Author Archives: TerrierSOS

News from Sidney

Quite a few of you followed Sidney’s story. You will be all pleased to hear he has found his forever home. His owner, Tim, has been in touch:

‘Sidney and I have been sharing a home together for nearly three months.

During that time, he has demonstrated what all those who know him would recognise: great good nature, up for just about anything and always positive and enthusiastic. For Sid, the glass is always half full if not overflowing and life is for living.

Before he arrived, I was confident that he would be a lovely dog, but a little apprehensive about how he would settle in with me, and particularly whether he would miss Sandy and Brian after all the love and care they brought to him in fostering. When they kindly brought him to me en route to Cornwall, he did indeed miss them, but his positive, optimistic self came to his aid and within a few hours he was keen to explore and learn about his new home and surroundings.

I am so glad to tell you that he really is enjoying his new life. He already knows his way around the locality and therefore where squirrels might lurk with that ever optimistic expectation that a squirrel 10m up a tree is fair game for a terrier. He is also becoming something of a star locally, his perambulations around the village are punctuated by ‘there’s Sidney, hello Sidney or isn’t he lovely’. At first I used to respond by saying thank you to the latter until I realised that it was Sid they were addressed to: I’m lucky to receive a ‘oh hello Tim’ as a coda, but that is Sid for you, and why not as he is such a lovely boy. It took him a little while to adjust to local dog society, but now he has, and meeting and greeting fellow canines is all part of the fun in his daily voyages of inspection around his new village. The good news is also that his health seems to flourish: I took him to the local vets who were marvellous with my lovely cat until I lost her (sorry readers, I am a dog and cat person), and they said ‘let’s try to reduce his medication significantly’. This we have done and he shows no ill effect, indeed he shows no signs of pain and, whilst vigilance is ever needed, I think he continues to improve after all the care given to him by or through Terrier SOS and his fosterers.

With luck, we may be able to reduce medication further over time, which is good news for him. And we beginning to extend the adventures we have as we get to know each other, and, for example, he has already woven the Sidney charm in making my elderly mother smile and respond when he visits her as she recovers from a second broken hip.

As for me, Sidney is the most loving, marvellous and vibrant companion that anyone could hope for, constantly bringing a smile to my face. I’ll do everything I can to ensure that he has a long, and very happy and healthy life, Oh and by the way, he does live up to the name on his passport when the urge to rush around grabs him: ‘torpedo’! Thank you Terrier SOS.”

Waffle Treshur Hunt September 2015

The Treasure Hunt has been extended until the end of September 2015.  Waffle the famous lakeland terrier, ball hunter & Terrier SOS fundraiser, has got a wonderful hunt for you.  Take part with your pooch or donate to the YouCaring page. Here are the instructions from Waffle HQ:

“**** HERE IS THE TRESHUR LIST!!!*****

1. A park bench
2. A red door
3. A white feather
4. The number ‘8’
5. A sun puddle to snooze in
6. A mud puddle to bog-snorkel in
7. A C-A-T
8. A post box
9. A statue
10. A celebrity
11. A policeman / policewoman
12. Father Cristmoose!
13. A flag
14. A borlee shaped pebble
15. A tree stump / fallen tree
16. Stray chippies under the table
17. Your V-E-T
18. Sum paw prints
19. A red bicycle
20. A cayke (hooman or doggie)
21. A bunny / skwirrel (cuddly or real)
22. A water feature (pond, sea, bucket etc.)
23. A round window
24. Goal posts
25. As many borlees as you can find!!! (speshul treshur!)

And here are the links to download the full colour Treshur Map and sponsor form (Click the links, right click on the images and select ‘save’ then you can print them off from your desktop)

http://www.sallygrist-artwork.co.uk/…/sponsorshipform2015.j…
http://www.sallygrist-artwork.co.uk/waff…/treshurMap2015.jpg

Full instructions via the specially set up Facebook group

YouCaring Donation page

Thank you to all who have taken part so far, from Edinburgh to Seoul, you are amazing!

A letter from Muffin

Hello my name is Muffin and I am a Terrier X, but definitely not a cross Terrier!

I used to live in Valencia Spain. I was in a perrera, it wasn’t the nicest place to be.
Muffin 2

Every day I hoped that someone would see me and come and take me away. Then the day came along when Terrier SOS did and they took me into their care.

