Harry goes to Oldham, April comes early

It's been three weeks since the last blog and it's all been happening here, one out as Harry was successfully placed with his new family and was swiftly replaced with another lost soul in April who we shall hopefully find her forever home sometime soon.

First lets deal with Harry, he was such a sweet little thing and came very close to staying here a lot longer than he did. He had this infectious bubbly attitude and he made you laugh at everything he did. When he grows up, if he ever does, he will be a lovely dog in the right hands. We think he has gone to a good home, a family with two young children where Harry will be king, he will love that, being fussed and played with all the time. The family had a cat which we never had chance to test out so hopefully he will deal with that like he did here with the pack. The guy we met when we handed Harry over was lovely and couldn't wait to get Harry out and about, apparently he does a lot of walking so it sounds perfect.

Its a difficult thing to take a helpless pup into your house, work with him and get him integrated into the pack and then let them go soon after.

We knew what fostering was all about as we have done it before but the passing them on bit doesn't get any easier. You have to convince yourself that your doing the right thing and the long game is to help more dogs. For every one you keep its another you cant help, thats the mentality you have to adopt. I'm sure one day we will add to our own gang but for now we are trying to help the cause.

Every case is different and this point has been confirmed by the arrival of April the other day. April is an 18 month old bitch who has been in care since she was born, she was rescued from the public shelter in Romania and has been in foster kennels ever since. Basically its better than being on death row but they have very little interaction with normal life, they are fed and kept safe until someone like us gives them a way out, April has been waiting a long time for her slice of the cake and now she is here in Southport.

It took forever to get here on the 'Happy Bus' as they call it, 31 drop offs from everywhere between Kent and Cumbria, we were number 29. Finally at around midnight on Saturday she was lifted off the bus into the arms of Suzy and her nightmare was coming to an end at last.

Obviously she is an absolute bag of nerves and I suspect will be for a while, she has made here home in the same crate that Harry vacated a couple of weeks ago and has hardly moved. We have taken her out into the garden and last night she did have a wander into the lounge, where she saw the TV and swiftly returned to her nest. Harry didn't like the TV either at first, maybe they don't have Corro on in the dog pound in Brasov? This is such a different case compared to Harry, April has a lot of bad memories to shift, she is three times older than Harry for a start and lets not forget she is a bitch. The lads will treat her very differently and so far Sky has completely ignored her 100%, wants nothing to do with her at all. Hopefully within a couple of weeks we will see her come out of her shell and if she does I don't think she will be here too long, she is absolutely gorgeous to look at, a lovely colour and she wont be a big dog at all so should have plenty of possible future owners.

Unfortunately its a fact of life that you can place small dogs a whole lot easier than a big dog, for obvious reason I suppose but having 3 GSD's its hard to accept.

Elsewhere the decorating has moved on a pace, the space under the stairs has been completed and the reception hall painted. Its all looking like new and does give the place a lift. Upstairs is next on the list but will give that a break while we sort out our new lodger.