Looking much more cheerful

Maisie looking much happier now her nose isn't so bunged up. The quick response to antibiotics makes it hopeful that her problem is just that the damage to her facial bone structure makes it prone to bacterial infections, which is much less of a worry than the possibility of a permanent viral infection that's always going to be there.

Case dog fostering

If an owner who is being prosecuted refuses to sign their animals over for rehoming before the case is heard in court, the animals may be "in limbo" for many months, sometimes for more than a year.

This is very bad for the mental welfare of companion animals like dogs, and there is a new project to recruit foster homes where they can have a more normal life.

If you think you might be interested in fostering, please email R4RHQ@RSPCA.org.uk to ask for more information.

One step forward, two steps back

Maisie's been doing very well apart from her absolute refusal to eat anything except Feline AD (appetite diet) made up with hot water. She's been chipped and had her first vaccinations and someone is tentatively interested in adopting her.

The vets were pretty convinced the food behaviour is mostly psychological, but now she's definitely got a bunged up nose and doesn't fancy anything much. Took her down to them again this evening and she's back on antibiotics on the assumption that some of the damage to the bones around her nasal passages, done in the original traffic accident, has left them prone to infection. Her temperature is normal and she's bright and lively, so they think the infection is localised to her poor nose.

Aww! A Furby!

Had to go back to the shop today to drop off some old newspapers for wrapping china as we were nearly out of them yesterday and it's wasteful to use new bags just to protect breakables that buyers are going to wash anyway before eating off them. While I was there I thought I might as well tidy up some of the chaos from yesterday; then someone phoned to ask if they could drop off a large donation of children's toys, and with one thing and another I ended staying for most of the rest of the day.

While we're so short-handed at the shop, this may be the way to go as I got a lot more done with the shop closed. Basically running a charity shop is like painting the Forth bridge: hopefully people will be buying stuff every day; but then the gaps they make have to be filled up. If you're aiming to take £500 daily and the average price of what you're selling is three to five pounds, then you have to put out at least a hundred individual somethings every day.

In practice, you need a fair bit more than a hundred because not everything will sell.

Your hundred items come out of the stock room, and that has to be continually refilled by donations or the shop will fold. At a very rough estimate I think I got just about a hundred items priced and put out to fill the gaps made by shoppers on Saturday and there were at least a hundred individual toys in the donation that was dropped off. I'm not a toy expert, but most of them looked in good condition and saleable — although someone will need to check that the jigsaws have all their pieces and that the battery operated toys do work. 

One of the toys I did recognise was a Furby, which did its stuff very cutely when I figured how to switch it on. 

There's also a rather alarming mauve skipping rope which counts how many skips the unfortunate child manages and also seems to be in working order.