Is your Dog a superstar? Why not enter the Doggies Oscars? An online photo competition with a twist – 7 trophies to be won. All proceeds to Four Paws Animal Rescue so please enter to help us raise much needed funds. Please note this isn’t being run by Four Paws but by a kind supporter. Details here - https://www.facebook.com/atcharityfundraising

Good luck all :-)

Fundraiser in conjunction with Crabtree & Evelyn, Cardiff - 29th October - 6pm

** TICKETS  NOW AVAILABLE **

 

A fantastic opportunity to help us raise much needed funds, maybe do a bit of Christmas shopping and have some pampering.

 

Crabtree & Evelyn is a renowned retailer of original fragrances, fine foods and gorgeous gifts, all beautifully packaged to transform the ordinary rituals of daily life into extraordinary, pleasurable experiences.

 

They are committed to support and promote the work of local good causes across the UK and over the years we have worked with many charities, raising over £40,000 for Breast Cancer Care alone. This year they have the goal of raising over £100,000 for a number of local charities and organisations such as Four Paws and to that end they have offered us the opportunity to host an exclusive fundraising event at their Cardiff store.

 

These private events are run exclusively for supporters, family and friends of local good causes. Entry is by ticket only and entitles the purchaser to complimentary refreshments and a full size Crabtree & Evelyn Hand Therapy product worth £9.00.

 

What will we receive from Crabtree & Evelyn?

 

• Tickets are priced at £10 and we will retain 50% of the proceeds from ticket sales (the remainder covers the cost of the event in store – refreshments, goodie bags etc.)
• We will also receive a contribution equivalent to15% of all sales on the night of the event
• We will retain all proceeds from the raffle of a £100 gift, which Crabtree & Evelyn will donate free of charge

 

At the event: 

 

• The Crabtree & Evelyn team will serve drinks and nibbles
• Demonstrations and our amazing mini hand treatments to your guests
• And finally, complimentary gift wrapping

 

Tickets now available, just drop us an email to enquiries@fourpawsanimalrescue.org.uk or post on our Facebook page and we will post tickets out to you.  Payments can be made via Justgiving http://www.justgiving.com/fourpawsanimalrescue and will also be available at our Paws for Tea event on 26th October.

 

Hope to see lots of you there.  What could be better than shopping, pampering and being able to support your favourite charity at the same time!

PAH Support Adoption for Pets Nomination

Once again, the lovely people at Pets at Home are supporting us.

Support Adoption For Pets, a registered charity, runs two major fundraising campaigns every year in Pets at Home stores across the UK. They ask for rehoming centre nominations from Pets at Home stores and the fantastic news is that we have been nominated.

From the 2nd October though to 29th October, the Pets at Home store in Blackwood and Cardiff Ty Glas will be fundraising just for us – so every penny they raise will be donated to us!

Even more excitingly, Support Adoption For Pets have provided raffle tickets for us and the store to sell and have purchased all the prizes too! The Grand Prize being a £13k car!! – 100% of the ticket sales will be donated to us – which is fantastic! So if you would like to buy a raffle ticket (or a few) to be entered into the draw with all the money coming to us – then please either contact us or nip into the Pets at Home store in Blackwood and Cardiff Ty Glas.

We will be having some Meet & Greets at these two stores during October so why not pop along and say hello to some of our lovely volunteers and foster dogs.  Good luck in the raffle!

Skye update

Skye had 7 beautiful boys. Here she is being an amazing mum and giving one of them a cuddle.

We wanted to share a few statistics from last year :-)

720 animals rescued in total:
Dogs - 711
Cats – 9 

Rehomed - 214 
Moved to other Rescues - 488
Deceased - 8
In our care at the Year End - 10

To be able to save that many animals in a year is a massive achievement, but especially so when we consider that all our volunteers work with us on a 100% unpaid basis. If you support us you can be sure that every penny goes to saving the animals, not on admin/salary costs.

We couldn't have done it without each and every one of our lovely volunteers and supporters so THANK YOU on behalf of all the animals who are now living out their happy forever after.

