15months to debt free - I hope

foxgloves

I don't know anything about dog rescues, @ladyholly, but I do have experience of 2 or 3 local cat ones. They are chocka, yes, but the other thing about the little independent ones, as opposed to the ones run by big animal charities, is that they are run by volunteers, many of whom also work, devote all their spare time to rescue work & have no funds except what they manage to raise themselves - I guess that could perhaps explain unanswered emails or slow replies, I don't know. I know when the charity we support doesn't reply straight away, it's usually because they are inundated.
I know that several people were interested in adopting Ash before he came to live with us. They were turned down mostly because their households were too exuberent (small children, dogs, etc) - too much for such a nervous cat to deal with. And a few were turned down because it was felt they were chiefly interested in him as a bit of an 'accessory' as he is a stunning beautifully patterned boy. We weren't bothered if he was black, white, ginger or sky-blue pink & had had success with previous 'hard to home' cats, so I expect that is how we were accepted as his new owners.
I hope you will find a suitable dog soon. It sounds as though your partner really does miss having his doggy companions. It's a shame if two people with all your experience keep being fobbed off by the Rescues. I think they are probably wary about the number of animals who end up being returned to them.....one of our past cats had been returned to the Rescue 3 times. We were his 4th attempt & it made us so happy that we were the home which worked out for him.
I really hope that we will soon all be sharing some good doggy news from you. Fingers & paws crossed for you here, anyway.
F x

ladyholly

I know how the rescues work having helped a small one in the past. Unfortunately its not the small ones that are the problem, in general they have been fairly prompt in replies except the breed specific one who are very hard to get a dog from even though they are complaining they are struggling with the number of dogs.  ( Our friend who works for one of the big rescues says this is common. Unfortunately she is on long term sick at present so is not in a position to help. T he big ones who have largely ignored us despite sending several applications to them for different dogs.

 

I think part of the problem is that knowing how full the rescues are we thought it would be easy but what we didnt take into account is that probably 90% of the dogs are under 3 years old which means they will be far to lively for two old fogies to cope with as we are mainly looking for a border collie or a staffie as these are the breeds we know best except JRTs  which are a bit small for Mr L. Our little one came from a friend who had cancer and couldnt look after her for some time and when she was well enough the little one had settled with us so she made the hard decision to leave her with us. It is heartbreaking to see the numberof very young dogs who are in rescues where people got them during lockdown and now either cant or wont care for them due to going back to work. They are also now seeing a lot of strays where I suspect people either cant be bothered or cannot find rescue places. I know of one Face**** site where every day there are desperate pleas for dogs in danger of being PTS to find a rescue place. The cost of living crisis is only making this situation worse. There must be a lot of dogs (and cats) being PTS as there is literally nowhere for them to go.

We are being fussy with what we want so I cant complain too much but Mr L isnt really seeing the bigger picture as he is Missing Mr H so much. I am sure given time we will find one but in the meantime he is finding it very hard. We have to be fussy due to my mobility problems and he is over 70.

Anyway enough dogs for tonight. Very pleased with myself as I found some venison steak in Sainsbury for Mr L. A ridiculous price but it will make hime happy when he has it in a couple of days. I have a couple of bids on ebay items so that will go into the garage door fund when they sell and are paid for as will the money from this weekends tiny sales. I am almost at another £5 from surveys - should be able to cash out tomorrow.

We are still going for a walk at lunchtime when the weather is ok which it was today. In fact it was quite nice out.  We had a Roast pork dinner this evening as Mr L didnt want it yesterday and would only have a sandwich. Nothing else today so Goodnight have a quiet one.

Humdinger1

@ladyholly I can sympathise.  Now have a dog (came to dogs late but oh how we adore him!) but previously had a cat from Cat Protection.   I signed a contract promising to only feed her from a china bowl and if I ever had trouble, promising to return her.   She'd been handed in because she was jealous of a new baby apparently.   When I became pregnant,  she started being sick everywhere.   I'd moved from city to country by then, so I called the local branch and explained the situation.   They refused to help, saying I would have to find a way to make the cat happy.  I called 17 vets and other charities, cat loving friends; no one could help, partly because she was on a very expensive low protein diet and was 19 years old.  In the end, a place called Cats Castle told me that said charity - at least locally -was full of delusional half wits and asked if I was supposed to stay celibate till my cat died of old age.  Shocking but it did help me to reframe the whole thing, grateful as I was and still am to the League.  The best is the enemy of the good here.  I hope I haven't offended anyone who works with said charity; I think I had an unfortunate experience with one branch.  You will find your dog @ladyholly; buying from a reputable source is a good shout.  Love Humdinger xx 

ladyholly

Still no sign of a dog and Mr L is very up and down. He keeps saying we wont find one but I live in hope as he really needs one.

