It seems only a moment ago that we were writing about last year’s Dog Show and the forthcoming Christmas Party both of which were huge successes and now it is very nearly a quarter away and the time has just raced past…….
Some excellent homes have been found and we are especially delighted that our beautiful Mary who has been here over 2 years is now in a wonderful home with one of our long term owners who takes her on Cross Country hacks with her horse, and three day eventing! Of our long term dogs, shy little Laddie has found the perfect home after such a long time and his trainer would be astonished to know he is living with two cats!! So were we! Lesley who has one of our dogs already, came with her husband to look for another and Laddie who is so painfully shy, fell in love and chose them, however we said “no” he won’t live with cats and they went on to look at another dog- but when we tried to part him from them and he pulled away- we put both dogs in the car, followed them home and the rest is history!! He didn’t even register the cats and showed only a passing interest in the Mynah bird is now the happiest dog in Hogsthorpe, and it is wonderful to be proved wrong!!
In fact, even though this year has felt quiet we have homed 17 dogs since Christmas and although I couldn’t care less about numbers I am thrilled at the quality of homes to which our dogs have gone.11 of these homes have come from personal recommendation by existing Fen Bank owners and the other 6 from the website.
We are now starting to plan the summer events and you will find an updated list at the end of the Magazine or on the Events page on the Website. Speaking of which we owe Jon Green a huge thank you for funding the site for I believe the third year running and to the other Jon ( Jon Addison) of Screen IT who designed and maintains and is always improving the site absolutely free of charge. We are very blessed in our friends of Fen Bank dogs. The kennels are as always bursting at the seams, and among our new arrivals are two dear 8 year old girls from Irish PAWS, a clutch of Lurchy Lurchers and whole host of lovely black shiney boys and girls!!! It’s like Henry Ford again!!
Special appeal though for three of our long stay dogs. BRIAN a white and brindle boy now aged 5 has been with us nearly 3 years for no good reason apart from the fact that he is restless ( but quite containable) around small dogs. DAN a striking fawn boy was awful with other breeds but is now a civilised middle aged gent. and more than ready for a home. Jamie Jarvis is still with us and showing few signs of improving, but in the right home he has so much love to give and he really shouldn’t languish in kennels just because he can’t cope with other breeds. MACK although not a long stay dog is a powerful but very loving boy seeking a home on his own as he likes to be the only one. He is wonderful with people and children, but will not tolerate a girl friend sharing his bed and is therefore “losing” us a kennel space for a bitch- so we really do need to home him – he’s on the website!
Among our other dogs for homing are some real characters and it is safe to say that it is a very long time since we have had such a very nice kennel of dogs waiting for a home- hardly a problem amongst them all - and three definite “cat friendlies!!” Little Gus ( Richard’s terrier) has done sterling work in temperament testing them all with small dogs and up until her demise (from old age!!) so did puddy cat, who is now replaced by another who is so old we don’t like to upset her!! We do care about our cat, honestly!
Now that Summer is on its way we welcome AMANDA to the kennels to help with the extra work as the days grow longer and will be looking for more help in June, July and August to cover staff holidays- and as usual we are always seeking volunteers both for the kennels and the shop which is proving very successful in its new location at the bottom of the Market Square in Alford. It is a lot more work for Wendy and her team, but we have now joined the National Association of Charity Shops which provides guidelines and benchmarking against which to measure our practice and performance. Wendy is always seeking volunteers from amongst the local community to help with pricing and sorting as well as serving in the shop. We are particularly grateful to people with knowledge of books and china, so that we can maximise the profits for the dogs. We also need to say a special thank you to our shop volunteers who have worked in very cold conditions until we know whether we can afford to heat the shop.
GRATEFUL THANKS to all who sent Christmas donations for the dogs and to the people who sent a little extra for Muffin! We have some really good news in that he has now been adopted by Daphne Ledward who fell in love with him and has been regretting it ever since!! She has no shoes, her lovely garden is attacked on a daily basis, he dismembers whatever his teeth can fasten on to when the mood takes him, he pees on her carpets BUT his paw is holding its own for the moment and he has grown from runt size to a magnificent 30 plus kilos! His brother Timbo ( homed by Mandy at Northants G.R.) is doing equally well we hear! Daphne who is a gardening expert and was on Gardener’s Question Time for a long time and now has a regular slot on local radio, is generously opening her gardens and Arboretum in June (see events) and donating the proceeds equally between Fen Bank and the Lincoln Branch of the RGT run by Kevin Stow. We are hoping to have Annette Crosbie and Jenny Hanley as celebrity guests plus possibly a BBC Radio Lincs. presence. There will be lots of stalls and things to buy see and do and you can have your gardening questions answered by an expert! There is also a link to her site from our web pages.
The Annual Meeting of the Trustees ( we have three a year) was held at Fen Bank in February and the accounts presented for the Charity commission. These will in due course be available on their site for public scrutiny, but a quick summary for those interested reveals that despite the Sunami which had a huge effect in the early part of the year , we held the total income from all sources at £65,361.63 with expenditure running at £49,092.34 plus borrowing of £3,000.00 so that approx. £12.000.00 the same as last year was in hand at year’s end.This is 2 months running costs.
The greatest increases in costs were due to staff costs, diesel consumption, insurances, increased rates and utilities, increases in the cost of veterinary treatment and bedding and the sheer volume of dogs homed – and you may remember from a previous newsletter that it costs between £200.00 and £400.00 to get a dog ready for a home! Last year we homed 75 plus 3 returns ( two of which are still with us). Dogs were homed in Scotland, the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire ,East Anglia, Cambridge, Bedford, Rutland, Huntingdon and Essex. Overall, it was a successful year for the dogs and we hope to build on those successes in the coming year. Dogs were taken in from London, the Midlands, North of England, Yorkshire and from Kinsley greyhound Stadium at Pontefract whose homefinding scheme we support and who support us in the homing costs for Kinsley dogs .A slightly higher proportion came via the public, police,dog wardens,RSPCA and individual owners, than from the tracks around the country. It was noted that it takes on average nine months to get a racer ready for a home, wheras the dogs handed in from other sources could very often go almost straight out into a new home.- usually because they had been in one before.
The Trustees of the Sanctuary remain unchanged with two new members being approved, Joyce Owen and Denise Clark both of whom are very good friends to the Fen Bank dogs. We are delighted that Stella’s husband, Gerald has agreed to take on the role of Accountant once again. He was really missed in his year off and we are so glad to have him back! Bill, our Treasurer completes a very able and precise financial duo to keep me in order!
We are looking forward to meeting old friends and new this Summer and please do get in touch if you live near any of our events and could spare an hour or two- or could come and baby sit my Sanctuary and house dogs so that we can more easily do shows this year! I do so hate to leave them and the girls can’t always come up from the kennels to help out.
Sandra and the Fen Bank Team
Website design and maintenance donated by ScreenIT Ltd. If you would like a website built by us email us from our site and state that you saw us from Fenbank greyhound site and we will donate 10% to the Sanctuary