A Very Happy New Year
We would like to wish all of our supporters a very Happy New Year and to share with you a video tribute to some of the dogs helped during 2010.
To view the video please click here
It has been an incredible year with over 500 dogs helped either to new homes or to long-term foster homes where their medical needs could be properly met.
We could not have done it without the dedication of our fosterers, the hard work of our staff team and the generosity and support of you, our supporters.
Our first 18 Months - October 2010
We are delighted to let you all know that we have now lodged our first year’s accounts with Companies House.
Here is the Summary:
TLDR Accounts 2009 - 2010
Total Income £34,767.91
Outgoings
Vets Fees £25,020.36
Food £1,843.44
Post & Carriage £428.44
Transport £1,882.94
Miscellaneous £3,298.40
Insurance £509.36
Total Outgoings £32,982.94
Balance @ 31/01/2010 £1,784.97
A massive Thanks to Maria, Eileen & Rena for taking care of all the finance & accounts.
This seems like an ideal opportunity for us to look back at our first 18 months as a rescue.
Back in January last year when we first started we were a group of ten dog lovers who thought we could help a few dogs in need.
If only we had known what we were letting ourselves in for!!!
We took in 256 dogs last year that could only be achieved by all of our great fosterers and transporters. All of those that could be rehomed have been and a few have stayed with us as lifetime foster dogs due to medical conditions.
We ended the year with a small balance in the bank and a great team of dedicated people helping the rescue in all sorts of ways. The Board of Directors has grown and we are now 13 strong. Alongside that we have a dedicated and hard-working volunteer staff team who deal with all the aspects of rescue work.
This year has seen more rapid growth with 231 dogs so far, Vets Bills of £35603.93 and an income of £38174.63 it’s been a phenomenal success but we could only have achieved all of this with your individual and collective help.
To make sure that we can continue to grow we are carrying out a review of the way we work as we all feel that the growth we have experienced will continue and we need to be prepared. We have started with a review of all the vets that we use and are in the process of renegotiating prices with them and this will be ongoing.
Over the next few months we will be looking at the structure of the rescue with a view to applying for Charitable Incorporated Organisation status when this is finally introduced in April 2011.
We will be looking at how we do all sorts of things and will be asking for your help and feedback.
You will have seen from the figures that we are constantly fighting a battle to balance the books. With more dogs and the worsening condition that many of the dogs arrive in and the cost of veterinary treatment escalating we need to constantly raise funds just to make ends meet. So keep an eye out for more fundraising events, more auctions, more activities and if you have any ideas about other things that we can try. Please let us know.
Finally, if you haven’t fallen asleep yet, I would like to thank you on behalf of all the dogs whose lives we have hopefully improved and those yet to come.
Thank you everyone for your help, support, pennies but most of all your love of our little ones.
Our Meet and Greet - Saturday 4th September - Newark Pets at Home
The day of this event was met by glorious sunshine, but tinged with sadness at the loss of Molly, one of our special sponsored dogs just 24 hours before. As a tribute to Molly the event went ahead in her honour, and those involved are sure she was watching and encouraging people to donate generously, because it raised the fantastic sum of £121.20p.
It was a very positive day, with lots of support from the public, enquiries for fostering and homing, and plenty of little (and larger) dogs giving their cuddles for free. There were some freebies for the public, some fabulous cookies, handmade cards and other items for sale, and everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed the day.
We would like to thank everyone who attended and parted with their pennies. Also a big thank you to our young helpers on the day who did a wonderful job of keeping the many dogs happy, fed, watered and walked. And of course thank you to Pets at Home for very kindly allowing us the opportunity to hold this event. We hope to be able to arrange further days soon.
Companion Care Fun Day at Ventura Retail Park, Tamworth, Staffs - 10th July 2010
The Little Dog Rescue were very kindly invited to hold a promotional stall at their recent event within Pets at Home, Ventura Park,Tamworth.
The stall was organised and manned by one of our most supportive transporters and foster Mum to Snowy, whose story you can read here. She was joined by other fosterers with some of their dogs, and they had a lovely day meeting members of the public and explaining about the rescue and what we do. Snowy was a wonderful Ambassador for The Little Dog Rescue, and gained much attention, greeting adults and children with his little kisses and waggy tail.
The day was immensely successful, raising £83.04 in our collecting tins, but more importantly and rather wonderfully it led to one of our foster dogs finding her forever home, with enquiries being made for others. We also welcomed a couple of new volunteers to our team, including a new fosterer.
We were made to feel very welcome by the Companion Care team and the Pets at Home staff, and we would like to thank them all for their support.
A Thank You from The Little Dog Rescue - 24th June 2010
We would like to thank all of our supporters for everything that you do to help the dogs that we have already helped or are currently helping this year.
It has been a very busy year already and to date we have seen 168 dogs come in. Not only is this an increase on previous months, but the condition of the dogs has been a lot worse than we have previously seen. Our vet bills for the last quarter (Feb-May) were £22,825 (about the same as the whole of last year) whilst adoption fees for the same period were £9,155.
As you can see from these figures there is a massive difference between costs and 'income', hence our thank you. The rest of the monies have come from all the fundraising activities that you have all taken part in, the raffles, auctions, dog shows, shop sales etc.
We have lots more events planned for the coming months, but if you have any good ideas or fancy doing a car boot sale let us know, as every little helps.
Without you help a lot of little dogs would be in a pitiful state, so on their behalf a massive thank you.