Can you help Phoebe?

At the age of just nine months, Phoebe, a Labrador, has been diagnosed with hip dysplasia in both hips. The crippling condition is particularly severe in her right hip, leaving the pup incapable of living her young life to the full.
Phil Henderson purchased Phoebe in December 2009. He thought he’d done everything right – he found a Kennel Club Breeder, met Phoebe’s mum and was given both parents’ pedigrees. Unfortunately, while the sire had been hip scored, the dam hadn’t.
He said, “Phoebe’s HD affects her life in every way: she can’t go for walks longer than 10 or 15 minutes three times a day, and I can’t let her jump up, because of the strain it puts on her back legs. Imagine a nine-month-old Labrador not being able to go out whenever she wants to, it’s frustrating for me and I can’t imagine how she feels, not being able to play with other dogs in the park, which she loved.”
Phil spent his last £300 on Phoebe’s X-rays and has now been informed that it will cost £8,000 for a specialist to repair her hips. He had insured Phoebe, but unfortunately didn’t realise it was limited to emergency cover only. He has now taken out new insurance, but Phoebe’s HD is classed as a pre-existing condition.
Because Phil is disabled and unable to work, he is appealing for donations to help change Phoebe’s life. He said, “I would love for Phoebe to have the operation so she can have a normal dog’s life, and we can do the things that we should be doing now: walks, playing, swimming, all the things she craves, but sadly, it’s not possible at the moment.”
If you would like to donate to help fund this operation please see the JustGiving appeal highlighted to the right of this post.

KC Charitable Trust donation

Tailwaggers Club Trust was very pleased to recently receive a £5,000 donation from the Kennel Club Charitable Trust.
Tailwaggers also receives many referred cases from the KC and struggles to help all the people with unexpected vet bills.
Tailwaggers recently received a referral for a struggling pet owner on DLA benefits who had bought a KC reg Labrador pup that has developed severe HD and needs a very expensive operation. The bill for this surgery is predicted to be £8,000. We are investigating the case, but the chap had bought pet insurance without understanding the small print and sadly found when he wasn't covered for anything other than emergencies.
Tailwaggers is very grateful for all donations and works very hard to help as many people as possible. While the donation from the KC Charitable Trust is very gratefully received we do still need your help to raise funds. Increasingly often Tailwaggers is the only charity people can turn to for help.

This thank you letter made us smile

Percy, the cat had been involved in a traffic accident and faced being PTS. He's all better now thanks to an operation to mend his broken jaw.

Help them home

Pet Passport confusion left a family heartbroken and deeply stressed. The credit crunch had hit them hard and they needed to make a swift return from Bulgaria after their business failed.

Mr and Mrs Chamberlain, from Epsom, Surrey, have struggled to pay the kennelling fees for their dogs, Clio, a two year old Boxer, and Chanel, a year old American Cocker Spaniel.

On the 17 January the couple discovered their dogs could not enter the UK under the Pet Travel Scheme because they hadn’t had a blood test proving their rabies vaccine had worked – despite being assured by a vet in Bulgaria that all the documentation was in order.

Mrs Chamberlain said, “Here our nightmare started. The only option we had was to contact a quarantine kennel in the UK to arrange entry for our girls.”

Understanding the couple’s unfortunate situation, the quarantine kennels kindly reduced the bill from £5,400 to £3,600. Mr and Mrs Chamberlain planned to find work and save £500 a month, but a week after returning to the UK, they discovered that Clio was pregnant. She gave birth at the kennels and the couple were forced to sell her pups to help pay the bill.

Mrs Chamberlain continued, “Without work and money our family started to suffer. The stress has made my husband unwell; now he is on strong medicine and I am caring for him every hour of the day, so now I cannot look for a job either.”

After hearing of their plight, Ann Podmore at Home Counties Boxer Welfare has sympathetically offered to settle the couple’s bill on their behalf, so Clio and Chanel can be released from kennels without delay. With the generous owners of the quarantine kennels reducing it by a further £2,400 and Mr and Mrs Chamberlain paying £1,300, the final fee was £1,053.13.

If you can make a donation to help repay the money Home Counties Boxer Welfare has advanced, please visit www.justgiving.com or send a cheque payable to ‘Tailwaggers Club Trust’ c/o Dogs Today at our usual address.

Blind hope

Chunk has been diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes, leaving him completely blind at only three.
Chunk, a Yorkshire-Scottish Terrier cross, arrived in the care of Rob Kipling and Deborah Harley in March, with cataracts already affecting one eye.
The couple, from Coventry, West Midlands, has looked after his littermate, Missy, since she was a pup. They took Chunk in after his needed a new home after his first owners' couldn't keep him.
Rob was unable to take out insurance for Chunk because of his existing eye condition.
He said, “Chunk and Missy were so happy and excited to see each other, but now he has cataracts in both eyes and cannot see a thing. He bumps into doors and chairs, and is too scared to go outside.”
Rob has learnt that the combined costs of consultations and corrective surgery by a specialist would total a staggering £5,000.
He continued, “We simply cannot afford this even though we are both employed, as Deborah has only just gone back to work and we now have two new additions to our family. We had been saving up for a holiday but are more than willing to put this money towards the cost of the procedure. We have just over £1,000 and with a bit more saving we could possibly get up to £1,500.”
Because Chunk’s condition will soon become inoperable, Rob and Deborah hope to raise enough to have at least one eye corrected, and any other donations would be warmly received.
Rob said, “Chunk is a lovely dog with a long life ahead of him, we just want it to be more comfortable and fulfilling – any help would be extremely appreciated.”

