It was also delightful to see old Buddy, an elderly German Shepherd Dog, find a magnificent new home in our local community.
It's not always so easy to locate suitable homes for our older inhabitants, but Buddy charmed everyone with his insatiable appetite for friendship, particularly if it involved an odd tickle behind those enormous ears!
I suspect the lovely family that so kindly offered him a home will never be allowed to forget they have a most appreciative new friend.
Sadly, one or two other considerations, including the lack of a suitable venue, have obliged us to cancel our annual Fun Day this year.
It was a decision taken most reluctantly as, although the event always raised significant funds, its primary objective was to provide an opportunity for our staff to renew acquaintanceship with many of the animals who had previously passed through the sanctuary and a number of people had been kind enough to say how much they'd enjoyed the former shows.
We are actively pursuing possible venues for 2012 and hope to mount a welcome return next year. In the meantime, keep a weather eye on our web-site for news of the 2011 DBARC Virtual Dog Show!
Our introduction to this year's kitten season came with something of a shock as Nomi, one of our residents, decided to have her kittens unannounced in the rather chilly exercise pen, rather than in the warm comfort of her sleeping quarters.
Luckily a passing volunteer raised the alarm, particularly as one kittens was seemingly already in the grip of hypothermia and beyond help.
The Manager, however, noticed a slight movement of one paw, detected a frail heartbeat and performed a life-saving finger massage under the restoring warmth of a heat lamp. This tiny survivor, appropriately named "Shiver", is now enjoying life with his brother and two sisters under the attentive eye of his very pretty and patently proud Mum.
One often hears commercial corporations claim commitment to social responsibilities and their local community, but, once again, DBARC has been fortunate enough to benefit from one local corporate organisation who determinedly translate such laudable policies into the most practical of activities. For the fourth year in a row, Timberland UK, a subsidiary of the American clothing corporation, has sponsored a large band of its local employees to visit DBARC for a day's maintenance works. This delightful band of enthusiastic and most industrious people, who arrive complete with all the tools and materials for painting floors, creosoting fences, and a variety of other tasks, not only provide a truly valued service to the Charity, but also give a very laudable impression of the Company they represent with such obvious pride. Many thanks are due!
The DBARC Summer Fayre, featuring stalls, a raffle, tombola and many other attractions will be held on Saturday the 4th June from 2 pm at The Ratepayers Hall, California Crossroads, Finchampstead Road, Wokingham, RG40 3RL.
Why not treat yourself to a most enjoyable afternoon by coming along to support us and help raise funds.
If such a re-evaluation concludes that your life would certainly benefit from a little more exercise and you also have a hankering for a huge input of joy and affection into your daily routine, we may have just the perfect answer to your problems. Animals arriving at the Hurst sanctuary have often not had the very best of life, but, far from making them reclusive, such experiences usually seem to give them an endless appetite for tender loving care and they respond to its provision with a truly remarkable degree of devotion and friendship. If your accommodation and life style permits you to dedicate the consistent loving care necessary when welcoming an animal into your home, then I can certainly assure you that a lack of joy and affection would never again feature in any future life appraisal! Additionally, if that pet comes in the shape of one of our many dogs needing loving homes, the daily exercise involved in walking and playing with your new friend will trim that waistline so effectively you'll be able to consign all those exercise and diet brochures to the nearest rubbish bin and sit back with a large cream bun! A devoted friend, lots of joy and a large cream bun - now where else would you find an unbeatable Spring Offer like that?
On behalf of everyone at the Sanctuary, I should like to express our very considerable appreciation to the exceedingly kind lady who so generously donated the truly magnificent "Easter Egg" of fifteen hundred pounds to our funds. Whilst fully respecting her wish to remain absolutely anonymous, everyone at the sanctuary felt that it would be appropriate to publicly express our most sincere gratitude and we have strong grounds for believing our benefactor is a reader of this Magazine. Although all donations received flow into our general funds, we thought it was appropriate that this particular donation should be used to remedy a specific current deficiency. After due consideration of various problem areas, it has been decided to fund a replacement roof over the Canine Isolation Block, giving those patients who require treatment in that facility a much more comfortable general existence and a weatherproof exercise area. As our benevolent benefactor remains absolutely adamant upon her anonymity, we shall merely dedicate it to "An Easter Samaritan". Our very grateful thanks to you, Madam.
