Hollysdad

Does anyone have or know where I can download a good Business Plan template suitable for an animal charity ? I have downlaoded a couple but they seem a bit excessive for what I need. i.e. one is from HSBC and its very long Any pointers guys and gals ? Thanks

Looking at Holly then and now I really find it scary that she came so close to being put to sleep. A little act of kindness saw her arrive with us, much wee'ing later she finally settled and although every now and then she has her scared moments she is an amazing little girl. Now actually one of those cute pictures where she is sitting on the brown squares type rug, reminds me. She pee'd and poo'd all over that rug and chewed all the edges of it to the point where we had to throw it away..............

while i am laughing at sirius and his drinking with wiggle (he never did that here, well apart fron that one night with gertie). i cant help but notice sirius is also naked !!! what is going on at your house wendy ?

Its been a funny old day in the house of squiggs, this morning the front room looked like a bomb site with all the items for next weeks Chelsea show splayed out on the floor as we sorted through. Then Samantha has been on the cumputer all the rest of the day sorted out posters/leaflets/letters etc etc for Dogstar. So much to do so little time.......... (sorry Fee only just spotted your post after i did this, so sorry for your loss)

Annie they are cool

Watching Torchwood this evening sparked a debate about why the weevils all wear boiler suits and where do they get them from...

Casey Jones

Having caught a glimpse of Thunderbirds this afternoon and seeing my favorite (Thunderbird 2) I thought I would ask the wise fugees for their choices.......

4 years.....................4 years......................... amazing how time flies when your scared