The family approached Tailwaggers Club Trust. In the unlikely event that more money is donated than is needed for this specific case it will be used for other worthy Tailwaggers cases. We have set up a Just Giving appeal - click the box top right or click this link.

We need you!

Do you have some free time and a desire to help other pet owners in a practical way? Have you got some office skills? Could you attend a few meetings a year in London?
The Tailwaggers Club Trust needs some additional trustees and particularly someone/ some people to take on some of the secretarial and accounting roles as our wonderful Secretary/Treasurer is hoping to retire after 20 years of loyal service. Side Nye is a remarkable and inspirational 78 year old and it's now only due to failing sight that he's asking to spread the work.
Tailwaggers is a lovely charity. It's ancient but it's even more vital today than it was back in the 1920s when it started. There's no big swanky offices or fat cat salaries. It's lean and best of all very personal.
Every case is listened to on its own merits and often that in itself is a huge help to pet owners in distressing situations.
I doubt we'll ever find another Sid - but there are must be other wonderful altruistic people out there who will help their fellow humans get through a crisis and stick with their pets?
Sid's daughter Carol mans the phone side of things, but Sid is our first email contact. He receives the pleas for help and then contacts the vet where necessary for more information or passes the appeal sideways to the trustees if it's a practical problem that we all need to brainstorm.
If you are interested in getting involved in this friendly little charity and making an incredible difference to pets and their people please do get in touch for more details.
Here's a breakdown of what Sid does - we could split these jobs between several people as he does seem to do a great deal!
      

ACCOUNTING

• Maintain record of all payments and receipts analysed by category
• Maintain a Statement of Activity and Balance Sheet.
• (Currently this is achieved by a spreadsheet where a single entry for each transaction
• updates all the required fields)
• Prepare budget for current year.
• Reconcile  book balances with bank statements every month.
• Transfer money between accounts as required.
• Bank cheques received and acknowledge donations.
• Write Annual Report
• Prepare accounts for audit at year end 31st March, ensuring supporting documentation is complete

MEETINGS

• Fix dates for meetings based on Trustees availability.
• Prepare and circulate agenda in advance of the meeting
• Prepare such financial reports as required by Trustees for presentation/discussion at meetings.
• Take minutes.

CHARITY COMMISSION

• Complete Annual Return (Can now be done on-line)
• Send them a certified copy of any resolution agreed by trustees changing any administrative aspect of our Governing Document.

GENERAL

Check Email daily and deal with messages as necessary.

We'd also love to attract someone who is a whizz at web design as the Tailwaggers website badly needs updating. Plus anyone who is interested in fund raising - we can't have too many people helping raise funds as since the Blue Cross stopped helping people with grants at the end of January, Tailwaggers is often the ONLY charity giving assistance to pet people in crisis.

If you'd like to know more, please get in touch. I've been working with Tailwaggers for quite a few years now (though not as long as Sid!) and it is amazing how much of a difference this charity makes and how many lives it touches. Read the story of Charlie for just a glimpse of what we do. Please do join us, it's a great team of animal lovers - we just need some new signings!

Anyone who knows anyone this might suit, please do get in touch. My email is beverley@dogstodaymagazine.co.uk

Please enter the Tailwaggers photo competition!

Roll up roll up for the Tailwaggers annual photo competition. There's still time to enter... loads of great prizes and a very good cause.


Closing Date:       Monday 29th March 2010

Classes:
1. Prettiest Bitch
2. Handsome Dog
3. Puppies 0-1 year
4. Veterans 7-11 years
5. Golden Oldies 12+ years
6. Action Shots
7. Loveliest Eyes (Headstudy)
8. Rescue Dogs
9. The Pack (2 or more dogs together)
10. Mans Best Friend (You and your dog)

Prizes:
Best In Show - Chosen from all 1st places wins…

A supremely stunning large rosette.
Dogs Today Subscription
Winning picture printed in Dogs Today
A voucher for the wonderful  www.dog-games.co.uk
Reserve Best In Show - Chosen from all 2nd places wins…
A supremely stunning large rosette.
A voucher for www.dog-games.co.uk
1ST Place - First place in each class will win…
A luxury rosette.
A voucher for www.dog-games.co.uk
Further prizes to be confirmed.
2ND – 5TH Place - Second to fifth place in each class will win a luxury rosette.
Highly Commended - Certificates will be awarded at the judges discretion.
Rules:
No digitally altered photos permitted.
Open to canine subjects only.
One photo can enter more than one class as long as the entry fee is paid for each class.
All photos must be your own work.
Photos must be sent as good quality prints (Min size 6x4 and Max 10x8)
Minimum of 3 photo entries per person due to costs.


Entry Fee:
£1 per photo, per class.


How To Enter:
On the back of each photo write:
· Your name
· Your address
· The animals name(s)
· The animals age(s)
· Breed if known
· The class numbers you wish the photo to enter.
· Class 8 only – the rescue dogs story (100 words max)
For return of you photos, results and prizes please send:
A large padded self addressed envelope (A4 or bigger)
12 x 1st Class stamps
Entry Fee cheque (payable to The Canine Enthusiasts Club)
Send to:-
Tailwaggers Photographic Competition
13 Brunswick Avenue
Horwich
Bolton
Lancashire
BL6 6NJ

Disclaimer:
We cannot accept any liability for any loss or damage to your possessions whilst in transit but every care is taken of your photos whilst in our hands.
Please allow up to 4 weeks to receive your results.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS LINK TO ANY FRIENDS AND FAMILY YOU THINK WOULD BE INTERESTED – THANK YOU.

Amanda Wilkinson
Tailwaggers Club Trust

In Aid of Tailwaggers Club Trust Reg. Charity No.265069