The past week

Since my last entry plenty has happened in my corner of BIN, last Sunday I took in another foster dog, yet again not a bullie, but one who desperately needed help. She was due to be put to sleep and with the combined efforts of people on the Bullie Bar and the Rescue Helpers United Forum we arranged a transport chain to get her from Wales to Lincolnshire. So what breed is she I hear you ask!! She is an American Bulldog and her name is now Rhubin - Rhubi for short, I am sure you can work out where her name has come from! She is around 2 years of age and has recently had a litter.

I am rather concerned about the amount of American Bulldogs that are in rescue at the moment, there doesn't seem to be any dedicated breed rescue, I just hope people in the breed organise something soon as we are getting more and more requests for help and there is nowhere to refer them to. We just don't have the resources to help them all.

If you check our Ebay shop regularly you will know about the series of coffee mugs that we are producing, this week I have been sorting out the picture for the next one that is due in February. I do still have a couple of the December ones left and a few of the January ones if you would like to start collecting them. This is the picture for the Feb one, it goes on one side of the mug and the BIN logo on the other side. You can collect all of them or just the ones you particularly like, and they make great gifts too!!

A fair bit of my time is taken up with answering e-mails and telephone calls. Some people have problems with their dogs but don't really want to rehome them, we do our best to work with them to help solve the problem so that they can keep their much loved pet which of course is much better all round. We also get calls from people who go to great lengths telling you all about their dog and they are adamant that they need it to go, we sort out someone to do an assessment on the dog and then we will get a call from the owner to say they have changed their mind. 2 days later they will call again and have decided that the dog has to go, we arrange for someone to pick it up and also go through the list of prospective owners, picking out someone who is suitable for that particular dog. Everything is sorted out and on the morning the dog is due to be collected phone rings, they have changed their mind again! Luckily a similar dog has come in as a stray and will suit the earmarked family, so we make arrangements to get that dog from the foster home to the adoptive family. No sooner has that dog gone than the original person rings and this time says she won't change her mind again but the dog has to go. Overall a fair amount of time and phone calls has already gone into this dog, but what can we do? We can wash our hands of it and say 'enough is enough', and let the woman fend for herself and her dog, but it is the dog we have to think about, it isn't him who keeps changing his mind, he doesn't have any say in it. I like to be able to sleep at night, not to lay awake worrying about what has happened to this dog we have turned away, or the elderly one we don't think we can find a home for, or to turn away a dog that is going to cost a bit in vets bills. This is why BIN doesn't refuse to help any bull terrier, we do it for the dog, not the owner. When we take on a dog that is a different breed we don't take the money out of the BIN funds as we don't want to deceive people who donate to help bull terriers, hence a raffle was set up to pay for Rhubi's expenses and so far all of Sonny's expenses have been paid for by myself.

I have also been looking into what attractions we may have at this years fun day, the rodeo bull was enjoyed by many last year and this year we want something a bit different so I have been doing a bit of research.

One of my own dogs has been ill since before Christmas and this week he spent a day at the vets having more tests and x-rays. When looking at his chest x-ray the vet thought he had the film the wrong way round because the heart was on the wrong side of the chest, but when he checked he realised he had it the right way! It isn't just a little bit over to the right, but right over that side. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has also had a dog with this problem.

Thanks for reading my latest entry, if there is anything in particular you would like us to write about please do let us know.