Throwback Thursday - Helping at the Animal Sanctuary

 Here I am socialising with the residents at Wilmslow animal sanctuary.

These are photo's from a couple of times I went to help out in 2010. The first time I cleaned out the chicken coops as well as socialising with the cats. The next time my sister and nephew came and the time after my brother.

During the visits with my family the animal sanctuary had been helping us out with a neglected cat (Theo) we had rescued. They are a wonderful organisation who are funded by donations. My sister started donating there on my first visit and continued for a few years.

Theo

If you live in the area and are looking to get a pet please consider a visit to the sanctuary. If you are lucky enough to have some spare pennies you are considering donating to a charity and you're an animal lover, this might be the one for you.

I was hoping to help at the sanctuary again however it hasn't worked out. If it was easy to get to I'd be there every week!

Have you ever volunteered anywhere? Where would you if just for the day?

Voluntary work and more bumps in the road.

Life is rarely easy for me. I'm sure many people feel that way. When you watch (if you get the time) those soaps where certain characters go through continuous hardship, seemingly one thing after another and people say (myself sometimes included) 'oh give them a break, that wouldn't happen in real life, that's not realistic', but then you stop and think about your own life and realise actually it is.
There often seems to be a massive foot there to crush me back down in the ground or maybe a smaller one to trip me over when just trying to take smaller steps. I'm so grateful when good things do happen and also often experience the feeling of surprise because I've been facing so many difficulties for so long.
Getting my life back on track seems like such a massive mountain to climb but I've been taking those small steps and have come across yet more bumps in the road. (Literally there are so many journey metaphors that fit my life right now! I'm not purposely trying to use them all but I'm sure ' the light at the end of the tunnel' might feature in my next work post if I can sort out my latest problem).



After awful personal circumstances two years ago I had to leave my job and move away from where I had been living. The past two years have been far from easy but having almost managed a year, touch wood, without being an inpatient (still enough day and out patient visits mind), not receiving abuse or feeling scared to be in my own home and not crumbling apart mentally as soon as I wake up, I have started to try to put my life back together again. To put me back together again. The main reason for starting to blog again was to give myself some me time that I've never had since becoming a single mum, to be me again just for a little while.

The only way I got through the past couple of years, particularly the first was by just living for my child.
Now I am trying to revive the other parts of my life and not just be one dimensional anymore. Being a mother is the most amazing job in the world. I am so grateful for my daughter and all that she brings but I need more than that. We all do, for our sanity and one day she is going to be grown up and if I don't get the rest of me back I'll be left with nothing.



I've been desperate to get back into work for a while. Even when I was so ill I couldn't manage a 10 minute walk up the street I was still trying to apply for jobs. Then I ended up in Hospital. At Christmas.
I am so lucky to have had all this time with my child and I don't want to lose it but at the same time we struggle terribly with money. I can't cope like this and need to provide for myself and my child. Not only that I want a career (not that I could probably call my old job that), to be using my brain, to be achieving, to be learning (and not just as a mummy) and not forgetting the social side of work.

Health - my biggest stumbling block

For the past couple of months I have been trying to sort out some voluntary work in the appropriate area to help me get back into paid work, as although they say they don't discriminate, people don't like to hire you when you have been off unwell for a while.
The two areas I was looking at were helping at a local Animal Sanctuary to gain experience with a charity, fundraising and administration (and as I have helped there before) and the NHS where I have worked before and where I could see a career progressing if I can get the funds for the appropriate training and ever get into a situation where I could do night shifts again.

My local animal sanctuary is in Wilmslow and run by the Humane Education Society. What I hadn't realised about this option is how much it would cost me to travel there. I have never been able to afford to drive and from where I am the sanctuary is awkward to get to. I released after getting my hopes up about working there that it would cost me £7 or more to get there once a week whilst G is in nursery for an afternoon. I can't afford that right now and being a charity funded by donations I'm pretty sure they can't subsidise travel. Also it would be very hectic and a close cut thing getting back in time to pick up G.
 On the day where I was attempting just to go in for an induction (a Sunday) the bus for one third of the journey did not even run.

money - the other main contender

My second option had been proving to be more successful. I was given an interview and took in my documents for a CRB check, or what I belive is now called a DBS check. The interview was brief and straight forward but then  it turned out my passport for my check had just gone out of date only 2 months before.
The lady in charge of the voluntary section has told me I can't use it however I don't have any of the other options. No driving licence, no marriage licence and my mother lost my birth certificate one of the many times we moved about when younger.
It just seemed like a joke. Only two months out of date. Such bad timing and I have no way of getting £75 to get a new one. Another obstacle in my way to try and stop me from getting anywhere!

