CANCER PATIENT RUNS FOR WELFARE: TWO OCEANS ULTRA MARATHON
In the last newsletter (Dec '06) we mentioned our launch. But it was the very day of the launch that the Doc got her diagnosis of cancer. SASHA unfortunately had to reduce activities because of her treatment schedules - surgery, chemotherapy and then radiotherapy. Although work continued, it was hampered but her passion for animal welfare kept her motivated to retain her fitness and now, in order to boost SASHA's income and public awareness, Yvonne will be running the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon on Easter Saturday, 7th April. She qualified for entry by completing Capetown's Peninsula Marathon in just under 4½ hours whilst still undergoing radiotherapy. She now needs sponsorship for the race from companies and individuals. If anyone can help with publicity, collecting sponsorship pledges, or would like to donate please contact us on 021 785 4748 or 073 680 1175.

Doc's report:
Hazel's account of her companion, Sasha, mentions that she has hip dysplasia. This is a complex developmental disease that primarily affects larger breeds of dog, and there is a genetic factor - dogs can inherit problems from their parents. (Yet another good reason for sterilising.) Instability of the hip joints in a young dog leads to degenerative changes. Careful management in the youngster can often lead to stabilisation of the joints and many dogs will have no further lameness if their owner restricts exercise and pays attention to diet. It is recommended that veterinary advice is sought early in all cases of lameness in puppies, as severe problems can develop and surgical intervention may be necessary. And don't forget to get your dogs and cats vaccinated every year. There was a case of rabies in a horse near Stellenbosch recently. It was described as an isolated incident but it should serve as a reminder that we should not get complacent. Dr Yvonne Robson

School Report:
We have not managed to fit in any more school visits since the last newsletter, but have now received plenty of educational material and DVDs from the Humane Education Trust. We are going to start arranging talks in local schools again soon - if any teachers would like more information please contact us. If anyone can donate or lend a projector that we can use with a DVD player or a laptop computer we would love to hear from you.

FOCUS ON......SASHA PETS
You will notice that our e-mail address is sashapets – it is an occupational hazard acquiring too many animals when you work in the welfare world…
‘Massif’.. hmm.. not really a name I would choose for a female puppy! But that was the name given to the pup that became ours by default!
Her story may be of interest to you………….
Whilst at a local stable, a young lady appeared distressed because she had a ‘marvellous opportunity’ to move up country to do the kind of work she had previously only dreamed about. Why was this distressing? Because she had only recently re-homed a young Doberman x Whippet from an animal rescue society, the pup originally being rescued from a local township, and she could not take the youngster with her. The owner was saying that she may have to have the dog put to sleep!……….
Well!…. Not words I like to hear so, after talking about the 8 month old dog and finding out she had been spayed, is excellent with other animals but rather ‘domkop’ as she didn’t even know her name let alone any commands and although my husband and I already had three dogs(11 year old Labrador X, 9 year old miniature Jack Russell and a 5 month old St Bernard x Labrador mistake), I opened the car rear door and said ‘jump in’ to this ‘pavement special’ dog… which she did with great joy and lots of licks! Needless to say, the relief on the (now) previous owner’s face was huge!
Incidentally, I didn’t know at the time that re-homed animals should ALWAYS be offered back to the rescue centre from whence they came, if your circumstances change irrevocably.
The three dogs we already had were all neutered males and as it has been recorded that spayed females introduced together often fight and may not get on with one another at all, I was happy that I didn’t have to be concerned about this aspect.
 We are fortunate to have a property large enough for 4 dogs but, on the way home, I thought I had better ring my husband and tell him we have a new addition to our family and please to think of a ‘girly’ name for her! Actually, I had already thought of one but didn’t want to be too presumptuous at this stage!
I was pleased to find that, (looking forward to meeting the new arrival), my husband was home before me, as I had concerns over our Jack Russell accepting another new dog (it was a lengthy process getting him to accept the puppy we had 3months ago), but I have to say that within 12 hours and a few water pistol squirts at our miniature Rottweiler (well, he thinks he is!) it was as if we had always had 4 dogs!
Our new ‘baby’ sensibly avoided our old Lab; alternated between ignoring or standing still facing the Jack Russell, but constantly played with our not-so-little St Bernard X puppy. With only 3 months age difference between the puppies, they were at this stage, a similar size! Now, 4 years later these two dogs are like Siamese twins, though there is 20kg difference in size now!
Although a perfect family member, we have had some problems with our newest addition…
1.She was so naughty with food - possessive, stealing & greedy – this was soon overcome with dog training classes, (which we took all dogs to for 3 years and we still enforce the ‘rules’ in every day life). She now takes food gently and only when we say ‘take it’.
2. She has to be given only a certain brand of dog pellets…ANY other food upsets her tummy - big time. This could possibly have been due to poor diet / worm burden in her early weeks / months - we now de-worm her and all our animals every 3-6 months. Also, we only give dog food and dog treats to our dogs, …never titbits, leftover food or any human food!! This helps with the first problem we had too!
 3. She has to be kept slim…. When she limped following exercise, we had her X-rayed and it showed she has level 3 hip dysplasia (see Doc’s report). Fortunately, with the Whippet in her breeding, she is very active and loves the regular walks / runs with her ‘brother’, so her muscles have built up to help support her hips and these days she rarely limps.
Finally………. Our ‘stupid’ pavement special, who retrieves better than any Labrador, performs ‘sits’, ‘lay’, ‘paw’, ‘other paw’, ‘wait’, ‘stay’, ‘leave’, ‘take it’, ‘come’, ‘heel’ and a host of other commands, on or off lead, ……. most of all,  KNOWS HER NAME …… which is, by pure coincidence.... SASHA!

