Living the life of your dream with an NPO

So Spring is upon us, it is the time for new growth and fresh beginnings - the tone of this week's piece. I find it a poignant time to be grateful to all of our supporters and adopters who have given so many animals in need a fresh start and a "spring" in their step.

This week our guest blogger is Susanne Venter- our book guru! Woodrock are so lucky to have her as own of our own and she is a huge asset to the team.

Oh and one last thing- if you need to get rid of goods that you no longer need as well as second hand books of any sort- she is the lady to speak to so send her a mail  susannev50@gmail.com

Enjoy the first few crisp days of Spring everyone ( in South Africa at least)

Oprah Winfrey said “The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams”.

How many of us live the life of our dreams.  We certainly try or think we do, but honestly a lot of us don’t.  A year ago I would have said certainly not me.  Now, a year later things have changed so much, that I can say I am starting to live the life of my dreams.

When asked to write this blog I needed to understand what exactly is a blog, as I am a newbie when it comes to blogging. A blog is an online journal which is updated frequently.  A blog is not long and readers can even respond online. It is a conversation  with other people.

As a fellow Woodrocker, animal and earth lover, social media and information geek I would like to share a story with all you.  It really is my personal journey over the last couple of months.  I hope that you will find inspiration in the blog.

I was away in Mozambique for over two years (spending some time with my daughters and grandchildren) and returned to my country of birth, South Africa at the end of August 2012.  Although I have always liked animals (domestic and wild), I would not say that I was a BIG dog lover.  I do like cats by the way. My new job was going to be in Woodmead and I needed a place to stay close to work.  As I was scanning Gumtree, OLX and Junkmail online I found an advertisement to rent a room in house, but the advertisement specifically said MUST LOVE DOGS.  I though no that is not me.  I continued my search, went to view a couple of places and eventually ended up phoning the advertisement mentioned above.  Upon arrival at the property I was looking for dogs roaming the property, but instead did not see any dogs.  I met the owner, viewed the room and realized soon thereafter that the dogs were there, just in kennels across the property.  The owner said to me “ I like your karma”.  I still thought to myself – lady if only you know that my life was in a bit of a mess at the time.

To cut a long story short, I moved in two days later.  Lovely room, beautiful garden settings with lots of ponds and water flowing.  Four cats and  plenty dogs.  Little did I know at the time that this was going to be life-changing for me and that I would become involved as a volunteer with Woodrock.

Today I run the book sales division for the centre whereby we sell books every weekend at a different shopping centre across Gauteng.  I have met so many interesting (and some well-known) people).  Reading has always been a passion for me, (I also used to be a journalist and weekly newspapers), but this experience has changed me.  I love what I do, always thought one day I would be involved at a non-profit organization.  I am learning lots about dogs (even walked two dogs at the centre over the past weekend) and loving it more and more.

Moral of the story – you are never too old to learn about new things, you can  become involved as a volunteer  at any time – it really has fulfilled my life in a big way.  Dogs and cats can change your life – it certainly has changed mine forever.   Thanks to Woodrock for letting me part of this great big  adventure.

Stella takes a call... From me!

This week, Stella has put her voice to our blog- Stella takes up to 100 calls a day so witnessing this on a day to day basis... I prompted her to tell me about what she thinks of the abyss of calls she receives daily... This was her response!

As the voice of Woodrock I take most calls requesting dogs advertised by Woodrock.

Most calls are easy and I can assist as best I can and if Woodrock are unable to provide the perfect pet to the callers needs we happily refer them.

But! There are those calls that hit me to the core like 'nails scraping on a blackboard..." ( can you tell I'm a qualified teacher) 

A few examples of the content of these calls are as follows; 

"We are looking for a pedigree ........"

"We would like our dog to have at least one litter...."

"Our dogs have always slept outside..." 

"We need a guard dog..."

I don't know why I engage in these conversations or feel the need to retaliate. I should merely end the call politely.....

Then there are the calls about that " We are unable to keep our dogs because....

