Volunteer for the RSPCA and learn new skills... hmm

Very many thanks to the new volunteers who've offered to help at our second-hand bookshop. 

WE STILL NEED MORE, so please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk if you think you might be interested.

Volunteering at the bookshop genuinely does mean learning more about the books, music and print trade, how to price items, what will sell and how to present them to best advantage (also use of the till and some general admin skills).

We probably won't ask you to fit a new toilet seat, as Ffi and I have just done that this morning, and also given the kitchen and lavatory a general sprucing up. If you are interested; removing fixing screws that have been in place for something like five years is difficult and involves hanging over the toilet bowl looking as though you are about to throw up.

Many thanks also to the generous donors who brought in huge quantities of books this week. 

Please keep the donations coming. This is a shop that can be made to work to generate useful funds if we can only get enough volunteers and attract interest from the local community to get customers through the door and making purchases. 

Another stray cat

He's an un-neutered male and taken to the 24 hour vet under an RSPCA log number from the NCC because he was fitting. They've just phoned to say they think they've got the seizures under control, but he's very dehydrated and they suspect he may have eaten slug pellets or some other poison.

They're giving fluids and hoping there's no permanent damage to his kidneys. He's quite a young cat, but the next 24 hours will be critical.

Running on empty

Just had a call from the 24 hour vet about an owner with absolutely no money and a pregnant cat who needs a caesarian. There's no way we can cover the cost, and he's going to try the Cats Protection branch, but even if they can help this time, eventually they'll run out of money as well.

Private veterinary surgeries can't work for nothing or they will go our of business. If only the owner had got her cat spayed—CP would have given her a voucher to get it done for nothing, or she could have used our clinic and paid only £35. If she'd done no more than arrange for her cat to be vaccinated at our clinic it would have meant the cat was registered and eligible for emergency treatment at the University Vet School's reduced charity rates.

The small numbers of people who keep animal charities running can't solve these problems on their own. We need support from the competent animal lovers who form the majority of the pet-owning population, and we need to educate the minority to develop at least the minimal forethought to get pets vaccinated and registered with our own clinic or with the PDSA if they're not going to be able to afford a private vet.

Ferrets!

This cute little family were abandoned on our ferret fosterer's doorstep in a cardboard box.

Ferrets make very friendly, interesting pets but there seems to be a growing trend for thoughtless breeding of litters.

It used to be the case that Jill ferrets had to be bred each year to prevent them suffering from pyometria, but modern veterinary medicine has put paid to that.

PLEASE get Jills spayed (or keep them with a vasectomised male ferret) to avoid contributing to the problem of surplus babies.

If you are interested in giving a home to a pair of ferrets, email davedodds992@gmail.com