Latest News
All about Harvest Mites
Rachel Goutorbe of Posh Pets fame (see their advert to the left) tells us all about Harvest Mites and the serious problems they can cause for pets – dogs and cats. Click to read her advice.
Advice from Wayne our resident Vet
New laws have made it even more important that you complete the formalities of chipping and inoculating your puppies and dogs. Wayne explains why this is so important and makes the case, yet again, for neutering pets. Click to read the full article.
Tony Byford to step down.
It's with sadness and great thanks that we have to report that Tony Byford, SOSīs co-founder, has decided he must step down from day-to-day activities at the refuge. Tony has been overwhelmingly involved for 13 years and, like all our volunteers, has had to fit his home and work life around his commitment to SOS, and he needs to recharge his batteries.
The good news is that we will not be losing his extensive knowledge and experience. Tony will continue to support SOS in many ways – great news for us. We thank him for the enormous amount of work he has put in over the last 13 years and look forward to continuing our links with him.
Saved in the nick of time – now can you help?
Two of our Swedish volunteers, Philip and Ida, are pictured here with six new SOS residents (as of 4th of July). We took this litter of six, four girls and two boys, as the owner had decided to put them all to sleep. He meant it. They are over four months old now and in good health, we couldnīt let that happen. Now it's your turn. Can you help rehouse any of these lovely puppies?
What to do if you find an abandoned dog
If you find an abandoned dog or puppies there are some steps we may have to ask you to take. Firstly, be aware that many abandoned or stray dogs are very nervous so take extra care if you are trying to catch one near a busy road. Frightened dogs have been known to run in front of oncoming traffic.
Secondly, if you pick up a dog do take it to a vet to check whether it is microchipped. You may be lucky enough to reunite a lost pet with its owner. If it is not microchipped ask the vet for advice. He may suggest contacting a refuge and that is where we and the other animal charities come in. BUT PLEASE BE AWARE - SOS and the other refuges are FULL. We will do our best to help but we CANNOT guarantee an immediate place.
We may have to ask you if you are prepared to foster the dog for possibly up to 6 weeks (and maybe longer).If you can we will try to help with feeding and vaccination costs. But it is a responsibility you will have to shoulder until we can make space available following the rehoming of one of our existing dogs. There are significant risks involved in putting too many dogs in one pen and we have to avoid overcrowding for the safety of the animals.
Puppies bring different problems. Apart from space, we have to avoid the risk of puppies bringing disease into the refuge, however healthy they look. If, for example, they develop Parvo it can sweep through the refuge, leading to high vet bills and potentially risking the lives of the dogs.
Again we would ask you to foster the puppies for some weeks, during which time they can be checked for diseases like Parvo and vaccinated. Again, we can help with this.
We do not have staff - we rely on a small team of overstretched volunteers who fit their work with SOS around jobs and family commitments. So you would have to be prepared to undertake the necessary visits to the vet for tests and vaccines ( or we could arrange for Wayne the English vet, to visit).
In a perfect world we would like to be able to immediately accept an animal when it is brought to us. But we have been overwhelmed by the rise in numbers of abandoned animals, we are constrained by the space available and our funds are tightly stretched, and, in common with the other charities, donations have been hit by the recession.
We do not put to sleep healthy animals and we do know just how important it is to protect animals in our care from the dangers of overcrowding. We do hope that you understand why we are not always able to step in straight away and would ask for your continued, valued support. Please contact Tony on 620 782 484 if you find yourself in this position.
* * * * *
New Special Cases Page
On this new page we feature dogs that are suitable for re-homing, but for different reasons, have not yet found a home. For example, take our older residents – some have been with us since puppyhood and as they have got older, have been overlooked. But just like all the others, they want nothing more than a loving new home. For some people, giving a home to a dog in his or her later years could be the perfect answer – so if you could make an older dog happy, please contact us.
Here is one example. Binfo is 5 or 6 and has been at SOS for 3 years. He was an abandoned pet. He loves people and would make a fine pet for someone. He is a strong dog who loves walking and has a mad 10 minutes at the start of walks when he is ecstatic to be out and about.
Click on Dogs in the Main Menu then Special Cases to see more of these special dogs
* * * * *
And Finally...
Thank you so much for visiting our web site – we hope you have found it interesting. If you would like to find out more about our work please contact us by email, or phone – just click on Contact Us in the main menu.