The lady informed me a copy of my birth certificate may or may not work - she wasn't sure. I don't have a spare £20 at all let alone to throw away on a copy that might not work so I contacted DBS via email. They replied ten days later and did not answer of my questions! They did however say that when none of the section A ID documents can be provided finger printing could be used. That seems extreme but I'm willing to have it done if the ID problem can not be solved any other way. I have also decided to apply for a small budgeting loan which could help me replace my passport or get a provisional drivers licence. If that is successful then it will take a few weeks (waiting for reply for loan, getting copy of birth certificate and then replacing my passport) but finally I will have the required ID for the check and be able to commence my voluntary work on one of the wards at my local hospital.
I'm not sure it will happen before Christmas now and I desperately wanted to be back in the work place before New Year but cross your fingers for me that it will get sorted a.s.a.p.

I will need this ID for the DBS check for when I do actually get back into a paid position, so it is a massive stumbling block not to have it. If I can get past it I just need to pass my occupational health check which is in a couple of weeks. I am meant to have a choice as to where I'm assigned but that did not come up in the interview so that is something else I need to discuss. Ideally I would like to be placed in a children's or a maternity ward so the specific experience will help when I do apply for a paid position. However I will have to see what they have available. They subsidise travel thankfully so that's one problem solved!



Hopefully things will work out for once and in a few weeks time I will be posting to say I have started and how my first day went. For now it's some more phone calls, more filling in forms and then a case of wait and see.

Rescuing Theo

Whenever I used to walk to my sisters house down a particular road, or during the two years I actually lived at hers, I would often see two fluffy/scruffy looking black cats who seemed to live there. Both were very friendly and would mew a lot and follow you to be stroked, or maybe just because they wanted food.

One day, the more sociable one of the two followed me home. It was a lovely thing, incredibly fluffy and affectionate.

However quite a few months down the line (after a freezing winter) I realised I hadn't seen that one of the pair for a long time, and the quieter one seemed to be about less too. When we came across the other one, it came to say hello and as we were stroking it we realised what awful condition it was in. Its hair was matted and falling out, its skin was bad and its spine was sticking out dreadfully and when picking it up later it was as light as a feather, just like a bag of bones!

When with the cat and realising its condition I asked some of the local children playing out if they knew who owned it and what had happened to its sibling. It turned out the poor thing had died over the winter. It was upsetting and if its condition was anything like this one's it was no wonder!

They didn't pinpoint the owners, so we let the cat follow us home (just round the corner) and gave him/her something to eat. The poor thing was starving and very thirsty too. It also had a very strong odor due to its bottom being dirty and its tail fur being matted up with dirt, as well as having runny eyes and having a tooth missing, so eating very messily.

Even though not as confident as its brother/sister, this cat too was extremely affectionate and wanted attention as well as something to eat.

I think it was the next day we fed the cat properly and my sister met it and saw what an awful state it was in and she was horrified. She took some photo's as evidence of animal cruelty as it was evident we were going to have to call the R.S.P.C.A to help this cat if it was going to survive and not suffer anymore from the neglect from its owners. However at this point we weren't sure if its owners were still around here or whether they'd just left the two cats to fend for themselves.

I took a couple of photo's myself at this point but you can't see from them just how bad a state he was in.

Skinny and Starving

 I was the one to call up the R.S.P.C.A and report the state of the cat to try and get him some help. The reaction I got however was disgusting and I won't be using their services again or donating to them.

They basically weren't the faintest bit interested unless he was unconscious and were going to do absolutely nothing about it. I was so angry when I got off the phone.

We weren't sure what to do at first, but then thought we would have to try the animal shelter that I had briefly volunteered at, the Humane Education Society in Wilmslow.  So we gave them a call. I explained the situation to them but currently they were full, however when I said how urgent it was they said they would try and get him a place as soon as possible but he would have to be checked for cat flu first as to not put the other cats there at risk.

Click here for their site

We took him to the vets to get him assessed. They told us that the cat was a boy - we hadn't known yet and Morgan (my 10 year old nephew) had given him or her the temporary name of Starblade.

The vet thought he was in awful condition and said he wouldn't have lasted many more days if we hadn't started to care for him. So basically if we'd left it in the hands of the R.S.P.C.A he would have been dead.

He was extremely underweight, extremely matted and in bad condition but the vet tried to assess a rough age and estimated 11, however the next vet to see him a week or so later estimated about 14, so he was an old boy. He took tests for Cat Flu and then for the next week or so we were to care for him until a space came up.

We decided since we knew now it was a boy, to come up for a name for him. So me, my nephew and my brother wrote a list of names and then whittled it down using a dice. The final name was Theodore, which I think suited him so well. Despite him being such a mess, he was a beautiful cat, with massive eyes and a very cute high pitched meow. He was incredibly affectionate and wanted to be with someone all the time.