I had to stay in kennels while my passport and paperwork was being sorted and I had to have all my vaccinations. Finally the day came for me to start my adventures.

I was collected on 25th April and my travels to the UK started. I had the best place on the transport vehicle. I was right at the front behind the driver. It was awesome. I could see where we were going. When we reached Calais in France we went through passport control and I proudly showed my passport to the men at border control. Once all the official stuff was sorted we had to drive onto a train and we came through a very long tunnel under the English Channel.

I had quite a few fellow travellers on the van with me. Mostly canine companions and one by one they reached their new homes. I was one of the last passengers to be dropped off and it was late at night and very dark. But it didn’t bother me at all. I bounced out of the van and
went to greet my reception committee.

I spent my first few days settling in. Then I found out what the word paparazzi meant!

Muffin standing still

Don’t get me wrong I am happy to pose for the odd photo but keeping still is not my strong point!
I also felt the photographer didn’t really capture my best side…Look this way Muffin, now this way….. Oh dear it was so time consuming.

 

 

Muffin 1st days

Muffin lying down

All the posing was hard work!

Muffin Meerkat 2I have to say I am a clever boy. I can change from a Terrier into a Meerkat in a split second.

I like to do this a lot especially when there is something very interesting to see.

I have learnt that by putting my bottom neatly on the ground tasty treats are my reward.
I am very quick and go into supersonic learning speed when yummy liver treats are around.

Muffin sitting for a treat

Then one day I had a bit of a shock.  Spa Day kept coming up in conversations… What on earth was a Spa Day? I soon found out!

Muffin haircut 3 Yes! That is really me! I had a bath, all my furs were clipped away and I had to pose for the camera AGAIN.

Then someone said all the little brown spots on my back were my naughty spots!  I am NOT naughty.
Those spots are my happy spots.

Muffin haircut 2

I am a very happy boy and full of energy.  It would seem that I may be very good at agility!
The nice grooming lady where I had my Spa Day said it too; something to do with 4 paws leaving the ground and nearly reaching the grooming table in one bounce.

I would really like to find my forever home.  I would love to live with a family who are ready for lots of fun and walks.
They will need to continue  to teach me the etiquette of living in a house and how to walk nicely on my lead. But I am a very fast learner and pick things up really quickly. Honest!

I am courteous to other dogs when I meet them on my lead and love to play.

So if you think you have a space in your home for a fun loving young boy with lots of energy please could you complete an application form TerrierSOSQuestionnaireMay2015
and send it in to Terrier SOS.

I will have my paws crossed someone will adopt me very soon.

Muffin paws crossed

Muffin (Meerkat)

Roan’s Adoption Story – in the words of a foster family…

Our foster and subsequent adoption of Roan started when I saw a post on Facebook appealing for foster homes for rescue terriers. I had been thinking for some time that it would be good for our two year old  wire haired fox terrier Lulu to have a companion, but wasn’t sure if she would feel the same!

After a long family discussion, during which the now grown up kids applied a significant amount of arm-twisting to their father, I filled the fostering form in and started to keep an eye on the Terrier SOS website for dogs arriving from Spain.

As we already had a female terrier we had been advised that a male would most likely be a suitable second dog, but as a couple of months went by it seemed that only female dogs were in need of homes.

In the meantime, Lulu set up her own Twitter account and made friends with a whole group of Terrierables on Twitter. Amongst these doggy tweeters was @RootyFoxWire, a cheeky chap! As a staunch supporter of Terrier SOS, Rooty always posted the photos and information about the desperate dogs in care.

I don’t think we will ever forget the day we saw Rooty’s post featuring a photo of the saddest looking dog we had ever seen. His big eyes looked straight into the camera and appealed for help. I fell in love. I showed the photo to my daughter and she fell in love too. In response to my tweet, Rooty asked “Iz yoo smitten?” I replied ‘trying not to be’, but as much as I tried, I just loved that dog. Rooty (or his mum) encouraged me to fill in those forms again and this time to post them!

After a long phone call with Diana Brusi we agreed that we would foster Roan, with a view to adopting him if it worked out well. We passed our home check and a place in the Animal Express van travelling from Spain was subsequently booked for Roan. No turning back now. Without a foster space in the UK, these dogs simply cannot travel and have no hope of finding safety, comfort and love.

