News from the Rebel Alliance

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the GAL BBQ on Sunday, Galaxy Defender was in attendance but as with all superheroes I kept my identity secret, suffice to say my super powers were severely limited after sampling one too many burgers, the cakes were pretty good aswell!
 
We were lucky with the weather, just a pity about the wind! Air traffic control at Edinburgh airport did report a number of UFO's in the afternoon but upon further investigation they turned out to be all the tinfoil from the barbie cruising towards Belgium at about 26,000 feet!

Puppy Power!!

Well I can't really explain this but GAL seem to be inundated with pups (again!!) Check out the 'special needs' page on the web in the next few days for some cute pictures of our youngest arrival MEGAN, she's a gorgeous wee 8 week old Lurcher pup currently in a GAL foster home!
 
We've also just picked up four 8 month old Greyhound pups, all from the same litter, all black and all very cute, we have brother BEAU and his 3 sisters BELLE, TRINITY & SWITCH. Again all 4 pups are now in GAL foster homes.
 
We're looking for special homes for all these pups where their new owners will have a bit of extra time on their hands to attend to their needs!

Lost and Found - part 2

You may have noticed 'Lady' on the GAL homeless dog list last week, here's her story.
 
GAL received a call on the last Sunday in June from a member of the public who had found a dog tied up in a basement car park, she took the dog home then called GAL for advice. As usual with these situations we instructed the person to hand the dog in to her local police station so it would go 'in the system'.
 
The member of public then raised a number of points; What if the owner had deliberately tied the dog up and left it then was able to reclaim it, would the same thing happen to it again? What if the dog wasn't claimed from the welfare home it would end up in, would it be put to sleep?
 
Very valid points, this is a tough one and there are no easy answers however we at GAL being a respectable charity need to follow the letter of the law so our advice is always the same, put the dog into the system.
 
In this case the member of public decided to go against GAL's wishes, she decided to keep the dog herself and asked GAL to re-home it. In this circumstance there's nothing GAL can do, we did make sure the dog wasn't chipped, other than that we just hope that if the owner is truly trying to find his or her dog they will come to GAL looking. The dog was christened Lady and put on the GAL books.
 
Lady was on the GAL books for just over a week when we received a call from someone who had lost their dog on the same day but in a different area of Glasgow, his description of his dog matched Lady's quite closely so we asked him to send us a picture.
 
A few days later we received the picture, the dog we were calling Lady was his dog, she was called Ripley and had slipped her lead whilst being walked by a friend of her owners. Happy that the owner was genuine Ripley was reunited with him the next day. Ripley's owner had been checking the local rescue centers each day since his dog had disappeared, in this case if Ripley has been put into the system she would have been reunited with him much quicker.
 
Well, as you'll see from this and part 1 of tonight's 'Lost and Found' stories, 2 lost dogs and 2 happy endings under quite different circumstances, the moral remains the same, make sure your dog is chipped or is wearing and ID tag at all times!!
 
  

Lost and Found - part 1

GAL received a call early on Sunday evening from a member of the public who'd seen a Greyhound, in some distress, roaming round a car park in the center of Glasgow. Luckily we had GAL members close to the scene and after a quick phone call they went to investigate.
 
30 minutes later and they had located and caught the poor little girl, a lovely Brindle girl, in good condition if slightly overweight. She was lucky as she'd been wondering round the city center in Glasgow, luckily for her it was Sunday evening so the traffic was light.
 
In situations like these when GAL find ourselves with a stray dog on our hands we always follow the correct course of action, that is to put the dog 'into the system'. This meant that the dog had to be handed into a Police Station. She spent a comfortable night there after the GAL volunteer who took her there donated a nice comfy duvet for her!
 
The GAL members who'd picked her up had taken a note of the dogs tattoo information and after a bit of digging we found the little dog was called Roslin Princess
 
On Monday morning Ros was transferred to the SSPCA center at Bothwell Bridge. That was her now 'in the system'. The SSPCA scanned her for a microchip but didn't find one. At this stage Ros had 7 days for her owner to come forward or she would be made available for adoption and as she was in the center at Bothwell Ros would also have been put on GAL's 'books'.
 
Ros settled in to the kennels pretty well but was more than happy when a GAL volunteer took her for a nice walk on Tuesday, still no sign of an owner though.
 
Wednesday and some good news, GAL receive a call from the Retired Greyhound Trust in Glasgow, guess what, one of their greyhounds is missing! A quick check of the tattoos and we realize their missing dog is Ros. She was reunited with her owner on Thursday morning!
 
A happy ending, now the moral of this story, there is always one! Ros bolted from her house when her owner opened the front door to someone, she wasn't wearing a collar with an ID tag on and she wasn't microchipped, this happy ending could have been so different for Ros if she hadn't been spotted and caught so quickly, on the flip side Ros may have been reunited with her owners within hours of her being found is he had been wearing an ID tag or been microchipped.
 
Now, go look on your sofa and make sure your hound (if it's isn't chipped) is wearing it's tag!!

New Homes

Since I last told you about Buzz going to his new home GAL have certainly been busy, as we get into July we enter our busy period, we expect to be very busy now in terms of the number of dogs homed right up to our AGM in October, the following dogs have found forever homes since June 25th -

MARSHALL, CHARLOTTE, MERCY, WHISPER (now called SHEERA), ROMEO (now called MAX), MURPHY, DALE, NOAH & MAX

not bad for a couple of weeks work!

GALa 2004

GALa 2004 - held at Devon Equestrian Centre on Sunday 4th July - was a great success for GAL, and hopefully all our visitors and guests enjoyed it too.

The gala raised over £1100 after deductions and with some funds still to come.

8 dogs were rehomed with 2 further applications received.

Thanks to everyone who came along to join in and support us. Big thanks to all the volunteers who helped set up and run stalls and to the other charities and stallholders who helped make it a great day.

Pity about the weather but Devon turned out to be the perfect venue with an indoor arena!

See you all again next year - with an even bigger dog show.....

News from the Rebel Alliance

Well it's over for another year! We are just thankful that the 8am decision this morning to hold the GALa indoors proved to be the right one...Stress Level NORMAL!

''In my experience, there's no such thing as luck'' - Obi-Wan Kenobi

News from the Rebel Alliance

42 hours to the GALa! Our Events Co-ordinator seems to be happy, I have no idea if that is a good sign...

Stress Level 7.

''Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen'' - The Emperor to Darth Vader