Sunday 8 May 2011

Woo-hoo!!!


'Woo-hoo' stands for LOTS of things this week. So, many wonderful things have happened this week that my tiredness very nearly pales into insignificance. By the end of the day I'll have worked over 60 hours this week and that's with having the bank hol Mon off. I truly am feeling it but the highlights of the week makes it feel so much better!

SooZoo Doggy Fun Swim Fundraiser raised the phenomenal total of £568! That's about £200 more than I had thought. People were so unbelievably generous and I can't thank them all enough. Sue and Simon really worked so hard - I'm surprised they didn't look like prunes! But what a fantastic success and testament to how many dog lovers are out there - renews your faith, it really does.

So, on to more of the highlights of the week....
Our little black cat Kelly found the most wonderful new home this week. How is this so remarkable I hear you ask? Well, black cats are so hard to rehome. No-one wants them and they get overlooked in favour on multi-coloured cats and are often with us for months on end. But on this occasion Kelly was barely with us a month! She is darling little girl and I'm just so chuffed she has been snapped up by such wonderful people.

We have lots of bunnies on reserve, again. But again it is all dependent on bonding so I won't get too excited just yet, although it does feel good that we are getting so much interest in them. (I have some other exciting news on the bunny front, but I can't share it just yet, but let's just say they'll be more going up for adoption soon.)

On the dog front, in just 1 week, 4 out of 7 dogs have found new homes. (The remaining 3 haven't found homes simply because they aren't up for adoption.) There is a distinct trend developing with the dogs. More or less within a matter of hours of us listing a dog for adoption on the national RSPCA website they are being snapped up. It is truly incredible. I swear, Harry was booked for a viewing within 60 minutes, as was Zak and Kim too. I think it shows that we are doing something very right with our assessments and work with the dogs. I can confidently say that we do not have long stay dogs anymore. Haven't had for a year now. Just goes to show what you can achieve even with minimal resources and a big dollop of determination.... 'Dog team' you are brilliant.

And my last highlight of the week has to be our RSPCA Week collections. For those of you who don't know, every year we have a week to highlight the work of the RSPCA nationally and locally. Tesco very kindly allows branches to go into their local stores and collect money. This provides an enormous income generation opportunity with many branches raising thousands of pounds.

Our branch has never raised remotely that amount, largely because we struggle so much just to get enough volunteers to do a couple of days in one store (and we have about 5 or 6 Tescos in our catchment area). What it invariably means is that I do a lot of the collecting because the opportunity is too good to miss. But this year, I have been a lot more lucky with help, especially from our adopters, and as a result we have been able to collect in two stores, which is brilliant.

So far we have spent 10 hours in two stores, i.e. a total of 20 hours collecting, and we have raised the fantastic sum of £730!!!!! Today is the last day and I am really hoping we will reach £900. That maybe a little too optimistic but no harm in wishing! Pictured above are furry friends Molly and former resident Pip with our trustee Gilly above. These guys raised over £50 in 2 hours - great stuff guys, and thank you!