New links

Firstly we at FPAR would like to wish you a belated happy Easter and hope you enjoyed your long weekend. It may be cold but it's dry and the sun is out. Great weather for dog walking!

I have updated our links to the left of this piece so you will be able to find it easier to support us.

Our new Amazon wishlist where you can support the dogs in our care by buying vital food/wormers/treats and items we use on a daily basis, or even raffle prizes for fundraising events. Just log in to your own account and an address for one of our volunteers should be an option for you to select when you checkout so everything gets delivered straight to us and can be used right away.

Our Easy Search search engine that you can use just like Google. Every time you complete a search you will be raising money for us.

Skye - our mum to be

For those of you who haven't registered on our forum there is a link for that too. You will be able to keep up to date with our events and the dogs in our care as well as have a good old natter and in fundraising brainstorming sessions!

Facebook, Twitter, Just Giving are there too so there's no getting away from us!

Other news is that we have just had a pregnant crossbreed come into our care. She moved into her cosy foster home yesterday so she can have her pups in comfort. The poor lass was looking like she would have to give birth in kennels but thankfully our two 'midwives' volunteered their services. We will keep you informed.

Dog of the Week

This is Beth. She is a gorgeous nearly 7 year old black lab who is looking for a quiet home with either adults only or older children.


Beth came into our care when she was handed in, and initially was finding it all a bit to much.

She was unsure of living with other dogs so will need time and patience until she settles in a new home. In her foster home she tolerates the older dogs but doesn't get on with the younger two, although she is starting to share a bed with other dogs so this is likely to improve with time.

She will be more suited to being an only dog or with one other that is quiet and very laid back.

She walks very well on the lead and does not pull. Beth enjoys her food and any treats are always welcome which is great for training and building up trust.

After a week in her foster home Beth is proving to be a lovely and very affectionate girl. She adores being stroked and having her belly rubbed  She eats well - actually loves her food and any treats that are going - a typical lab.
Beth is getting more trusting and brave as she settles.

National Pet month

Next week sees the beginning of National Pet Month, which runs from April 1 until May 6, 2013, and this year it focuses on the companionship that our pets provide.

Taken from the National Pet Month website figures show that 50% of households in the UK own at least one pet and that equates to approximately 67 million pets in the UK alone so we are certainly a nation of animal lovers.

During this period animal charities, schools and colleges, even workplaces will be promoting responsible pet ownership and it is a brilliant opportunity to support your local animal charity too, whether financially or in a volunteer capacity at one of their events. Keep an eye out for an event near you, or register one if you have a fundraiser planned. Celebrities on board this year include fitness guru Rosemary Conley - who states that pets make you healthier, West End star Jodie Prenger and Doctors actress Lu Courfield, as well as TV vet Mark Abraham.


Register online here and download your support pack now. You can also keep up to date with events and news on Facebook, where you can upload pictures and stories of your pets.

Why we have rules

As a rescue we get a lot of flack from unsuccessful potential adopters. It isn't very nice being on the receiving end of that but all too often we are, sadly. Our priority is to safeguard the dogs in our care. Most have them have been through rather a lot of instability in their lives and we try to make sure that every dog rehomed by us is rehomed for life.

Over the years we have had to put these rules in place because we have found out what works and what doesn't. So, we will have a go at explaining them. 

