Hope Rescue Events Calendar                                                      

Come and see us, we're very friendly and would love to see you at one of the many events Hope Rescue are attending - details of all Events can be found in the Shows, Meet and Greet Section >>> here 

Meet n Greet, Pets @ Home, Bridgend CF31 3XX - Sat. 20th Feb

Meet n Greet, Pets @ Home, Cardiff Bay CF11 0JR - Sat. 27th Feb 

Meet n Greet, Style Garden Centre, Wenvoe CF5 6AD - Sat 6th March

Meet & Greet, Pets @ Home Llantrisant CF72 8RP - Sat 13th March

Meet n Greet, Pets @ Home, Bridgend CF31 3XX - Sat 20th March

Meet n Greet, Pets @ Home, Cardiff Bay CF11 0JR - Sat 27th March

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Hope Rescue Valentine Dog Show - A Fun Day for all the Family and Doglets - Sun. 14 FEB

We will be holding our annual indoor FUN DOG SHOW on Valentines Day this year.  
Splott Methodist Church Hall
Corner of Splott Road and Habershon Street
Cardiff
CF24 2BW

12 Fun Classes for you and your dog/s enter
Entries from 1pm
Judging from 2 p.m.
Classes £1 per entry
Rosettes and prizes

As well as the classes we will have the usual stalls - refreshments, doggy items, raffle, tombola and other Rescues.

Microchipping will also be available at just £10 and nail clipping at £5

We would also be grateful if anyone is able to make any cakes or savouries for us to sell on the refreshment stall - always one of the most popular stalls!

We would also be grateful for any donations for raffle and tombola prizes! _________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to a lot of hard work behind the scenes, Hope are now the proud owners of a 54 plate Mercedes Sprinter  van fitted out with 6 large crates which can be subdivided to form 12 smaller crates, plus room for 3 secure cat carriers.
Funding has come from various sources including free fitting out from the van company/fitting out company, grants and some very generous personal donations, for which we are very grateful - Thank you. 

 We do hope to expand in the future and possibly take on another pound full time.  One of the main reasons for getting the van is to enable us to transport the dogs in a more efficient way, so we will be organising the placement of the dogs more strategically and grouping rescues in a similar area.

That is not to say we won't still need our valued transporters! They will still be essential to help dogs to places of safety, we cannot do it  without them and are very grateful to each and every one . We will also  be needing volunteers aged over 25 years to drive the van.

 Another step in our development! 'Tis been an exciting year!

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 Congratulations - and all the very best for Lewis and Becky who are getting married on the 31st of October. They have very generously asked their guests to donate to Hope in lieu of wedding presents. They have set up a justgiving page and are also collecting on the day. Hope everything goes really well on the day and the sun shines for you. I cant wait to see the wedding photographs - the wedding has a sci fi theme!!
Thank you so much Lewis and Becky ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bella's Story

Bella is a beautiful 3 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier girl in long term foster care with us. Her foster mum Nic tells her story in her own words.....

Bella first came into Hope Rescue’s care in October 2005 when she came over from Ireland as small, malnourished, scared pup. 

She was looked after and loved by Lou and her family and gradually Bella built up strength and  was rehomed to what was meant to be her forever family in 2006. Lou says Bella was one of those “special” dogs – the ones that make you seriously consider giving up fostering and keep them. In late July 2009, Hope had a call from a local authority pound in Kent (thanks to her Hope microchip) to say that Bella was there. There was no answer from the details registered with Hope and no-one contacted Hope to ask where Bella was, so Bella made the long journey from Kent back to South Wales.

Bella came to us on foster. She brought a few 1000 friends with her and was quickly treated by a vet for fleas, worms and ear mites. Bella was underweight and generally in a poor condition with horrible pus filled wounds on some parts of her body which had to be treated with antibiotics. Bella also had what was believed to be a haematoma on her leg. With lots of love and care Bella thrived and turned back into the dog that Lou had seen a few years before. Seven weeks after she came back into our care on Tuesday 29th September, Bella was thought to be well enough to have the haematoma drained. Sadly, that didn’t prove to be as straightforward as we all believed. A phone call from the vet explained that the haematoma was a strange lump which was sent for histology.

