Community News

Happy Paws Haven Update

Thank you so very much for sharing our beautiful dogs and cats online, they look great! We shared them on our facebook page and the response has been great! We really appreciate your helping us rehome our animals.

The nine pups that were surrendered just over four weeks ago are now in great condition and have been desexed and are ready for adoption. Two have already been adopted. They are running round the home yard like normal pups which is wonderful to see, playing, chasing and being curious about everything. Karma’s pups are running, playing and getting into mischief on the balcony which is so funny to watch.

Our AGM has been held and we have a new President, Ann Petersen. Coralee Blanchard is still Vice President, we have a new treasurer, Rachel Rooney, would has been working under the guidance of our old treasurer for a couple of years now and with Robyn’s blessing has stepped into her shoes. Rhonda Green is our secretary and grants manager and i am still the public officer. We are still looking for a volunteer manager, maintenance manager, social media manager and someone to assist with dog assessment and adoptions, Coralee and Ann do most of our photography, Coralee managers our Instagram account while Ann and myself look after Facebook, Prue Cadogan is looking after the transport of volunteers. We do not have a principal carer instead we the committee is responsible for the health and wellbeing of the animals as a team and there is always a committee member on site everyday.

Dr Ray Barnett is our principal Vet but we do work happily with all the vets in the region. Carole Bryant is our animal adviser from a training and behaviour aspect, Monica Clayton is our advisor in regards to Fair Trading, RFS and governance etc. We have a really good team. On the Committee we also have Vanessa Kail, Lorna Cameron, Jo Kubik and Robyn McCabe. We have updated the responsible persons list on the ACNC. All members of the committee are volunteers. It has been a big week!

We still need donations and volunteers help to care for the animals. We also need help to renovate the animal’s facilities particularly the dogs. We need to refurbish all the dog cabins and the catteries, and to complete the outside cat area. We need volunteers and donations to assist us in getting this done for the animals. It has been over 10 years now since they were built and are showing significant signs of wear and tear. Some of the galvanised iron is rusting and needs replacing. Hopefully we will be able to raise enough funds for both these projects by asking everyone to contribute to this very worthy cause We estimate approximately $15-20K for the cabins at least and maybe more plus about $5K on the cattery, about $20k on the outside enclosure. It is hard to know exactly until we get under the skin. We will need to reinsulate and upgrade the ventilation.

We also have the bushfire season just round the corner so we are preparing for that too. We are making sure both houses are clear of debris, gutters are clean, pumps are primed and ready etc. We need to make sure we have a crate and cage for every cat and dog on the property, litter trays, bowls and buckets for the animals are ready. The hoses all working, masks, gloves etc. are ready just in case. Our main hazard is from the properties to the south and west of us as they have a lot of undergrowth that would feed a grass fire etc..

Please spread the word as we really do need your help! Either through PayPal using our email address happypawshaven@bigpond.com or via our bank, the Bendigo Community Bank in South Grafton BSB 633000, Account 130786031 and our account name is Happy Paws Haven Inc. All donations over $2 are tax deductible. We are an ACNC endorsed registered charity! Our ABN is 79928920087, CFN 23496

We urgently need volunteers and it is very easy to be socially distanced from others here as we are working with animals. We have ensured that the tasks are split up into single areas for each person. We urgently need help especially with the dogs and with cleaning and maintaining their yards and cabins. We would like to put together a working bee to tidy up Happy Paws Haven, it is far to bigger job for one person. We also desperately need some men to help with maintenance and to help refurbish our dog kennels.

If anyone who is in Grafton or nearby we really need help urgently. If you could help by asking if anyone is able to volunteer even just 3-4 hours on one day a week would be great. Maybe animal lovers who don’t have a family nearby, could come and spend time helping us with the animals at Happy Paws Haven. We are open seven days a week as usual from 0930 to 1530, our hours are slightly shorter during winter as we put the animals to bed and rug the greyhounds. We urgently need additional volunteers to help us care for the animals, walk the dogs, groom the cats and to share their love. Dress in your oldest clothes, jeans and a T-shirt is good, with work boots or sneakers, bring a snack and a drink. Cuddling and playing with the animals is compulsory!

 

 

We need people to help with office data entry skills and admin skills.

We need people to help with our fund raisers for the love animals.

There are all sorts of things that need to be done….

And every bit of help counts! Come and visit to see what we do!

Come and help us with the animals and/or fundraising for their care!

 

Happy Paws Haven Volunteers and members meeting  

Our next members meeting will take place on September 20 at Happy Paws Haven. All our meetings start at 1.30pm and finishing by about 3pm. We would love some numbers, some fresh ideas to assist us move forward in this new environment caused by Covid-19. If you would like to become a member of Happy Paws Haven, contact happypawshaven@bigpond.com to get a membership application to fill out, bring it to the meeting. You will need to bring $20 membership fee. We need new ideas for the remainder of 2020 and beyond. We need a new fund-raising team, people to write our animal stories and what we do for social media so come and join us and contribute to the Team at Happy Paws Haven where all ideas are good ideas!