People who adopt a young puppy react with enjoyment as the delightful little bundle charges around their home amusing its new family with endearing antics, acrobatics and shows of playful aggression. Such enjoyable moments are, after all, part of the great pleasure in acquiring such a new and charming member of the family. The puppy must not, however, be indulged to the exclusion of all the other vital aspects of integration into its new home. That adorable little bundle will, within a few short months, have developed into a sizeable animal with boundless energy and a set of molars that can easily destroy skirting boards, shoes, that beautiful new leather settee and anything else that takes its eye! Whether at that stage the new family member will continue to qualify for the labels "adorable" and "welcome" will entirely depend upon how much training and gentle, but firm, discipline has been integrated into the fun of those first few, absolutely crucial, months. Puppies, like young children, do not arrive fully programmed and lack the capacity, or inclination, to intuitively learn good behaviour, obedience and domesticity.
The development of these essential social skills requires much patient and constant training by their guardians, thoroughly mixed in with huge doses of tender love and care. Puppies also need daily periods of quiet rest in comparative isolation, thus not only permitting them to recharge their batteries with crucial periods of sleep, but also impressing upon them that they cannot insist upon an absolute monopoly of the family's attention. They must be trained to accept that whilst the family go shopping, or have dinner with friends, they happily remain at home alone without venting their dismay on furniture and fittings.
Young dogs also need schooling in various disciplines such as socialising with other animals, learning how to recognise and obey basic commands and in being taught how to behave when in public situations, where some sounds and events will be unknown and potentially very frightening. They won't, for example, realise that the terrifying banshee screaming alongside is just a motor cycle without a silencer, but can be taught to come to heel when frightened. Obviously not all these aspects can be taught at home, but there are many excellent training classes where your puppy will quickly acquire new social skills and make many new friends. Please do everything you can to ensure that your new puppy remains as welcome as that magic moment when it first crossed your threshold by introducing into its life all the ingredients so vitally necessary to mould yourself that truly wonderful friend for life.
We feel extremely strongly about the hundred and twenty thousand domestic pets that are currently put down each year in the UK, just because there is no one prepared to take care of them. We operate under a strict legal limitation imposed upon the number of animals we are allowed to keep at Hurst and, in any event, can do no more than scratch at the surface of this appalling problem, at least knowing that every dog or cat we can rescue from wherever they may be, is one more life saved. In Ireland, for example, over 45,000 animals each year are put down after they have exceeded their permitted stay of seven days in the public pound. Despite this horrendous situation, the puppy farms and less reputable breeders continue to breed animals, many of whom they subsequently kill, or merely discard, in order to make their grubby, but lucrative, incomes.
Once again the subject of irresponsible pet owners has surfaced in the local press, with some very understandable complaints about owners who fail to collect and dispose of dog faeces deposited in areas of public recreation. In addition to the many other advantages and benefits we are all privileged to enjoy by being residents in this lovely part of the world, the delight of having such beautiful parklands in which to walk one's dog is a particular pleasure. It is patently a common courtesy and social obligation to collect and properly dispose of your pet's faeces and the few owners who fail to observe this obligation are not only showing rank disrespect to their fellow citizens, but also casting a broad blanket of condemnation upon all pet owners. To carry a few plastic bags in your pocket and clean up after your pet is a very small obligation set against the joy of having such a companion, so all of us at DBARC appeal to the few disobliging owners to clean up their habits!
As usual, those animals spending the Christmas period at the sanctuary were in no way deprived of all the joys and delights of the Christmas season. Our grateful thanks to all those lovely people who braved the recent arctic weather to tend to them and the particular efforts of our Chairman, Donna Penfold and Sanctuary Manager, Janet North, who, forsaking their own Christmas Lunch, prepared and distributed the festive feasts and toys that every animal received.
The last twelve months have been rather difficult for most animal welfare organisations and DBARC has certainly not been an exception. The moral and financial support we receive from our local communities, however, is quite remarkable and truly motivational. We thank you all most sincerely and do hope that two thousand and eleven proves to be a most contented year.