by this point and try as we might we just couldn’t find a way of doing it without me being away from the kennels for too long to make it practical. I had briefly mentioned this to Martina (another of the wonderful girls who help co-ordinate the Ashton dogs) during one of our phone calls. Suddenly she phoned me back. "Could you take 4 dogs?" she asked. Yes I said but how? She told me that she and Marie were going to arrange for the dogs to be collected in Ireland and brought over on the ferry on Sunday morning provided I could get to Holyhead on Sunday afternoon to meet them. It was going to be a long trip but it meant saving lives so we agreed.

I arranged for Sam (one of our volunteers) to come and feed the kennel dogs as I would not be around and at 9.30am on Sunday morning I set off to Wales. The trip up was good, with not much traffic and I managed to make the Ferry port by 2.25pm. 5 lovely dogs were unloaded and walked and watered and loaded into the crates in my car for the long run back. It was a much longer drive home because of roadwork's in several places and also it was getting dark and there were patches of fog coming through Wales but I made reasonable time. The dogs got a break at Birmingham where I dropped off one lovely boy who was going to another rescue and had just hitched a lift and then brought the other four on home. I made it back at just after 10pm and got the dogs fed and settled before collapsing into the house for a much needed cuppa and some food. It was a thirteen hour round trip of about 600 miles and around 9 hours of driving but it was worth it.

 "It’s raining Shepherds"

Most people who know us, know that we have always aimed pretty much towards the Labrador or Lab cross types although we always stick to our basic principle "We will take any dog as long as it is desperate". This month, however it seems to have been raining German Shepherds.

First came Poppy. We got a phone call one morning from our vets because they had been contacted regarding an elderly German Shepherd bitch who the owners could no longer keep and that they had not been able to get into a rescue anywhere because of her age. The vets had passed on our number as they felt sure we would try to help. I spoke to the owners mum who explained that Poppy had always been an outside dog on a rural property and that, since her owner had moved into a town, Poppy was very unhappy in a small garden in a built up area. They felt it was unkind to keep her like that so her owners mum had taken her in and was keeping her in a shed in her garden but this was far from ideal. We were very full at the time and the kennel we felt was most suited was occupied but we told them that we would be able to fit her in sometime in the next couple of weeks. We did try to post her on a few rescue boards but with no success so we did some juggling and got the kennel empty and Poppy came to stay. We put out an appeal for her on the mailing list and there has been a bit of interest so fingers crossed she wont have to stay too much longer.

Next to arrive was Tia. She is a 7 year old female long coated black & tan who came from a family home with cats and kids. She was surrendered to the Dog Warden along with her son Bruno and they were taken to another rescue. Tia was moved from there to a foster home and then on to us. She quickly settled in and has proved to be a joy to work with. Her son Bruno arrived about a week later and he definitely has his mum’s temperament. Both dogs are very friendly and easy going. More details and pictures of both dogs can be found on the "Needing homes" page on the web site.

We also have Sandy who is a six month old GSD x pup who is just like a teddy bear and I believe we have another GSD x waiting over in Ireland. Still, it makes a change from Black Lab crosses, although we seem to have a fair few of those as well at the moment.

Work has started on our new kennel block!!!! Well, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but it’s getting there.

We have decided that the time has come to install a new kennel block at Poplar Farm. We are planning a block of 6 brand new kennels built to above "boarding kennel" standards which will be used primarily for isolation and hospitalisation. We have the area mapped out, hard core is being laid and Dave is currently working on the detailed drawings so we can get the exact costings from the manufacturers of the kennels. We already know it wont be cheap and we are probably looking at around ten thousand to complete the block to the level we want but long term it will be well worth the investment from the health and well being of the dogs. We will keep you all updated on progress but I will just say one thing…………………."don’t hold your breath"

For those of you who don’t check out the website regularly I would just like to mention a couple of new things that our wonderful Web lady Hazel has created. The home page has been changed to provide a "feature" dog, which will change regularly to help promote some of our longer staying residents. It also features our aluminium can recycle appeal and our heat lamp appeal. The main new addition, though, is our on-line shop. Rather than just direct selling of a few lines this is a whole range of shops that donate a percentage of the sales generated from our link to us. If anyone out there is thinking of doing any Christmas shopping on line then maybe you could take a look there and save yourselves the stress of going out into the mad crowds and help the dogs as well.