Happy Easter everyone. Sorry this month’s spouting is rather late, I was waiting so that I could give you the results of our Easter Barn Book Sale which we held yesterday. Wow ! Again I say “Wow” ! It was fantastic, those of you who supported us were great, streaming in with empty bags, boxes and tummies to fill. It was our Personal Best and we raised over 1,550 euros for dog rescue which is always dear to our hearts and cancer research which is especially dear to our hearts at the moment.
The money is split 50/50 the Poorpaws share paying off our vets bill (look out for vets in Prayssac dancing in the street !) and paying for a super duper Ritz/Savoy double kennel being made for us at cost price ready for a couple of large oldies who have to leave their home and who cannot be separated. This will be ready for them when their poor elderly, confused owner finally decides she will go into a home. She has changed her mind several times because she cannot bear to leave her dogs but, hey, sweetheart, you take all the time you need, the place for your ‘babes’ is here waiting for when you are all ready. There will be pennies left over for the next two months’ dogfood and, as usual, a donation to Twilight. Typical of her generosity Leeanne has been in touch to say that, for personal reasons, she wants the Twilight share to go to cancer research
Twilight is another cause which holds a special place here at Poorpaws. Many years ago Leeanne and Mike, two of the kindest people ever to exist, adopted a couple of dogs from Poorpaws to keep their gorgeous Golden Retriever company. They loved having dogs so much and were interested in what Poorpaws was doing, so put forward the idea of setting up’ Poorpaws Dordogne’. Now I love Leeanne and Mike enormously but Poorpaws has always been basically a one man band and I have seen too often what happens when more people come in to help run a charity. Even though everyone is working for the same aim, differences of opinion creep in, tempers get frayed and before you know where you are, the aim you are working for takes second place to soothing ruffled feathers. So I thanked Leeanne and Mike very much but explained my fears. They then came back with the wizard idea of Twilight and the rest is history. So, Poorpaws was started thanks to inspiration from Pheonix and Twilight followed on. The funny thing is that Poorpaws is now more like Twilight as we can only take in old dogs when we have a space and my friend Danielle at La Mere aux Betes takes in the ‘adoptables’ which we home together.
Must tell you about my great new way of getting dogs homed. A couple of weeks ago my attention was drawn to a beautiful Griffon, Vickie, who is the spitting image of my lovely Bella who died two years ago. Vickie is a lovely old girl of about 12 years old. She had been taken away from her owner who was cruel to her and had been languishing at a refuge for three years without anyone taking any notice of her. I couldn’t let her languish any longer so called, left a message that I would like to adopt her and followed up with an email. Well, I got a reply to say that astonishingly, after three years of being ignored, I was the second person that weekend to want to adopt her ! So, being the second, obviously I didn’t get her but I want to say thanks a million to the people who were kind enough to take Vickie into their hearts and homes.
Then I saw Lina, another elderly lady in another refuge who was so like my Dany who forgot her green cross code with tragic results. Again, I set the wheels in motion to bring Lina here. Unfortunately I couldn’t collect her until later in the month and have been told that, yes, you guessed it, after a long time in the refuge, Lina has amazingly got someone else looking to adopt.
So, I’m thinking if I call all the refuges and tell them I want to adopt all their dogs, they should all be homed between now and Easter Monday !!
We will be welcoming Balto into Poorpaws next week. Poor Balto an aged Setter was left behind locked in a garage when his owners moved house!!! We only found him when the landlord was getting the locks taken off and changed to get into the house that they discovered him and called us. It is when I hear stories like this that I realise I am not a nice person, revenge on Balto’s behalf would be cold, long and painful.
Honey, the twelve year old Border Colley will also be moving in if she has not found a home very soon. Do think about adopting an oldie, long walks not essential, just a warm bed and a gentle touch to make their last months, years happy knowing they are loved.
Adoptions of the younger ones have been good for March, Caramel a gorgeous Labrador found a great home with Brian and the German Shepherd young lady is now called China and travels around in a Mazda sports car ! I’ll be taking Jaly, to be renamed Rosie, as far as Limoges next week to meet her new owners who will be coming down from Tours to collect her. This leaves her park pal, the lovely Setter/Spaniel Hugo rather lonely, not fair for such a wonderful dog. So it goes on !
Just had to share these two photos of rare breed dogs with you, Colleyflower and Brocollie (thank you Gerry) – tee hee !
Love,
Sue x