After he'd been all cleaned up at the sanctuary

Even though it was upsetting and scary caring for him due to his condition, it was also lovely and we became very quickly attached to him as he was so loving and sweet. We just couldn't understand how someone could treat any cat like this, let alone one so lovely. There wasn't a nasty bone in his body and he was so calm and placid and seemed to want nothing more than to be loved.

We got the results from the vets and the good news was that he was flu free so was ok to go to the shelter.

The sanctuary finally had a place for him, which was great news, so we took him in, although it was sad to say goodbye, we knew he would be well looked after.

We missed him a lot and a couple of times went to visit, he didn't seem quite himself though, but everyone had fallen in love with him just like us, due to his gentle sweet nature. He also had the incredibly cute habit of putting a paw up to ask for food or pawing you. He also did this if he wanted a cuddle which was often.

They had groomed him and removed his mats, so he was looking a bit bald and very skinny but at the same time a lot better. He had been cleaned up and treated for worms and flea's etc and was being slowly fed up, although he was occasionally having tummy troubles.

The bad news came though, when the other tests results came back that the vets had done ....his Liver function tests, which showed him to have Liver Failure. This meant that he was not going to have very long left. We couldn't believe it.

Due to this and the fact we had been missing him a lot, my sister made the decision that for his final time, however long he may have, we would take him and look after him ourselves.

So we went out and brought him a lovely cat bed, some grooming brushes and some bits and pieces including a separate litter tray so as not to upset Bella, my other cat, and my sister paid the adoption fee's and we brought him home :)

Sensible cat, keeping warm in the winter

 Theo had safe warm loving home for his last few months. He enjoyed sleeping in my sisters laundry basket and sadly would get very upset and howl if he was left on his own. I think this may have been due to how unwell and old he was.

I had to move away to Leeds for work a couple of months later and sadly couldn't take him with me as I was moving into a flat with no garden and my other cat Bella gets hysterical around other cat's, even one as loving as Theo. I was very upset to leave him but did come back to see him a few times.
One of those times when I arrived he climbed up onto my knee and put a paw on each of my shoulders and nuzzled his head into me, like a real human hug. He also used to dig like a dog he was such a character.

There were a two horrible scares we had with Theo before it was his time to go, where he would have fits and try and go under a bed to I assume die alone as cat's often do. It was very upsetting.
Devastatingly my sister called me 23rd of December 2010, the day before I was due to travel back for Christmas. Theo had had another episode and was very ill. His kidneys were failing and the vet decided he was suffering too much to be alive. I desperately wanted to hold him, comfort him, to say goodbye, but the vet would not wait one more day and Theo was put to sleep. It was heartbreaking. It was a sad Christmas not having him with us but instead having to bury him.

 During his time with us we had an beautiful adoring pet. We managed to make the life he had left so much better. We couldn't have done this without the help of the animal sanctuary and without the financial help from my sister.
Why anyone would choose treat an animal like this, especially Theo I really don't know. He truly was the sweetest creature I have ever come across. R.I.P Theo. 

                                                    

*If you live anywhere near Wilmslow and are thinking of getting a Pet, please consider adopting from the shelter mentioned above. Their name is linked to their site. Or if you would like to make a donation feel free. They are a fantastic organisation and depend on donations. They provide wonderful care for the animals there and helped us so much with Theo.

A little about my new blog

As I mentioned in my first post things have changed a fair bit since I was writing my last blog. I'm now a single mum to my wonderful little girl and have faced and still am facing many difficulties but she is my shining light in all of this.

G is my main focus in life right now but I have many interests and aspirations which I'll be covering as well as our adventures and general journey as mother and daughter. This might seem vague but I don't want to ramble on to specify all my interests in this post. You'll get to know them if you stick around and read my blog.
I'm on a very tight budget so many posts will include activities on a budget and idea's to help get by.

 After time off with my long term illness and other serious personal problems I am hoping to get back to work before the years out. I will be starting with voluntary work hopefully at the local hospital and animal sanctuary, so fingers crossed I will be writing about those experiences too.

When I first started blogging I had just found out I was pregnant and I started actively 'comping' and was quite successful. I reviewed a couple of the competition prizes and I also reviewed items (most not on my old blog) sent to me from Pregnancy and Practical Parenting Magazine for my newborn. I had many review posts I wanted to do but that was around the time my life became too difficult to carry on with the blog. Although my child is 3 now and I'm not yet in the right situation to have another (fingers crossed one day I can give G a sibling) I want to include a few of those posts in this blog and will be doing reviews to items more applicable to our life right now. I don't get paid for any of them but I always find it useful before buying items to see how others have found them, so I hope my posts help others too.

 Blogging is something I enjoy and something I'm using to finally reintroduce a bit of much needed me time which I never have anymore (I'm actually writing this when I should be getting precious sleep). I have lots i want to blog about and there will be personal post's too - it's a good way to let off steam.

I hope some of you join me on my new blogging journey. x