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Fundraising
And Fund Saving
Like
all other
charities, our donations are considerably down and
raising funds to keep such a large and busy animal sanctuary running is
a
constant battle. We are, as you know, a non-profit making organisation
and rely
totally on the goodwill and generosity of the public and with the ever
increasing running costs - food, electricity,
water, petrol, phone
and vets, etc., we often find our sanctuary funds are running low. We
are, therefore,
always trying to reduce unnecessary outgoings wherever we can.
Everyclick.com
Would all you
internet users please sign up to support Animaline
with Everyclick.com – every search you do
will raise free money
for us – Thank You.
Email
Addresses
It would help us no
end if we could have your email address – as this saves both
money and resources. We hope to email our
newsletters in the future but if you don’t have access to
email, we are more
than happy to keep you up-to-date by post.
Please notify us of
your email address at : office@animaline.plus.com
Fundraising
Lottery
We have joined the
Weather Lottery and ask
if you would all support us. For just £1 per week you will
make such a
difference to Animaline and you would also have the chance of winning
£10,000.00 daily! That can’t be bad –
please consider taking part. Detais are on our 'How
to help' page.
OUR
OPEN DAY LAST SEPTEMBER
WHAT
A HUGE SUCCESS
THANK
YOU TO ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS WHO
CAME
Last September we
held our
first open day. We were extremely
anxious as we had no idea what to expect or if anyone would come! What
if it rains
and the cars all get stuck in the field? What if the field
isn’t big enough? What
if, what if, what if...
Our fears
soon
diminished as, when the day arrived, the sun was
shining and before our gates were even opened at midday there were
queues of people
waiting to come in. Relief!
Thank you to everyone
who managed to make our special day and
thank you for all the wonderful compliments you gave our sanctuary and
the animals
in our care it is only because of
your help and support that our sanctuary is
as it is today - thank you.
We
estimate that we had over 400 visitors during the 4 hours that
we were open and even at 4pm more people were still arriving!
Thank
you to all the
friends and volunteers who helped run the
stalls and served refreshments, and to Jason who dressed up as a
chicken and
sold raffle tickets, you were all
fantastic! Thank you also to everyone who
donated
cakes and sandwiches, jams and tombola prizes. Thank you to Doves Barn
Nursery
and Courtlands Nursery for donating so many plants to sell, and to
Britvic for
donating all the cans of drink. Thank you to our staff and volunteers
for all
your hard work in preparing for this day, you all deserve a
medal!
This
amazing day
raised a whopping £6,000.00 for the animals here
at Animaline. Thank you so much to everyone for making this possible.
It also
gave us the opportunity to show you, our supporters, how you help us to
help
them. We strive constantly to improve the sanctuary and give the best
care to the
animals.
Because the day was
so successful we fully intended to hold more open
days in the future but unfortunately, because we will be moving, we are
unable
to commit to any dates at the moment. We will endeavour to have another
open
day as soon as we are settled in our new home. We are sorry to
disappoint those
of you who were looking forward to another open day this year, we hope
you understand.
RECENT
ARRIVALS
Millie
And Her Kittens
We had a call from a
concerned lady, Debbie, who had for weeks
being feeding a stray cat – this cat had now
come into her home and was seen to be extremely
pregnant. We advised her to take the cat to the vet to find out if she
was
micro chipped – she wasn’t
and so she came to Animaline to have her babies. She
finally gave birth to 5 beautiful, healthy kittens on Liz's living room
rug
surrounded by her 4 large dogs. Liz tried to move her to a quiet
comfortable
bed but no, Millie was adamant that the rug with the dogs was where she
wanted
to be and so that’s where she and her kittens stayed,
snuggled up with dogs.
Debbie has been coming to the sanctuary each week bringing food and
treats for
Millie and has offered her a permanent home when her kittens have been
weaned –
they too have good
homes awaiting them.
Anonymous
Calls
As a rescue centre
we often get anonymous callers asking for help.
One particular call was asking if we
could take some
rabbits and if so, how many! There were 52 but,
fortunately, many went to other rescue centres, leaving us with just
17! When
we opened the boxes we were greeted by pure white British Giants – the breed of which
we
know are used by meat farms. We must thank Tania of Care For The Wild,
who
kindly paid for all of these rabbits to be neutered and are happy to
say that
most of these rabbits have been found lovely homes.
A
Rarity!
In all the years of
wildlife rescue it is still very rare to see a
Mole, especially a live mole. But late last summer we were brought a
mole that
had been dug up by an inquisitive Labradoodle puppy! Fortunately, his
owner was
on hand and the mole was saved from being slobbered to death. The mole
had only
suffered superficial wounds and so was treated accordingly and given
precautionary
antibiotics; we were able to release him back to where he came from
within a
few days. A short stay, but lovely to meet him.
How
Can Humans Be So Cruel?
One cold February
morning we received a call from a distraught
lady who, whilst out walking, spotted a ‘moving
bag’ at the edge of a lake – she opened the bag
and
was horrified to see a kitten approx 3 months old. Alfie as we named
him is
such a bold, playful, mischievous and loving lad. He is so lucky to
have been
found. Fortunately, he is oblivious to what could have happened to him
and now
lives with Ellie, a work experience student who fell in love with him.
