New Year reading suggestions

Happy 2010!

Happy Christmas!

Many thanks to everyone who helped during 2009. Have a wonderful Christmas and we hope to see you in the New Year.

Opening Times and Phones

The National Control Centre will still be working 24/7 over Christmas: 0300 1234 999

Branch emergency contact number will be answered (but please, as we are all volunteers, only ring if something is genuinely urgent): 07742 658 086

The clinic will be closed on Saturday 26th and Wednesday 30th December, otherwise open as normal between Christmas and the New Year. For emergencies, phone the number on your clinic registration card as usual.

The Cambridge shops will be closed from about 3 pm on Christmas eve. 188 Mill Road will reopen on 4th January; 61 Burleigh St will reopen on the 5th.

Obligatory begging message—don't forget our shops can make good use of unwanted presents and any clothes you've discarded from your wardrobe to make space for new ones.

Dawn over Coldham's Common from the path to the clinic

Mistletoe on Saturday

This was the last of the donation of mistletoe and we'd sold out by mid-afternoon. Very many thanks to the imaginative donor for a fantastic addition to our Christmas fundraising.

Path to Cherry Hinton last night

Took this on my way back from dropping off some pet food to one of our fosterers. It was even more spectacular looking back up the hill from the railway bridge end, but by then the wind had got up too much for photography.

Please remember that cats and rabbits can cope with this kind of weather provided they have food, dry shelter and their water is kept unfrozen, but guinea-pigs come from South America and need to be brought indoors—either into the house or at least inside a shed or outhouse where their hutch is protected. Avoid bringing animals into your garage because of the danger from fumes.

Wild Animal Casualties

Statement from the national RSPCA:

"There is no truth whatsoever in the alarming rumour that the RSPCA has changed its policy regarding wildlife animals and that due to the credit crunch it automatically puts every animal it picks up to sleep.

Wildlife counts for a huge proportion of calls made to the RSPCA every year. Our inspectors and officers regularly respond to calls regarding injured or sick wild animals and birds. Every effort is made to ensure that these are taken to one of our own specialist wildlife centres, to a vet or one of the independent organisations that we work with and that they are rehabilitated and released where possible.

The RSPCA takes the decision to euthanise wildlife on a case by case basis, with the welfare of the animal in mind and to alleviate suffering."

On the current situation concerning non-native wild species, see DEFRA's review and the government's non-native species website (neither of these is controlled by the RSPCA).

Webshop newsletter

Last chance to buy your Christmas gifts Christmas is just around the corner, but if you haven’t bought your gifts yet you still have time to buy them through our online shop. Use any of the links in this page and RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch will receive a percentage of what you spend. Alternatively take a look at our online shop. Find the last order dates for Christmas delivery below, please use our webshop whenever you can. Last Order Date for Standard Delivery Last Order Date for Nominated Day Delivery Clothing, Homeware and Beauty Midday December 20th Midday 22nd December Wine Cases Midday December 20th Midday 22nd December Gift Cards & Vouchers Midday 18th December Midday 22nd December Hampers 17th December 19th December Flowers Not available 5pm 22nd December Postcode exceptions apply see M&S for full details. Last Order Date FREE Super Saver Delivery December 18th Express delivery 2pm December 23rd One day delivery with Amazon Prime 2pm December 23rd See individual sellers at Amazon for other options. UK First Class Express Delivery Midday 21st December Midday 23rd December Midday 21st December Midday 23rd December UK 1st Class UK Courier 3pm 19th December 3pm 21st December Other Popular Retailers Last Order Date for Standard Delivery Mothercare 20th December The Hut 18th December Sendit.com 18th December Zavvi 18th December Chipsworld 18th December Games4u 18th December Play.com 19th December Republic 22nd December Additions Direct 8pm 23rd December Choice 8pm 23rd December Empire Stores 8pm 23rd December Great Universal 8pm 23rd December Kays 8pm 23rd December Littlewoods 8pm 23rd December Marshall Ward 8pm 23rd December Very 8pm 23rd December Woolworths main site 8pm 23rd December Kiddicare.com 23rd December All Saints 17th December Visit www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.

Purchases made through www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge are made according to the information and terms provided by the company making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are provided on the site.

Christmas closing dates

The Cambridge RSPCA Animal Clinic will be CLOSED on Wednesday 23rd, Saturday 26th and Wednesday 30th December. Other times open as normal.

Shops will stay open until about 3 pm on Christmas Eve, then close until 4th January (5th in the case of E61 which is always closed on Mondays anyway).

The National Control Centre will be open throughout as usual: 0300 1234 999

Our branch emergency contact number will be answered, but please remember it is staffed by volunteers: 07742 658 086

If your pet is on medication PLEASE make sure you order enough to get you through the holiday.

Deputy Shop Manager Post Available

Our present deputy manager at 61 Burleigh Street is moving away from Cambridge in the New Year, so we are recruiting a replacement.

The post involves working a total of 24 hours per week, with some additional cover for the manager's holidays. Starting salary is £6.21 per hour (review after 6 months).

As Emporium 61 works at the vintage/retro end of the charity shop market any applicant will need an interest in fashion and willingness to learn.

You can download a full job description from our website.