So after having got back from Sri Lanka I though it would be nice if I did a little summary of the trip. So it goes without saying, Samantha was pleased to see Rani and Rani was pleased to see Samantha including all happy gurgling tummy noises (Rani not Samantha) We caught up with the housing project whilst we were there and good progress had been made with the room changes inside (including plastering walls etc), windows and doors are all sourced ready to go in. A change has been made in that they created a temporary kitchen outside using some of the old roofing material, and they have dug some footings for a new extension. This means that now there are two bedrooms inside and a living/sitting room area. The extension is only small and it sounds grand (as like the rest of the house it will be single brick skin plastered inside and a tin roof) but it will make a stunning difference. They also now are connected up to a fresh mains water supply, and the electrics are all in place ready for the final connection. We also visited the next possible housing project which involved lots of driving up steep (and I mean steep roads), to a location we have nicknamed the railway village. More on that on another occasion, but for now it’s a cluster of houses on top of a big hill, you access part of it by dirt track (mind the leeches!) and part of it by walking along the railway line (home from home for Samantha) We visited Kacpaw a refuge near the University of Peradinyia, we went along with Doctor Dangola to take a look. There was an opportunity for Dogstar to help and assist running of this in partnership with the University which we had to explore. It’s placed on a hill (hills seemed to feature on this trip) about 3k from the University and is made up of assorted kennels and runs housing a large number of dogs (oh and 1 cat), there is a volunteer manager and 4 permanent staff. They do get some Sri Lankan funding and food donations from the Temple of the Tooth, but the running costs are still very high. We had a good look around and met everyone and sat down before and after with the University to talk through the options. However at the end of the day we decided to say thanks, but no thanks. The commitment is just too high, Dogstar does get some donations in (mainly from the refuge), and some one off little lumps of money and bits and bobs to sell that are also kindly donated, but mostly it is paid for out of Samantha and mine pockets. So running costs of around 10k a year just for the refuge are not realistic for us to commit too. We decided to hold a mini clinic as we were there (in Sri Lanka), so on the Wednesday Doctor Dangola and assorted vets arrived. We set them up in the volunteers bungalow at MEF which worked quite well, and 2 dogs received operations and 17 others were all vaccinated (inc rabies). Now the funny thing about this clinic is that we had trouble finding dogs that need “the operation”, locally now near MEF the battle appears to have been won. To the point that during the week we managed to rehome a young dog (called Petra after the Blue Peter dog) and the first question asked by the new owner was when can she have the operation), so we take a great deal of comfort from that. So after the clinic we settled up with Doctor Dangola, this including paying the bill for the work he and the University had done on Dogstars behalf at the Temple of the Tooth where he operated on and vaccinated another 9 dogs. We also then passed on what seemed like a never ending supply of goodies that had been donated to us, tablets, scrubs, needles, treatments, loads of vet paraphernalia. Each different box, bag, tube bringing many smiles and much chattering amongst all the vets. Samantha then did a little bit of advanced planning for some more clinics in a place called Rambukkana to happen in January. This will be a series of clinics based in different parts of the town, providing “the operation” and vaccinations and we are hopeful that the effects will be the same there as around MEF now. Now you all may remember that we set up a vet in Kegalle (Dr Anuranga), now he was rather successful, so much so that he was then recruited by the Government to help run there own clinics countrywide. Initially this reduced his vet practice to weekend works or his days off. A lady called Mo who has been staying at MEF doing Dogstar bits and bobs found another vet, Doctor H (I cannot spell his surname but it sounds like Het-ee-ar-archie). So we took the opportunity to meet him when a little pup needed some treatment, and Samantha spoke to him about his work, how he did things etc. The result being that Dogstar have given him a grant to do some treatments and buy animal drugs. He will maintain records of the treatments he does, being monitored by Mo. Samantha and he will then sit down when Sam is back out at Christmas and we will see how this can be further developed. Most of you are all aware we stay at MEF when we go out to Sri Lanka, this is owned by Carmini Samarasinghe and managed by her son Sandith. They have always been very helpful and supportive of everything that has been done out there. So over the course of a number of evenings (ok and some alcohol) talks took place with Sandith re future works. Samantha has always wanted a more permanent location for Dogstar to be based, nothing grand but something solid to work from. So Samantha sat down with Sandith and explained what she wanted, the upshot being he is getting plans drawn up for a dogstar clinic to be built permanently at one end of the MEF grounds, this will include elephant facilities. This will be funded by Dogstar who will also fund for a full time permanent vet to be based there. He has also offered the land behind their own home for a run area to be built. This would be like a holding area for dogs to be held after “the operation”, they would then be vaccinated before being returned. This will mostly be for the stray/wild dogs that can be caught treated and then released. So will only be a small area, but we believe it only needs to hold half a dozen animals at a time so that it is completely manageable and does not run the risk of getting swamped. The main reason for this latest trip was to meet WSPA people who wanted to meet up with Samantha to talk about the work Dogstar does. They were due to meet us on the Sunday but were at MEF on the Saturday to meet with Sandith. In short what happened was we met them at lunch on the Saturday and spent a good couple of hours talking to them, they then came back on the Sunday morning and again we had a good couple of hours talking to them. To summarise, they are quite impressed with what Dogstar has achieved and want to help it progress. They were very complimentary about how Dogstar has involved local people, been aware of cultural issues and involved its self in the community. They have offered the use of WSPA people to help set up sections of Dogstar, to help us with developing fundraising that is sustainable and long term. They have given us the details of other WSPA groups that may help us with equipment and advice. They asked some very in depth questions about the treatments we do, the medications we use, what we see as the future progression, how we want it to develop. They were very interested in the paper we gave them with the results of the Rabies paper we funded the University to do and took copies away. The final upshot being that, sometime over the next couple of weeks we are meeting them again in the UK to discuss fundraising and other ways they can work with us to help us.. They are coming out to Sri Lanka again in January to attend one of the clinics that will be run in Rambukkana to see Dogstar in action. All in all a very busy but fruitful trip, on the Monday before we left with Mo we ran a children’s party at the local temple. We had about 13 children attend and did the usual party games, pass the parcel, musical chairs and of course pin the tail on the elephant!!! . We also had fizzy drinks and cakes and balloon games. So to wrap this up I must tell you about how and why Rani the elephant told me off!. Rani likes lemon puff biscuits, so we always take her some. Other elephants also like lemon puff biscuits, so I decided to give one or two to an elephant called Somalia (who is very cute) whilst Samantha gave Rani a hug. Now you must be aware that Rani and Somalia’s so called day beds are next to each other, so Rani could see me giving Somalia the lemon puffs. I finished giving some to Somalia then wandered over to Rani, gave her a cuddle and proceeded to give her a number of her treats. Just as I finished she very gently but still firmly took my hand in her trunk and proceeded to lift my hand right up in the air so that I was standing on tip toes. Then letting my hand go she proceeded to bop (gently) the top of my head. Samantha and Chandana (the mahout) though this was very funny and explained that Rani had watched me give Somalia the lemon puffs and was now in effect saying to me in her own way, Oi they are my lemon puffs don’t give them to anyone else!!!! So there you go, a little taste of how things went and what we got up to.

