Off to CHCH again

Carolyn and Jim head down to CHCH today in the truck. They are picking up dogs and puppies on Saturday morning and will be coming straight back, arriving Sunday morning. I am staying here to run the sanctuary and organise everything at this end. I will be checking out new homes and foster homes so the dogs/pups can go straight into their new families.    

In other news, one of our board members, Sam and her husband Wayne stayed up all night on Peka Peka beach guarding a young wayward Emperor Penguin from idiots. They even got together with the community to set up a roster so this penguin can holiday here safely, without getting chased with sticks!!! Hopefully he is only here for a short holiday before he returns to Antarctica.

Back at HUHA, we have planted more flaxes along the front boundary. I had to replant the ones I put in last week because either they were trampled or I didn’t do a very good job planting them the first time.... They are all looking good and planted correctly now. We still need more flaxes for the front boundary, I have only done one side (the shorter side) of the driveway.  

We have moved our rehabilitating seagull to the new aviary. He was living next door to Griz (who by the way is a very nice bunny with a lot of character). The seagull was there next to Griz to rest, now he is ready to practice flying in the bigger aviary. I have improved my bird perches in the new aviary, they now have more levels.

The Ute is getting repairs done, so we have been using the quad bike for feeding this past week. It is much slower but fun hooning up and down the driveway with Munchkin following behind. Yesterday I had Wilmar the pig and Weeone the donkey (who sneaked out when I had the gate open for just 2 seconds) following behind me, it was really nice. Despite all the fun hooning, I am looking forward to getting the Ute back, it makes feeding out much easier.  

We still have rescued cats, donkeys, cows and pigs looking for new homes. Remember to keep them in mind. They would make a lovely addition to your home.   

Help CHCH dogs

We just had a call from Dogwatch in CHCH they are overwhelmed with calls from people needing to rehome their dogs. There is no more room at the shelters and many families are choosing to put their pets to sleep. HUHA is committed to getting as many of these dogs as possible up to the North Island and into fantastic, safe new homes. If you are able to adopt or foster a pup or dog please contact us ASAP. We are also setting up food banks, if you are in a position to donate or set up a food bank that would be greatly appreciated.  
contact@huha.org.nz
04 526 3630 HUHA
027 441 6474 Carolyn or
021 032 0974 Cherie

Eva's Attic

We have started to plant flax plants around the boundary, kindly donated by one of our biggest supporters (my mum). They are already quite big and they shouldn’t take too long to grow huge. We have also planted more pittosporums but they are only little.

Sadly some of rehabilitating patients have died. One of the seagulls, our more pork and hedgehog. These animal come to us because they are wonky (sick or injured, sometimes both). Sometimes there just isn’t anything we can do.  

We have successfully released 2 Kereru and a seagull. We still have 1 Kereru and 1 seagull in our care. We took the seagull to Petone beach where he flew away.

Today I was driving down Taita Drive (very common street for animals to get run over) and saw a dog on the side of the road. I turned around because the side of a road is no place for a dog. He had been hit by a car! Someone who heard the bang did the right thing by calling the SPCA, the dog was in a very serious state I got Carolyn to cancel the SPCA inspector and I took him to the after hours vet clinic. He was an entire male pit bull with no collar or micro chip, just wearing a red scarf. He was very pale, couldn’t stand and his breathing was laboured. Despite our best efforts his condition worsened, he started coughing up a lot of blood, and screaming in pain. He was trying to die, we had no choice but to put him out of his misery. It was very sad but I was with him until the end. I hate that people don’t stop when they hit an animal, there is no excuse for it  

For those who don’t already know we get regular donations from Eva’s Attic. Eva’s Attic is a premuim pre loved clothing store in Wellington. It is fully manned by volunteers and all proceeds are donated to FIVE charities. Carolyn works there every Friday, I am the volunteer coordinator and we have another HUHA volunteer there on Wednesdays. We are always looking for more volunteers to help at Eva’s attic, let us know if you are interested 526 3630. 

My day at HUHA

 Guest blog by Clarissa Chandrahasen

The first I heard of HUHA (Helping you help animals) was through my friend Cherie, who has been a vounteer at the Kaitoke-based animal sanctuary for about 9 months. I asked her one day if I could come along and check it out. Cherie was happy to indulge my interest, so picked me up at 9.30 on a sunny Tuesday morning and we headed out to Kaitoke. We stopped along the way at the supermarket to pick up a trolley-full of leftover bread for the animals.

