KAYE’S BLOG
Kennel refurb
I thought you might like to know what's going on at LL HQ at the mo - we're having a bit of a refurb in the kennels, mainly the floor but a few other bits and bobs.
I've been concerned over the last couple of years that there was a residual smell of pee in the kennels, even though it gets cleaned out at least twice a day and I had a sneaky feeling that pee was getting trapped underneath the rubber stable matting. So we are in the process of removing all the (really heavy) rubber matting and laying down some more concrete to give the floor a steeper gradient, then putting ceramic tiles on the top of that.
Of course, nothing is ever simple in our world, so we have to have special "anti-pee" epoxy stuff to put over the concrete and under the tiles and "pee-proof" grout between the tiles and around the edges so they stay sealed and don't lift. When I say "we" it's actually nowt to do with me- I'm the tea lady - it's our wonderful local handyman Edward Johnson who's masterminding the operation with help from Kieron our resident kennel hand and Alex ( No1 son) who's popping over when any heavy stuff needs doing........so many, many thanks to them for doing such a dirty, smelly, noisy job as we still have a few kennel dogs in situ.
I'd like to say a huge thank you to the wonderful people who've donated the money for this to happen - you know who you are
Whilst this is slowly happening (the weather's not been too good for drying out concrete!) Edward and his helpers have been making new beds for the kennel dogs- more lightweight, so we can clean around and under them easily, but the warmth from the heater will permeate up through the slats of the bed. plus we can put an extra plastic or raised bed underneath if needed, as the heaters and wiring are caged in. We'll be using the thick blue vinyl kennel mats on top of the wooden beds as there's a lip to stop them sliding off (with an anti chew strip at the front!).
We were looking at getting different divider panels for the kennel runs too, as we've had a few incidents of dogs being bitten through the metal bars as they jump up. Then, of course, as they pull way when they go back down to the floor, it becomes a rip wound, rather than a puncture and bleeds profusely. But we've decided to try fencing them off using the existing barred kennel panels and adding some sturdy weldmesh along the tops, fixed along the ceiling on batons and fixed to the bars. Fingers crossed!
Hopefully when the weather's a bit warmer, we'll be able to put a splash of white paint over the ceiling to reflect the light a bit and maybe along the corridor too. We have to fit doing all this around the residents who can't be moved into foster homes, so it all takes time.
So this is what's happening at the mo and why we can't take in the gazillions of dogs that we're asked to on a daily basis. Hopefully in another week or so we'll be back up to speed though
The pups are going to their new homes
The first few pups have gone off to their new homes now…their foster mum says it’s strangely quiet with only 3 in the house for the mo. Their mum is reserved too, so it’s hopefully a happy ending for everyone
And they're off!!!
Bad news for the pups’ fosterers …….no longer are they sweet and loveable like this :
Now they’ve got their eyes open and they’re on the move……never a dull moment now :)
Pups have names!
We had a fund raising “name a puppy” raffle last week and the pups now all have names. They are :
Loki
Billy
Moss
Rhody
Bridie
Grace
Cariad
Isla
Elvis
Bryn
I shall endeavour to find individual photos and tag the right pup with the right name :)
Puppy Naming
The pups should have names soon - the smallest one and the first born are already called “Elvis” and “Bryn” but the other 8 will have names chosen by the lucky winners of the “Name the pup” competition we’ve done on our Facebook page. That should be interesting :)
And they're here...........
Jasmine was a bit fidgety yesterday and then, all of a sudden the first pup arrived at 5.40pm …..and steadily through the night, came more and more and she now has 10 pups :)
Mum and babies all seem to be doing well and are being kept a close eye on by the midwifery team of Tammy and Nev
More exciting news .....
We’re going to have some babies……..well, not us personally but we’ve taken in a lovely stray bitch who’s hugely pregnant - maybe in a week or two. She’s gone to our wonderful fosterers Tammy and Nev who have lots of experience of bringing baby Lurchers into the world.
Mum (Jasmine) is pretty obviously a bull x and we have no idea what dad was, so it’ll be interesting to see what turns up…….watch this space!!!