 

Rescues and surrenders

We are trying to limit the number of animals being rescued as you know. Our restrictions are not only financial but also due to vet availability for the non-urgent work such as desexing, as well as our need to restrict capacity to keep our numbers down.

 

Cats and kittens for adoption this week:

We get all cats vet checked prior to adoption to make sure that we comply to the standards required by any pet shop. We have adopted out well over 1200 cats over the last 12 years and only a very very small percentage having developed any illness as a result of the change in environment but now we are being extremely careful. All our animals are microchipped, immunised and desexed as soon as possible after they arrive. Our Rehoming number is 251000043

 

Edward and Edwin were found by a lovely family and they looked and looked to find their mother without success, they asked all their neighbours and no one knew anything about them. They could not keep them as they had too many of their own animals so they were bought out here and into foster care until old enough to be put into the kitten house. These young males are an usual colour as they are charcoal tabbies with beautiful markings. They are normal naughty playful mischievous affectionate curious demanding kittens who purr as soon as they are picked up. They have been desexed, micro-chipped and immunised ready to be adopted. 991003000593903

Carson is a member of the C-team who were rescued in Maclean by a foster carer. Mum (named Cara by the foster carer’s son) was found in a garage as the owner was packing to move out. She had a small dog and she worried whether he might have a go at Cara and her family of very young kittens. The litter has unusual markings almost as they have some Turkish Van in them; they are also slender like an oriental. They are affectionate and love being stroked but not so keen about being carried around. They are desexed, immunised, regularly treated for parasites and chipped. They are now ready for their new homes. 991003000002507

Andre came to us in a box with two tabby males, his black sister and his mum Annabella at the end of 2017. They had been dumped due to their owner becoming homeless we were told. They could not fend for themselves. Miraculously they have made it through with Annabella’s loving help. They have grown up to be beautiful affectionate naughty mischievous young cats we now only have Angelo and his brother Andre left to find a wonderful loving home. They have all been chipped desexed immunised and regularly treated for parasites ready for their new homes. 900079000382750

 

Dogs for adoption for this week:

We get all dogs vet checked prior to adoption to make sure that we comply to the standards required by any pet shop. All our animals are microchipped, immunised and desexed as soon as possible after they arrive. All dogs are also tested to make sure that they do not have heart worm. We have rescued and adopted out well over 1300 dogs over the last 12 years. Our Rehoming number is 251000043

 

 

Diego is a part of this year’s D-Team, they came towards the end July. The young couple was having trouble coping, she was pregnant and they already had four undesexed dogs of their own and just could not afford to look after the pups and they did not have the space for them too. Due to too many pups, poor nutrition, lack of space and sunlight, these pups were in a bad way. They had trouble walking, their ribs and hip bones showing and their tummies bloated due to worms. They could not afford to get them all chipped, wormed or immunised to rehome them. Dr Ray checked them not long after they arrived; we treated them with high quality food, colostrum, Panacur for the worms, Vitamin C, and space to learn to play in the sun. They are now all very happy healthy, playful, affectionate pups and everyone is surprise in the change that has taken place. They are of course desexed, chipped, vaccinated and treated for all the normal parasites as all our animals are. 991003000593899

Here is Shani’s story. We received a call from the owner of a mum with 8 x 3-4 week old puppies in late 2015, saying that she lived in a rough part of South Grafton and she was frightened that neighbours would harm them in some way. The pups have grown up to be loving affectionate young dogs and all have found homes except Sharni. Shani is a very beautiful girl who has had all her vaccinations, been desexed, regularly treated for parasites and is microchipped. She has a very loving nature and is cattle dog smart. She is a great athlete, can jump fences only to be with you so need to be in a home that has someone home most of the time with space for them to run and play. She really wants to please so would be great at obedience, rally o and/or agility or other dog sports. She could also be trained as assistance dogs as she has not a mean bone in her body. She is however wary of loud unknown noises, can be spooked by a truck roaring by or using its air brakes. She really needs a special someone who is semi retired or works from home and is willy to spend the time gaining her confidence as she is a very special loving dog. I hope that is you? 943094320462383

Max was going to come to us to be rehomed, we had organised it with the owner and the trainer but they decided to for some reason give him one last race. At that race he crashed and broke his hock, the next morning Shane rang and told us what had happened and at that initially they thought it was sprained.  Dr Sam Biddle the Senior vet at Riverbank Animal Hospital suggested that we splint him that it would mend in place. His leg is better now, but he still needs to be careful. He is walking and running normally, chasing the ball which he loves, at times he is just like a puppy. Max is a lovely greyhound, with a lovely temperament, extremely affectionate. He does not takes no notice of the cats when we take him into the cattery, the cats love him and smooch curling round his legs, he ignores the pups and small dogs here but if the a small animal was out running around it might be a different story altogether. He would be better as the only dog in a household or with a bitch of a medium to large size as little dogs annoy him. He has like all our animals been desexed, micro-chipped, immunised, heart worm tested, and regularly treated for parasites. 956000002817833 

 

HappyPaws Haven is open seven days a week for animal adoptions. Phone: Sally on 0419 404 766 or 6644 9936 seven days a week, email Sally on happypawshaven@bigpond.com or visit HappyPaws at www.happypawshaven.com.au