Friends visited this afternoon after I mentioned I had baked mince pies! We had a lovely sociable afternoon. They are trying very hard to find us a dog and are regularly pestering a local rescue as they know the people who run it.

A small shop this mornig to get some bits I couldnt get in tesco on Tuesday. The bus driver was stood by the bus chatting on his phone when I got to the bus stop to come home (Its the route terminus0 but he kindly opened the door for me to get on out of the cold. This was after thinking I was going to miss it due to the trolley not wanting to give my £ back so a return to the shop was needed.

Money wise My half of the government heating allowance was in the bank account this morning so was transferred to savings immediately. The money from ebay sales has up until now been put towards our loan but I have decided that in future it will be saved towards pesents. We dont buy many as the only family we have is DD, SiL, BiL, and 2 DGDS. We do have a couple of friends we buy for but that is very little in money terms. I started this by transferring some money to the joint account to pay for a shirt I have bought on line for my BiL. There wont be enough for family gifts this Christmas but hopefully by next year there will be. There is enough in a different account. I am gradually sorting pots out but it will take me a little time as I have never done it before. Mr L keeps complaining that I have too many accounts but they will come in useful now.

I think thats all for today. Have a good weekend.

Sun_Addict

I really hope you get a dog soon 🤞🙏 I do worry that when, God forbid, we lose ours we will struggle to get another one due to having no transport. An elderly neighbour lost her dog just over a year ago and is desperate to have another one. She has no transport so is really struggling. 

ladyholly

We have the transport (thanks to Mr L) but keep getting knockbacks from rescues. One tha rehomes collies is screaming that they cannot take any more as they are full but despite sending an email we are being ignored. They have one that on paper would be perfect for us but they dont want to know. Another major rescue has refused us the dogs that fit our criteria but offered two that are totally unsuitable despite having the forms we filled in.

It must be even harder without transport at least we have a car and are prepared to travel up to a couple of hours.  Some rescues wont rehome to people that far way but we keep looking. The right dog is out there somewhere but I do wish the rescues would open up to visitors to look as it might be a dog we wouldn't consider on paper. It a bit like looking for a home only using the estate agents paperwork.

enthusiasticsaver

I hope you manage to find a dog soon.  I guess it is just a case of keep looking and hopefully the right one will turn up soon.

DD2 and her husband have an 18 month old border collie and I walk her regularly as they work full time albeit from home and have two young children.  They are lovely dogs but need plenty of exercise. Having said that we walked her today a few miles to a dog friendly restaurant near us and she just lay under the table as good as gold while DH and I had lunch and a glass of wine. She was so well behaved considering her young age. 

ladyholly

Border collies are great but as you say very energetic. WE would love another one. They arent dogs you know they are border collies and have very different characteristics from most other dogs. Ask any collie owner and they will say the same.

We are looking for an older dog as we dont have the energy for a young one but there are very few available outside breed specific rescues and when we try them we are ignored. I dont understand some of the rescus. They are screaming they are full but dont seem to want to let their dogs go. AS Mr L says even a slightly imperfect home is better than none especially when you consider that at the moment for every home that is rejected there is probably a dog being euthanised in the pounds because they cant find a rescue place. We are not the only people saying this and for those who are desperate for a dog it means they are likely to go to a back street breeder or importer which just perpetuates a disgusting trade and causes heartbreak for families all too often because the puppies are often sick or have congenital problems.  We know about this as we had an ex puppy farm dog via a rescue who died at 4 years old from a congenital illness that wasnt found until she was a year old.

Flying_By

Here's another suggestion ladyholly, you must be getting sick of me!  www.secondchancedogrescue.co.uk

I hope you will find the perfect rescue and the perfect match soon.  This rescue is based in North Pembrokeshire x

jwil

I'm sorry you are having so much trouble trying to get a rescue.  It's crazy as all we hear about is people having to give up their pets.  I assume you have St Giles on your radar?  I hope you find one soon.