RSPCA Tweetathon #RSPCA247 – come join in.

Posted By Laura in Our News | 4 comments

Boy, 10mths, about to launch an attack on Holly

Holly was my first ever Christmas present to my new husband (Holly… Christmas… geddit? I wanted to call her Tree but Husband was having none of it, said he’d feel a fool calling for her in a wood…).  We visited the local RSPCA centre, and wandered around – as husband stood still this small solid  lump of black with silly ears wandered over and sat on his foot… and that was that.

Look at the ears... bonkers.

Holly, like most dogs, was more than a pet – she was a treasured family member. She looked after the husband through his depression, sitting quietly with her head on his knee on bad days, bothering and badgering him for a game or a walk on good ones. As children came along she appointed herself nursemaid and SleepWatchdog, posting herself by a sleeping baby, and coming to tell us when they woke.

See? Handlebar ears. She never did grow into them.

They crawled all over her, used her to balance as they learned to stand, played ball games with her, explored mountains together.

Gradually she grew older. Played less, slept more. Got smellier (Well, she did. Old dogs are just smelly). Finally, at the grand old age of 12, we had to say goodbye.

A special, special dog – and all thanks to the RSPCA Inspector who scooped her up when she was found wandering through Yeovil town centre when she was far too young to be out alone.

The RSPCA rescued/collected 130,000 animals in 2010, and have 300 officers on duty every day across England & Wales. In 2010 they investigated 160,000 complaints about animal welfare.

This week the RSPCA got in touch to tell me about their Tweetathon: 24 hours of live tweeting from their control centre (follow them  @RSPCA_frontline ) and they’ve also lined up 24 great guest bloggers to post about @RSPCA_frontline every hour. If you’d like to support the RSPCA, then they’re asking people to Tweet using the hashtag #RSPCA247  or to follow the campaign on Twitter.

Do please take five minutes to go and have a rea dof their website, They do so very much more than rescue strays and injured animals – from primary school classrooms in the UK to government officials in China, they are making sure animal welfare is a hot topic. They even run a PetRetreat service which provides advice and pet fostering for families fleeing domestic abuse.

We didn't (couldn't) replace Holly for a number of years. But last November the husband came home with a new solid lump of blackness - only this one seems to have grown into her ears. Introducing Blue...