Having spent a nerve wracking day in contact with Diana, our fingers firmly crossed that he would actually be allowed into the UK due to a mistake with his worming tablets, we eventually heard that ‘Dantastic’ Dan from Animal Express had managed to save the day. Roan was on his way!!!

As the big day drew near I started to get very nervous! I hadn’t even met this dog and didn’t know anything about him…how can you know, these dogs have no background.

I had been told that Roan would have nothing when he came, no toys, no bowl, nothing, but it was still so sad that even the collar he was wearing when he arrived had to be given back – he was literally an orphan with absolutely nothing to call his own.

Well, we were expecting Roan to be a quiet, shell-shocked and nervous boy, who would need to be coaxed out of his shell. What we got was a large, over-excited, confident, springy nutter! More like Tigger than a dog!

A walk up to the common with Lulu seemed to go well, but when we got back to the house she was not a happy girl, teeth were bared and there was much growling! She was not impressed by the new arrival one bit! Sensing Lulu’s uncertainty, Roan in turn showed dominant behaviour, barking when she came near and barging her out of the way. It wasn’t exactly going to plan.

As the days went by Roan made himself at home. On the surface he was an outwardly confident dog, but he cried in his sleep, yelped when picked up and barked if you got too close to his face. Looking deep into his eyes you could see that he couldn’t quite believe he was allowed on the sofa or the bed and he wolfed down every meal down as though it was his last.

Lulu, on the other hand, was not happy with his presence in the house. She behaved like a jealous toddler with a new baby, stopped eating, refused to go out into the garden if Roan was, stopped dead when out walking, ate grass, was sick, reverted to chewing things she knew she shouldn’t and ran away in the park, not wanting to come back because Roan was near. The look in her eye accused us of ruining her life and we were heart-broken to see her sink into doggy depression. One look at her sad face had me in tears nearly every day for the first week.

I was beginning to think we would have to give Roan up, even though I knew we as a family already loved him. We didn’t want to give up. Luckily I had fabulous support from Andrea (Rooty’s mum), who stayed up into the early hours giving me advice and support and also from Naomi, who had done our home check. The turning point though was half way through the second week when I phoned Diana and said “I’m struggling – help me please!”  Being able to chat about my concerns for Lulu with others has helped enormously. Roan was being a bit cheeky really and I was made to realize that it was ok to give him firm boundaries if he was going to stay.

Armed with new ideas and supportive suggestions, by the end of the second week we were beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel and I was wondering about why I had been so worried. Roan had become a firm member of our family!

As I write this today it’s nearing the end of week four and we have formally adopted our handsome Spanish boy. I wouldn’t say that Lulu and he are friends yet, but I feel like things are going in the right direction! Roan has learned to ‘sit’ and give his paw for treats. We are working on ‘down’ now, but that’s a bit sketchy still. Armed with hotdogs for treats we let him off his lead and he runs around enthusiastically. The look on his face when he runs back to me at what seems like a hundred miles an hour to get sausage is priceless. He does the same run up before jumping onto my bed at night. When I watch him sleep I can’t help thinking about the bewilderment and confusion he must have felt when his former owners abandoned him. He is still anxious about being left but hopefully in time he will start to believe the promise I have made to him that I love him and I will always come back.

Yes we’ve had the frisson, the stress, the giddy behaviour. We’ve had tears too and no doubt more to come. But these are far outweighed by the smiles and laughter that we have already had with OUR cheeky, springy, one hundred mile an hour dog.

Thanks TerrierSOS – we are privileged to be allowed to look after one of your wonderful dogs!

xxx Debbie and Family xxx

We Need More Foster Homes – Here Is Sandy’s Story

After living in France for 3 years and helping rescue and foster a lot of dogs I know how vital it is to have as many Foster homes to call on as possible. With us in France, it literally meant life and death for many dogs. The very few foster families we had to call on were sometimes overwhelmed with dogs .
I am new to the breed of Wire Haired Fox Terriers and I am very impressed with Diana and all the other people that do so much to help this breed. They are helping so many dogs and if anyone out there could open their house and hearts to foster one of these lovely little dogs, then more dogs could be saved from the often terrible conditions that they end up in.
It is a very rewarding thing to do and even if you only did it the once for a few weeks it is so rewarding.
I have discovered that they are clowns and make me laugh. They are gymnasts and make me marvel. They are lovers, not haters and melt my heart
Please have a go at being a fosterer…
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Sandy, Brian and our two standard poodles