A Long Wait

Sally came to us to be re-homed with her friend Sammy - they had been living rough around Minehead. Sally was very friendly and pregnant. Sammy was very nervous, hissing at us but not following it through, a nice cat underneath, but one who had had a rough time of it. With Sammy, I needed to visit him several times a day so that I could win his trust, and after two weeks he started to let me stroke him and he showed signs of enjoyment. A week after that he would meow at me for some fuss, showing his true nature, a loving tabby.

 Sally, by this time was getting bigger and bigger. She was only about 8 months old and a very slight cat and we were getting concerned how big she was getting. On the 16th July, when I checked on her in the morning, she had already had two of her kittens. A male tabby had died, that was her first and was considerably bigger than the second, black, one. She obviously struggled to have it and the black one was not looking good either. We rubbed him and put him on a hot water bottle to try and liven him up. Sally wasn’t very interested in him at that time as she was having contractions and within ten minutes had given birth to a girl who was also black. Sally started to lick her so I put the male next to that one and Mum was soon licking them both. The third kitten seemed much livelier and within   another ten minutes a fourth was born, another black girl.

Sally had survived it all, but if she had been neutered she wouldn’t have had to go through this at such a young age. Each kitten will cost the Charity about £200 to do all the treatments, as well as doing the same to Mum and Sammy. Two weeks before we had five kittens in, which is £1,000 worth! We do not want to compromise on the treatments but are finding it harder and harder to fund it all. If people would only neuter their pets there wouldn’t be so many unwanted animals in rescue centres like ours.

Fun Day 2010

This year’s Fun Day raised £440.63! We had fewer people this year but the people that did come and support us were very generous indeed.

Abby won Trevor’s two limited edition prints which was first prize in the raffle and she was delighted with them. We had several donations for the raffle and cake stall from local businesses in Torrington: Wares Butchers, Xanadau, Green Lantern, Sandfords and our good supporters, Whiskers Pet Centre. Many thanks to all of them. Also thanks to local family attractions who gave us many free entry tickets for our raffle.A big thank you to Trevor Beer who continues to support us and for donating two wonderful prints.

The Family Fun Dog show started at 11.30am and was judged by Judith Haydon who did an excellent job. All dogs entered received a doggy treat bag and the winners of each category won a prize as well as a rosette for 1st, 2nd and 3rd and certificates for 1st to 6th place. The overall winners received a hamper for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. The Overall Winner was a rescue Border Collie, followed by a rescue Greyhound in 2nd place and finally in 3rd place a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Molly the Collie, who is a regular visitor to our Torrington shop, won 1st place in our rescue dog category.

We hope next year to hold the Fun Day a little earlier in the year before too many events are held at the same time. Finally, a Big Thank You to all our volunteers for manning the stalls, without them the event wouldn’t have been able to take place.

Photographic Competition Winners

The Winner of our Flora and Fauna Category was Gareth Williams with the lovely picture of sunlight coming through the trees. Trevor Beer was our judge for that category and was so taken with the picture that he has asked Gareth’s permission to paint it.

The other entries were very good and Trevor also liked the Seagull taken by Mrs Spry, and gave us one of his books to give to her. Gareth won a voucher worth £35 for an hour’s instruction at J & A Cameras in Barnstaple.

The winner of our Pets category was also Gareth Williams with the photo of his dog. Cheryl Russell-Cargill said that this picture stood out from the rest but that they were all very good. Gareth won a £25 voucher to spend at Whiskers Pet Centre in Torrington.

Congratulations to Gareth and thank you to all who entered and hopefully we will be holding another one next year.

Our regular newsletters can be downloaded here
(Adobe Acrobat pdf format)

July 2010

April 2010

February 2010

Winter 2009

August 2009

May 2009

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