Kennel News - 25 April 2010

Whilst last week was a quiet week at the kennels, this one more than made up for it!! We started the week having to take Chester to the vets. He'd been lame on one of his front legs for a while and although his new owner had been bathing his foot and putting Vaseline on his pads due to severe cracking, which was thought to be the reason for his lameness, it turned out upon investigations by Jessica at Walpole & Bingham's that he had some glass in his foot. It had gone in through the pad and worked up his foot. Poor lad, it had obviously been in there a good while. We and his new owner were so relieved that the reason for his lameness had been discovered and, having spent a few days with us, he went home on Saturday for more TLC from his much relieved owner. Also on Monday we had something of a disaster as the money counting machine gave up the ghost. This has been a godsend for us, saving us loads of time as before we had to physically count and bag up every penny from all of the donations we received in the moneyboxes, pots and buckets at roadshows, etc. So, it was posted off that day with much haste and thankfully we got it back on Wednesday in time for our next roadshow at Sandwell for St George's Day.

Tuesday and Wednesday saw us with two new volunteers. We have a large network of volunteers, but we always welcome new people. Carole Appleby is on our Committee and she is co-ordinating our forthcoming Greyhound Walks, but she really wanted to help out at the kennels too. Also joining us was Jill who already has two hounds and a border collie. She was only with us on Tuesday but fell big time for Kendo, one of our older hounds, and she came up on Saturday to take him home on trial with her other dogs. Both days saw us getting tombola prizes and the trailer ready for the Sandwell St George's Day Show.

On Wednesday lunchtime we received 8 dogs from Head Office, as well as 2 hounds from one of Monmore's trainers, Mel Baker. It was all hands on deck when Nigel arrived with the 4 dogs and 4 bitches. We checked their ear marks, microchipped them and then got them sorted into their respective kennels, just in time for them to be fed following their long journey.

Thursday saw us at Brinton Park, Kidderminster, for a sponsored walk organised by the 'Bridger' students at Kidderminster College. Earlier this year we went along to the College to meet the students and introduce them to our hounds. They enjoyed the visit so much that the students have since been busy devising their own sponsor form and raising sponsor money for the RGT - a fantastic £150 pounds so far! We all met up at 10.00 am and the hounds happily posed for photos with the students for the press. We then did two laps of the park - Alison brought along Mary & Owney, whilst Sally & Jake were there with their owners. The only mild panic was a very (very!!) small dog off his lead who insisted on joining us for the walk - thankfully all of the hounds behaved impecably and we all had a fantastic day. Whilst Alison was with Mary & Owney in Kidderminster, at the kennels Andy took advantage of the 8 volunteers that turned up and it was decided to freshen up the 8 hounds we'd had the day before. They all had a bath and then had their photos taken for the website. See them on our Rehoming Pages.

On Saturday Andy and Alison took the trailer to Sandwell St George's Day Show. Kay H & Jo came in to help Trev at the kennels and as it was Sponsor Weekend Kay and Trev did the nail cutting for our rehomed hounds that turned up. Alison & Andy had a fantastic day at the show, collecting £270 in the pots. Keith Chegwin (Cheggers) opened the show and then posed with Alison, Pete and the hounds for photos. You can see these on our Gallery.

Sunday saw Alison, Neil H and Carole Appleby go to the RGT Conference in Birmingham. News from that will follow next week. Meanwhile, at the kennels it was a hectic day to say the least. Andy and Kay H did numerous dogs' nails - they both lost count!!! - whilst our Sunday volunteers Nadine, Joy and Gary changed the hounds' beds, along with talking to prospective new owners. Having had their nails cut, with it being such a lovely day, the hounds went into the field and had a good gallop. Just a note at this point to say to make sure your hounds nails don't get too long. As the nail grows so the quick inside the nail grows with it. This means that we can't cut too much off in one go as the risk is that the quick will bleed. Our next Sponsor Weekend is 29 and 30 May so please bring your hound(s) along for a 'manicure' then. All we ask is a £2.00 donation in the pot, and another £2.00 if you want to run them in the field (weather permitting). A really touching point of the day was when Sonia, who had had Wilma, Jonny and Ash off us in the past came up the kennels. Sadly, having lost Wilma and Jonny, she lost Ash a few weeks ago and her dog Kiera was pining so much that she had lost weight and Sonia decided it was time to get her a new mate. Along came Tommy!! They really hit it off and so it came time to bath him so that she could take him home - we did a 'wash & go' as Sonia had had hounds off us before and we knew her garden was secure. Kay H took the lead off Sonia to bath Tommy but Kiera decided she wanted to come too!! Love at first sight obviously. Four other hounds were selected so all in all a busy but rewarding day.