Get your organic Christmas decorations here!

Many thanks to the kind donor of a load of mistletoe at our bookshop at 188 Mill Road. It's adding a wonderfully festive element to the shop and is a nice addition to our stock of Christmas cards, mugs, pictures and bags.

Roll up and get your bio-degradeable decorations!

After Christmas, have a go at propagating the seeds—mistletoe is an important native plant with benefits for wildlife.

Christmas Hat Tree

If you can't think what to get your mum, why not try a nice, warm hat from 61 Burleigh Street? Smarter than the average bobble.

Argghh!

Completely disastrous clinic session on Saturday. For security reasons we don't leave internal keys on the premises — which would have been fine except that the nurse due to bring them in broke down just outside Mildenhall, which is a 45 minute drive away.

Animals who needed to be admitted as inpatients could be sent up to the Veterinary Hospital as normal, but anyone who just needed medicines had to be content with a prescription to take to an ordinary chemist. Clients who'd phoned in advance to order repeat prescriptions were really out of luck, because all of those had been pre-dispensed and were sitting with the nurse in her ominously smoking car.

Everyone was impressively philosophical about this, and the only really angry client was a new referral from the PDSA who had been told treatment would be free and hadn't brought her £7 consultation fee.

So — thank you to everyone attending on Saturday for being so understanding. We're going to be discussing with the Vet School how to set up some better emergency arrangements without compromising security.

Webshop newsletter

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without M&S Marks and Spencer's Christmas 3 for 2 is back! This offer includes beauty gifts, toiletries, cards, wrap and decorations; it's a great way to get more for less this festive season. Stocking Fillers Perfect for Secret Santa gifts M&S has lots of gifts for £10 or less, their fantastic range of stocking fillers is full of top gift ideas for men, women and kids. Toys and Entertainment At M&S you'll find lots of gifts for kids from the latest iPod, laptops, portable DVD players and gaming consoles. Find the entire selection here. Hampers Christmas hampers are a wonderful festive gift. Hampers include gourmet foods and specially selected wines that are sure to delight food lovers and bring Christmas cheer. All Christmas hampers include standard UK delivery. Every purchase you make via the links in this email will raise funds for RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch. Alternatively find our online shop here. Visit www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.

Purchases made through www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge are made according to the information and terms provided by the company making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are provided on the site.

Why neutering is only part of the answer

Caroline, who runs the Rabbit Residence where most of our rescued rabbits are fostered, always asks people who hand in rabbits for rehoming to complete a questionnaire. This has shown that at least 90% of surrendered rabbits originated via pet shop purchases. Some of these were the offspring of pet shop rabbits who had produced unexpected litters, either through incorrect sex identification or because of other errors, such as not realising how early rabbits become mature enough to breed.

Encouraging people who acquire rabbits as pets to keep them in neutered pairs would help to reduce the amount of reproduction due to human error (and greatly improve the rabbits welfare by providing them with companionship). However Caroline's evidence seems to show that it would have only a limited effect on addition to the total pet rabbit population as it wouldn't reduce the number of purpose-bred rabbits acquired through impulse purchases and then discarded to rescues when the purchasers find that keeping rabbits is hard work.

Christmas at E61

Please keep those donations coming...

We need to turn over 100 items daily at each shop if we're going to meet our targets to fund our clinic and other animal welfare services. 156 Newmarket High Street is a general-purpose charity shop, 188 Mill Road, Cambridge specialises in second hand books, art and music and 61 Burleigh Street Cambridge (Emporium 61) has vintage/retro clothes, accessories and art.

We move donations between the shops, so please don't feel you have to get to any particular one.

How not to keep dogs

Last night's 10 o'clock call asking if we could take in a dog for rehoming was an almost point by point illustration of the reasons why we do home-checks for animal adopters and may appear over-fussy about where we will place dogs. None of the circumstances were the caller's fault, but the dog may well end up paying the ultimate price if no shelter can take her in — and in our present financial circumstances we certainly can't.

She's an adult Staffordshire cross, male parent unknown, friendly with people, but so aggressive to other dogs that her current owner doesn't dare walk her outside any more. She was originally acquired by her owner's ex-partner, who could control her enough to exercise her, but who has since moved out. Their garden fence isn't secure, so she can't given free-running exercise there, and not surprisingly, she now destroys things out of boredom and isn't house-clean.

It's very difficult to rehome a dog with known behaviour problems like this. Someone who's already attached to a dog may be prepared to put a lot of effort and money into retraining (or at least making their garden absolutely secure and providing lots of toys and mental stimulation). It's much less likely that anyone will take on a new dog knowing that there is going to be expense and worry, and possible heartache if the problems can't be worked around and the dog has to be returned or put to sleep.

Webshop newsletter

A gift from Play.com Play.com has put together some special promotions to help you out this Christmas season. Offers include £5 off when you spend £50. To claim your offer simply enter PLANW09 at the checkout. Every purchase made at Play.com will result in a donation to RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch. Don’t forget to use our online shop when shopping online, every purchase counts! Don't forget not only do these offers help you to save money; every purchase you make raises funds for RSPCA Cambridge & District Branch. Visit www.buy.at/RSPCA.Cambridge for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.