For all you animal lovers out there todays post is going to be a little sad! There are so many unwanted animals abandoned every year a lot of them get rescued while others aren’t so lucky! Today I’d like to focus on a local rescue centre to me called Rain Rescue. They do great work for abandoned dogs and stray cats.
The centre was brought to my attention by Shelley Hughes a photographer and a volunteer at the centre. It really does break my heart to think of so many animals without loving homes, I’m sure there are many local rescue centres where you live no matter what part of the country. So if you are thinking of getting a new puppy or kitten why not think about getting a rescue animal? You would be helping out your local centre while giving a once unwanted animal a great start n life! Rain Rescue have many animals up for adoption, all of which can be found on their website.
I’ll let Shelley tell you more…………
I’d like to introduce you to our little charity, Rain Rescue, based near Rotherham, we help dogs and cats in crisis situation in South Yorkshire. I volunteer with them as a photographer and fundraiser.
A Day in the Life
The day starts early here at the Rain Rescue kennels, there can be anywhere upto 20 dogs in our care so morning walks often start before 7am. We have some very dedicated volunteers that come along and start the dog walking marathon. We are pretty lucky that we have some lovely countryside round our way, so when the weathers nice an early morning walk can be beautiful. For some of the dogs taken into our care this could be the first time they’ve experienced a nice long walk. We often walk our dogs together to get them to socialise, often dogs that have been neglected can be scared or unsure around others so as part of our care and rehoming process we try to introduce them to other dogs to help them feel more comfortable.
Our dogs get plenty of treats and toys throughout the day, and we rotate which dogs are outside in our fields so they all get a chance to run around and play. There’s always at least one snuggled by our feet in the office too as we answer enquiries and send out information. Our resident dog, Bronte, helps us to look after all the new dogs, she is fantastic at making them feel welcome and settled. She will just lay beside the kennels new terrified little guys and provide some sort of unseen support, when they become more confident she plays with them in the field. She was a rescue dog herself but now she is as much a valued member of team as any of our volunteers!
It can be truly heartbreaking working in rescue, the volume of calls we get every day from people who are desperate, asking if we can take their beloved pets because they have no other option. We try to help as many as we can, but sadly we can’t help them all. The majority of the dogs that we help come directly from the council dog pounds. Most days Steve, one of the founders of the rescue, will go down to one of the many pounds and have the heartbreaking job of choosing 3 or 4 to come back to Rain with him. These dogs are often literally due to be put to sleep that day through no fault of their own. The councils dog pounds are literally overflowing and a lot of people have no idea of the needless loss of life that sadly goes on.
We save around 300 dogs each and every year from some truly terrible fates.
When our newbies arrive into the rescue they are given some time to settle and get used to their new surroundings and these new people around them. They are often in quite a shocking state when they first come in, some are so traumatised that they have to be lifted in and out of the van, some are suffering physically, but this is always the first step on their (often long) road to recovery, physically and mentally.
We bathe them, feed them, groom them and treat them. A lot of dogs that come from the pound have what is known as kennel cough and we have our vets come to our site to treat them so we don’t have to move them when they are poorly. When they are fit enough they are micro-chipped, wormed and flead and then I take some lovely pictures to go up on our website so we can start finding a new home for them.
Most days we have people come along to meet dogs, we’re not open to the public so people see dogs on our website and make an appointment to come and meet them. Quite often they have another dog already so we take them all into one of our paddocks for a meet and greet (keeping our fingers crossed the whole time!) If everything goes well and all parties are happy off they go to their new home and we have a spare kennel that will be filled the very next day by another from the pound.
It really is a never ending cycle, there is no break from it and no end in sight, dogs are thrown out everyday and small rescues like us are left to pick up the pieces.
Meanwhile over at the cat barn, one of our volunteers will have been over in the morning to see to them and feed them. The majority of our cats are ferral and we provide somewhere warm and safe for them to live, if they are tame enough we rehome them. Every now and again Steve will find some poor kitty at the dog pound and bring them home to our lovely safe environment.
So this is our daily routine, dogs in dogs out, and all the love and care that comes in between. It’s harrowing and heartbreaking but when you see the transformation (like with our little Yogi) and know that you’ve saved that little dog for a fate often worse than death it really does make it all worth while.
Fore more information on Rain Rescue go to
www.rainrescue.co.uk
www.facebook.com/RainRescue
@rainrescue
For more information on Shelley’s photography work go to
www.diamondsanddoodles.co.uk
www.facebook.com/DiamondsAndDoodles
@shotbyshelley
Thank you for posting this, the photos are beautiful & thank you to all the
wonderful people at Rain Rescue for all the help they give to their rescued
dogs & cats.