Bella came home but the lump was highly vascularised and had proved very difficult to stop bleeding. It started bleeding through her bandages and Bella went back for her second operation of the day. Bella was in theatre a long time and the wound was eventually cauterised and the bleeding stopped. Poor Bella came home again only to be rushed back to the vets because of a swollen paw. After the operations, Bella’s wound did not prove very easy to heal and over the next few weeks went back to the vets on almost a daily basis. On Monday 5th October the results of Bella’s histology were faxed through. The diagnosis was “Mast cell tumour grade II, extending to margins. Consultation with a clinical oncologist is recommended” and Bella was started on Prednisolone, a steroid to help with the symptoms of the tumour (extreme irritation etc).  Poor Bella – at only 4 years old, her second time in Hope’s care and at another point where she had everything to live for this was a real blow.

Despite the costs of Bella’s care to date, Hope didn’t hesitate in approving a referral to the Small Animal Hospital at the University of Liverpool. Bella was seem there at 10am on Monday 19th October 2009. Bella was kept in overnight so that she could be sedated - she had an ultrasound scan, x-rays and an aspiration from the the local lymph node and spleen. Those results show no spread. Bella's wound had not healed and Liverpool did a further operation to debride and stitch the wound. These scrapings have been sent for histology. Bella's tumour is on her carpus (knee) and that is now posing the biggest problem.

Not ONCE during all the dressing changes, tablets and general examinations has Bella been anything but a real lady. Despite all that life has thrown at her, she has one of the sweetest natures towards us humans and returns all the love that we give back 10 fold. Bella has made friends of all the vets, students and nurses she has been in contact with. Bella really is the most special of girls. Bella is gong to stay on foster with us – myself, hubbie, Angharad (15), Ffion (10) and Lexi JRT (2) where we hope that we can give her all the love and care she deserves during her treatment.

Bella has really appreciated all the love and care that Hope Rescue has given her and would like to try and repay as much of her treatment costs as possible. Bella would like to ask you to give generously so that this can be achieved and Hope Rescue can use this money to continue rescuing dogs from put to sleep situations in the pounds and other dogs like Bella who need help.

Please take the time to visit her JustGiving page

 Bella's Justgiving Page

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. So please dig deep and donate now.

Thank you.

October 2009

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Faith, Hope and Charity

Little Faith (pictured below) is a 6 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier girl who sadly ended up in the pound after being found straying in a terrible and neglected condition.

After completion of her statutory 7 days we moved her from the pound into a foster home. Hopefully she can now begin to recover from the the physical and mental torment she has already endured in her short life before finding her way into the pound. Despite her obvious physical discomfort she is a remarkably affectionate and trusting girl, hence why we named her Faith. Her skin condition is as a result of severe demodectic mange, although we will also be checking for any underlying immune condition. Hopefully by continuing the vet treatment started by the pound and good, old fashioned TLC this will work wonders and we cannot wait to show her what puppyhood is all about!.

We are delighted that Burns Pet Nutrition have kindly offered to sponsor Faith's food. A high quality food is an essential part of her skin management programme and we are very grateful for the support from the Burn's team.  

Looking much happier in her foster home

October 2009

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Hope Cosy Christmas Appeal

Kennels aren't a great place for a dog at the best of times, least of all when they have no family of their own to share the Xmas turkey with. Each year we run our Xmas Cosy Kennels Appeal to collect goodies such as toys, treats, coats and jumpers for the dogs spending the festive period in our boarding kennels and the pounds that we help. We also collect items that we can use throughout the year such as collars, leads, and bedding.

You can help in one of three ways:

1. Community Box -  place a large box in your work place, vets, groomers, dog raining club, pet shop, supermarket etc. We can provide a poster to go with  your box explaining the purpose of the appeal and what items we need. If you would like one please email enquiries@hoperescue.org.uk. We will then arrange collection of the boxes and distribute the contents in time for Xmas. Please contact the relevant Area Rep as detailed below for collection.

