We've been busy behind the scenes recently looking for new and varied fundraising ideas. In the current economic climate we appreciate the effect on everyones ability to donate and support the causes dear to their heart.

We've found a couple of ideas that we hope you'll like and where for a minimal amount you can help us raise vital funds.

The Weather Lottery is the perfect way to support us for only £1 a week. You try to match your 6 chosen numbers against the temperature in 6 European locations on each day from Monday to Thursday (that's only 25p a day). If you match all 6 you win £10,000.  Best of all for every £1 we receive 31.5p. So if you currently buy a National Lottery scratchcard/s or even have a flutter on The National Lottery do please remember that none of that money comes to us. With The Weather Lottery nearly a third of your stake comes directly to us. If only 250 people had one line each that would earn BCT over £4000 a  year!!

Follow the link from our website to The Weather Lottery where you can sign up online or let us know if you would like a leaflet to take out a standing order.

Secondly is support being offered to us by Funny Farm Boutique.

Funny Farm Boutique make unique dog collars and matching leads in a style that they believe has never been seen before. You will find some very unusual fabrics and hardware that together will make the most striking dog collars and leads that you will ever see.

Between May 30th and and June 14th Funny Farm Boutique will very kindly donate £3 for every collar that is purchased. All you have to do is add "Support the collies" in the comments section of your online order form.

Again please follow the link from our website or visit www.funnyfarmboutique.co.uk and remember this offer applies between 30th May and 14th June. 

Thanks for your support

Ben

I'm sure regular visitors to the blog will remember Sally (now known as Annie). I'm delighted to let everyone know that she has now had her second operation to straighten her left leg and is currently recovering well at her new home. A couple of photos can be found on the website by following the link on the homepage.

Two weeks ago we also reported on how the Collie Care Fund had come to the rescue of a dog needing urgent help. Well I'm pleased to report that Ben is making a good recovery and having been 8 kilos when he came to us he's now just over 11 kilos, and looking much better for it. We have discoverd though that he only has limited vision and may well have been like this for some time. Despite everything that's happened to him, his very poor vision and a really overshot jaw he's a friendly chap. Obviously his vision will require an owner who is prepared to be calm and patient (and not want to move the furniture around!!) but we're confident he has a lot to offer the right person. I'll be adding a feature on the website including a photo in the next day or so.

I'm off to Cannock Chase tomorrow for a Canine Awareness Day - just hope the weather is a bit cooler (I don't do hot  

Bye for now

Ben

Well how was your Bank Holiday weather? We had everything from drizzle, heavy rain to warm sunshine today.

I was busy with my Maintenance Department head on - guttering cleaned out, fixing some new hosepipes in the rescue kennels, re-painting another Sponsored Bench and some grass cutting.

The weekend was quiet from a rehoming point of view but today saw two dogs homed and another two reserved.

You will probably remember the recent entry about the underweight dog we rescued. Well I'm delighted to say that Ben has put on three kilos and is beginning to look much better for it. Now that we are seeing him a little more active another issue seems to have come to light, we think he may have limited vision and will be seeking advice from our Vet. Despite this, his very overshot jaw and of course his weight problem Ben is certainly one who I'm sure will find a special person to give him the home he deserves. I'm hoping to do a feature about him on the website soon. 

Bye for now

Ben

We received an email from Sallys - now known as Annie - owners this weekend. She's doing well and is now booked in for her second operation in early May

APRIL 26TH - UPDATE

Just a quick update on Annie’s progress , She has settled in, that took about 30 seconds !. Annie is a bright & lively little monster who has announced herself into our lives with great gusto . She plays constantly with the other dogs & when they get fed up with her she will amuse herself with all the toys she manages to empty 2 toy boxes within 5 minutes . When she’s bored with that she will try to get the cats to play with her.

She has started her inoculations & they should be complete by next Thursday. She managed to fall in our pond & that resulted in a trip to see Stuart Brown on the Sat morning, the fall in the pond combined with a collision with the German Pointer gave cause for concern & we went to see Stuart so he could look at her leg to check all was ok .

You'll have read in the past of the Collie Care Fund which was launched last year to celebrate our 10 year anniversay at Colton. On Wednesday it's need was well and truly demonstrated. We received a phone call from a distressed lady who had three collies. The dogs had belonged to her mom who had recently passed away. The lady was on benefits, finding it impossible to cope with the three dogs and needed urgent help in rehoming the dogs. More worrying was that she told me one of the dogs was ill and couldn't walk. She had no transport, no friends and unless she carried the dog she couldn't get the dog to a vet.