" We are immigrating..."

"We are scaling down..."

" We are having a baby"

"We don't have time to walk the dog"

"We have to move"

My response once again is eeeeeek

I know I should put on my reasoning cap and attempt to assist but it can really press my buttons... What is an animal rescuer supposed to respond to these ignorant individuals who expect me to assist them when they haven't tried in the least to hep their babies?!?

At these times when I do try to be relatively pleasant and give the caller the benefit of the doubt the  first question i ask is how long have we got to rehome your pet?

Yet again 9 times out of 10, we are given the all too common answer of 1 day, 2 weeks...

Occasionally we hear in 6 months.

At this point my tail is rigid between my legs and my hair is standing upright on my back... I have restrained myself from producing the snarl just yet.

Then I proceed to ask;

Is the dog's inoculation up to date and is the dog sterilized?

Once again you can guess the all too often responses

Ok, now I just lose it. Clearly these people did not get proper education in responsible dog ownership.

Of course there are the calls I end quickly when the advert reads for a smaller breed like min pin CROSS Daschund. Here the caller enquires how small/ how big they are...

"No we don't want a cross but do you by any chance know of a breeder..."

Some calls proceed relatively well and we get to the part of do you have " any other pets" .

Yes, we have ducks, chickens and a free reign parrot. Ugh well how on earth will we be able to ascertain how our dumped shelter animal will react?

Oh the calls that we get!!!

My pet hate that gets me beyond riled up and in thorough snarl mode is when an animal owner thinks it is a good idea to have a litter from a large breed dog and now we have 14 Boerboel puppies to give away! I have no answers to this and must totally restrain myself from attack! Even worse is when they inform us that they have already given 4 away to the security guard to take "home".

My very worst and I don't know why this is -bearing in mind this economic climate is "how much do you charge" or what is the price of the dog I want to buy!?

My final hate and I know most rescuers will be able to identify with this is when we rehome a puppy and a year or two later we get the dog surrendered back to us as "damaged" dogs through irresponsible animal ownership. Fortunately these are few!

The calls that really leave me sad are the callers telling me their dog has gone missing. Immediately, I enquire about whether the dog in questions microchipped. Do they have ID number. Well now it's just too late to think about it. What have you done to find your pet?Why have you waited so long? Bearing in mind there are steps or protocol in place... Notes on poles, SPCA, social media promotion!

At month end I sit in the phone and do a follow up on dogs homed. At this point, I get very anxious as I trust the person who we have screened and promised to love our precious rescue as well as we did! Our main aim is to see if the animal has settled and we go to extreme lengths to ensure all our blocks are ticked. To my delight in most instances the home is perfect and the new owner is as thrilled as I am.

On the positive flip side of the coin is when I get the callers that ramble on about their pets that they have or that have passed. For these callers, I have all day much to my  awaiting callers dismay. I am often viewed as fiery and rash when it comes to dealing with people in the animal world but I can honestly say I am as fiery and passionate about each and every animal in my care. Woodrock is my baby and I will always speak for it!

Pining for my pooch!

Hello out there! Lola here and I am back from my international travels.I had an absolutely fabulous time and there were a number of incredibly memorable highlights! However one of the top highlights of my trip was when I came across my first dog!

Many of you know full well what it feels like to pine for your animal whilst you are away on vacation. Yes, you are assured that they are safe and well tended to (at Woodrock Kennels;)) but you are selfishly uneasy because at night the bed seems slightly too large and grassy patches don't have the same appeal without your pooch shnoofing around!

This was too true whilst I was away, Lavender was living it up with Stella and Nicholas enjoying her holiday away from me ( I can tell this because she has picked up weight- suspicious mid night snacking I think) Myself although basking under the magnificent Tuscan sun would constantly think of her. For this reason, when I came across my first Italian pooch I literally had to restrain myself from rolling on the floor with him! His owner understood but the pooch literally looked down his nose at me with an italian flair contemplating the foreigner's motive.What made seeing pooches in Italy even worse is that there are loads of Chihuahuas and I had a large case of animal envy!

