Neil Featherby
Sportlink
Category Archives: Animal rescue stories
Here you will find articles about animals, birds and other little creatures
Sanctuary update February 2021
Sanctuary update time!
It is craaaaaazy busy as always and we can’t let the snow slow us down. Spring is around the corner and we know what that means: babies and garden injuries!
We are prepping the hospitals by putting in hot water. This will help saving time as some basic washing up can be done inside the hospitals rather than outside in the washing up area. We are also stocking up and moving storage around. As always, you can find the most urgent needs on our amazon wishlist. https://amzn.eu/9uE8XXQ
Thanks to a generous donation we now have a separate metal shed with the things for our horse field. This means that heavy sacks don’t have to be wheelbarrowed through the entire site, back and forward. Thank you!
Building work is never-ending at the site with old buildings being adapted or repurposed
We have built 4 temporary aviaries suitable for birds of prey with wing injuries that are moving into their second stage of rehab. There is also a new aviary for the crows. The dishwasher is now installed, saving us from handwashing the 100s of old GU jars we use for water and food dishes.
Hog ward 1 has been created to prevent a bottleneck in the 2 current hospitals, allowing hogs to move on in their transition from the necessary heat in the ICU down to release temperatures without overburdening the main Hogspital. This means that we can better cope with a high number of intakes – at one point we had up to 25 hedgehogs per day coming in…. Thanks to your amazing support we also changed over lots of our carriers, meaning that we now have the same size carriers and cages that can be stacked safely, rather than a mishmash.
It’s not just Covid making things extra difficult but bird flu out brakes in the UK meant that DEFRA ordered bird owners to cage all birds. 4 large temporary aviaries have been built to house the usually free-running fowl population of Hallswood.
This means a lot of extra straw! Therefore, we are extra grateful to the customers of Ken’s Corn Stores in Taverham prepaying for bales of straw for us!
A new indoor area has been created for Kevin the pig along with his entourage of cockerels who keep him company. I can see a children’s book here, can’t you? Kevin and his friends at Hallswood 😀
It has now been 7 years since we built our first hospital. 7 years! Repairs have been carried out on the floor and the under-counter storage has been improved. I can see that we will have to rebuild or extend in the next year or two.
Do you remember the emergency pond dig last autumn? When our volunteers dug a brand-new pond in less than 1 week? Well, I am soooo happy to say that the pond is looking great and the fish are thriving.
Future projects for this year are:
1. A new outdoor hutch area for hedgehogs. This is for pre-release.
The new area will be covered to make it easier for volunteers and staff to keep clean and dry.
2. A new fox habitat will be built backing onto the hog area providing an improved environment for the resident foxes.
3. A second fox habitat to be built later in the year along with a Deer habitat in the woodland area.
4. New shelving and storage covers to be fitted in the Hogspital.
5. A new office area will be built by the gate enabling the main hospital to expand into the current office with the treatment area situated at the front, mammals in the middle room, and birds in the back room.
As you can see we are busy busy and it is just thanks to you guys we can do this!
I don’t know if you understand just how amazing this is: that thanks to your support, not only can we survive through a pandemic, but grow!
Wow!
We love you <3
xxMaria
Doodlebug
There is only one thing we like better than telling about the amazing wildlife rescues we can do thanks to you and that is getting updates from people adopting from us!
Doodlbug was a cat regularly being bred to make money for her owner. A volunteer befriended and persuaded the owner to allow us to neuter her for free! Lyz went to collect her for neutering, it was an abusive environment (out of control young family) and we felt she could not return to this. After long chats with the owner, they agreed to allow rehoming to happen. Doodlebug was aggressive and scared and wasn’t the nicest of house guests here at the sanctuary, but with time she improved and was rehomed. Sadly, returning as she was struggling to be a friendly pet. After returning to the sanctuary a couple of times she was returning for what we thought was the last time and allowed to be here for the rest of her life. A resident who can be who they are!
Little did we know…..