We don't home to families with children under 5 years old.Children under five are generally rather unpredictable and not great at following instruction. They don't tend to understand when a dog needs its own space, and they also demand rather a lot of attention from their parents so it gets more difficult to allocate time for the new dog. At five they can walk/talk/go to school and are a little more independent and dare I say a little more sensible! We realise this isn't always the case and many children under five are dog savvy but we do have to draw the line somewhere. All other pets must be neutered and vaccinated.  We are a responsible rescue who are all too aware that the population of unwanted dogs in the UK is out of control. It's all about taking responsibility. All the dogs we rehome are neutered, unless they are under six months when rehomed and then it becomes the adopters responsibility, but we will follow this up. The last thing we want to do is add to the amount of unwanted pups being put to sleep or ending up in kennels. This is why we will never rehome a dog to a household that breeds or plans to breed from their dogs. This one is more of an ethical rule and something we always stand by. Vaccinations... again, goes without saying. We don't want our dogs catching anything nasty. Those renting must provide a letter from the landlord. We have many dogs come into our care simply because the tenant got a dog without asking the landlord first. When the landlord threatens the tenant with eviction, the dog usually has to find somewhere else to live. We don't want this to happen to any of the dogs in our care so this is why we ask - so we can be assured that the dog isn't going to find itself homeless when the landlord finds out. Dogs should generally not be left alone for more than four hours. Puppies need to be in a home where they are not left for more than two hours. Puppies need constant attention. They are like small children in the sense that they need frequent toilet trips, frequent meals and lots of attention. A pup shut in the kitchen or crated for any length of time without any human contact or constructive input is likely to develop problems in later life. We don't want to see any dog come back to us but young adult dogs that have had no training and behavioural problems prove almost impossible to rehome, especially if it could have been prevented by having some rules in place. Adult dogs can often cope with being left for a little longer, which is why we have the four hour rule. If you work full time and plan on leaving your dog for 8/9 hours a day on its own it needs to be able to cope with that. Dogs are social animals but occasionally we come across one who is happy to be left for a little longer, although they few and far between. We certainly don't wish to offend anyone and know it is unrealistic to expect people not to work but the welfare of the dogs is paramount. It is a condition of adoption that our rescue dogs must live as part of the family and should not live outdoors and we insist that only positive reward based training methods must be used. As said above, dogs are social animals and are part of the family. A dog kept outside is not able to be part of that family so this one speaks for itself. Positive training methods only - these outdated methods using the dominance theory are still used but thankfully most people have moved on from this. It is a condition of adoption that puppies have to attend training classes and we will ask for details of the classes. In some cases we may suggest or insist that adult dogs undertake training classes, where we have identified the need for ongoing training. Again, this is pretty basic stuff. If dogs/puppies aren't trained then problems may arise. As well as the social aspect of dog-training classes both you and the dog will benefit from 'being on the same page' with regard to training and behaviour. You will need to visit the dog in their foster home and return on a mutually convenient date to collect your dog if your application is successful - we do not deliver dogs to your home. We are a charity and are all volunteers. We juggle our day to day lives and do not have the time or the funds to run around the country to visit you in your home with the dog in question or deliver it! All adoptions are subject to a satisfactory home check. For a dog the minimum donation is £ 150 - your dog will be neutered (if old enough), microchipped, flea treated, wormed and vaccinated. On average it costs us £250 to get each dog in our care ready for rehoming. Average. Some dogs need very little veterinary care other than flea and worming treatment and microchipping. Other dogs need serious medical attention which can easily run into thousands of pounds. Our minimum donation is £150 which is exactly that... a donation. It is non-refundable should you decide to return your dog. I hope this clears a few things up and helps people realise that we're not horrible, we don't discrimate but we do have to look out for the dogs in our care and if that means turning down a home we don't think is suitable for that dog then so be it.

Paws for Tea

Lex and Asha

Thank you to everyone came to support us at our Paws 4 Tea event at the Heath, Cardiff. The total raised was £305 so well done to all involved - more pictures to follow,

So many foster dogs paid a visit, as well as happily rehomed dogs and many willing volunteers. Despite the rain.. and the rugby... we still had a great turn out.

Gerard

Hammy

Leo

Asha

We have some news here at FPAR. Asha, the whippet pup with hydrocephalus who came into our care last year is back with us again.

After having his shunt operation at Langford, courtesy of all the money raised by our lovely supporters, it was anticipated that Asha would have to take life a bit easier than 'normal' dogs and would never need that much exercise. We placed him with a lovely home where he would have company for most of the day and two good on-lead walks morning and afternoon. 

This was great in the early days and suited Asha and his owner down to the ground. Since then however, Asha has come on in leaps and bounds - literally - and is a normal 10 month old whippet pup. His heartbroken owner has surrendered him because she cannot provide him with the exercise and he is proving to be livelier than expected.