She been in touch with a number of organisations but no one was able or prepared to offer any help. We immediately offered help and within an hour and a half the dog was being seen by a vet. The dog aged about 5 only weighed 8 kilos and whilst we could all ask questions about why the dog was in this state it was later obvious that the other two were probably getting the majority of whatever food the woman could afford and was providing.

The following day we collected the dog from the vet and the other two from her home. The underweight one spent another night at our vet as he was dehydrated and being on a drip helped considerably. I collected him this afternoon and he's now in our care and will be fed little and often to help him build up his bodyweight.

As always seems to be the way in these type of cases he's a real softy and it'll be interesting to see his development over the next few weeks.

In addition to these three another 9 dogs arrived today, as you can imagine it's been a buy couple of days !!

Bye for now

Ben

Having just spent a couple of hours cutting the grass in the paddock I'm now starting to warm up again - who said summer was on it's way

The ADCH conference was very well attended and as usual interesting and at times quite thought provoking. It has certainly given us plenty of ideas to think about.

One of the discussions concerned assessements of dogs and due to certain incidents one quite large rescue based in the south of the country has taken a decision not to accept certain breeds from their own homes. It is unfortunate that due to the increasing media attention to incidents involving dogs, particularly of certain breeds, that this has happened but I can fully understand why.

We are all aware of the natural collie trait of nipping and yet even that can be difficult to explain to a potential new owner who is understandably concerned of the consequences should the dog nip someone while out walking. Trying to home a collie, or any dog, that has bitten is even more difficult and at times hard decisions have to be made about admissions and even whether it's safe to rehome that dog.

Rescues are under increasing pressure from so many angles and this is another we have to deal with.

Bye for now

Ben

Yes, I'm off on another trip tomorrow, but only for 2 days. It's the annual Association of Dogs and Cats Home conference on Wednesday and Thursday and four of us are attending on behalf of BCTGB. It's a useful event to meet lots of people from different rescues all over the UK and the speakers at the main event on Thursday are usually very interesting with a lot of valuable information.

For those of you interested in computers and technology I'm currently reviewing another "gadget" to enhance our communications. You may have heard of Sykpe (if not it's a free phone call system that works through broadband) and I've registered as Border Collie Trust GB. At the moment we don't have broadband in the office but I do in the house so keep an eye out for us being online and of course if you have a need to ring us, and are on Skype then feel free to use it. Hopefully we'll be improving the office IT soon and Skype will the be available during office hours.

For those of you interested in Sally - she's still doing well and making very good progress.

Sign ups to the email newsletter are still coming in and we're delighted that so many are taking an interest in our work in this way.

Bye for now

Ben

Another photo of Sally has been sent to us from her new owners and she's doing really well apparantly. You can see the photo on her page on the website

Back at the centre and despite the cold snap we've had the last few days I can see the grass is certainly deciding it's time to grow. I cut the main lawn on Friday and it'll need doing again soon!!

Plenty of dogs coming in over the next week, we've been calling quite a few in from the waiting list in the last week or so. It is very difficult at times keeping up with all the collies needing help and we do seem to "waste" time offering help I'm afraid to say.

In the last 2 years we've had just over 400 dogs who were on our waiting list and have then either not turned up when a place has been offered (one person did that twice!!), not returned our call when we've left a message offering a place, have decided to keep the dog, found somewhere else in the meantime or not contacted us once a month as we ask them to, so that we know they do indeed need our help.

It's not unique to us and seems a problem throughout rescues in general having spoken to other organisations.

Bye for now

Ben

I'm sure you've already seen it - well I hope you have  but our latest video is now online.

Thanks to all those who "tuned" into it in the first 24 hours, we even managed to get an honour of being one of the most viewed in the Pets and animals section on its first day.

Lets see if we can get it even higher in the ratings and show even more people our wonderful breed - Border Collies    

Whilst this one has taken me a while to put together, simply because I wanted it to be as good as possible - well that's my excuse anyway I'm already looking at the next idea for a video. A Virtual Tour of our centre - watch this space !!

Bye for now

Ben

Well another big day for Sally today as she set off for her new home. Her new owner had intended to come along today and see how she was getting in but decided to take her home instead of waiting till the weekend.

Sally was pleased to meet her new friends and her progress with the leg is quite amazing as she is using it nearly all the time now. Being in her home will certainly help her recovery - although she doesn't seem to need much help !

Some pictures of her meeting her new friends and setting off to her new home can be found on the website - on the Brave Sally page

The latest email newsletter has been sent, if you haven't signed up yet do see the link on the website.

Bye for now

Ben