Feral Cat Report: The Woodstock Kitten
I recently had a challenging case where a house owner reported that a feral cat had given birth to a kitten in her back yard.  Nothing unusual you may think, but the yard was only accessible by scaling a wall and climbing over a roof!
Woodstock is a little out of our way, but I had to visit the area anyway so I decided to check it out.  I saw the kitten briefly, sitting in the window through which the house owner was feeding it. Secure burglar bars prevented access to the yard this way, and the kitten scarpered as I approached.  The mother could get out of the yard and so could look after herself, but the kitten was too small.
Ideally we would like to trap and sterilise both mother and kitten, and then return them.  But the feasibility of setting traps…?
I scrambled up and over to have a look from above, and decided the traps could be roped out if we could get some more help. Could I get down there to set them?  Fortunately the house owner has a friend who is used to climbing sides of buildings, and he was happy to assist.  Two traps were set and we kept fingers crossed.
The kitten was easily lured into the trap; it was hauled out of the yard and I picked her up the following day.
I anaesthetise feral cats by injecting them through the bars of the trap, so I cannot give them more than a cursory visual examination before they are asleep – they do not allow themselves to be handled!  In this case, when I took the snoozing kitten out of the trap and examined her, I felt a big lump in her abdomen which was far from normal.  Otherwise she was in reasonable shape so I continued with surgery to find out what the problem was.  Unfortunately it was a serious problem which could not be cured so I put her to sleep whilst she was still anaesthetised.
This was not the ending that we had wished for but at least, thanks to the caring home-owner, the kitten was humanely euthanased and not left to die a slow and painful death.  The mother cat?  She was too wily to be caught so no doubt she will be back at the mating game.  Perhaps we can get her next time.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to ALL OF OUR REGULAR DONORS
Perhaps more of you will consider giving regular monthly donations - large or small - to ensure that we can pay our medical bills, electricity, water, driver - etc. etc. - each month.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to TONY OF MR STRIPES
7c Military Rd, Steenberg 021 701 5996
for your vehicle decals & striping, signage, corporate clothing

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to
HILL'S, LEADERS IN PET NUTRITION FOR THEIR INCREDIBLY GENEROUS DONATION OF DOG AND CAT FOOD

Don't forget to sterilise your pet:
In 1952, a Texas Tabby named Dusty set the record by having more than 420 kittens before having her last litter at age 18 (info from the Lucky Pet website).
Can you imagine how many kittens her kittens had?

FOCUS ON.....JOAN
Meet Joan once and she will make an impression on you.. you cannot but be awed by her energy and unselfishness as she spends her retirement time helping animals from disadvantaged areas. no matter where she lives! Joan has 3 adult children and 1 grandson of 6 years, none of whom live in the Western Cape. That is not an issue for Joan (who retired many years ago), for although she has no other human living with her, she has 9 dogs (all but one rescued) and 10 cats, (mostly 'mummy' rescued cats that were unwanted after the kittens had found homes). Joan's work for charity has been endless but to name a few she has helped SAAPEA, (Rondebosch), the ARO (for around 10years, fundraising), DARG (Hout Bay), the SPCA (who gave her a special rate for sterilising animals as long as she would pick them up and take them back to their homes), TEARS, the PDSA at Ocean View, PUPP South and, luckily for us, SASHA! She started going into Masiphumelele in the 1990's with buckets of lime sulphur to try and treat many of the mangy skin problems. Also this wonderful lady weekly delivered animal pellets to the dogs of about 30 Masiphumelele residents... this she sourced from wholesalers who had broken bags that were not saleable. During the same period, she spent 5 years helping trap and sterilise feral cats at the Waterfront, although many of these had to ultimately be euthanased. Unfortunately for SASHA, Joan has moved to Napier - for some rest and relaxation?? No way! Dear Joan is now helping animals in her local township exactly as she was doing for residents of Masiphumelele! Fortunately, she is still on SASHA's Board and helps us with her infinite knowledge of charities. Don't you wish you had her energy??!! I know I do!

DOOR TO DOOR
Our work in some of the poorer areas of the southern suburbs is continuing, and we find the best way to discover the neediest animals is by driving slowly around the streets and watching out for injured animals and by speaking to people and knocking on doors in the communities. Many people do not bother to go to mobile clinics. It takes a lot of legwork and our vehicle is getting a bit old and is a bit small for our needs. We are hoping to raise funds to get a slightly bigger and newer bakkie so we can bring more animals in for sterilisation. Many puppies and kittens born in the impoverished areas die within the first few weeks of life because of poor feeding and housing conditions - sterilising prevents the overcrowding which leads to many diseases. And you never know what you are going to find when you drive around - last week we found a couple of young men with a small tortoise. We asked what he was going to do with it and he didn't really know - but he offered to sell it to us. A cautionary note here - never buy animals in these circumstances - although we feel a great need to rescue the animal, buying like this just encourages more excessive breeding and illegal keeping of animals. Did you know it is illegal to keep tortoises without a permit? They are wild animals which belong in the wild. We couldn't persuade the men to give up their prize for nothing but we persuaded them to come and speak to the SPCA's welfare assistant who was in Masiphumelele at the time. He handled the situation very well and, happily, the men gave up their captive to the SPCA and we all parted on good terms.

Untill next time.....