horus

Suzanne has received some pretty high profile support, including Ted Mack, so it is a real possibility that Rescue could soon have a powerful voice in local government. Suzanne does an enormous amount of work behind the scenes and is one of the unsung heroes of animal welfare and this could represent an unprecedented opportunity for dog rescue to be represented at local government level. Good luck on Saturday :-)

Thanks once again, everyone :) I have taken notes on all of your ideas and will put them forward for discussion and action.

Lovely to see you horus....we should catch up at the agility nationals in June for your Springer fix! Oooooo! A Springer fix! Just what I need

Hello Princess! Thanks for the replies, there are some great ideas there. I really like the idea of 'seniors for seniors'. We are looking at how our website is set up (we are a sub-committe of the NSW Dally Club so our page is part of the club site) and adding more pages or setting up an entirely independent site but still linked to the club site are all possibilities. As is using Facebook, as much as I dislike FB. Thanks again, please keep the ideas coming. Hopefully other groups will benefit from your ideas, too :)

At Dalmatian Welfare we have never had a great deal of success when it comes to rehoming older Dalmatians. By older Dals I refer to Dals from 7 or 8 years on (Dalmatians generally live to 12 -14 years). There are currently three 10 year olds in varying situations that we are trying to find homes for We recently had great success rehoming an older boy from Hawkesbury Pound but at a similar time another older boy that was rehomed bounced back. The reason for people not being willing to adopt an older Dalmatian may be many and varied, we can only really speculate. Dals are known to be quite energenic and people may see older Dals as past this, which may be one of the reasons why oldies are overlooked. Obviously, longevity is also an issue for most people. While we have a waiting list for younger Dals (up to 4 years) we always find it hard to rehome the oldies. We recognise that we need to try harder and have discussed some ideas including setting up a 'Golden Oldies' page on our website to highlight the older Dals, including success stories so that it may encourage more adoptions. What are your experiences with rehoming older dogs? Is this a common trend among older dogs or is it breed or size related? Do you have any ideas or tips to share when it comes to promoting the oldies? I would appreciate your thoughts :) I have adopted 2 older Dals over the years, one 7 the other 10. Both lived to just short of 14 and it was a wonderful experience sharing time with them. The 7 year old, Toby, was a bit of a bugger when I first adopted him but it lead us on a journey of learning and made the experience all the more fulfilling. Lucky, the 10 year old, was just perfect from day one and the only regret was not having the opportunity of knowing him longer. From my experience the rewards far outweigh the negatives.

I was once bitten by the Springer bug, it is quite infectious and my condition is now chronic. I have lived in hope of one day achieving Springer ownership but I keep on being inundated by Dalmatians, which is not altogether such a bad thing. Seeing photos of Molly has just given me another bout of Springer lust

I received these resources today. Thank you, Cosmolo I haven't had a chance to sit down and read all of them yet but I did flick through them and what I saw looked very logical, informative and useful. Good stuff, and again, thanks for your support :)

I was so sorry to hear that you have lost Dante. Sometimes life is just so unfair and I don't know why it has to be that way

My congratulations, too, ladies :) It is certainly a well deserved win and testament to the fantastic work that you both do. I should also add that it really is a pleasure to deal with another rescue group that sees most others in rescue as colleagues rather than competition.

It is amazing to think that we can know so well a dog that we have never met and that he could touch so many people. I'm so sorry for your loss, SL

He most certainly did. I'm so sorry, GR

As hard as it is, it is the ultimate kindness. There is something very special about an older dog that comes into our lives. I'm so sorry, GB.

When rehoming Dalmatians colour/pattern/marking do certainly affect their chances of finding a home quickly (generally speaking). Most people seem to have a preference for black spotted over liver spotted and heavily spotted Dals are not as easy to rehome as lightly spotted Dals. Some people may even see heavily marked Dals as being faulty in some way. We quite often get enquiries for a certain colour (black or liver) and these people will forgo the opportunity to meet a Dal of the other colour and wait for their specific choice, mostly because they have previously lived with a Dal of that colour. I was guilty of intially preferring black spotted Dals over liver spotted. When I first purchased a Dal puppy (20 years ago)I was offered a liver spotted pup but decided on a black spotted simply because I believed (at that time) that a true Dalmatian had to have black spots. Now, 5 Dalmatians later, I have 2 liver spotted and I am more than happy to acknowledge how wrong I was back then. In the Dalmatian world colour and markings certainly can be important.

Thanks again, everyone Toby's ashes were returned today and I will scatter them in the rose garden I planted when Ellie died. Ellie's and Lucky's ashes have already been scattered there, so the three of them will be together once again.

Thank you for posting, everyone. I appreciate your thoughts