Hope Rescue launches Year of the Rescue Pet at Crufts 2009 with

Celebrity vet Marc Abrahams and his great new social networking site thepet.net has nominated Hope Rescue as their chosen rescue to promote Year of the Rescue Pet. The project was launched at Crufts where we worked alongside Marc and his business partner Andrew to promote the benefits of owning a wonderful rescue pet. We participated in various media interviews where we  had the opportunity to explain the issues with the Stray Dog Problem and how dog owners can become responsible owners by neutering and micro-chipping their dogs.

For further information look at the pet.net and keep your eyes peeled for details of further exciting events celebrating Year of the Rescue Pet!

March 2009

The pitter patter of tiny feet!

We recently took in a heavily pregnant Chocolate Labrador who came in as a stray to the pound. Maisy gave birth to 6 healthy puppies at the end of February. We didn't know who the father was, but suspected he was a handsome Siberian Husky who came  in to the pound the same time. I think we may have been right, what do you think?!

Luckily there will be no more puppies for Maisy as she wll be spayed shortly, and the handsome dad will also be neutered at the Kit Wilson Trust, Sussex who kindly took him in for us.

March 2009

Grab a bargain stay at dog-friendly Craig-y-Nos Castle and help Hope Rescue 

Your chance to stay in a dog friendly haunted Castle and qualify for a fantastic 15% discount with a further donation going to  Hope Rescue. To book and gain the discount please click the special link here.

Craig-y-Nos Castle stands in the Brecon Beacons National Park in the Upper Swansea Valley in South Wales, UK. This is an area specially designated for its natural beauty and has an interesting historical past. The castle has been transformed into a quality hotel with accommodation and reception facilities for weddings and conferences. There is a wealth of walking/sporting activities available or you may just want to relax in the comfort of the bar or your room, the castle has a reputation as one of the most notorious haunted venues in the UK.

For further information on this amazing place to stay check out the Castle website  

March 2009

Thank You Canine Concepts

We would like to say a huge thank you to Canine Concepts who recently kindly donated some dog crates for our tranporters and foster homes. None of the dogs in the pound are safe until transported to a foster home, a rescue space or kennels. Transport is a major part of our co-ordinating role, so we are very grateful to Canine Concepts for their help and support. 

A note from Patricia, their founder

" We offer a wide range of discounted dog products. I like to think our range is very imaginative and unique. Whilst focusing mainly on training and stimulation products, I do cater for those (like myself) who also want to indulge their pets. What I can say about all of our products is that I spend considerable time seeking out products that are proven, dog-friendly and of high quality. Many of these are sourced from overseas and are unique to our shop "

Click on the link below!

June 2009

It's a Dog's Life on the Canal!

Whilst we do have rehoming guidelines we like to think we can be flexible when it comes to finding the right home for our dogs. Sometimes that means we may consider an unconventional home. Our normal rehoming criteria is that any garden must be fully enclosed - what does that mean however when your "garden" is a canal towpath?!!!

We have now successfully rehomed two of our dogs to narrowboats! Canal life suits these particular dogs down to the ground and they have found the most amazing homes, with a lifestyle that many would envy!

Buster enjoying life as a water baby.....

June 2009

Sponsor Pete in the 100 mile Dartmoor Cyclosportive Challenge!

Pete, the *willing* OH of Hope Rescue volunteer Claire is partcipating in this years gruelling Dartmoor Cyclosportive Challenge (28th June 2009), and has kindly offered to donate any sponsorship money to Hope. The Challenge is a 100 mile cycle route across the exposed Dartmoor moors, starting and finishing in the village of Kingsteingnton in Devon, close to one of the pounds we help. I am sure most of us would be wincing at the thought of a 10 mile cycle ride, let alone 100 miles! So he really needs your support with sponsorship to show how grateful we are.

If you would like to sponsor Pete then the address for cheques made payable to Hope Rescue is :

Angela Dent
HOPE RESCUE
2 Kingfield Close
Kingfield
Woking
Surrey GU22 9BE

Or you can pay by Paypal : paypal@hoperescue.org.uk 

We would also be very grateful if when sending payments, a note could be included to say what the money is for and your name and address.

THANK YOU PETE AND GOOD LUCK!

June 2009

Update - Pete completed the challenge and raised a fantastic £200!! Thank you!!

 Barking Mad Dog Show - Llancaiach Fawr Manor House, Nelson - August Bank Holiday Monday

Once again we are holding our annual Barking Mad Dog Show in conjunction with Caerphilly County Borough Council on August Bank Holiday Monday. This is our main Show, and last year we had over 1,000 people and their dogs attend. The venue is the beautiful Llancaiaich Fawr Manor House in Nelson which provides a spectactular back drop to this fabulous doggie day out. This year we are delighted to welcome two special celebrity judges, Boyd Clack and his partner Kirsten Jones (Satellite City and High Hopes). Boyd is pictured below with Co-founder Vanessa Waddon and her current foster dog Jade:

As well as our fantastic Family Dog Show there will be a number of other attractions including Have A Go at Agility, a chance to enter your dog for the Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze Award, various rescue and trade stalls and of course the ever popular raffle and tombola. You can also get your dog micro-chipped for £10 (Budget Vets) and their nails clipped for £5 (Top Dog Groomers)

A full Schedule of all the classes and activities can be found on our Forum in the Shows, Meets and Greets area.

We are still looking for the following assistance if you are able to help:

Sponsorship of the classes - £25 per class which can be individual (e.g. in memory of a loved one) or on behalf of a business

Home made cake and doggie treat bakers and jam makers

Volunteers to help on the day

Tarot Card reader/Clairvoyant

Children's face painter/tatoo artist

UPDATE - a fabulous £2,400 was raised - thank you to everyone who attended!

July 2009

Hope Rescue's Altogether On-line Auction raises £2,130!

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that bid so generously in our recent on-line Auction, and also to those companies and individuals that kindly donated items for us to sell - everything from canal art through to holidays!

The funds raised will go to help dogs like little Kip, pictured right. Kip is a little stray dog  taken to a local vets after a road traffic accident. It was feared his back leg might have to be amputated, but the vets managed to pin it. We agreed to take him on whilst he was doing his statutory 7 days as a stray to make sure his vet costs would be covered if he wasn't claimed. Sadly no owner came forward and after several more vets visits Kip's leg was not as stable is it should be and the decision was made to amputate. He then needed another emergency visit as he suffered a nasty bleed which is a post-operative risk. He is now recovering well in his foster home despite nine vets visits in seven days!! 

Update:  We are delighted to report that Kip will be joining his forever home shortly!

April 2009

Enter your favourite photos into the Hope Rescue On-line Photo Dog Show with Celebrity Judges!

We are delighted to anounce that our On-line Dog Photo Dog Show will be running from 12th September until 27th September 2009. There are some great prizes to be won including a years subscription to Dogs Today magazine for Best in Show! Classes include Most Handsome Male and Best Hairy Dog - a full schedule can be found on the Forum under Hope Rescue On-line Photo Dog Show.

Hope Rescue Forum

We are proud to be supported by some fabulous celebrity judges who will be deciding on the winners:

Selina Scott, Matt Baker, Steve Mann, Steve Leonard and Beverley Cuddy 

September 2009

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 

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!) 

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

Update Feb 2010: Faith is looking and feeling much better and has now found her forever home!

October 2009

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

Hope Rescue Valentine Dog Show - A Fun Day for all the Family and Dog - Sunday 14th 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 dogs to 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!

Update: £900 raised - thank you to everyone who helped or attended!

February 2010

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

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

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

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

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

Hope Rescue have joined forces with Reclaim It - get recycling!

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

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