2. Personal Shoe Box  - ask your fiends and family to fill a shoe box full of goodies  

3. Drop items into an existing Community Box or to an Area Rep

• Pets At Home, Cardiff Bay
• Talbot Pets, Talbot Green
• Budget Vets - Abertillery, Porth and Newport
• Barkers Groomers, Pugh Garden Centre, Morganstown, Cardiff
• Classic Canine Cuts, Blackwood
• Summerhill Vets, Blackwood
• Asda, Caerphilly

Area Reps - if there is not a rep listed for your area please contact Vanessa on 07870 455810:

• Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Newport - Vanessa 07870 455810
• Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend - Susie 07974 212704
• Merthyr - Sian 07887 848003
• Torfaen  - Nic 07968 140136
• Monmouth, Brecon and Bristol - Donna 07917 762120
• RCT and Cardiff - Leann 07876 723958
• Ceredigion - Donna 07545 822972 
• Neath Port Talbot, Swansea and Hampshire - Yvonne 07717 833637
• Sussex - Tracey 07882 365576
• Surrey - Ange 07545 822919

               Please help us to give our dogs a better Xmas!

October 2009

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11 year old Ollie Waddon successfully climbed Mount Snowdon on 26th September 2009!

11 year old Ollie Waddon, son of co-founder Vanessa led an intrepid team of fifteen Hope Rescue supporters on a trek up Mount Snowdon on 26th September 2009. They climbed the Llanberis Trail, or Tourist Trail as it is also known and reached the summit in under 3 hours. It was a long way for a person with little legs, he didn't complain once and kept everyone in high spirits! He really deserves your support and it is not too late to sponsor him and help him reach his £2,000 target. You can donate safely and securely through Ollie's Justgiving page here:

Ollie's Trek Justgiving Page   

Stories from the day and more photos can be found on the Forum >>> here. Keep an eye out for our Challenge 2010 as we tackle Offa's Dyke, the entire 177 mile length of the Welsh/English border!

October 2009

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BT Community Connections Award

We are pleased to anounce that we have been successful with our recent application for a new laptop and and a years worth of broadband from BT! The award will be used to make sure we get the education message about the stray dog problem out there and into the community. We will use the laptop for presentations to schools and colleges, as well as for showing a slideshow presentation at the various stalls we attend at Dog Shows etc throughout the year 

Co-founder Vanessa Waddon is pictured below with Emma from the University of Glamorgan in respect of a partnership project we are developing (more news to follow!) 

A Huge Thank You to Paula at Cosy Welsh Cottages

As a dog lover, Paula has always very generously supported Hope Rescue. She offers a week in one of her beautiful dog friendly, self catering holiday cottages regularly in our online auctions and any charges for pets staying at the cottages are donated to Hope.

She recently organised a garden party with a barbeque and buffet, lots to drink and an auction and tombola table, funding this herself with all the entrance money being donated to Hope Rescue. The event raised a massive £700. Unfortunately, Paula was so busy that she did not have time to take photos! So instead here is a photo of one of the cottages on the edge of the Brecons and one of Cosy Cottages log cabin on a 24 acre wooded site very near the village of Cenarth with its famous falls.

Thank you so much Paula from everyone at Hope Rescue, but especially the dogs. We have had some huge bills recently and your generousity is really appreciated and will make such a difference!

August 2009 

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Hope Rescue Van Appeal - help us match the £5,000 awarded from the Pedigree Adoption Drive

We were delighted to receive a cheque for £5,000 this month from the Pedigree Adoption Drive. We specifically applied for this grant towards the purchase of a van. We cover many thousands of miles every month transporting the pound dogs to the safety of their rescue spaces. Most of this is covered by volunteers using their own vehicles, and can be a logistical nightmare as sometimes we may have around 10 dogs to move in one go. A new or nearly new, fully crated out van would provide such a lifeline to us, as it could literally mean the difference between life and death for the pound dogs. it is often difficult to arrange transport at the last minute - sometimes we only have hours to save a dogs life.

We now need to get the £5,000 match funded through sponsorship and fundraising. Do you know a company that may be able to make a donation in return for advertising/signwriting their details on the van . Maybe you have a contact in a van dealership who could possibly donate a van to us. Or perhaps you could organise a fund raiser specifically to go towards the costs. Or simply press the donation button at the bottom of the page, marking it Van Donation. 

Update 5th October 2009: The total is now standing at £6,270 thanks to some very generous donations!  

Our target is to raise a further £10,000 which will also cover some of the first year running costs.  Please help us to help them..........   

