mja blog

Category: Volunteering

  • No more pound puppies

    I don’t quite trust my decision making at the moment so I have been talking to others about leaving doggie rescue altogether. Dad has borne the brunt of this lately during the weekly trip to church. It has afterall been part of my end game for over 12 months now, to get stuck in and try and improve things, then get out. I don’t think there would ever be a good time for me to leave, but now seems right for me. I spent a large part of the day yesterday, composing a resignation letter that didn’t make me sound like a nutcase. I think I finally got it right. I will now try and tie up as many loose ends as I can, and hand it all over at the end of the month.

    My letter of resignation:

    This is to advise you that I am stepping down from my position as Treasurer and acting Secretary of BCDR effective 30 November 2010.

    The main reason for this decision is the difficulty I have in maintaining a healthy balance between the demands of BCDR work and my other commitments; and after two and a half years I think it is time for me to move on.

    I will be sad to leave my work with the committee behind. Since the new committee formed earlier this year I believe we had begun to make progress in building up a supportive structure for the group’s work.

    This work is worthwhile and you have built up a good reputation. I am confident you will continue to find support in the community for your work and wish you well in future.

  • Stepping back

    Made a decision to hand over some of my work for the dog rescue group to someone else – Janelle has agreed to take over all the web promotion and maintenance from next month. I was surprised but very relieved that she is willing to do it. It wasn’t an easy decision because there are aspects of the work that I enjoyed – such as getting pictures of the dogs. It was always an interesting challenge and I’m proud of some of the good photos I took.

    So now it is just treasurer and secretary positions to worry about, which isn’t a great deal so long as I manage them sensibly.

  • Dog snore

    Did my mad do-gooder thing today ferrying dogs around. Early start to get Choc to Animal Welfare for desexing operation. Choc is a 12 mth chocolate coloured Staffy with white toes, like Ebony, and big ears that fold over in cute sort of way. She has already been rehomed, but had her op rescheduled after she came into season. If left to the owners, I don’t think they would have bothered, so it is a comforting thought that there is now one less dog having unwanted litters.

    Dropped Choc off, then back to Laidley to pick up Rok and Murph. Rok is a big boofhead Staffy/Bull Arab x, Murph is a sweet young Ridgie x.  These two boys came to us from the pound in the last couple of weeks, still looking for homes, although things look good for Murph. They got their shots and chips and as I dropped them back to Ludelle, heard the good news that some people are coming to see Murph tomorrow, strong possibility of adoption.

    Quick stop on the way home to bank last weekend’s sausage sizzle takings, then stuck into some work on my assignment (last one!) for a couple of hours until it was time to go and pick up Choc. Embarrassing to be told by the vet nurse that Choc is riddled with fleas and they had to spray her so they could operate. She didn’t have fleas when she was with us 😐

    Back home again, and a couple of hours break until I had to head out again to work’s AGM. A good turn up this year, about 30  or 40 people and several local councillors present. Auditor addressed the meeting, didn’t seem really happy about having to stand in for the Treasurer again! Last year we had no Treasurer, this year the Treasurer was away on holidays. He said some nice things about our financial management, said we were one of the most professional organisations he’s worked with, a few heads turned to acknowledge me and some colleagues behind me patted me on the back, which was really nice.

    The annual reports we’d been working on came out really well, and Ros gave a presentation using the powerpoint I’d prepared – but ran into a couple of technical glitches, the projector decided to cut out. Quick-witted Ros quipped that we needed a grant for new AV equipment.

    One of the meeting attendees on the night was a dog! He was a beautiful big black labrador, in training to be a companion for a disabled person, there with his handler Garry, who works at the Bargain Centre. He was wearing a vest with an “L” plate stitched on it, very cute. Of course I bent down to meet him as soon as I clapped eyes on him, and was quickly told by Garry, it was totally the wrong thing because he was in training mode.