We will
never understand how some human beings can be so disgustingly
heartless. It is
something we will never ever get used to no matter how often we see it.
Vets
Cry For Help
A local
Vet needed
our help which makes a change! The Vets had
become a ‘dumping ground’ for unwanted pet rabbits!
The first batch was rehomed
by the vets successfully all bar one, that is, which was extremely
grumpy. This
little lass was homed by one of our volunteers. It was soon apparent
that she wasn’t
grumpy at all, just hormonal and promptly gave birth to 7 babies!
Meanwhile,
news must have got around that these vets kindly rehome unwanted
rabbits as,
soon after, another 3 boxes were dumped outside their door. These
rabbits all
came to Animaline and have since been found good homes.
The
Perils Of A Mild Autumn
This past autumn was
so mild that many hogletts were born too late
and did not gain the weight needed to survive hibernation. We were
inundated
with 80 of these spiny critters! Many arrived severely dehydrated and
malnourished and suffering with lungworm which causes severe breathing
difficulties and is a common killer of hedgehogs. All were immediately
given
fluids, food and warmth and as a matter of routine all put on a course
of
lungworm treatment and, where required, antibiotics. Many of these
hedgehogs
have now been released back into the gardens where they were originally
found
but during their stay here the cost per hedgehog was approximately
£30! We are
thrilled to report that all survived but cost us over
£2,400.00 – but all truly worth
it – we
adore hedgehogs.
Mr
Bignall
The Bignall Family
have been loyal supporters of Animaline for
many years now. A long time ago Mr Bignall took 2 doves
from us and now has a family living in his
dovecot. Recently his dovecot has been spotted by a sparrow hawk.
Unfortunately,
one named Edward, was attacked and brought to us to be nursed. The
sparrow hawk
does not appear to want to leave this food source and so we have
offered to
look after the Bignall birds here on a temporary basis until the
sparrow hawk
moves on. Amongst these birds needing sanctuary was a tiny squab just a
few
days old that we are now hand rearing and have named Mr Bignall! Thank
you Mr
& Mrs Bignall for all your support, this is the least we can do
for you.
Legs
We all have a soft
spot for hedgehogs, and they seem to suffer the
most in our wild, considering they have only one natural predator, the
badger.
They really have so many other enemies to deal with, i.e., slug
pellets,
litter, ponds, bonfires and cars to name but a few but the most
horrific
injuries are caused by garden strimmers. One of our supporters noticed
that one
of the hedgehogs she was feeding had a damaged leg. In order to uncurl
him to examine
his wound properly he had to be sedated. We saw that not only was his
damaged
leg a very old injury but that his other back leg was completely
missing. A
horrible dilemma – he was a large
healthy looking hedgehog and obviously coping with
his disability. It was decided that we should give him a chance and so
the ‘dead’
remaining back leg was amputated. This was back in
November and since
then Legs has made a fantastic recovery and
scuttles about as if nothing is wrong. His
‘undercarriage’ has toughened and so
he doesn’t even get sore. We will be releasing him into a
secure safe garden soon
where he will be monitored closely.
We
are often in dilemmas with creatures of this kind – do
we just put
them to sleep or do we give them a chance to survive a safe and happy
life?
With
The Spring, Came New Life
As well as the usual
ducklings being born on the lake we have had
lots of babies brought to us needing help, these include...
Willow
– a roe deer that was
found staggering in the middle of a road. She was barely 2 weeks old
and very
dehydrated. She was bottle fed and nursed back to health by Liz and
once fully
weaned went to another sanctuary to be with another fawn of her kind
and age.
She will when ready go on a release programme and go back to the wild.
Polo
– a goat kid that came
to us at just 3 days old, rejected by her mother she too was bottle fed
by Liz.
She instantly formed a bond with all of Liz’s dogs which
mothered her and so
now she thinks she is a dog. She plays with them constantly and on a
rainy day
can be found curled up with them in the dog kennel!
On
a completely different note...
Animal
Ambulance Appeal!
Our old ambulance
finally gave up – or should I say blew
up! It was one of our
most important and essential assets. On call 24 hours a day 7 days a
week, not
only for animal rescues but also trips to the vets and collecting
foodstuff. We
are struggling immensely without a vehicle and are in urgent need to
replace
it. If you can help
in any way we would
be so very grateful.
Thank
you
On A Sad Note...
Unfortunately,
nothing lives forever and in recent months we have
lost 2 of our special residents.
Sadie, a
fox that
came to us as a cub after being hit by a car. This
left her with permanent brain damage which caused epilepsy. Although
her condition
cut her life short she had a full and happy time here, and as we had
hand
reared her she had no fear of humans and regularly enjoyed fuss and
cuddles
from our staff.
Smartie our donkey
had been here forever – a sweet old girl, so
polite and gentle. She developed a malignant tumour in her mouth.
Fortunately, due
to regular visits from our horse dentist, we knew she had not had this
tumour
for long and we were able to put her to sleep peacefully with no
suffering.
Girls
we miss you very much. You both made Animaline an extra-special
place.
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