Just realised its now a tad over 2 years that Dogstar has existed. It was way back in September 2006 that Samantha started (as a one off originaly) treating dogs in Sri Lanka. It started off as a visit to the Millenium Elephant Foundation, following Samantha's redundancy from work and of course the trauma of having dealt with the aftermath of the london tube bombing at Edgware Road. Original thread here: http://www.rykat.org/forums/index.php?show...4&hl=temple Since then its gone on and on, setting up permanent vets, loads of clinics treating loads of dogs cats and the occasional cow ? and working with the University of Perdeniya. Its involved numerous trips back and forth taking medicines and equipment. Its involved many many weekends fundraising standing in the rain and cold and travelling miles. Its moved on to house building now and gawd only knows what next. Actually thats why I am heading over with her this time, so i dont get one of those little txt messages saying "oh by the way we are employing a vet" only this time i cant even imagine what it would involve So 2 years old, Wow and well done Samantha, I had no idea what it would develop into when you sent that original text. In fact if I had know maybe I would not have been so keen for you to wander off to MEF in the first place. Still you should know I am so proud of you and what you have achieved over there, I shall however resist the temptation to work out how much its cost so far XX

Me to Samantha (again) just now: ooh look Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is on (cue Samantha switching channles to put it on)< and in my best Dick Van Dyke voice I spounted out "Gor blimey Mary Poppins" as the words were coming out of my mouth I realised my mastake and quickly followed with "ah sorry wrong film" whilst Samantha burst into laughter....................

Hi Nic will PM you Mark

Me to Samantha: Is 13.15 afternoon flight the night flight !!!????? Samantha who was in the bath at the time just looked at me with a sympathetic look that would normaly be given to the village idiot, before respnding with-no that would be the afternoon flight

I dont quite know what to say, that is brilliant totally brilliant I mean its not as if you have nothing to do up there, you are to be honest stunning amazing and well I am speechless

Thanks to everyone for responding to this thread, food for thought so to speak

A funny thing happened in the house of squirrel, sam taking the piss out of the golfers managed to punch her own arm. She then proceeded to beg for me to kiss it better, in my misery at having lost to the yanks i went over to do so and managed th headbut her as i bent down to kiss her arm, poetic justice if you ask me. We now enter a period of national mourning, for 2 years untill the next Ryder Cup

I have always been tempted to raw feed the squirrel dogs, today Samantha went shopping and a very nice Butcher was able to supply some bone type things that had quite a bit of meat on. For the first time all three dogs just lay them and chomped and chewed and ate every bit. It seems more natural than even the Burns and Naturediet they currently get. My question is, what do you raw feed them and how much?, wings, thighs, chicken, turkey what ?

A nail biting finale to the Ryder Cup with the singles about to start and the USA leading Europe 9 points to 7. Now when I say that to Samantha her eyes glaze over and I am sure she starts to fall asleep, does the Ryder Cup excite anyone else, or is it just me then ?

I am speechles, OMFG !

hurrumph, I can confirm no Gerties were hurt in the making-just Marks-however after Gertie retired to her lair in the back room and I topped her bowl up with fresh food, we have now made our peace.................

i have the names and my glam assistant is all ready for tomorrows draw (i will be wearing suitable protective clothing)

testing testing 123

Only if people offer lots money

No apologies needed Sam will watch it in a few days time, so thanks for pointing it out Its just a general avoid stuff on the day kind of thing