Wow what a full on past few weeks it has been. 50 Dogs, 6 hens and 5 roosters we have brought up from CHCH to be re home here in Wellington. Most of the Dogs/puppies are in fantastic homes and the other few are in great foster homes waiting for a permanent home to come along. These are all very nice, special dogs that have been through so much, with all the earthquakes and saying goodbye to their families. Due to the earthquake damage lots of people are forced to move and cannot take their beloved dog. As you probably can imagine it is very difficult rehoming dogs in Christchurch and all of the animal shelters there are full. The first trip we brought back 24 dogs/pups with just the HUHA truck, second trip two weeks later we brought back 26 dogs/pups. On the second trip as well as the truck we loaded Vari and Taylor’s van. HUHA has now helped 120 CHCH animals find new homes. Check out our website or facebook page to see photos of our incredible CHCH dogs, remember we still have a few looking for the right home.
The amount of support we have received is overwhelming. Thank you everyone for the emails, donations, and offers to help. We couldn’t have pulled it off without the support from the community.
We have also managed to re home a flock of sheep to a very nice permanent home in Upper Hutt, fix some brush wood fencing that had come down near the monkey house, and rake the paths! The sanctuary is looking great (except for the mud).
Last weekend I picked up a very sick goat from someone who found her on the side of the road in Makara, she would have only been a couple of weeks old. She was very sick, couldn’t stand or eat, I had to syringe feed her. Sadly she didn’t make it; I had her for about 3 hours before she died.
We have a new goat as of last Thursday. She is very bright and drinking milk very well and loves grass. I have named her Penelope Sweet Pea. She too would only be a few weeks old. Penelope is staying at my house for a little while. She has already worked out how to jump up onto my bed and she loves exploring in the garden tasting everything there is to offer.
On top of the rehoming of CHCH dogs we have also rehomed a dog from the Levin animal control. He is a very relaxed calm dog that has found a fantastic new home. His name is Pete; he is a 14 month old Malta-doodle. Pete is very lucky, the day after we got him, he became very sick, and he came down with a very nasty bug. We had him on fluids and antibiotics. He is good as gold now and has even been desexed. He has settled into his new home very nicely.
This sudden bad weather we have had and the tornado in Kapiti has cause a lot of Fairy Prions (sea birds) to wash up on shore exhausted. They are dying all along the Kapiti Coast. The wonderful community (including HUHA) worked together to rescue these poor little birds. They were taken to the very caring staff at the Waikanae SPCA to be crop feed and then later given out to places that can care for them. We were given just over 300 to care for. All of these birds needed to be crop fed a special mixture of food twice a day. It was a lot of work, once we finish the morning feed we have to start the evening feed more or less straight after. When we first heard about this Carolyn and I with our favourite photographer Jo Moore rushed out there. On the way to the Waikanae SPCA we stopped at Pukerua Bay and walked maybe 1km down the beach to see if there were any still alive. We must have walked past around 500 birds already dead and only found 2 still alive. It was absolutely devastating. The one I found died shortly after in my arms. The one Carolyn found was taken to the Waikanae SPCA for some intensive care. It really did break our hearts to see so many dead and others struggling. The weather yesterday was beautiful and the forecast for this week is good. Carolyn and I got a lift on the Kapiti Coast guard boat and released 199 that were waterproof and ready. It was great watching them fly and swim away. We still have another 20 back at the sanctuary that were too sick to be released just yet, as soon as they are waterproof we will take them back out and set them free.
We are doing a movie night fundraiser. The movie is ‘Billy T Te Movie’. It is a preview screening on Wednesday the 17th August at 6.30pm, arrival from 6pm, at the Lighthouse cinema in Petone. Tickets $20, nibbles provided and there will be a great raffle on the night, for tickets please contact me on 021 032 0974 or 04 526 3630 or mclean.c.f@gmail.com.
