RIP Snowy

Sad email from Karen who adopted one of our oldies to let us know that Snowy had to be put to sleep last week because she developed untreatable thrombosis as a result of her long-standing heart condition. However, the positive side of this is that Snowy had several years of good life after being adopted by Karen under our Elderly Animals Rehoming Scheme (EARS), whereby we agree to pay part of the cost for age-related problems of older animals adopted from us.

EARS is just another reason why we must manage to increase our income, because without it we couldn't rehome nearly as many older animals, yet if we don't rehome them they're costing money sitting in kennel places that aren't suited to offering the kind of TLC oldies really need.

Cocoa is back!

This is not another microchip success story, as she's returned under her own steam and I've no idea where she's been for the past two days or what she's been up to. I'm hugely relieved however as she's on medication for epilepsy and I was begining to fear that she'd gone off to die somewhere.

Cocoa's history illustrates why some perfectly responsible owners end up having to give up pets after trying everything they can to solve the problem. Her epilepsy means that her house-training is sometimes erratic — this was something her previous owners could deal with until they had small children and the resulting hygiene worries became too much.

We always need caring homes willing to take "imperfect" animals who either have ongoing medical problems or are simply getting on in life. Where we know a medical condition will need continuing treatment we can usually help with the cost of this. If you might be able to offer a home to an animal like this; or if you might be able to help with temporary foster care for a recovering animal, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com