I would love to hear about what lengths you have resorted to in order to get your animal fix!

Have a fab week

L

Nicholas smells a rat....

VivaRats Viva update...

So in an earlier blog post I elaborated extensively about Nicholas- the patriarch of Woodrock and his intense love for the undervalued "rat".

As many of you know, this love is criticized by other members from Woodrock. We do not condone cruelty but we do condone cleanliness and sanitation and unfortunately unwanted rodents carry disease and germs which we cannot allow our animals t be exposed to. 

Nicholas's humane rat traps and relocation antics have proved successful if not exhausting in the past but he pushes on even when he is criticized for  going to extreme lengths to save them. Please read "Viva Rats Viva" for more!

Well unfortunately his good deeds have not gone unpunished. A few weeks ago whilst driving into Johannesburg, an alarm light started flashing in Nicholas's car. The warning light was for the airbag- an oddity as the car has never given problems. The next day a second light started blinking followed by a discoteq of various coloured lights over the next few days.

Smelling a rat- pardon the pun- Nicholas called in a good friend Juan who through some under bonnet investigations discovered that the problem was in fact rats!

The puzzle pieces slowly started to fall into place with Nicholas recalling a strange " pop" sound coming from his engine as well as fluff balls of gnawed at carpet miraculously appearing in his foot hold.

It turns out that nightly, the array of liberated rats at Woodrock were having a party in Nicholas's engine in order to get to the warmth. The warmth in turn mellows them out and makes them feel for a snack and thus the destruction of carpets, wiring and ultimately car engine!

One would think that this would be the final straw for the rat problem and Nicholas's devoted tolerance of them. This is however not the case, what has transpired is that in place of removing the rats, Nicholas now parks his car away from the house by the kennels, acquiring much more exercise and inconvenience as a result of them.

He is stubborn and obstinate but he is the kindest man you will ever come across so Nicholas with your rodent like quirks- we salute you!!

Ps he also has a large weakness for cheese!!! Sounds slightly suspicious....

Until next week

L

X

But mommy you are driving me nuts!!

There are very many things I can do to Lavender that get her peeved. Things like blowing in her face gently or hiding mine under a pillow whilst mimicking the sound of a mewling animal.She absolutely falls every time for my favourite prank whereby I pretend I am cuddling with a fake cat in the bed ( what makes this so funny is that I can use absolutely any object to be said cat in question) and suddenly her very large jealous streak emerges!

These are things I purposefully do in order to get a reaction, I have no shame in admitting that I find my baby highly entertaining. The question I wonder though is, do I perhaps do something that irritates her without being aware of it.

As I'm sure many of you are aware- the people closest to you are the ones who you have the smallest tolerance for their idiosyncrasies for instance Stella detests the way Nicholas yawns and then sniffs slightly after 5 pm! It drives her mad.

Now I know animals love us unconditionally but there are moments where Lavender prefers

to go to her own bed (cat cave) then cuddle with me in a warm bed. I wonder, is it because I am irritating her with the way I sleep or does she just need some lone time.

One thing I know for certain that she detests in when she is having a love and being given attention and the person giving her the love gets distracted by a cellphone or iPad. Immediately like a neglected child she puts on her absolutely cutest face, largest eyes and puppy blinks and then if that still doesn't get the attention she requires she resorts to pushing her way in between the device and person's face! 

I know of certain dogs at Woodrock who detest the sound of my camera's shutter even if it is not pointed at them, they skulk off into the corner like a celebrity with a jersey over their heads for fear of the paparazzi getting a shot.

On the more humorous side I also know of someone whose identity shall remain anonymous that their dog will quickly jump off the bed if they let "one off".The sound in particular bothers them but if they are under the covers they bolt at the first sign of gas...

I would love to hear about some of the things that you unintentionally do that irritate your babies.

Please send me a mail at woodrockanimalrescue@gmail.com

I would love to start featuring some other fun stories of your beloved pets!

Have a fab week

L