After arriving at HUHA, a gang of roosters rushed to meet us, scrambling for crumbs as we unloaded the bread from the boot of the car. Also keen to say hello was Munchkin the goat, one of Cherie's favourite sanctuary residents. I gave her a polite pat but the sight of her horns made me question if we would ever be close friends. Munchkin followed along behind us as we headed to the emu paddock. The emus, Wirimu and Weemu, were very friendly chaps and skillfully plucked bread from my hand without getting my nervous fingers.

Next in line for our attention was Charlie the monkey, a retired circus performer. At 42 years old he's a grandpa by his breed's standards. Walking him up the hill to his outdoor enclosure was slow-going - the old guy had to stop every so often to catch his breath. Once at the enclosure it was feeding time for both Charlie and Laurie, a feisty Capuchin monkey. I was surprised to see Charlie shares his enclosure with two giant rabbits: Jelly and Bean. Cherie insists the two species are friends, but Charlie's boisterous rough-housing with the two rabbits made me think "with friends like that who needs enemies"!

It was time to jump on the quad bike and take a big slab of silverside and some roadkill to the injured hawk enclosure. Whilst the slab of meat looked juicy and delicious, I wasn't sure how excited the hawks would be about the roadkill - a dead hedgehog - it's surely the hawk equivalent of brussel sprouts.

More quad bike riding took us down to the cow paddock where I met Mabel, mini-Mabel, Woollybully, and No-Name. We scattered some hay for them to tuck into and I tentatively gave Mabel a few pats.

Next Cherie took me groom the ponies and she also introduced me by name to most of the ten or so pigs on the property. The most impressive of all was Piggy-Sue, a ginormous sow-stall survivor. The story of her gallivanting on the grass for the first time after 5 years in a stall was pretty moving, and made me question my consumption of pig meat. If animals like Piggy-Sue have to suffer, bacon just doesn't seem worth it.

By now the midday sun was blazing hot, and we grabbed a shovel each as Cherie had some tree-planting planned for us. I had told Cherie I didn't mind getting my hands dirty, so she held me to that! Soon our planting was done, and so was my day at HUHA.

But we had one last task to do - this time down at the Petone foreshore - the release of a recently-recovered seagull. Cherie opened the box and out jumped our survivor. To check that his flying ability was back, Cherie gently chased him along the beach a little until he took off, and that was that. He soared out over the ocean until we couldn't see him anymore. "That's my favourite part of the job," said Cherie.

Roosters

We have 3 new rescued roosters from our friends at Dog Watch CHCH. It is so sad how roosters get dumped. A lot of the time it is because people are trying to be green and animal friendly by producing their own eggs. They get either a litter of young babies or they let a hen breed. Of course they end up with some roosters, which no one wants. They release them on the side of the road to fend for themselves. What they don’t realise is that the roosters are either to young or domesticated to sufficiently look after themselves. They quite often come to us thin and covered in mites. We have over 60 rescued roosters! We get asked all the time how do we stop our roosters from fighting. That is simple, our roosters don’t fight. In fact, roosters tend not to fight under the right conditions, our Roosters have plenty of space, food, and shelter, there is no need to fight or complete.  
If you or someone you know would like to produce your own eggs, that is great, get an ex battery hen. They are so friendly, you know it is definitely female and most importantly you are saving a life! We rehabilitate and rehome ex batteries all the time, our board member Sam is very good at it. Let us know if you are thinking about getting hens, hopefully we can help.   

We have 3 new seagulls and a hedgehog. All 3 of the seagulls are eating very well but 2 aren’t flying. They have been examined by a vet and put on bed rest for a couple of weeks. The one that is eating and can fly will get released at the beach as soon as he puts on a bit more weight. The hedgehog has a weird eating pattern, he will pig out one day and not eat the next. It maybe just because he is getting ready for hibernation. He came to us covered in mites and with a burst abscess. The abscess is looking good and the mites are gone, yay.   

Last weekend we rehomed one of our rescued cats, Sally. She has gone to a lovely home where she will be very happy and spoilt.  

Griz our newest bunny has settled in very well. He is inquisitive, likes to explore in his big run and he lets us pat him. He seems to love his new lifestyle out of the petshop.

We have successfully reunited a very cute lost piglet with his very worried owners. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to take a picture. He was staying with our bunny Griz, it would have made a great photo.