Sorry, sorry sorry, late again but honestly it really isn’t my fault. My computer has decided that, like my cooker Betsy, it would like to cause me as much grief as possible. Had to call in the big guns and now thanks to Keith and Colin I can update you with what has been ‘occurring’.
Balto the gorgeous old English Setter arrived safe and sound …………………. and within ten seconds had scaled the two metre high fencing around his new park ! Thinking he had jumped on to the roof of the kennel and then got over, Ernst took the roof off the kennel to test. Nope, Balto boy was back at the house before we were. So, we had a problem because our perimeter fencing is the same height as the fencing round the parks. The lovely lady who had driven all the way with him made a discreet escape whilst I walked Balto elsewhere but as soon as he realised she had left, he was down climbing the gates ! Luckily he is very obediant so came when called but just to be on the safe side I kept him with me on a lead for the first evening. He slept in the kitchen with the little oldies and seemed quite happy with that and now we can leave him loose in the garden and he doesn’t try to escape.
Remember I mentioned Lina in the last newsletter ? Well she didn’t get adopted after all so she is now here at Poorpaws and (now Nina) is an absolute delight……..even if walking on the kitchen table seems to be a skill she has learned somewhere ! We are now awaiting the arrival of a very elderly Beagle who has had a miserable life up to now, hoping that we can make his last years comfortable and happy.
Regular readers of this newsletter will have noticed that Poorpaws has changed direction slightly over the last year. When I started back in 2003 I would take in strays and find them new homes. Well, obviously some of the dogs never did get new homes and are still with us which left little space for new arrivals. We now have about 17 dogs who will never move on because of age or behaviour problems. So what about all the other poor dogs out there ? Well you have heard me talk about Danielle many times. Danielle runs La Mere aux Betes another private refuge in Castelnau. Like Poorpaws she is a one man band but we work together in homing dogs. The dogs go to Danielle and I put them on the Poorpaws website so that she can deal with both French and English adopters very easily. If you are wondering why I still have fund raisers if I am not taking in many dogs, well, 17 old dogs need a lot of care, grooming and, oh, they like to eat every day as well! I am now retired and I’m sorry to say that my pension alone does not provide enough to keep Ernst and me and all the dogs. Adoption fees go to Danielle which is quite normal as she has the care of them and so far, my selling greetings cards together with our Book Sales and Clothes sales, keeps our heads above water -with a little underwater swimming now and again !
Last week ‘my own’ dog Jip, a Brittany Spaniel mix (of course !) ran off whilst on a walk. Now he has never done this before, he charges around but always stays close. But, a deer came out from the trees and was so close to me I could have touched him/her had I not been so shocked. Jip couldn’t believe it and he was off as fast as his little legs could go. He hadn’t rejoined us at the end of the walk, nor had he come home by 11.30 pm which his aged chase companion had. I was distraught and went out to our back gate every hour up to 3am. Now the very strange thing is that when you lose a dog, you should leave your jacket near to where you parted company. I have done this on several occasions and it works, the dog comes back recognises your smell (sorry !) and curls up on the jacket. Well I put mine down close to our gate at 1am, went back an hour later and it had gone ! Disappeared ! Now there is no path leading up to behind our place and surely no-one would be walking there at that time in the morning and even if they had the other dogs would have set up a racket fit to deafen the village. Jip came back at 9am the following morning looking bedraggled and soaked, my swollen eyes got back to their normal size by the end of the day, but as to the jacket, well it’s a mystery !! So if when you are walking you see a deer or sanglier wearing a torn Primark walking jacket, can you ask if I can have it back please ?!
The brown ‘Dude’ puppy has been reserved as has the gorgeous Cannelle. in fact it is a friend of mine, Jackie, in England who is adopting Cannelle and her wonderful son, Dominic, is driving her all the way down here from Guildford to take lucky Cannelle back. I do hope someone takes the little Beagle soon and the beautiful creamy Griffon mix, now there’s an absolute poppet
Now I’m back on line I better get the adoptions page up to date. I’ll definitely be late with the news next month as I will be in England for my godson’s wedding. Poor Nick, I have an audio cassette of him when he was six thanking me for sending him a SuperTed annual for Christmas, he (Nick, not SuperTed) is now 35 and probably won’t appreciate the cassette being played at his wedding !
Oh, by the way, don’t go and see Still Alice, get the book it’s much, much more interesting. Can’t think how they made such a bland film out of a ‘can’t put down’ book !
Love,
Sue xx