    Did manage to restrain myself from patting the dog, and got to sit next to him during the meeting, he was very well behaved during the meeting although all the talk sent him to sleep and he was actually snoring towards the end 🙂 Garry said he is teaching the dog to help with chores like retrieving the remote control, and removing socks and shirts. He will be in training for 18 months, the last six months he goes down to Sydney for final intensive training before placement.

  • Minor exhaustion

    What a day! physically and mentally it has been quite a strain.

    I intended going down to the kennels to help exercise the dogs down there, but got a message from Ludelle that there was a dog at Ipswich pound that we needed to rescue, having been originally rehomed by us, and the owner not interested in collecting it.

    Buddy is a beautiful animal, big Bull Arab, lovely nature. He just curled up in the back of my car after I picked him up.

    Got him settled into his new temporary home at the kennels, then proceeded to walk 6 – 8 dogs. Good opportunity to practise the techniques I’ve learnt from the “dog whisperer” Cesar Millan. Pleased to see some improvement in my handling of the dogs.

    Having a short spell between dogs, Ludelle informed me about some tragic news in her family – just last night one of her sons had been killed in a car accident only streets away from home. I was shocked and amazed that she was there telling me this and carrying on her normal work. There was only an instant when I saw the crack in her self-control, a brief glimpse of pain in her face when she gave me the news.

    Trying to give her as much support during this hard time for her. I had already planned to do a bulk buy up of dog food, so after we finished at the kennels I went into Gatton Aldi, who offer the best value at the moment. It saves us some money, also saves Ludelle the time and effort of having to go up to the supermarket in town each day to buy food. By the time I had finished offloading most of the cans at Ludelle’s place I was feeling exhausted by the day’s exertions.

    I planned to write more about this day but it can wait for another post.

  • Mixed feelings

    Last night the general meeting Kathryn and I organised went off without any major drama. We had nine members attend and a few others gave proxies.  A couple of new committee members were elected, one of whom has offered her home as the  venue for future meetings. We got special resolutions passed on some compliancy issues. We got people talking about a few of the issues we wanted to discuss.

    Not enough people though, to get enough new talent into the committee. No one wanted to take over from me as secretary or treasurer. The two on the committee are hoping to pass onto someone else eventually too.

    AGM is not until September, maybe we’ll be lucky enough to recruit a few new people by then.

  • Stubborness

    Baxter is a 9 y/o desexed male Cattle X adopted out by LM about 7 years ago. Recently the people asked for help to rehome him. They are leaving their acreage property and claim they can’t take Baxter with them into suburbia, he is very territorial and barking/nipping would be a problem. Moving in May, unhappy at the prospect of having to get Baxter put down if they can’t find a new home for him.

    I put Baxter up on the web site under the giveaways, LM put an ad in the weekend shopper.

    Get a furious email from the people last night, in the shopper ad we’d published their phone number without their knowledge; said we had no right, invasion of privacy and so on. We’d also listed Baxter’s breed and age incorrectly. They demanded we take down the web site listing (which had the correct details and LM’s phone number, not theirs) and have nothing further to do with them.

    In the past LM has seemed willing to respect people’s wishes if they prefer not to have their contact details published. Don’t know why the sudden turn around.

    Understood the people’s upset, but hoped to salvage the situation with an apology. Instead LM went on the attack. Never good when an older dog has to be rehomed and it seems to be one of LM’s pet hates, but unfortunately a visceral attitude doesn’t help the dog.

    LM is pushing the “dogs from the program belong to us” card. I don’t know how she expects to enforce this. One of the other carers thinks the adoption forms we have are useless and that we need to be getting stat decs signed. It’s an issue that comes up time and time again and all it does is create bad feeling, LM has even had threats made against her.

    My thoughts are that if there is a clear case of neglect or abuse we have every right to demand return of the dog; but in cases where an owner’s situation has changed, and they have done the right thing by letting us know about it, we need to be a bit more forgiving. Sure, we may not agree with their decision, but we do more harm than good by going on the offensive. We get them offside, they don’t want to have anything to do with us and suddenly the poor dog has fewer options and everyone has a headache.