Some exciting news for the New Year
Lurcher Link has been approached by Paws.com and asked if we’d like to take part in their shelter support scheme which would involve them offering us their Canine Choice dog food, free of charge, for all of the shelter dogs for the next 6 months. Plus - not only that but, for every bag of food bought, for their own dog through Paws.com, people can donate a nutritious meal to a dog in need at no extra cost. How fabulous is that????
In return the people at Paws.com have asked us to share details about the dogs we have looking for homes, much as we do anyway through social media and our forum, and when a dog is adopted, make sure we have a Happy Endings story and photo so folk can follow their progress from coming to Lurcher Link to finding their own sofa.
We’ve been using a local brand of Lamb and Sweet Potato kibble over the last couple of years as we’ve found it seems to suit most of the dogs here and Paws.com can offer us a food which is practically the same. We’ve done a bit of a trial run with some of the “sensitive” dogs here and they all seem to really enjoy the Canine Choice lamb food, and most importantly - it doesn’t upset their tums!! There is also a chicken and a salmon variety available with different sized kibble and different protein contents for puppies, adults and senior dogs.
We always give some food away with dogs being adopted out and now we’ll be able to give proper Trial Bags, rather than a carrier bag with kibble in it. Plus we have a personalised discount code : LURCHERLINK30 which offers friends of Lurcher Link a 30% discount off their first big bag of Canine Choice.
So if you’re looking for a tasty and nutritious food for your Lurcher, why not have a look at Canine Choice and submit your dog’s profile to their feeding guide and see what they come up with? I did this for Odd Job and this was the result: https://paws.com/pets/33240/food .
They’ll show you how their food compares to other well known brands such as James Wellbeloved and AATU . You can get a trial size bag without committing yourself to a huge one, just to make sure your dog likes the food. If you’ve got any queries, you can just drop them a line through their site and see if you can find the perfect food for your dog.
Happy New Year folks
I’d just like to thank everyone who’s helped Lurcher Link over the past year - there’s so many of you, but you are all so important in keeping our little rescue running and are very much appreciated !!!
All the best for 2019 and let’s hope it’s a safe and happy time with less dogs needing rehoming (yeah, right!)
Cheers chaps,
K x x x
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
We had a lovely donation of some shoe boxes of Xmas treats for the rescue dogs last Sunday. The Greyhound Trust and Sighthound Social Club met up for a walk at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and two LL volunteers, Andy and Alison, went to collect the goodies for us.Sadly I couldn’t go as I had people coming here to meet up with potential dogs, but it’s very much appreciated …none of us expected quite such a lot of boxes though :)
Bubba has selflessly volunteered to check the boxes out for us but Odd Job is trying to hypnotise me with his super powers, so he can be chief taster :)
Lovely art
I just wanted to point people in the direction of Steve Sanderson and look at his gorgeous artworks. I was aware of his " spirit hound" pictures, but when I looked on his website at the other things he paints, I was really impressed ... so much so, I bought myself one:)
It's not all lurchers and greyhounds, but there are a lot of lovely paintings featuring them. Steve also does lovely landscapes and commissions at very reasonable prices. (Christmas is coming chaps!)
Make a cuppa and go have a look. You'll be glad you did.
Thank you for the feedback
Most of it's been positive, so that's great. The mistakes that you've pointed out have been corrected as quickly as poss and a couple of broken links re-done.
We've had some suggestions of other content which could be interesting, so I'll have a stab at that too, but please don't be shy, if there's something you think we could benefit from, do let us know :)
Hopefully, this is it....
Well, I think we've just about finished tweaking the important bits on the new website, so we're going to launch it on to the unsuspecting public this weekend :)
I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to Charlie for doing all the techy stuff that I can't get my head round and putting up with my stupid questions.
Nearly there
Thanks to Charlie's hard work and help from Lu, I think we're about ready to launch the website. I'm sure there will be things that need tweaking, so if you see anything, drop me an email at kaye@lurcherlink.org
New Website
I'm trying to put together a new website for Lurcher Link, with details of dogs needing homes and links to the LL shop, FB page and the on-line forum
All photography provided by members of Lurcher Link