It is incredibly upsetting in one way for the poor lady to have to give up her much-loved companion but amazing to see what a recovery Asha has made. He has always been a fighter and this just proves it - nothing is going to hold him back.

We think he would benefit from a home where there is a calm resident dog and also a home that has experience of pointy noses. When we say pointy noses we mean greyhounds/whippets/lurchers etc who have very pointy noses, but more importantly specific care requirements.

Here is Asha's rehoming thread.

Another thank you

A big thank you to the lovely people at Dog Theft Action who presented us and other charities with a Halo scanner at Crufts yesterday. We will put it to good use. Thanks also to everyone who nominated/voted for us.

We need your help!

Can you be the link to one of our kennel dogs going to their forever home?

When we do not have any free foster carers or rescue spaces, the poundies who remain unclaimed after their  seven days are transferred to 'boarding' kennels when we have the room and we pay to keep them safe.

We have many different dogs in kennels at the moment who are unassessed and would dearly like a second chance. Until they are assessed in a foster home we cannot rehome them. Here are just a few of our kennel dogs needing foster homes:

Crossbreed boy

GSD boy

Staff cross, girl

Staff boy

GSD girl

Cocker spaniel boy

Hannah

Taz

Wolfie

Terrier boy

If you have applied and been approved as a foster carer and would like to help with one of these dogs then please get in touch with one of our trustees on the forum (DextersMum or Shepherd Lover).

If you are interested in fostering but have not yet applied then please click here to fill out an application form. Successful applications will be home checked.

Please remember, fostering does not cost you anything. We provide the food, pay the vets fees and can even provide the bedding. Do you have a space in your home for one of these dogs?

We wouldn't ask if we didn't need your help. We are at crisis point. The kennels we use are full to bursting and we came very close to losing some dogs this week because we ran out of space.

Thank you for your support.

Our dogs in search of a loving home

Dino

Aggie

Bentley

Leo

Kenzi

Missy

Morse

Nova

Sammy

Rigby

Billy

We have dogs to suit almost everyone in at the moment. We have big chunky pups for big breed lovers - 13 week old Rigby, we have little mischievous pups for those who prefer those dogs a bit smaller in the form of siblings, Aggie, Dino, Bentley and Kenzi. If you're after a loving, waggy dog who has gone past his puppy years we have Billy, the gorgeous Cav boy.

Sammy and Leo are lively Jack Russell crosses who both have their own likes and dislikes. Sammy was attacked in the kennels and has since developed a fear of other dogs so he does need to be the only dog in the household. Leo is a teeny, tiny cuddle monster who will keep you warm during these chilly evenings.

Nova is a well-behaved older pup who has the most beautiful spotty ears, and we think he'll be medium to large size when fully grown. Morse is a big lurcher boy who loves everyone he meets. Morse has been in foster now for a while and really deserves his own forever sofa. Do you have space for him?

Missy the Yorkie is looking for a special home. She suffers from diabetes and needs a strict routine and an owner who is prepared to keep up her insulin injections. Currently she is on a diet but when the weight is off she should be kept on Chappie, which is the perfect diet for diabetic canines.

For more information on any of these dogs please visit our forum

Our next fundraiser

http://forum.fourpawsanimalrescue.org.uk/index.php?topic=10653.0

Happy Valentine's Day

We at Four Paws Animal Rescue do hope you know how much we appreciate your support. Here is a little thank you from some of the dogs we have managed to help this year. Click on the picture to see it in more detail.

Thank you

A big thank you to everyone who supported our Paws 4 Tea event yesterday. We wouldn't be here without you. From volunteers who baked cakes, gave their time setting up, manning stalls, packing up afterwards, donating items, who popped in to visit us and spent their hard-earned cash.

Thank you

We managed to raise £375 and for everyone who bought a raffle ticket for our framed and signed photograph we raised £197.

Lastly, thank you to Mark who took these wonderful photos and really managed to capture the atmosphere!