                                                                                                                                                            Updated October 2009

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Please consider sponsoring Holly -  Hope Rescue's Latest Long Term Foster Dog

Holly is a 9 year old Doberman who came into us with 4 other dogs. She is an ex-breeding bitch, who has been kennelled for most of her life. Sadly she arrived with a very obvious mammary tumour, which the vet removed when he speyed her. After a few weeks another lump appeared close to the original tumour. Holly also has a bad heart, so we won't be putting her under the stress of another operation at her age.

The good news is that Holly met a wonderful family when we attended a local agility show where they were competing with their five Dobermans. She will now remain with Stewart and his family as a long term foster for the rest of her life - we cannot thank them enough for taking on our special girl.

Holly joins our other long term foster dogs - Madoc the 15 year old Rough Collie, Sam the 10 year old Yorkie and Danni the 10 year old Doberman. Our long term foster programme means that these dogs will remain in their foster home for the rest of their lives, with Hope Rescue meeting all their medical expenses. We can only afford to do this with your continued support so please consider sponsoring one of these very special dogs for just £5 per month. Further details can be found here:

Sponsor a Long Term Foster Dog

July 2009

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Hope Rescue awarded £5,000 grant from Pets At Home Foundation

We are delighted to anounce that we have been successful with our recent application for a grant from the Pets At Home Foundation. The grant will go towards our substantial neutering costs, and we are extremely grateful. Co-founder Vanessa Waddon collected the cheque from Manager Alison at the Cardiff Bay store. Alison recently adopted a Hope Rescue dog herself after meeting him at a Meet and Greet at the store - Sprockett, one of our partially sighted Cocker Spaniel cross puppies.

Vaneesa, Alison and the lovely Sprockett

July 2009

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Don't Overlook the Oldies!

We often get older dogs in, but sadly they often get overlooked due to their age. There are many advantages to rehoming a golden oldie. Perhaps due to your own health or age you require a dog who isn't too energetic or doesn't require as much exercise as a youngster does. Maybe your working hours are slightly too long for a younger dog.  An older dog does have a lot to offer for the right home so please consider rehoming an older dog! We sometimes also need long term foster homes for particular oldies, where you will care for the dog for the rest of their life, but Hope Rescue will take care of any vets bills. 

Some of our Oldies currently looking for homes.......

                                   Jude                                                Max and Millie                                 

Updated October 2009

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Hope Rescue gains Charity Status

We are delighted to anounce that all the hard work undertaken by our wonderful volunteers over the last four years has been recognised and we are now officially Registered Charity Number 1129629! This is a huge step in our development and will allow us to progress our plans further to help even more stray dogs. We would like to thank all our volunteers, past and present who have helped us on our journey as without your support we would not be where we are today.

Watch out for details shortly of exciting new Corporate and Individual Sponsorship Schemes, and how to donate using Gift Aid!

May 2009

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We have joined foces with Reclaim It!

Did you know that in the UK alone over 2 million printer cartridges are disposed of in landfill sites and 15 million unwanted mobiles are similarly discarded? Would you would like to help raise funds for Hope Rescue whilst at the same time reducing the amount of electronic waste consigned to landfill? They will even come and collect the boxes for you and none of it costs you a penny! There are several methods to arrange the free collection of your old mobile phones and or empty printer cartridges, just choose the one that suits you best.

Just click the link Here to order pre-paid envelopes or collection boxes for your old mobiles or used printer cartridges, an easy way to reduce landfill waste and help to raise funds for Hope! 

Why not order a collection box for your work place - fill it up then a courier will come and collect it for you - easy! We can even send you a copy of a poster or sticker that can go on the front. Please email treasurer@hoperescue.org.uk for a copy.

May 2009

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Oldie2Sams Vet Appeal - Our Appeal Fund for dogs with special veterinary needs

The Oldie2Sams came into our care in March, both needing extensive vet treatment in excess of the normal vaccinations, neuter, flea and worm treatment. The final bill exceeded £1,000, and we set up a special fundraiser to meet the costs including an on-line Sponsored Easter Egg Hunt and a Sponsored Belly Dance by Barb, our belly dancing babe!

We have decided to keep our Vet Appeal open for other dogs with special medical needs such as Kip featured above. If you would like to donate to our Vet Appeal, or have a great idea for a fundraiser then please let us know by contacting Ange at treasurer@hoperescue.org.uk 

We will keep you updated with the Special Needs dogs that will benefit from your generous support!

May 2009