The Fetcher Dog Diary

The main heartbreak from the last few months is that we has to say goodbye to everyone's favourite sanctuary dog, Stella.

She was diagnosed with malignant melanoma several months ago and had an operation to give her as much time as possible and to make her as comfortable as we could. She recovered so well from her operation but slowly deteriorated, lost a lot of weight and wasn't acting like her normal happy and cuddly self so we knew it was time to let her go. Stella was so loved by everyone who met her and we miss her every day. 

Thank you to everyone who showed Stella love in her life, we appreciate you.

A lot of you are in love with Peaches; a little JRT that we rescued from the pound only to find out a few weeks late that she was pregnant. As we didn't know when Peaches had got pregnant, the vets had to try and estimate when she was due to give birth and there was a lot of back and forth with her being due 'any day now' for at least two weeks. The vets estimated that she was going to have 3-4 puppies and they all looked healthy and a good size which was in line with JRT puppies that were that close to their due date. But, two weeks later when she actually went into labour, it didn't go quite as smoothly as we had hoped.

She was struggling for a few days and she had grown so big that she was clearly very uncomfortable. She went into labour on Halloween morning and struggled all day to deliver her babies. I was by her side all day as we just weren't sure if she would need any help. We didn't know who the Dad of the babies was and it was a possibility that the babies would be too big for her to deliver and that she would need help or to be rushed to the vets. She had a baby every hour or so for four or five hours but when it got to around 8pm it was clear she was completely exhausted and had no energy left. When it was time for the 6th baby to be born, it was clear something wasn't right.

Only her feet were out and they weren't covered in a sac like the others. Peaches' contractions were so weak and irregular that there was no progress on getting the baby out so we called the vets who recommended we pull the baby out gently with every contraction but the contractions were so few and far between that by the time we managed to deliver her, she was stillborn.

We do not know the exact reason why she didn't survive, she was exactly the same size as the others and just as well developed but based on what the vets said, it's very common to lose a baby with such a big litter. Baby number 7 was an easy delivery again but our final baby was stuck again, just like number 6. This time, we knew what to do and immediately upon seeing the feet sticking out without a sac, we gently pulled her out with every contraction. Peaches did amazingly and this time, she survived. Peaches gave birth to 7 healthy babies, 2 boys and 5 girls. 

They turn 3 weeks old this Friday and they have grown so much in their first few weeks with us. They all have their eyes open, they all eat more or less constantly so are growing fast and they are starting to act like cheeky puppies who like to wrestle each other. Peaches is the best Mum and is so so patient with them. 

We aren't yet taking applications for the puppies as we would like to know a little bit more about them first as well as try and estimate how big they will grow as well as their potential breed mix before approving adoptive families. We have a long way to go but we are so happy they are doing so well.

As well as having new puppies on centre, the last few months have seen us bring in a lot of new dogs. September was our best month of the year where we homed 15 dogs as well as 10 in October which is amazing for such a small charity and allowed us to rescue more dogs in need.

We try to take in as many dogs as we can; often taking in dogs that all other rescues say no to because they need a little bit of extra time and patience. We have continued to take in new dogs from both England and Bosnia with many of you falling in love with a puppy we rescued after her leg was severely damaged when she was hit by a car and left on the side of the road. 

She had to have an operation to amputate her leg but has adjusted so well and has made a wonderful recovery. She has been living with our rescuer in Bosnia and I don't think she could be more spoilt. We also rescued a small family who were living on the streets of Bosnia and desperately needed somewhere safe to go before the winter really set in.

They have done amazingly and have recently had all their vet checks and jabs to help them get ready for travelling to our centre in Kent when they are old enough. As well as our Bosnian rescues, we have taken in a lot of dogs from the U.K. pounds who would of otherwise been put to sleep as well as a few owner surrenders from families who would no longer care for their dogs. We are just so grateful for all of our help, we couldn't so this without you.

Our first ever merch line launched recently and we are so grateful to everyone who bought something, we have some new goodies being added to the line soon, so stay tuned!!!!

As some of you know, we are at a leasehold kennels and our aim for a while now has been finding a property of our own where we can give our sanctuary dogs a permanent home as rescue and rehome more dogs every year from a bigger and better centre. We have now found a property and now comes the challenge so getting the deposit together so that we can buy our dream place!!! This is a big challenge because we not only have to continue everything that we need to keep the charity going on a daily basis but we need to find additional money to put towards the future of the charity. So, we are going to start a GoFundMe towards our deposit goal and are open to any ideas on how we can raise the extra money.

We don't want to rely solely on our supporters and would love some company support so please tag any and all companies below that you think would be interested in helping. I would also love if you could discuss with your works if they would consider working with us to help us reach this goal!!