When we rehome a pet we ask what personality the new owner wants. Then to our surprise, the perfect couple came along!! She has her chance and they get the perfect pet for them :)) She is a madam and they wouldn’t have it any other way! We are all different and we all have a special place in this world!! 🙂
Here’s what her new owners had to say:
“Hi! I adopted a lovely kitty from you in October, doodlebug (the parrot/ shoulder cat!) now called Pickle! I was told by Lyz how missed she is at Hallswood so thought I’d send over some photos of her and let you know she’s very happy being the queen of the house. She’s still feisty when she wants to be but Pickle’s a real softy and loves snuggling up in bed and being cradled like a baby in fact she’s almost completely stopped being a shoulder cat and prefers being cradled, I think maybe she was a parrot for attention!”
What a happy ending!
To help us help more cats such as Doodlebug, please consider sending us a donation to our PayPal. You can either send direct to [email protected] or use the link PayPal.me/Hallswood
Thank you <3
Sad start to a Sunday morning :(
One of the most common call outs we have are for deer.
She is beautiful doe, huge kind eyes . Fallow deer stand over 3 ft tall she weighs 150 kgs
How can someone not see her? Yes they can come out of nowhere and have done to me in the past... however this is a wide open Rd with good visibility..... she is part of a 6 strong herd who travel together I have seen them many times.
How could they just leave her?
Why not call someone?
It was a on duty service person who called while on a emergency she found the time!!
Now waiting for the on call vet, she has had some pain relief but may of laid here in pain for so long:( .
Everything has too die but nothing needs to suffer like this:((
Gizmo
Happy caturrrday from Ginger George!
The farm owner had him trapped, neutered and chipped. It was felt he was too wild to tame.
He made himself a nest in a Laurel tree. He was fed there by one of our fosterers
She was prepared to give him time and space to get used to indoor life and her. To begin with, he was quite scared and skittish but with lots of patience, Lesley won him round.
Old does not mean not worthy
Hallswoods belief is that everyone deserves a chance - sometimes that means a warm safe home with us for the rest of an animals or birds life 🙂
Most time that will be at the sanctuary, but sometimes a volunteer or member of staff will help out.
This is a story about Rachael and Raymond 🙂
"My job every day at the sanctuary is to check all the animals as I go round and feed and water them all. One day back in October I went in to feed the racer pigeons. I saw this pigeon sitting on the floor at the back of the aviary. I thought the poor little thing had passed away as Lyz has told me many of the pigeons in there are quite old. I walked up to him to pick him up and he was alive! So I took him in to the hospital and was told to put him on a heat mat to warm him up a bit. He was in the hospital for a few weeks after that. So I said to Lyz I would love to take him home. She said I could! So I called him Raymond. He is very old man and he can't fly or perch very well . But he is happy eating drinking and cooing at my house. Since he has been in mine he walks a lot better than what he did do. He still can't fly but he walks around the living room like he owns it lol."
What bird is your favourite?
I must admit I do love pigeons. They have the most beautiful shiny feathers!
xxMaria
Did you know that many of the pigeons brought to us have canker? You can find the tablets we use for this on our amazon wishlist 🙂
https://amzn.eu/9uE8XXQ
Happy ending for Bear
Bear lived unhappily in a multi cat household and spent a lot of her time at UEA. One morning in late June she was clipped by a car . A lovely lady took her to Eaton Vets where it was discovered she had smashed her top and bottom jaw and broken a few teeth.
Unfortunately the previous owner was unable to pay for her care and we stepped in. She had surgery to repair her injuries and stayed at the vets to recover. Bear was then moved to one of our fosterers and stayed there to recuperate. She was well enough to be adopted in early August.
She now lives as an only cat in the countryside far away from busy roads. She is an absolute love bug and makes her new owner laugh every day. She’s brightened up their lives. She loves sitting on the side of the bath waiting for her owner to finish. Recently she’s taken to stealing all the candles in the house together with earrings!
I just love writing these happy stories Bear is one lucky kitty xx